STATION TO STATION

When it comes to acquisitions, 2021 brought nothing on the level of last year’s Bethesda buyout. In fact, Microsoft made no gaming acquisitions at all, leaving Sony to pick up the slack. In March, Sony took joint ownership of Evo, the fighting-game esports organisation, and followed it with the acquisition of five studios: Housemarque, Bluepoint, Nixxes Software, Firesprite and Fabrik Games. There’s a difference in strategy from Microsoft’s purchases here, with Sony bringing allies closer. Housemarque and Bluepoint have made some of the only true PS5 exclusives in

Returnal and Demon’s Souls, while Firesprite and Fabrik, responsible for PSVR’s The

Persistence, are studios built from the ashes of Studio Liverpool. How many people can say they’ve been bought by Sony twice?