Imagine what new heights MM will reach now that they're a first party studio.

Sony should buy QD so we can get more games like Heavy Rain.

With a track record of pushing innovation and taking risks, Sony is definitely the best choice for MM. The future is bright for the Playstation :)

Hopefully SONY will buy up Quantic Dream next. With the success that Heavy Rain has been having I wouldn't be at all surprised. Quantic I think would make an excellent addition to the already high quality game studios in league with SONY.

sony should also purchase Atlus, demons souls will never be forgotten.

EDIT: OH sorry guys, i thought Atlus made demons souls... my bad

i saw this one coming
i knew Sony would buy MM soon
LOL

WoW another AAA studio. Holy sh*t !

LoL WTF ?? Demons Souls ??

DEmosn Souls was developed by SONY JAPAN and From SOftware.

Atlus just published it in NA.

Media Molecule, Welcome To The Sony Playstation Exclusive Fisrt Party Dev Team

Gamers FTW!!!

Edit:

@cgoodno

Not Atlus, FROM-Software needs to be the Next One...

thats why i like playstation...always trying to be the best, always being the best!
now would be fun if sony join all this first party and second party studios and make some super massive game like the best mmorpg for playstation ;)..ehehe i dream alot

Sony's first party dev list is astounding.

Sony should buy the world! lmao.

Great to hear, good for the both of them!

Sony can have a great studio working for them and MM will have the security financially to keep being innovative and bringing more great titles to the world.

=]

Next up Sucker Punch, Quantic Dream, or Insomniac. I'd say Insomniac is the long shot, they seem to enjoy their complete freedom a bit too much.

But anyways I'm happy that the PS3 will continue to be Media Molecule's home. :)

it would be easier to buy the internet, they would have the world at their feet.

Hell no... Atlus should be next.

Sony Computer Entertainment World Wide Studios current consists of 17 first party developers, including Polyphony Digital, Team ICO, Naughty Dog, Santa Monica Studio, Guerilla Games and Media Molecule.

In addition to that, we have a number of third party developers who have close ties to SCE making exclusive games, Insomniac Games, Sucker Punch Productions, Quantic Dream and ThatGameCompany.

Plus, we have titles forthcoming from Eat Sleep Play, From Software and Lightbox Interactive.

Really, the PS3 is the ultimate gaming system.

Create an MMO based on ALL of Sony's series in one world. In the LBP part of the world, you must go on PlayCreateShare missions. In God of War part of the world, you go on epic quests! In Motorstorm part of the world, you gotta race!

Playstation Home 2.0?! @_@

And yes, Insomniac has TOO much freedom. If they were first party, they'd be able to stand against the likes of Uncharted 2 and God of War 3. Not that their games aren't great, they just feel more like great multiplat games instead of great Sony 1st party studio games.

But who knows, maybe Resistance 3 will push the bar even higher!!! O_O

All HAIL SONY!

But... buu.. buuhh PS3 iz teh d0omzed!! They should call it quits and start again!! LMAO!!!

Congratulations both Sony and MM. While M$ keeps firing their first party devs, Sony keeps acquiring great devs. Good move Sony! So what's next? Sucker Punch? Insomniac?

I don't think Sony will acquire QD. They are too niche to make a purchase IMO.

Sony thinks about the long term, not just about the next 12 months like another certain company.

1st party studios are essential to keep your platform going, nintendo knows that too.

Sony is an unstoppable beast

Nippon Ichi devs are PS3/Sony fanboys. It's clear as day. They are 3rd party devs, yet they only release games for the PS3.

@ Kain81

If they buy Atlus, the competition will end. For me, whoever acquire the Shin Megami Tensei will automatically win this "war"

They know what makes a console valuable. Reliability, First party exclusive games that push the hardware, and free online play. These are three values you get with the PS3 and no other console can match it.

Especially JRPG ones.

Sad not being able to see Legend of Dragoon 2. :(

Heck, Sony needs to buy Monolith Soft so we can get the talents of Xenogears team on a properly funded and creatively free project.

A smart move, Sony. LittleBigPlanet is one of the best games of all time for me. Can't wait to see what Media Molecule comes up with next.

Wow, whos next, Quantic Dream?

Cool, now get to work on replacing Home's creepy avatars with sackboys

If Heavy Rain exceeds expectations, I would believe they are next. Even if David Cage wants to try Natal, he knows very well what could happen if you don't have a publisher deal and would accept a deal with Sony.

If it wasn't for a crazy turn of events in E3 05 (?), Heavy Rain wouldn't have been made and maybe Quantic Dream wouldn't exist in the present date.

