Sony has officially announced the acquisition of Firewalk Studios, a team of ex-Bungie, Raven Software and Respawn developers, who are currently making a new AAA multiplayer shooter for PlayStation.
While Sony is fighting for its life to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it has gone and added the 20th studio to the PlayStation Studios “family”. The latest member in this illustrious round is Firewalk Studios, which consists of former developers from Bungie, Raven Software and Respawn Entertainment.
Sony Acquires Firewalk Studios To Work On New AAA Shooter
The studio is currently developing a new AAA multiplayer game, which is set to release for PS5 and PC. After already striking a partnership with Sony, it has now been straight-up bought by the tech giant. Head of PlayStation Studios, Hermen Hulst, calls Firewalk “a remarkly talented team of creatives” in an official PlayStation blog article.
There has never been a better time to get a PlayStation 5! Order one now on Amazon
Firewalk is set to “help grow our live service operations and deliver something truly special for gamers”. How lovely. The studio itself also commented on the acquisition with a joint statement by studio head Tony Hsu and Game Director Ryan Ellis:
Over five years ago, we jumped at the chance to set up a new studio and build a new IP from the ground up. Recalling our own favorite times with games, we founded Firewalk Studios around the idea of delivering memorable moments – those amazing, had-to-be-there times shared with other people. Our goal is to deliver those shared moments of joy to players around the world.Building a new studio at scale has been an incredibly exhilarating and relentlessly daunting task. Fortunately, we’ve been supported by great partners throughout – ProbablyMonsters helped turbocharge us in setting up the studio, and Sony has been supporting our project and our creative vision from the beginning.We’ve assembled some of the most inspired talent in the industry to deliver awe-inspiring new worlds and experiences filled with great core gameplay. The excitement of building something new for players has thoroughly energized the team and our partners, and we’ve been playtesting every day.
Not much is known yet about Firewalk's still unannounced project. Considering the talent on board, we can most likely expect an FPS, and with all this talk about multiplayer and live-service, probably a free-to-play one. When we will get to see this game is unknown though.