Sony Acquisition of Bluepoint Games Supposedly Leaked by Image Mistake

I just can't believe it took them this long tbh, assuming they have actually acquired them.

@Tarod1
The image includes Demon's Souls, I doubt this is a mistake.

I hope hope HOPE that Bluepoint tweet is real! Seems highly likely, plus it aligns nicely with something Jim Ryan recently said regarding Backwards Compatibility, stating they prefer to do Remakes as a means to preserve older games. Could that have been a subtle hint at this Bluepoint Acquisition?
Regardless a Bluepoint Acquisition would be huge! I need my Jak & Daxter Trilogy Remake & a Legend of Dragoon Remake among others

shockedpikachu.gif

Shouts to however twitted the image, I sincerely hope their day is going fine
This makes just as much sense as the HMQ acquisition and everybody's been anticipating it for a while now.

Somebody at PlayStation took the time to prepare the image (which isn't just a couple logos slapped on a standard background) so I'd be very surprised if it turned out to be false now.

@Tarod1 They pretty much already developed exclusively for Sony, so you can also ask what the point is in acquiring them. I can understand there was no hurry. It's more formalities at this point, it's not going to change anything significant for us gamers. They continue to develop for Sony, like they've done during last gen.

This means they either have eyes on several new remakes or will finally give Bluepoint the opportunity to work on something of their own creation.

Are the 2 founders who worked in Metroid Prime still there?

My dream of Sony bringing all the XDEV studios in house is happening?!?!

If Sony bought bluepoint and housemarque that’s a huge win.

Defo not a text mistake. The image includes returnal (housemarque) and demons souls (bluepoint) images. This was defo meant to be announced after the HM acquisition. It will possibly be announced sooner than planned given the image is out there now though

@Tarod1
The announcement of an acquisition usually comes long after they actually acquired them.

@FX102A Bluepoint could've started their own original project at any time if they wanted to. I think Sony specifically bought them to work on remasters and remakes. I definitely expect more of those than an original game at this point.

It's likely but, fingers crossed, I hope it's true.
These Sony acquisition feel more like an accomplishment for both parties and not some buy grabbing.

"oops". This is great news tho! Surprised there's so many of these acquisitions at once, Sony's going full force with the spending it seems.

@Octane - Better for Sony/Playstation to acquire them than to have someone else do it, many people wanted Sanzaru Games to continue the Sly Cooper series & Ready at Dawn to make The Order 1886 sequel, both studios have since been acquired thus further decreasing the chances of those games getting sequels.
(Granted if I was Sony / PlayStation I personally wouldn't have acquired Sanzaru or Ready at Dawn, but that's just an example of why it's smart to acquire Insomniac Games, Housemarque & Bluepoint)

Does anyone know that second game from the left? I cannot see which studio it represents.

bluepoint is great purchase specially if sony wants to make their streaming service bigger in the near future
bluepoint can remake all those classic first party games

Good to see Sony takes their time and carefully selects these great developers.

@Octane Suppose it's Sony profiting from more sales, devs getting a nice buyout payment and stops them being snapped up by anyone else.

@Athrum i think it's blood an truth. a Vr game from london studio.

@JustPlainLoco To be fair, you can't just buy a studio. It is an agreement between both parties. So if another studio approached Bluepoint, they certainly would discuss possibilities with Sony first, I assume there was already some sort of mutual agreement between the two.

For a studio like Ready at Dawn, I don't think they saw much potential. The Order wasn't a big hit. And who knows what else was at play. They certainly know more than we do!

Could this be a reaction towards Microsoft's studio acquisitions shopping spree?

@Dange Their games were already published by Sony, so I don't think it would make a big difference. Sony paid the company for a game, and they get the revenue. That's not really any different to any of their other studios I presume. I assume they also get bonuses depending on sales numbers and the likes.

@sqxrz could very well be but i think a purchase of blue point was always on the cards tbh.

demon souls just made sony sure it was the right thing to do.

same with housemarque. i think returnal was their deciding factor.

