# Sony Interactive Entertainment acquires Firesprite

Sony Interactive Entertainment has acquired Liverpool-based developer Firesprite, the company announced.

“Firesprite is a creative and ambitious studio that is exceptional at building incredible experiences that truly showcase the potential of our hardware,” PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst said in a blog post. “The team’s technical and creative capabilities will be paramount to growing our stellar catalogue of exclusive games, and I think you’ll be excited for what’s to come.”

Firesprite’s catalogue of previously released titles includes The Persistence, Air Force Special Ops: Nightfall, and The Playroom and The Playroom VR with Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio.

Here is a message from Firesprite managing director Graeme Ankers on the acquisition:

Today is an incredibly exciting day for Firesprite as we join PlayStation Studios with the backing of Hermen and the entire PlayStation Family. We are very much looking forward to the next part of our journey!

Firesprite, headquartered in Liverpool in the North-West of the United Kingdom, was founded in 2012 with the vision of creating games that bring new innovations to any experience we develop. The North-West is steeped in gaming history, producing many iconic developers, publishers and games such as WipEout. Many of our ‘Sprites developed and shaped titles from this era and we are very proud of those roots!

We’ve had the pleasure of working with many talented developers and publishers across the industry and PlayStation in particular has been a friend and co-development partner for the best part of a decade, collaborating together on many exciting projects including The Playroom, Run Sackboy! Run, and The Playroom VR.

PlayStation also gave us the opportunity to create our own intellectual property, The Persistence, and we were given the creative freedom to explore, innovate, and release a survival horror game we are immensely proud of. Now, as a first party studio, we know we have the full support of PlayStation in furthering our heritage of combining creativity and technical innovation to offer some truly unique experiences for PlayStation fans.

I firstly want to thank PlayStation and their community for the warm welcome into a family of incredible creators. I’d also like to thank all of our ‘Sprites, past and present, who have helped shape the Firesprite we see today. I’m proud of the talent we have at Firesprite and you’ll continue to hear and see more from us all very soon!

We can’t wait to show you what we have been working on… we’re just getting started!

—Graeme Ankers, MD of Firesprite

Read the full announcement from Firesprite here.