Sony acquires new PlayStation Studios team, Firesprite

By Kes Eylers-Stephenson,

Sony has acquired the third studio for PlayStation Studios this year, called Firesprite. Formed in 2013, the team made The Persistance, The Playroom, and The Playroom VR and is based in the UK.

The news was revealed on the PlayStation Blog and makes Firesprite Sony's 14th PlayStation Studio (16, including Nixxes and XDEV). Firesprite has been focused on VR in recent years, particularly in working on The Persistence and The Playroom VR.

The team is based in Liverpool, UK, and is a big team of around 250. In an exciting turn, much of the staff were hired out of the former SIE-owned Studio Liverpool, marking a fantastic return to the fold for some of the talents that made Wipeout.

Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, writes that "Firesprite is a creative and ambitious studio that is exceptional at building incredible experiences that truly showcase the potential of our hardware. The team’s technical and creative capabilities will be paramount to growing our stellar catalogue of exclusive games, and I think you’ll be excited for what’s to come." Great to hear that the team will get a chance to work on some big names in the future!

Graeme Ankers, the MD of Firesprite, writes that "as a first-party studio, we know we have the full support of PlayStation in furthering our heritage of combining creativity and technical innovation to offer some truly unique experiences for PlayStation fans. [...] I’m proud of the talent we have at Firesprite and you’ll continue to hear and see more from us all very soon! We can’t wait to show you what we have been working on... we’re just getting started!"

Well, this is exciting news, even if we were expecting BluePoint! What would you like to see from Firesprite? Any ideas on Sony's thinking here? Let us know in the comments, and we will see you there!

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Announcement PlayStation Studios

Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor-in-Chief Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and Sony news. He writes about PS5 games like The Witcher IV, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Kingdom Come Deliverance II using experience from years of PlayStation gaming. He also covers PS Plus news and some of the best PS5 games — Uncharted, God of War, and The Last of Us — before an evening swim.