Sony Buys Game Developer of PlayStation Bestseller Returnal
Sony has purchased the Finnish game development studio Housemarque, maker of best-selling PlayStation 5 exclusive game Returnal.
(Bloomberg) -- Sony Group Corp. said Tuesday it purchased the Finnish game development studio Housemarque to make games for PlayStation consoles.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Housemarque, which was founded in 1995, is best known for the recent game Returnal, which is exclusive to Sony’s PlayStation 5. Returnal ranked eighth among the best-selling games of April, according to industry analysis firm NPD Group.
The deal will help bolster PlayStation’s software lineup as Sony looks to compete with rival Microsoft Corp., which has been on a spending spree. In recent years Microsoft has purchased more than a dozen video game studios including ZeniMax Media Inc. last year for $7.5 billion.
Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, described Housemarque as “capable of creating memorable new games that resonate with our community” in a blog post announcing the acquisition.
Sony may have also made another major purchase that it hasn’t yet officially announced. A since-deleted tweet from PlayStation’s Japanese Twitter account included an image showing the acquisition of Bluepoint Games, an Austin, Texas-based company that also recently released a PlayStation 5 exclusive.
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