After months of speculation and denial, Sony has officially purchased Bluepoint Games, the developer of the Demon's Souls and Shadow of the Colossus remakes. Sony says Bluepoint's "expertise" will come in handy for future PlayStation properties.
What does Sony's purchase of Bluepoint Games mean?
Sony announced this purchase via Twitter, later expanding on the announcement with an official PlayStation Blog post. In the post, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst describes Bluepoint as a studio with "vast expertise in world building and character creation". On Bluepoint's part, president Marco Thrush says that the studio doesn't have any new projects to announce today, but that it hopes to have more to share "in the months ahead".
Whether Bluepoint is working on a remake or an original game isn't clear yet, but one thing's for sure: this has been one of the industry's worst-kept secrets. Back in June, Sony announced it would purchase Returnal developer Housemarque Studios. There was only one thing wrong with the announcement: Sony Japan accidentally tweeted an image containing the logo for Bluepoint rather than Housemarque. Bluepoint subsequently updated its Twitter bio to describe itself as "fully independent", but it looks like that was just a temporary arrangement.
The latest in a line of Sony acquisitions
Sony has been on something of an acquisition spree this year. There's the Housemarque acquisition we already mentioned earlier, and the gaming giant also acquired porting studio Nixxes, which worked on ports of games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, in July. That acquisition wasn't quite on the same level as Housemarque or Bluepoint, but it does lead us to wonder where Sony will point its acquisition reticle next.
It remains to be seen what Bluepoint's first move will be as a newly-minted member of the PlayStation Studios "family", as Hulst puts it. Both Sony and Bluepoint are remaining tight-lipped; Hulst merely makes mention of "future PlayStation Studios properties" in the blog post, not clarifying whether this means original properties or further remakes as Bluepoint is largely known for. We'll bring you more on this as soon as we get it.
How do you feel about PlayStation and Bluepoint's new relationship? Let us know in the comments below!
