Sony Interactive Entertainment London Studio Reveals New Online Co-Op Title In Development For PlayStation 5

So far, 2022 has brought a new narrative to PlayStation – multiplatform releases. After nearly two decades, the firm under Sony is searching to establish its platform outside of PlayStation home consoles. Sony Interactive Entertainment established this effort with the acquisition of Destiny/Halo developer Bungie in February.

Additionally, the company in a later statement pressed that its gameplan includes releasing roughly a dozen live-service titles by 2026 at the earliest. However, there is more on the matter. In an investors briefing, President & CEO Jim Ryan expressed that “a transformation from PlayStation’s current console-centric approach to a future where large elements of our community extend beyond the console,” implying live-service is the next step.

Now in a new interview with gamesindustry.biz, Sony Interactive Entertainment London Studio revealed it is working on an online, c0-op title set within a fantasy London setting. “We are proud of the history and innovation that we’ve done over the years, supporting all sorts of PlayStation technology, whether that’s VR, or AR, or microphones, or whatever,” co-studio head Stuart Whyte shares.

The game idea came out of an ideation process that we embarked on with the entire team. We created a high-level briefing document, but with a lot of latitude and scope within that. And the team came up with loads and loads of ideas. We got the inspiration on the process by talking to our colleagues at Guerrilla Games. We were fascinated about how they went from Killzone to Horizon: Zero Dawn, and this was the exact process they went through.

So the team came up with a load of ideas over a period of months, and we refined them down and refined them down, until we got to a really small shortlist. Then we went out and spoke to PlayStation leadership, we spoke to other PlayStation studios… We spoke, very importantly, to our team about which one they’re most passionate about. This concept scored super highly in all of those areas. We polled hundreds of gamers in the UK and US, through an anonymous poll, with some of the shortlisted ideas… This was the one that came up top.

“With this project, we really wanted to explore some new avenues and set ourselves some new challenges. We definitely wanted to try something a little bit different, and I think this new project really channels our ‘brave’ value and allows us to push ourselves on the ‘curious’ front, too. It’s an exciting future, it really is.”

Co-studio head Tara Saunders interjects: “[In our concept art] you’re seeing a take on a modern fantasy London. Our overarching theme is about bringing fantastical and magical elements and intersecting that with familiar worlds, and you don’t get much more familiar to us than London.” The game is said to be a PlayStation 5 title in mind whist utilizing the Soho Engine.

Are you interested in what this new project could bring to PlayStation in terms of live-service?

Source: gamesindustry.biz