PlayStation has acquired a new mobile studio, Savage Game Studios.
In a blog post (opens in new tab) earlier today, head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst announced the acquisition, stating that the new arrival shares PlayStation’s “ambition to innovate, along with a continued drive to expand our audience and bring PlayStation to more people than ever before.”
That push into mobile territories is a key takeaway here, and it’s one that Hulst specifically comments on. He states that “as we assured you before with our plans to bring select titles to PC, out efforts beyond console in no way diminish our commitment to the PlayStation community, nor our passion to keep making amazing, single-player, narrative-driven experiences.”
“Our mobile gaming efforts will be similarly additive, providing more ways for more people to engage with our content.” Savage Games will be part of a newly-formed PlayStation Studios Mobile Division, which will operate separately from console development, but will still create games based on “new and existing PlayStation IP.”
Savage Games, which has two studios – in Berlin, Germany, and Helsinki, Finland – is already working on a live service action game, although there’s no sense of when that project might surface.
Sony, like other major publishers, has been on a bit of a shopping spree recently, but its acquisitions have tended to remain smaller than Microsoft’s in particular. Mobile has proved a major push for several big-name publishers in recent years, with the likes of Activision-Blizzard, Riot Games, and various Nintendo properties leaning further into gaming on the go. With that in mind, it’s not too big a surprise to see PlayStation pushing further in that direction, especially considering the strength of its current and past IP portfolio. Adding to that Sony’s recent commitment to PC, and it’s fascinating to see the PlayStation brand expand further into new ideas.
For a hint at what we might see on mobile, here’s our list of upcoming PS5 games.