Still, I think the developer that would benefit the most from being acquired by Sony is Insomniac. They already "look" like a 1st party, and if they go from 2nd party to 1st party, maybe they will not have the pressure to rush 1 game per year because Sony seems to give their studios time to polish their games (sometimes too much time...).

imo, if Sony bought Quantic Dream it would help them a lot, because they are really a mo-cap studio meaning they could use them for movies.

Edit: Also, isn't it ironic that the company that is "losing" money and should "quit" the console making business is buying yet another developer, yet the company that is making money (MS) has let several studios close down, and have been hiring like crazy for Natal projects.

"20 first party studios
Correction 21, lol "

"Sony Computer Entertainment World Wide Studios current consists of 17 first party developers,"

- According to this very link, SCE WWS has only 15 studios. So either some of their previous studios went under, or you both are just spreading false information. Either way, you really should read the article next time.

"The acquisition brings Sony’s tally of first-party dev outfits to fifteen, with key studios in Japan, the USA, the UK and The Netherlands."

And from the press release on the PSBlog:

"With over 2,500 employees, SCE WWS combines the talents of 15 game development studios in Japan, the USA, the UK and The Netherlands."

???

Neither NIS nor Atlus have proven themselves on the PS3 so its an obvious question weather or not they would benefit from 1st party support. Level 5 for that matter, since its pretty plain to me that WKC needed to be in the cooker a while longer.

Oh snap! & another one...

B-b-but i thought Sony has no money? you taking notes Micro$oft?

@shadow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Media Molecule is number 17.

"- According to this very link, SCE WWS has only 15 studios. So either some of their previous studios went under, or you both are just spreading false information. Either way, you really should read the article next time."

However, ONLY 15 EDIT: 17 1st party studios? You make it sound small. So with MS's 3 1st party studios how would you call that? I believe the misconception comes from the lumping of Sony 1st and 2nd party studios which if you add them you get over 20 total.

Still 15 QUALITY studios ONLY making games for Sony is why I have a PS3. Keep spending money on acquiring top talent Sony instead of just buying a temporary "exclusive"

PS3 it only buys the BEST developers

PS3 it only has the best developers

PS3 it only has the best games

PS3 it's only competition is itself

PS3 it only thinks longterm

I trust David Jaffe. We need a Twisted Metal game with multiplayer.

I like Atlus as much as the next guy (huge Persona fan in particular) but I don't think they could continue to do what they do best under a first party banner. So much of what they publish here in America are games that lack a publisher outside of Japan, good games in general, but niche games. Games a larger publisher might not be as interested in.

Atlus works best on their own, as a publisher and developer. At least in my opinion.

"@shadow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Media Molecule is number 17. "

-- Do you realize you just argued with SONY using wikipedia as a source? Does that make sense to you? Sony has 15 first party studios.

@dog beliefs
Oh I didn't mean to imply that 15 is small by any means. 15 is a good number of first party studios, for sure. But it's 6 less than 21 - that's a pretty substantial difference. Therefore, I thought "only" was appropriate.

Anyway, congrats to Sony and Media Molecule. I wish I could log onto LBP more often and enjoy all the levels, but there's a relentless tide of games that I'm struggling to keep up with. Still, I love LBP and can't wait to see what MM does next.

They have proven themselves on the PS2. Especially Atlus.

Persona 5 is GUARANTEED to sell at least a million if it is released on the PS3.

If I was Sony, I would make sure Persona 5 is a PS3 exclusive.

I would also help fund it and send in Sony Japan to help like they did with Demon's Souls also.

They should buy Infinity Ward from Activision! :)

Usually, I find them to be more right than wrong.

Also, people sometimes will say Sony has 20'ish dev. studios because they have "studios inside of studios", if you will.

For example, Sony Online Entertainment, located in San Diego who is in charge of Everquest, they also have another office location in Austin who are developing DC Universe Online.

Not sure if that should count as 1 or 2 myself, but that's the story.

Oh, and Shadow, interestingly, this info is courtesy of Wikipedia.
*wink*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

I never said wikipedia is always wrong. You can verify the information by using the sources at the bottom.

But surely you can't believe that wikipedia is a more reliable source than the company itself, can you? Sony specifically said in their press release that they have 15 first party studios. Wikipedia will never be a better source than the horse's mouth.

That's true, many studios have more than one team working on different projects, but they are still the same company. They should be counted as 1.

I did not expect to have to defend a simple facts-check this much.

One company acquiring more industry leading developer studios and the other losing their major developer studios like water... which one do you, logically, feel more confident will bring you better quality gaming products for your entertainment value?

... erm, yeah.

Why are Sony buying more studios if they are loosing money from their exclusives? /s . LMAO!!.

Can't say i didn't see this coming. This is always how Sony operates. They spot new and exciting talent. Give them the best possible support to realise their vision and if they achieve that vision Sony will consider seriously buying them. That is how GG,ND,liverpool etc were bought.

