While most gaming acquisitions are going to pale in comparison to Microsoft officially purchasing Bethesda parent company ZeniMax in March of 2021, Sony has just made a couple of moves to add some talented development studios to its own corporate umbrella. One of them, Housemarque, was officially announced on June 29th, 2021. The other, Bluepoint Games, may have been accidentally revealed before being official.
Let’s break down what’s going on.
Starting with Housemarque, this Finnish studio based in Helsinki has recently made a name for itself with the release of the PS5 exclusive, “Returnal.” Being one of the only true exclusives to the system that’s not backwards compatible with the PS4, the roguelike-shooter has received generally high praise for its combat, gameplay, and how the title uniquely ties its gameplay and story together. Prior to this, Housemarque had developed other shooter based games such as, “Super Stardust,” “Resogun,” and “Matterfall,” the latter two also being PlayStation exclusives. None of them had quite the impact that their latest effort has. Given its success, critical praise, and the history Housemarque has with working with Sony, it’s no wonder they’ve acquired the company.
Then there’s the matter of Bluepoint Games. For the last seven years, all of Bluepoints major projects have been porting and remaking PlayStation games from one system to another. The developer was responsible for “Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection” which remastered the first three games in that franchise from the PS3 to the PS4. They also remade “Shadow of the Colossus” and most recently, helped handle the PS5 remake of “Demon’s Souls.” So just like Housemarque, the company has worked extensively with Sony, so much so that you’d think they would want to acquire them, and maybe they have.
The above from Twitter user Nibellion shows that PlayStation of Japan tweeted and subsequently deleted out virtually identical image of the one used by the official PlayStation blog to announce the Housemarque acquisition. The difference between the images of course, is that the PlayStation of Japan post shows Bluepoint Games on the logo. Now, is this DEFINITIVE proof that they’ve bought the company? No, but it’s certainly a strong indicator that something’s happening.
Both of these companies would be of great benefit to Sony and their PlayStation brand. Housemarque seems to be coming into their own as a developer and Bluepoint is easily one of the best companies in the business when it comes to recreating gaming experiences from one console to another. Should Sony make an official announcement or statement regarding Bluepoint Games, we’ll be sure to update you.
