Sony acquires Demon’s Souls developer, which already has new game in the works

By Otto Kratky September 30, 2021

Sony has finally acquired Bluepoint Studios, the standout developer that’s worked closely with the company for years now. Rumors of an acquisition were first leaked by Sony Japan earlier this year after the media giant purchased Housemarque. Bluepoint is already hard at work on a new, original game.

Bluepoint’s acquisition should come as no surprise. The developer has a number of successful PlayStation-exclusive titles under its belt, including the PS4 remake of Shadow of the Colossus, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, and one of the PS5’s first hits, 2020’s remake of Demon’s Souls.

Bluepoint’s acquisition also marks the latest in a series of purchases by Sony, which has brought both Firesprite and Nixxes Software under its umbrella this year. Firesprite is the developer behind multiple PlayStation exclusive titles and Nixxes specializes in porting console games to PC, a platform that Sony has expressed interest in investing in.

Introducing the next member of the PlayStation Studios family… pic.twitter.com/mRDLD5KwDM

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 30, 2021

In a blog post announcing Bluepoint’s acquisition, the studio’s president, Marco Thrush, said: “Becoming a part of PlayStation Studios empowers our team to raise the quality bar even further and create even more impactful experiences for the PlayStation community.”

However, the next “impactful experience” coming from Bluepoint won’t be a game that players have seen in the past. Speaking to IGN, Thrush confirmed that the studio’s next game won’t be another remake, but an original title. “Our next project, we’re working on original content right now,” Thrush said. “We can’t talk about what that is, but that’s the next step in the evolution for us.” While the studio isn’t ready to make an announcement about its next title, its previous games have set the bar quite high.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

Gaming

PS Plus members can cloud stream PS5 games in 4K later this month

Aloy stands on a mountain in Horizon Forbidden West.

PS Plus Premium is adding a new feature next month that will allow subscribers to cloud stream select PlayStation 5 games. The initial list includes heavy hitters like Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West. Sony is targeting an October 30 launch in North America.

Cloud streaming has been one of the primary selling points of PS Plus since its relaunch last year. Subscribers can use the feature to access several games in the service's catalog, including PlayStation 3 games. The new feature will now extend that technology to newer PS5 releases, with Sony saying it plans to make "hundreds" of games streamable.

Gaming

PS5’s new Digital Edition brings console gaming one step closer to PC

A PS5 consxole is opened up, showing its removable hard drive.

When Sony revealed updated models for the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition, one specific accessory for the latter caught my eye. That would be the Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive for PS5, which players can purchase separately and then attach to the Digital Edition console if they decide they do want to own physical media after all. Coming right in the middle of a console generation where multiple versions of each Sony and Microsoft console exist, it hews a lot closer to a console future that draws from the PC experience.

By that, I mean game consoles are becoming more modular and customizable. Something like the Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive points toward a future where you can swap console parts in and out as you would with a gaming PC. This not only gives companies a chance to be more digitally focused while still supporting physical media but potentially makes it easier to expand a console’s memory or power without doing a full-on mid-gen console refresh. It’s unknown if this is the real future for console gaming, but the new PS5 models at least lay a bit of groundwork.
A more modular future
While “slim” versions of consoles have been an industry trend for a while, the significance of mid-gen console refreshes has grown over the past decade. The PS4 improved with the PS4 Slim and then the PS4 Pro, while Microsoft flooded the Xbox One market with the One S, One S All-Digital Edition, and One X updated version of the console. And while the long-rumored Nintendo Switch Pro never came to fruition, the Switch still saw hardware variations with the Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch OLED model. It's also already possible to tinker with your PS5 a bit and expand its storage capabilities, something that typically felt relegated to modded consoles in previous generations.
This more frequent and incremental hardware release cadence reflects other parts of the tech industry and allows these companies to test new ideas for hardware going forward. The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition played a role in paving the way for the digital-only Xbox Series S. As such, it wouldn't surprise me if Sony is experimenting with a new hardware approach with these updated PS5 models, even if they aren’t massive technical overhauls.

Gaming

New PS5 models are getting their own console covers, but old ones aren’t compatible

A PS5 consxole is opened up, showing its removable hard drive.

The newly redesigned PlayStation 5 is getting its own set of console covers sometime next year. Sony confirms to Digital Trends that several faceplate colors are slated to launch in 2024 but covers for the old PS5 models will not be compatible with the new systems.

One of the PS5's most unique features is its removable faceplates, which allow players to customize their console with new colors and designs. The new PS5 models will evolve that idea with a four-cover panel design that gives the system a slightly different look. Sony is already planning to make those customizable in the near future, according to a statement sent to Digital Trends.