Sony Has 13 First-Party Studios to Date, Here’s What They’re Making

From iconic franchises like The Last of Us and God of War to new IP, here are the 13 first-party studios currently housed under PlayStation.

[UltimateRacer]

Sony Studios are the best in the business plus most of these studios have 2 or 3 teams working on multiple projects.

[CaptainHenry916]

All they need is a RPG developer and they're set. TBH I truly believe their in house developers can make a good full blown western RPG game if they really wanted too. I would like to see Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, or Guerilla Games create their own full blown western RPG. They are definitely talented enough. I'm more interested in them doing that than too acquire a new studio

[oasdada]

Nah im good.. too much rpgs out there already.. you know ehat we don't have enough? Goof ol linear single player story heavy games.. i would like them to continue that with a studio or 2 like guerilla making an rpg but thats it.. sony has one of the best if not the best single player games ive ever played and im a seasoned gamer playing games from the paper boy and atari era.

[sampsonon]

Nothing unreasonable about that request.
I would like to see that as well.
I am a ps gamer, and i think it would be a great idea.

[SullysCigar]

It feels like I've spent most of this gen trying to chip away at The Witcher 3 lol

Last gen it was Skyrim, although that took less time. I honestly only have time for one big one, any more and they will be rushed through and not properly appreciated.

Edit: @below, great call, I'd love to see a return of Killzone, Socom or Resistance!

[Muzikguy]

I want JRPG not western ones

[isarai]

I stand by my demand for SCE Japan/Japan studio to consolidate for a big RPG. They are so damn talented, but so under utilized

[morganfell]

"I would love as much attention to other genres other than Action Adventure Third Person games.

Bring Back Killzone or something"

Very possible since the article doesn't understand some Sony studios, such as Guerrilla and Naughty Dog are two platoon studios. Essentially two dev houses in one. There was a Guerrilla SOCOM rumor floating around...

[leejohnson222]

They should buy square and be done with it, imagine the remakes bluepoint could do and all the titles they could put into psnow

[REDGUM]

Sounds to me you like RPG's?

[AirJohnston]

@oasdada so many RPGs are single player and story driven dude lol

[Teflon02]

If Japan studios would actually focus on something specific I think that could be them. I don't need more WRPGs though. But because JRPGs normally got low budgets it would be nice if Sony went all in on a series. Or cop Level-5, I've loved the PS RPGs they made even the white knights despite the bad reviews and such they got.

[FlavorLav01]

Were Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and God of War eastern RPGs? I’m confused... I think Sony does far better than most at RPGs IMO.

[BQ32]

another rpg, or linear single player game lmao, that is there whole shebang. what happened to all their great multiplayer franchises? Factions, Killzone, Socom, Mag, Resistance, sony sports, ect.. Man everyone on this site is a one schtick pony.

[UnSelf]

They should’ve picked up Platinum. Arguably the most robust, stellar studio out there. Missed opp

[Lore]

They should have actually did Platinum and CyGames at the same time and utilized each other’s talent/strengths similar to how development went with Granblue Fantasy Relink. The Granblue IP would allow for Sony to have a mobile presence (which they have failed to gain traction on for years) and also permit for them to have a flagship RPG franchise that can potentially compete with Final Fantasy

[RaidenBlack]

I think ... other than acquiring Studios, if Sony just can acquire the rights to the Konami IPs, MGS and Silent Hill, that'd be really good.

[ILostMyMind]

Who bought Platinum?

[Muzikguy]

13 compared to MS having like 27? I didn't realize there was such a difference

[CaptainHenry916]

Out of that 27 studio name 5 *great* games

[arkard]

A lot of Sony studios are 2 or 3 teams, I don't think it's the same on Microsofts side. So I think the numbers of teams are probably similar

[SlothLordPootus]

That because Microsoft has bought 15+ studios in just the past couple years. About half of those come from Bethesda. Before that they had less than 10 studios.

[Sunny_D]

MS literally went on a buying spree a couple years ago and then added like 8 studios buying Bethesda.

[DOMination-]

Irrelevant what they used to have. What's important is what they have now. I can name four great games from Playground alone ;)

[SlothLordPootus]

@DOMination-
I didn't mean it like that. I was just explaining why he probably didn't realize there was such a difference. Because there hadn't been until recently

The only reason it would matter what they did have is because of the history of development under Microsoft and what was important to them in the past. They only started truly focusing on studios in the past couple years. Before they had been fine with Gears, Halo, Forza for 10+ years before that.

