SCE Worldwide Studios

SCE Worldwide Studios

Type	Division of Sony Computer Entertainment
Industry	Interactive entertainment Computer and video games
Founded	September 14, 2005
Number of locations	United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Japan
Key people	Shuhei Yoshida (President)
Owner	Sony
Parent	Sony Computer Entertainment
Subsidiaries	Naughty Dog Sucker Punch Productions Media Molecule SCE Bend Studio SCE Japan Studio SCE Santa Monica Studio SCE San Diego Studio SCE Foster City Studio SCE London Studio Polyphony Digital Evolution Studios Guerrilla Games Guerrilla Cambridge PixelOpus
Website	Worldwidestudios.net

Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, officially abbreviated SCE Worldwide Studios, is a group of video game developers owned by Sony Computer Entertainment which was established in 2005.^[1] It is a single internal entity overseeing all wholly owned development studios within SCE. It is responsible for the creative and strategic direction of development and production of all computer entertainment software by all SCE-owned studios, all of which is produced exclusively for the PlayStation family of consoles.

History

2005

• Guerrilla Games, developers of the Killzone series was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS.^[2]
• 989 Studios, developers of various sport games, was closed.

2006

• Zipper Interactive, developers of the SOCOM series was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS.^[3]

2007

• Evolution Studios and BigBig Studios, developers of the MotorStorm series and Pursuit Force series, were acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS.^[4]

2009

• Incognito Entertainment, developers of the Twisted Metal series and Warhawk, was closed.

2010

• Media Molecule, developers of the PlayStation 3 game LittleBigPlanet, was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS.^[5]

2011

• Sucker Punch Productions, developers of the Sly Cooper series and Infamous series, was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS.^[6]

2012

• BigBig Studios, developers of the Pursuit Force series, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge and Little Deviants was closed.^[7]
• Cambridge Studio was renamed as Guerrilla Cambridge, becoming a sister studio to Guerrilla Games ^[8][9]
• Zipper Interactive, developers of the SOCOM series, MAG and Unit 13 was closed.^[10]
• Studio Liverpool, developer of the Wipeout and Formula One series was closed.^[11]

2014

• PixelOpus, developers of Entwined was announced by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS.^[12]

2015

• North West Studio, a Virtual Reality focused studio making games for PlayStation VR.^[13]

Studios

SCE Worldwide Studios contains fourteen ^[14] production studios worldwide (the studios with the asterisk * are not considered "major" first-party teams):

Asia

• Japan Studio - Tokyo, Japan.
  • J.S.E.D.D. * - Japan Studio External Development Department, part of Japan Studio, that usually collaborates with various well known development studios. Creators of Soul Sacrifice - Soul Sacrifice Delta and Freedom Wars.
  • PlayStation C.A.M.P. * - Creator Audition Mash-up Project, part of Japan Studio, that collaborates with various independent developers. Creators of Tokyo Jungle - Rain - Patchwork Heroes ^[15][16] and Open Me! ^[17]
  • Team Gravity * - Part of Japan Studio. Creators of the Siren series and Gravity Rush.
  • Team Ico * - Part of Japan Studio. Creators of Ico - Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian.
• Polyphony Digital - Tokyo, Japan.

North America

• Bend Studio - Bend, Oregon, USA
• Foster City Studio - Foster City, California, USA
• Naughty Dog - Santa Monica, California, USA
• San Diego Studio - San Diego, California, USA
• Santa Monica Studio - Playa Vista,^[18] Los Angeles, USA
• Sucker Punch Productions - Bellevue, Washington, USA
• PixelOpus - A small team within the SCE Worldwide Studios.^[19] Creators of Entwined - San Mateo, California, USA

Europe

• London Studio - London, UK
• Evolution Studios - Runcorn, UK
• Guerrilla Games - Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Guerrilla Cambridge - Cambridge, UK
• Media Molecule - Guildford, UK
• XDev - ^[20][21][22] Based within the former Studio Liverpool facility, UK
• North West Studio - Manchester, UK

Closed studios

• 989 Studios
• BigBig Studios
• Incognito Entertainment
• Studio Liverpool
• Zipper Interactive

Other studios and associates

ICE Team

Naughty Dog is home to the ICE Team, one of Sony's Worldwide Studios central technology groups. The term ICE originally stands for Initiative for a Common Engine which describes the original purpose of the studio.^[23] The ICE Team focuses on creating core graphics technologies for Sony's worldwide first party published titles, including low level game engine components, graphics processing pipelines, supporting tools, and graphics profiling and debugging tools. The ICE Team also supports third party developers with a suite of engine components, and a graphics analysis, profiling, and debugging tool for the RSX. Both enable developers to get better performance out of PlayStation hardwares.^[24][25]

XDev

Sony XDev Europe collaborates with independent development studios across Europe and other PAL territories to publish content to PlayStation platforms all over the world. The Studio Liverpool-based XDev has helped to create and publish, titles such as the LittleBigPlanet, Buzz!, MotorStorm and Invizimals series, Super Stardust HD, Heavenly Sword, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, Tearaway and Resogun. Partners include studios such as Quantic Dream, Magenta Software, Clever Beans, Climax Studios, Novarama, Supermassive Games and Sumo Digital, as well as the now Sony acquired Media Molecule, Evolution Studios and Guerrilla Games. In addition to funding projects, XDev offer full production, project management and game design support. Titles are also supported with community management, online production and dedicated outsourcing management facilities. XDev work directly with Marketing and PR teams in all Sony territories to promote and publish games worldwide.^[26][27]

List of video games produced by Sony XDev Europe

SN Systems

SN Systems is a provider of Windows development tools for games consoles, including the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 1, PlayStation Vita, and PSP. SN Systems was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. in 2005,^[33] to provide tools for the PlayStation 3, and future consoles.

SCEE R&D

SCEE R&D are technical experts on topics relating to any of the PlayStation platforms. The group is unique in that they report directly to both SCEE Central as well the Tokyo-based SCEI R&D Organization that designs PlayStation hardware. They do not create games; however, they supply the raw technical materials that game developers utilize to create games.

References

External links

• Official Site