Its is a smart strategy.

1. The talent is fresh and exciting.
2. They are not well known and only produced exclusives therefore they are not expensive to buy.
3. They will produce true exclusives that really shows off the PS hardware and promote the PS brand even further.

Going for a big studio like say EPIC would be a disaster because not only will they cost an arm and a leg. Thieir return will be less that what they are worth since you bought a multi-plat form dev at a multi-plat dev price to produce only exclusives and get only exclusive game sales. Its not a smart bussiness move.

I think this was the problem with MS buying Bioware. EA is a multi-plat publisher and as such they can afford to buy bioware which is a multi-plat dev to produce multi-plat games for them. If MS bought Bioware they would cut their PS revenue and most likely PC as well even though they bought Bioware at a price of a multi-plat dev because bioware are multi-plat devs.

The problem with MS though from what i have seen is that they are not willing to take risk on new and exciting talent. They go for the safe route and invest on known formulas which is why they have invested heavily on proven 3rd party devs and franchise. However, this is a not a good long term strategy for them for many reasons i am sure most of you already know.

i believe in first party studios now...

off topic.:

today i got from lovefilm my copy of uncharted2 so i could see what the big deal is anyway..(i being a 360 fan) and BLOODY HELL.. THE GAME IS FREAKING INSANELY GOOD LOOKING..and i love reach and all but i dont think it will beat this well in terms of visuals.. NO...

em those psn players if u do uncharted2 multiplayer please add me up .. i am feeling this shyt big time.. psn = SENSEI-CHRONIC

In other news, MS paid $500mil for GTA V DLC for the first 1 month.

:)

The sad thing is, it probably only cost as much as two exclusive DLC! Sometimes I don't know what MS is thinking!

Smart move by Sony.

this is a dumb move, they should have bought some MW2 DLC instead.

/sarcasm.

congrats to both Sony and MM, hopefully this will lead to more acquistions (namely Sucker Punch) i dont see IG being bought as they like their independence.

Incredible small indie developers like media molecule only come once every generation.

i dont really see how this is that big news. media molecule have to date released a single game, and it was a mildly successful title that not many people cared about for more than a month.

"..and it was a mildly successful...."

really 95% rating on metacritic,gamerankings and over 2.5 million copies sold worldwide?

"... that not many people cared about for more than a month...."

yep never mind the countless GOTY awards and over 1million user generated levels online and is currently growing. It is now widley considerd to be the most innovative game this generation , one of the most innovative of all time and one of the greatest games not only this gen but of all time.
Were you living under a rock in 2008?

Another magnificent addition to Sony's already killer lineup of devs. You've very welcome Media Molecule. Looking forward to their next project.

2.5 million is mildly successful. not bad sales, but definitely not overly successful.

yes, it was critically adored - but once all the gloss and 'cuteness' had been taken away, gamers were left with a very, very basic 2d platformer with nice graphics. tedious level editing, terribly poor online play, and a short and poor single player campaign (and i use the word campaign very loosely).

1 million user generated levels really isnt that good. i mean, i personally made 2 that consisted of a start point and an end point on the same screen just so i could get achievements, and i know for a fact that many thousands of other people did the same thing. suddenly 1 million levels reads more like a few thousand decent levels and 900 000+ 'get me some achievements!' levels.

it is innovative in a few ways, but really, its just a level editor wrapped up as a game. there have been countless other games with level editors before, many that did it even better and were easier for the end user.

oh and it is NOT widely regarded as one of the best games of all time lol. i also didnt actually see it win any game of the year awards, care to link me to some?

btw i own LBP, bought it on release, and enjoyed it for about 2 weeks. then i realised that i didnt want to spend dozens of hours making a single level, and that 99% of the user-created levels are absolute cr@p, and that it was just a very basic 2d platformer, and i havent touched it since.

"btw i own LBP, bought it on release, and enjoyed it for about 2 weeks. then i realised that i didnt want to spend dozens of hours making a single level, and that 99% of the user-created levels are absolute cr@p, and that it was just a very basic 2d platformer, and i havent touched it since."

Simple life lesson - What you think doesn't mean everyone else thinks it.

It was a huge success both critically and sales wise. Accept it.

@ above
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

the list is at the bottom

Ty Captain :)

The Empire Strikes...AGAIN:

http://i45.tinypic.com/apa6...

They own War of the Monsters?!

Talk about a game that needs to be on PSN as a multiplayer!

(How do I get a job as a game idea man - I'd be perfect as a Sony ninja "tech."

Who's disagreeing with a WotM version of Fat Princess?

They probably think you are Juuken/Ultimulo!