Hope it's true. I also hope they are working on remaking Dragons Dogma

Neither acquisition really changes much in the short to medium term; both Housemarque and BluePoint were practically Sony exclusive anyway; but it does prevent them from being bought out by a competitor; and gives them a more stable future.

Sony's acquisitions are a lot more consumer friendly too. "You make great games exclusively for us? Here is more money to keep doing that." rather than "You make great games for all platforms? Now its just for us."

@jdv95 Yeah, but Sony's acquisitions just doesn't have the same effect as Microsoft's. It's business as usual tbh.

I'm still convinced that Bluepoint will end up making Bloodborne 2, and this just enforces that theory. Probably a remaster of 1 first, that would also help them understand the back end better and translate it to their engine, before being given the reins.

Great buy if true. Great remakes, and great tech.

@sqxrz It's just Sony doing Sony things tbh
They have acquired studios they had solid relationships with already in the past. This is more of that.

@sqxrz - They were asked that very question in this interview - https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/housemarque-sony-playstation-acquisition

(There are a lot of companies making acquisitions in gaming at the moment. Microsoft just bought Bethesda for $7.5 billion, Facebook has scooped up a lot of developers in the VR space of late and now Sony is purchasing Housemarque. Looking at the industry from the outside, it feels like a bit of an arms race. Is that how you see it, Hermen?)

Herman Hulst: No, not at all. We're very selective about the developers that we bring in. Our last new acquisition was Insomniac [for $229 million in 2019], which has worked out very well. I'm always looking for people that have a similar set of values, similar creative ambitions and work very well with our team that we can further invest in and help grow as creators. It's not like we're going around and just making random acquisitions.
They’re very, very targeted acquisitions of teams that we know well.

I saw this coming but really thought it would be bluepoint joining the PlayStation house party first

This would be great news. If Sony acquire Bluepoint, Sony have an amazing list of classic games that could get the demon souls remake treatment. Also would be interesting to see the kind of games that Bluepoint can make.

@Octane - You make some valid points, but my point was from a business standpoint, a company like Sony / PlayStation wouldn't want incredibly talented Second-Party Studios like Insomniac Games, Housemarque & Bluepoint to suddenly be scooped up by Google, Microsoft, EA etc. losing out of these studios means having to search out for new studios / partners to fill the void that these studios would have left behind.

Even if you remove The Order from the conversation, Ready at Dawn were still responsible for two great portable God of War games, and Daxter on PSP, developers that were familiar enough with God of War & Jak & Daxter that they could have just as easily been tasked with continuing those series, creating new IP's etc. regardless of personal opinions regarding Sanzaru or Ready at Dawn, they are still partners lost now that they have been acquired by other company's.
That being said; I do understand where you're coming from even if I don't entirely agree with it, this is just my take on the matter.

@Athrum its Blood and Truth from Sony London Studio

@FX102A
I agree with you. They will have more incentive and freedom to take risks with their own new IP from a creative point of view because Sony has their back.

@JustPlainLoco Thanks!

@DrClayman - Heck they could just as easily make Demon Souls 2 after having developed the Demon Souls Remake, which would be an incredibly smart move considering FromSoftware are pretty much done with the Dark Souls series. Thus Demon Souls could pretty much fill that Dark Souls void.

But I thought I'd read here that acquisitions were bad....🤨

@JustPlainLoco I mean, I don't disagree! It's just that a company buying another company isn't as easy as Google just walking in claiming it with a big bag of cash. Bluepoint can always say no if they want to keep developing for Sony. And I would assume they would approach Sony first saying, ''hey, Google offered us this to buy us out, do you have a counter offer''. I just wonder how much of a danger a sudden buy-out would actually be. I don't think it was something to worry about.

Level 5 come one sony .and bluepoint that will be cool.word up son

not surprised it was only a matter of time before this happened , talented studio , would love to see what they can do with a new ip

@JustPlainLoco Yeah, Ready at Dawn and Sanzaru could've been great fits to revive Sly and Jak on PS4.