As a mainly PS gamer, Forza Horizon was always the one franchise I wanted to play, and I'm not even a racing game fan since Midnight Club: Los Angeles days.

Big ones for me from Bethesda that I'm really praying will continue to be multiplatform are Doom, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, and obviously elder scrolls.

So yes, they definitely have more than 5 great games from all those studios.

[crazyCoconuts]

Yea, that's an amazing number compared to where MS was a short while ago. I don't know # of people involved but MS appears to have bought an army. Let's see what they do with them now, and what the landscape will look like by the time new games are coming through their pipeline.

[Unknown_Gamer5794]

It's not about quantity bruh, it's about quality and output. We will see in a couple years what MS is actually doing with their new studios. For their sake, hopefully it's much more substantial than what we've come to expect from MS.

[Darkborn]

Literally it's like 10 juggernauts vs 2 or so big studios 10 years ago that are bankrupt now and got bought out by Microsoft and the rest are just either unproven or don't make good system seller games.

[Muzikguy]

I wasn't comparing numbers as if to talk about quality or anything like that, just the number itself. All the disagrees on a fact is kind of funny.

@Unknown

Yes quality is where it counts

[Master of Unlocking]

I don't know what whoever said MS have 27 studios is smoking. Last I checked the 8 new ones which become de facto MS studios after MS bought Zenimax add to the 15 ones they had (including the 7 they had acquired recently).
But, yeah, Sony need to step up their game now. 15 studios ain't gonna cut it anymore in order to challenge MS and their now big lineup of first-party studios. And I'm saying that assuming MS will stick to their strategy to leave their IPs where they were before buying them, like Minecraft, and will let PS owners have their version of TES VI, next Fallout and w/e.

[sushimama]

@ Muscikguy. FACT? hahaha No. MS have 23 1st party studios. Not 27. People disagreed because you're a liar.

[Muzikguy]

@sushi

I said "like 27", but you and MasterofUnlocking are the first to say how many actually. Good for you. Phantom disagrees don't do anything to a discussion. The point I was making was there's a big difference in the amount of studios between the 2. So I was 4 off. Big deal

[Extermin8or3_]

MS did just acquire like 9 studios though. Also for years despite having a number of studios their output hS just been halo, gears and forza lol

[purple101]

Yeh I was about to say last year gurilla expanded to new premisis to have 2 or 3 teams. Naughty dog has always had 2 teams.

Japan studio has a load of little teams working together.

Polyphony digital moved to new premisis last year also to expand staff etc..

[IRetrouk]

Forgot ice team and xdev.

[Shane Kim]

I don't think they make games though. At least not ICE team.

[IRetrouk]

They are developers though, xdev help make games, the ice team make the underlying tech that indies and other ps studios use and provide support too.

[jivah]

Does it matter tho? Some of the studios in Microsofts camp dont really develop much either. Wasnt there like 3 studios helping with halo alone. But they're still very much counted in the list. So its only fair to list studios like ice team

[moriarty1889]

I think they have 14 total actually.

[Father__Merrin]

Clearly flame article pointing towards more 1st party studios under Microsoft but there's no where near as good as Sony's the quality is way way higher with Sony. Nice try dualshockers fingers crossed your back behind the bike shed once the consumers show you which horse they will back...

[rmeitz1]

We posted another piece looking at Microsoft's roster of first-party studios as well.
Microsoft having more studios under their belt is...literally a fact and not flamebait?

Also, there aren't any opinions pointing towards trying to say Microsoft or Sony have the edge over the other. Both companies are taking different approaches towards next-gen and their first-party development. We're purely just looking at each of the companies' first-party teams, what they've released recently, and what they're working on next.

[CaptainHenry916]

"Sony could literally create its own studios and they would be recognized worldwide in a matter of two years. There's no need to acquire any studio unless it's a studio that works very intimately with them already, like Bluepoint or Kojima Productions. Great studios overall, and very good production from them as well!"

I definitely agree with this but I would also say From Software since Bloodborne was very successful

[ILostMyMind]

Yea! But Sony should buy a major publisher to prevent many well-known titles from reaching the Xbox, as Microsoft recently did. That would be fair.

