Following the recent – and certainly unsubstantiated – leak made by a user on the NeoGAF forums with regards to Microsoft and its plans to acquire more game studios, Sony has responded with its own plans with regards to getting more first-party support.
It’s not exactly a secret that in terms of titles, Sony’s PlayStation 4 has decidedly beaten Microsoft’s Xbox One, if we’re talking solely about exclusives. First-party support for Sony’s current-generation console is its most powerful selling point. With titles like Bloodborne, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, and more incoming, it’s not exactly surprising to see the PlayStation 4 have a huge leg up over the competition.
Sony isn’t planning to stop with its first-party exclusives soon. According to the recent Sony Interactive Entertainment investor meeting, which also debuted the first look comparison between loading times of the PlayStation 4 and the upcoming PS5, President and CEO Jim Ryan stated Sony’s strategy to acquire first-party studios for more exclusives. Knowing Sony, we could be looking at potential studios that are considered to be the best in the business.
While the platform has been lauded for its great use of first-party exclusives, some would be surprised to hear that Sony doesn’t outright acquire studios all the time, instead opting to open its own studio for game development. In fact, the company’s last acquisition was Sucker Punch, who developed the InFAMOUS franchise. Sucker Punch is also currently developing another of Sony’s highly-anticipated exclusives, Ghost of Tsushima.
This move away from co-developing titles and into outright buying studios may be a reaction to Microsoft’s own move into developing more exclusives, which it plans to do by acquiring more developers. Some of the rumors that point to several studios being courted by Microsoft include IO Interactive, the developer behind the Hitman franchise, as well as newcomer Asobo Studios, who recently released A Plague Tale: Innocence. If those are proven true, these acquisitions will be a huge boon to the Xbox family, and Sony would do well to make sure that they aren’t left behind as the next generation of consoles loom closer.