So when do we get the Legend of Dragoon remake/remaster. 😁

along with the 3 new second party stuidos making exclusive games , you have 2 new first party studios , and we still have the not so secret new san diego stuido as well. sounds like there is a lot to look forward to soon. how can i forget also the rumored remedy and fromsoftware exclusive games as well.

@thedevilsjester Housemarque haven't really been Sony exclusive. They have made games for all platform. Nex Machina was released on PC. The thing is that people only payed them any attention when Sony | PlayStation come into mention. Bluepoint on the other hand... They've was basically Sony exclusive minus the port they handle for Titanfall to the Xbox 360

Barring a few exceptions, Housemarque has basically been a Sony developer for over 10 years. While it's nice Sony has made Housemarque Sony-official, I don't feel like this acquisition is surprising nor does it have a huge impact on anything outside of the Sony umbrella.

Congrats on the acquisition. I hope it leads to great things.

@Octane I mean, you're right insofar as nobody else was likely to get the studio, but at least this way Sony aren't caught in a bidding war?

Now just buy up konami and Kojima productions and force Hideo to make one mgs after the next. All that creative freedom didn't yield the greatest results anyways (not being completely serious here)

Wonder if they'll just keep them doing re-releases or if they plan to let them make something of their own. Maybe have them update a bunch of the ps4 first party games to utilise the ps5 hardware. Bloodbourne first please....

Yay now where’s my PS5 sly Cooper remake please?!

@MetalGear_Yoshi would love to see them either make a new ip or take over an series that is sitting around, i'll throw like resistance , jak and daxter , sly cooper , killzone , syphon filter , to name a few ( i know there are much more then those games ).

@twitchtvpat I get the impression Bend would be pretty unimpressed with another studio getting to remake Syphon Filter, no?

Seriously happy about this. I have consistently seen BluePoint listed among acquisitions that Sony should make next. They feel like they've been first-party for quite a while now.

Bluepoint, please do a remake or remaster of Parasite Eve 😔

So the MGS remake is gonna be exclusive? Interesting…

@Floki
Thats not really true. As far as consoles are concerned Housemarque has been almost exclusive to the Playstation Platform, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housemarque

PC releases don't really count since both Microsoft and Sony first party developers are able to release on the PC as well (its neutral ground) so an acquisition by a console platform holder doesn't exclude that developer from making PC releases as well.

Media molecule taking up 1/64 of the picture

This is good news for Sony.

It could be good news for the computer game industry in general, as in ensuring more quality competition with Microsoft.

I am not sure though, because Sony does not act like good hands. Ditching Japan for USA, switching PlayStation buttons in Japan, making people pay to play online after PS3 had been free, lying about generations.

I hope Bluepoint works autonomously. Always.

Bluepoint are basically the best.

Edit - Demon's Souls for PS5 should have had the same dark aesthetic as the PS3 one though. It should not be cinematic and very bright, but it is.

Bluepoint and Housemarque are great acquisitions for Sony but not on a level of ZeniMax (Bethesda, Id, Arkane, Machinegames, Tango Gameworks). And Microsoft just came off with getting Double Fine, inXile, Ninja Theory and Obsidian. Sony did have a huge win getting Insomniac. I do think this is a great start, but Sony needs a huge purchase like Sega or Square Enix, or maybe buying Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid from Konami. This would help Sony to stay dominant. I love Sony and have had every PS system and handheld up to PS5, but they need to get a couple of more studios to answer Microsoft.

@theheadofabroom i was just throwing out game names , i would love to see sony bend make like a days gone / syphon filter mixed game though, kind of like syphon filter set in the days gone world.

@Oval_Griffin

"Demon's Souls for PS5 should have had the same dark aesthetic as the PS3 one though. It should not be cinematic and very bright, but it is".

You can change settings in the menu as there's 8 visual filters, "classic" being the first that makes the game look more like the original.

I honestly thought they were already aquired. XD

This is really cool . Now If I can just get a PS5