Sony Sony has always had a good relationship with Insomniac Games. The prestigious studio has given the world a string of classic PlayStation exclusives, from the original Spyro The Dragon, to Ratchet & Clank, to last year’s excellent Marvel’s Spider-Man.
You might be forgiven for thinking that Insomniac had always been a Sony-owned studio then, but of course that wasn’t the case. The studio remained independent for 25 years, and while they worked closely with Sony on the aforementioned franchises, they also worked with companies like Microsoft to develop the massively underrated Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive.
ActivisionWell, after a quarter of a century of what can only be described as an open relationship between Sony and Insomniac, the house of PlayStation has finally decided to put a ring on it and officially buy Insomniac Games, meaning the developer will now only make PlayStation exclusive titles.
The only surprising thing about this news is that it took this long, frankly. After Marvel’s Spider-Man became one of the greatest selling PlayStation exclusives of all time (it’s currently at 13.2 million copies sold, according to Sony), it was surely only a matter of time before Sony snapped Insomniac up for good.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Chairman told The Hollywood Reporter:
Sure. Spider-Man underscores how consequential Insomniac is to gaming in the overall. They are an impact maker. They are a style-setter. There are just a clutch of studios in that independent sphere who are at an accomplishment level of something like Insomniac. They are a very rare bird and we felt that this was the time to formalize the relationship.
If you’re wondering what Sony’s purchase of Insomniac means for an Xbox exclusive like Sunset Overdrive, Layden told The Hollywood Reporter that they’re not actually entirely sure yet – but it’s not really a focus for them right now.
Layden explained:
We really haven’t turned over the files on that one to see what that actually means, to be honest. We like what they’ve been doing in the Spider-Man franchise and things like Ratchet & Clank are certainly vital series in the present and future. That’s what we’re concentrating on.
Basically, it now looks more certain than ever before that we will be getting a sequel to the web-slinger’s PS4 adventure, presumably on PS5. Not that that was ever really in any doubt. I mean… 13.2 million copies sold isn’t something you ignore.
SonyI’ll shed a tear for Sunset Overdrive 2, but if it has to go to make way for more Ratchet & Clank and Spidey? Well, that’s just fine with me.
If you have a story to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.