PlayStation Studios is a new brand for first-party Sony games, and it will arrive alongside PS5.
The company debuted the new intro video for PlayStation Studios on its YouTube channel, with the intro reel showing familiar characters like Nathan Drake, Aloy, Kratos, Ellie, and Sackboy reflected in the trademark PlayStation shapes before the shapes transform into the new PlayStation Studios logo. Throughout all of this, it's underscored by dramatic orchestral music, and basically, it has very strong Marvel Studios vibes.
Sony Interactive Entertainment head of global marketing Eric Lempel told GamesIndustry.biz that the new label is meant to let consumers know "that, if they see it, then the quality games they've come to expect from us are here". You'll see this branding applied to both pre-existing franchises as well as all-new series. It may also be applied to games created by developers outside of the SIE Worldwide Studios umbrella, as long as the work was created for and managed by Sony.
"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," Lempel said. "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."
The branding won't be ready to appear on imminent games such as The Last of Us 2, Ghost of Tsushima, or the PC release of Horizon: Zero Dawn. However, Lempel did say that it will appear on any future SIE Worldwide Studios games that come to other platforms. Once PS5 hits the market, you should expect to get very familiar with that little intro video - though he added that the specifics of which games and characters are featured will change over time.
PlayStation Studios is not to be confused with PlayStation Productions, the entertainment-focused division that's currently working on the Uncharted movie.
