Sony has acquired the UK-based gaming studio Firesprite, which makes it the third gaming studio the brand has acquired this year.
Firesprite, which is based in Liverpool and focused on PlayStation games is known for “The Playroom” and “Run Sackboy! Run”
The gaming studio has over 200 employees, the terms of the deal with Sony haven’t been disclosed yet.
This is the Japanese company’s third acquisition this year as Sony acquired Finnish studio Housemarque in June and Dutch studio Nixxes Software in July.
Firesprite is quite popular for VR gaming and is known for VR versions of its popular titles, namely “The Playroom VR” and “The Persistence VR.” This might attract Sony towards going deep into VR gaming.
The VR gaming industry is currently booming, the market was reportedly at $11.6 billion in 2019 with a predicted average growth of 30% through 2027.
In July, PS5 became the fastest-selling Sony gaming console in history. The PS5 sales skyrocketed 10 million units in July, which helped Sony gain operating profits of $2.57 billion in its fiscal first quarter.
While Microsoft claimed during the Epic Games v. Apple trial that there was no profit turned by its Xbox. Sony revealed in May that it expected PlayStation to be profitable by June.
Just like a lot of other companies in the tech industry, Sony has been facing production delays due to the semiconductor. This has led to a shortage in the production of the PS5 consoles and a lot of gamers worldwide might have to wait to get their share of consoles.
Sony revealed a bunch of new games for the PlayStation which included a new “God of War,” Lucasfilm’s remake of “Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic,” and Spider-Man and Wolverine titles from Marvel. The unveiling was done on Thursday’s PlayStation Showcase.