PlayStation Buys A Mobile Studio, Creates Mobile Division, And Says Single-Player AAA Games Remain A Focus

Following its acquisition of Destiny developer Bungie earlier this year, PlayStation has now acquired yet another big studio. Sony Interactive Entertainment today announced plans to buy Savage Game Studios, a mobile studio based in Finland and Germany, that is currently working on a AAA live-service game for mobile. Whether or not this game will be a PlayStation franchise or a new IP remains to be seen.

Sony did not disclose the sale price due to "contractual commitments," but the company said buying Savage is part of the company's effort expand PlayStation to "additional platforms." This follows PlayStation's pursuit of the PC market, too, which it expects to be very lucrative--for example, Sony expects to make $300 million from PC games this year alone.

"PlayStation Studios must continue to expand and diversify our offering beyond console, bringing incredible new games to more people than ever before," PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst said. "Acquiring the talented team at Savage Game Studios is another strategic step towards that goal. I'm really excited about what Savage is working on and I’m confident they will deliver a high-quality experience. Our move into mobile, like our expansion into PC and live service games, strengthens our capabilities and our community, and complements PlayStation Studios' purpose to make the best games that we can."

Savage CEO and co-founder Michail Katkoff said, "We're early in development on our unannounced project but can't wait to show you more of what we’re working on."

Savage will be folded into Sony's newly established PlayStation Studios Mobile Division, which handles mobile games and is separate from its console team.

Sony's announcement also stressed that its PlayStation team is trying to meet gamers wherever they are and give them whatever they want. That could be a mobile game, a PC title, or a live-service project. Sony also stressed that it will continue to make "unparalleled single-player, narrative-driven AAA console games." In essence, Sony is trying to do it all.

"As we assured you before with our plans to bring select titles to PC, our efforts beyond console in no way diminish our commitment to the PlayStation community, nor our passion to keep making amazing single-player, narrative-driven experiences," Hulst said.

2022 has been a year full of mergers and acquisitions, and many of them have been focused on mobile studios because mobile is bigger than console and PC. 2022 began with GTA company Take-Two acquiring FarmVille studio Zynga for $12.7 billion, which was the biggest acquisition in gaming history by far until Microsoft, just a month later, announced it was buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently acknowledged that Microsoft went after Activision Blizzard first and foremost to get a foothold in the mobile space via Candy Crush studio King.