Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced PlayStation Studios, a new umbrella brand for its first-party studios.
The PlayStation Studios brand will launch alongside PlayStation 5 this holiday season, and will only be used on games developed and managed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. That includes both Sony-owned studios and work-for-hire developers under Sony’s direction.
Sony Interactive Entertainment created an opening animation that will appear at the start of PlayStation Studios-branded games, which features characters from Uncharted, Horizon Zero Dawn, Ratchet & Clank, God of War, The Last of Us, and LittleBigPlanet.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Sony Interactive Entertainment senior vice president and head of global marketing Eric Lempel said, “We are really excited about this. Over the last few years—and even the last decade—the strength of the titles coming out from our studios has been stronger than ever. We have been thinking about how we unite all of these great games under one brand, and really the purpose of that is to make the consumer understand that, when they see this brand, they’re getting ready for a robust, innovative, deep experience that they’ve come to expect from games coming from PlayStation. So we came up with PlayStation Studios.”
Lempel continued, “You’ve seen the animated asset that will exist primarily during the beginning of our titles, but the brand will exist in a lot of different places. There are different, shorter animations that will exist in trailers… It will exist in advertising. It will be in any other creative assets, such as the game packaging and the game discs themselves.”
“We think this is a good way to let consumers know that, if they see it, then the quality games they’ve come to expect from us are here. And this brand will exist for well-known existing franchises, as well as brand new franchises that we have yet to explore.”
Lempel added that some PlayStation 4 titles will also carry the branding, but that it will not be ready in time for the launches of The Last of Us Part II or Ghost of Tsushima, nor the PC version of Horizon Zero Dawn. Any future titles released on the platform will carry the branding, however.
“The cinematic you’ve seen is the one that has multiple games in it,” Lempel said. “But over time, as we introduce well established franchises, we can tailor that opening a bit to possibly show the franchise over the years, new characters that have come into play… There’s a lot we can do that we’re really excited about.”
Watch the opening animation below.