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Kyle Chua
Apr 24, 20232 min read

Sony PlayStation Acquires 'Live Service' Expertise From Call Of Duty & Destiny

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), the Sony Group division behind PlayStation, is adding another first-party development studio to its stable.

Credit: Reuters

According to Nikkei Asia, the gaming giant is acquiring Firewalk Studios to bolster its live service multiplayer game business. The deal makes the Bellevue, Washington-based game developers the 20th member of SIE's growing stable of in-house studios.


PC Gamer adds that Sony was so pleased with what it saw from Firewalk Studios' yet-to-be-revealed game that it decided to acquire the studio together with the in-development project. The terms of the deal, however, including the cost, were not disclosed.


"I'm confident [Firewalk Studios'] upcoming project will be a robust addition to PlayStation Studios' portfolio, and its live service and technology expertise will be instrumental in helping grow PlayStation's reach," said SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan.

Credit: Sony PlayStation

Firewalk Studios is a relative newcomer to the gaming industry, having been formed in 2018 by seasoned veterans who worked on popular multiplayer live service games like Call of Duty and Destiny. That expertise and experience in developing live service games is what likely attracted Sony, who saw the category as a growth area in the near future. The studio employs about 150 developers led by Tony Hsu, a former executive on Destiny at Activision, and Ryan Ellis, a former creative director at Bungie.


Sony in April 2021 struck a publishing partnership with Firewalk Studios to distribute the company's games exclusively.


For those unfamiliar, live service games are online multiplayer experiences that usually leverage a free-to-play business model, pushing players to make in-game purchases on a regular basis. Notable examples include MiHoYo's Genshin Impact, EA's Apex Legends and Epic Games' Fortnite.


Sony last year announced it wants to expand its first-party live service offerings from one game in fiscal 2021 to a dozen by fiscal 2025. It also plans to allocate about 55% of game development costs to the live service games within the same year.

 

  • Sony Interactive Entertainment is acquiring Firewalk Studios to bolster its live service multiplayer game business.

  • The deal makes the Bellevue, Washington-based game developers the 20th member of SIE's growing stable of in-house studios.

  • The terms of the deal, however, including the cost, were not disclosed.






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