PlayStation Studios: The Last of Us Remake or other big games coming in 2022?
PlayStation Studios
A developer from PlayStation Studios has made it known, via Twitter, that Sony has some big games to announce for this year, in terms of PS5 and possibly PS4 exclusives, in addition to the already known titles, suggesting The Last of Us Remake or others. games of the genre.The statement comes from Robert Morrison, who is a highly experienced animator employed within Visual Arts, a support team within PlayStation Studios that works mainly in the technical field, for 3D graphics between cutscenes and animation in general. Among the most frequent and well-known collaborations are those with the Naughty Dog team, which suggests the possibility of a reference to The Last of Us Remake, a game not yet officially announced but which has been talked about for some time in the rumors. .
As reported by Kami on Twitter, Morrison recently reported receiving some surprises from the PlayStation Creative Arts team, adding that "PlayStation has some big hits planned for this year." Responding to questions that came later from various users, Morrison said he was not working on God of War: Ragnarok, but on something "equally fantastic", perhaps not yet announced.
Previously, Morrison had made other references to a project currently in progress, in progress for some time but not yet announced, writing last month of "That feeling of when you have 3-5 years of work that you can't show ".
Obviously these are only vague references that it is difficult to link to specific projects in progress, however it is true that, beyond God of War: Ragnarok, there is no news of other PlayStation Studios games expected for the next few months and there will likely be some surprises on the way from Sony, considering that - at present - the Santa Monica title could be the last PS4 exclusive from first parties.
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PlayStation Studios: What will be Sony's next acquisition? Candidates after Kojima update
These past few weeks there's been one big talking point for PS4 and PS5 gamers - which dev is PlayStation Studios about to acquire next? SIE boss Jim Ryan has already confirmed that Sony has more acquisitions planned following the surprise reveal earlier this year that Bungie was joining the PlayStation Studios family. And recently the rumour mill had zeroed in on one particular dev - Kojima Productions.
PS5 fans were convinced that the Metal Gear auteur's studio was joining the PlayStation family, with signs seemingly pointing towards this.
Earlier this month Black Sports Online helped narrow down what could be Sony's next acquisition, as it claimed sources had told them the studio being acquired 'won’t fall under the U.S. purview and jurisdiction'.
This led to speculation the next studio being acquired by Sony would be based in Japan, and fans thought it could be Kojima Productions after the Death Stranding creator shared on Twitter KojiPro was moving offices.
Kojima-san shared pictures of his new HQ, with fans left convinced Kojima Productions had moved into Sony's offices in Tokyo.
Death Stranding: PlayStation release trailer for gameThen, in the run-up to Easter the PlayStation Studios banner was updated to show Death Stranding, further adding fuel to these rumours.
PS4 and PS5 gamers then thought the Kojima Productions and PlayStation deal was all but certain after Kojima-san tweeted out the image of the new banner.
However, not long after this the Metal Gear Solid creator clarified that Kojima Productions would 'remain independent'.
He tweeted: 'I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS has been and will continue to be an independent studio.'
Coupled with rumours that Kojima-san's next game could in fact be on Xbox, this appears to have put to bed rumours that KojiPro is being acquired by Sony.
So, with Kojima Productions out of the picture what are the remaining candidates?
Well, in-the-know journalist Jeff Grubb in a recent update said from what he had heard the next Sony acquistion will be 'bigger' than Kojima Productions.
And, the previous Black Sports Online report we talked about claimed the studio Sony is looking to acquire is one of the oldest names in the gaming business.
Black Sports Online said: 'While the company I’ve been told will be picked up is massive in their own right, it still wouldn’t quite be as big as the Activision and Microsoft partnership, but it would definitely mark a new era for two of some of the oldest companies in the game.'
Factoring in that this rumoured acquisition won't be a US-based developer that leaves a few options.
Among the studios that fit the above criteria are Ubisoft, who were first founded in 1986 and are headquarted in France.
While if you're looking towards Japan there are plenty of studios that fit the criteria of being one of the 'oldest companies in the game'.
Studios that would fit this bill include Capcom, Konami, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, SEGA and FromSoftware.
With the latter, there has been plenty of talk recently that the Elden Ring makers are the studio which Sony could be looking to acquire.
A tweet from February has only added fuel to this fire. The post, from Elden Ring publishers Bandai Namco, showed a picture of PlayStation HQ offices alongside the message: 'I've walked from The Lands Between to the @Playstation Headquarters. I wonder if there's a trophy for this accomplishment.'
Given the huge success Elden Ring has enjoyed this year as a multi-format game, it would be a surprise for FromSoftware to end up getting owned by PlayStation Studios, and thus opening the door to future games from the Souls creators becoming PS5 exclusives.
But, like with the Bethesda and Xbox deal, PlayStation and FromSoftware have plenty of history which could mean a deal makes sense.
The gaming world's fascination with Souls-like games all began with Demon's Souls, a PS3 exclusive that first launched in 2009.
This game led to the Dark Souls series, PS4 exclusive Bloodborne, Sekiro Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring - which all share the same DNA.
But the story of the Souls series goes even further back, with the precursor to Souls games, King's Field, also being a PlayStation exclusive.
The King's Field games weren't the only FromSoftware titles that were exclusive to the original PlayStation, with the Armored Core series also starting life out as a PlayStation exclusive franchise.
Fans will hopefully find out sooner rather than later what Sony's next planned acquistion is. And with the PS5's release schedule for the rest of this year looking very bare, it stands to reason that Sony may have another big PlayStation Experience event lined-up where it could announce games heading to the PS5 for the remainder of 2022. If Sony's next acquisition is as big as the rumour mill claims then that could be where the news ends up getting dropped.
