Sony may have one new video game studio under its belt.
The company has allegedly acquired video game development studio Ballistic Moon, the company created by former Supermassive Games staff who worked on games like Until Dawn.
The acquisition comes at a time when Microsoft is still being investigated by the FTC, the UK’s CMA, and the European Commission for supposed anti-competitive behavior in trying to acquire Activision Blizzard.
Sony – Ballistic Moon Acquisition Details
Looks like Sony has acquired Ballistic Moon. pic.twitter.com/DSw7ARcUeH
— MBG (@xMBGx) February 18, 2023
Sony has provided the public with a “leak” that provided initial information about the acquisition, according to PlayStation Lifestyle. According to the publication’s report, Sony posted a job advertisement for a “senior Dialogue Designer” based in London to work on major Tripla-A projects alongside its partners at studios like Naughty Dog, Santa Monica Studio, Guerilla Games, and interestingly, Ballistic Moon.
All of the studios Sony listed apart from Ballistic Moon are first-party developers under Sony’s PlayStation Studios Family.
The job advertisement Sony posted on LinkedIn is still accessible as of press time.
Although the job advert was a controversial leak, it wasn’t until financial services firm Pitchbook posted an entry about Ballistic Moon stating that Sony acquired the company or had merged it with another, with it now operating as a subsidiary for the Japan-based tech giant, per Game Rant.
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For those unaware, Ballistic Moon is a video game development studio founded by former employees of Supermassive Games in 2019, per Comicbook Gaming. It consists of about 50 members and is currently working on a horror game titled “Project Bates,” which could be available for the PlayStation 5 in the future.
The company previously worked with Sony, according to Angie on Resetera, who cited fellow Resetera member Toumari for the information they reported. According to Angie, Ballistic Moon mentioned they are creating a game in Unreal Engine 5 working with a “world-leading publisher” that turned out to be Sony Interactive Entertainment.
With the job advert and Pitchbook’s entry combined, it is probable that Sony acquired another video game development studio under its belt. However, this piece of information should be taken with a grain of salt until Sony officially announces Ballistic Moon’s acquisition to the public.
Regardless, Pitchbook is a credible source to get information from, meaning that Ballistic Moon’s acquisition has some legitimacy in it.
Sony’s Acquisition and Microsoft’s Ongoing Case
Sony’s acquisition of Ballistic Moon comes at a time when Microsoft is having trouble with its own acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which had seemingly halted due to global investigation.
Currently, Microsoft is under investigation for anti-competitive behavior due to the possibility of the company hurting competition should its acquisition deal gets approved.
Although Sony’s acquisition could lead to a fruitful relationship, gamers could still feel like some games are being withheld from their system of choice. Microsoft could feel the same should word reach it, but until then, nothing, even Microsoft’s reaction to Sony’s new video game development studio, is certain.
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