[Wrex369]

They could go toe to toe with any developers.

[alb1899]

Sony will be ok, I have no doubt about it. But is not the same to fight against an XBOX strong . MS just leveled the competition but we will see after two years just how much it will affect.

[Unknown_Gamer5794]

MS will "level the competition" when the games finally come out, they're Xbox exclusive, and they prove to be in the same league as PS exclusives.

[kneon]

You can count on several GOT contenders from Sony every single year. I still expect none from Microsoft even with their new studios

[sushimama]

Keep dreaming pal

[NeoGamer232]

I wish there were more articles like this that talk about games, not praises, doom, and gloom on console vendors. Just talk about games and games coming.

I don't care who anyone things has the better console or games, those are personal preferences.

[jjb1981]

I really want to see a next-gen Killzone game more in line with Killzone 2.

[crazyCoconuts]

I really liked Killzone - I'm with you. FPS with good sci-fi story and drop dead gorgeous visuals.

[kneon]

Give me a new Killzone in the style KZ2 and I won't need any other games for at least 6 months

[leejohnson222]

What a waste of time article, most studios they say we dont know what they are currently working on. They dont even bother to speculate or explain how mamy teams each studio has

[rmeitz1]

"most studios they say we dont know what they are currently working on."

A good amount of the studios (Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Pixelopus, London Studio, Media Molecule, etc.) are coming off projects that released in the last year, so we wouldn't likely hear about what they're working on next for some time. So yes, we don't know what they're working on...because that's the state of things for a lot of their first-party studios right now because they likely just released a game.

"They dont even bother to speculate or explain how mamy teams each studio has"

We speculated or explained what upcoming projects the studios might have coming (or are confirmed that they are working on) for 9-10 of the 13 studios mentioned in the piece:

Japan Studio - working on Demon's Souls/Astro's Playroom
Polyphony - Gran Turismo 7
Santa Monica - God of War sequel
Bend - New next-gen game
Naughty Dog - (most likely) TLOU2 multiplayer
San Diego - (most likely) MLB The Show 21
Guerrilla Games - Horizon Forbidden West
Media Molecule (most likely) continuing support on Dreams
Sucker Punch - Ghost of Tsushima multiplayer
Insomniac - Spider-Man: Miles Morales/Spider-Man Remastered/Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

[Lionsguard]

If Sony could buy Konami or just some of their IPs and FromSoftware and Blue Point, they'd be set.

[AlexandreR]

Imagine if Sony buys Remedy Games....

[Cmoney007]

It is hard to argue with a lot of this list, but I do have some issues with ND lately.

[Muzikguy]

Interesting article considering it's about what companies are working on and many are still unknown. Great things to look forward to

[anast]

Quality

[MightyHealthy]

Well, mlb the show is going multiplatform

[ILostMyMind]

This news is about Sony's studios, not about exclusives games.

[gold_drake]

they do have some of the best games, i think they have more tho. 14 i think, dont fact check me on this tho ha

[sourOG]

Pretty weird how we don’t know much of what they are working on. Then again we don’t know much about ms first party either. Game awards is probably going to be wild.

[System_Call]

Sony first party studios are on a league of their own.

[DeadlyFire]

Sony Japan - Assist kinda studio few small games.
Polyphony Digital - Gran Turismo studio.
San Mateo - Assistant basically to large scale production games.
Santa Monica - God of War studio
Bend - 1 team I believe
Naughty Dog - Usually has two teams working in rotation for games.
San Diego - MLB Show studio.
Sony London - VR studio.
Guerrilla Games - Moved to a new studio that can support multi game development. So I expect two teams working on projects at the minimum.
Media Molecule - 1 team I believe.
Sucker Punch - 1 team I believe
Pixelopus - Small indy scale games dev.
Insomniac Games - Probably has at least two teams.

[Extermin8or3_]

Thing is though most of these studios are studios that Sony started themselves from scratch or they nurtured (at the time) new developers paying them and helping them get a foot in the market and working with them to make 2nd party exclusives before eventually purchasing the company (sucker punch, insomniac, Naughty Dog). Which is much much healthier for the industry imo than buying up publishers andb3rd party devs or long standing indie devs that have been doing fine making multiplatform titles for a long long time... that stifles innovation and creativity and is definitely bad for the industry.