How many current 3rd party games in development does Sony own?

[shrike0fth0rns]

Currently in development they own none of the Chinese or Korean IPs including Stellar Blade.

Neither is Rise of the Ronin.

Yet their games scream PlayStation first-party.

I would have acquired them regardless of the toxic workplace allegations and given David Cage and his people and ultimatum of no more bullshit, not because its the right thing to do, but because it makes everyone involved look bad in the press.

cage wouldn’t have accepted an ultimatum and whatever contract he signed he would have made it difficult to oust him as head of the studio. They get bought by netease because netease don’t give a sht about workplace culture they just want a return on their investment. Currently QD has a lot of issues atm. The Star Wars game is in development hell right now and the concept for the game was pitched to Sony all the way back in 2013 and the game is still yrs away.

 

[Muddasar]

I listed the 1st party Sony games in this other thread. Out of them, the 2nd party ones (the ones published by Sony but developed by studios not owned by them) I did remember were are:

• Firewall Ultra (August 24, 2023)
• Stellar Blade (2023)
• Helldivers 2 (2023)
• Rise of the Ronin (2024)
• Death Stranding 2 (TBA, maybe 2024/2025?)
• Horizon Online if rumors are true that it's codeveloped/developed by Asian team (TBA, I bet 2025)
• Deviation's new IP (TBA, maybe cancelled or rebooted I'd say 2026)
• Project Boundary (China Hero Project)
• Lost Soul Aside (China Hero Project)
• Convallaria (China Hero Project)
• RAN: Lost Islands (China Hero Project)
• Exiledge (China Hero Project)
• AI-Limit (China Hero Project)
• Daba: Land of Water (China Hero Project)
• Dark Star (China Hero Project)
• The Wind Rising (China Hero Project)
• The God Slayer (China Hero Project)
• Awaken: Astral Blade (China Hero Project)
• Will-less (China Hero Project)
• Evotiction (China Hero Project)
• Unannounced Ballistic Moon (former Until Daw/Supermassive devs) new IP

The games I listed are 2nd party games. In most cases, the platform holder -in this case Sony- also owns the IP, but not always.

As an example, in many cases like smaller games, as maybe could be these China Hero Project games, the dev is the one who owns the IP and he role of the platform holder is basically only to support them with funding, publishing and marketing while at the exchange of some kind of exclusivity.

There are also cases like Nioh, where Sony only publishes in some specific markets and the dev keeps the IP and maybe publishes with them or someone else in other countries. There are also cases where Sony owns the IP and allows the dev publish the game with other publisher in other platform (cases of Death Stranding or Quantic Dream) or in other countries (the original Demon's Souls).

Cheers. Amazing work.

From the list only these are confirmed IPs which Sony own.

• Firewall Ultra (August 24, 2023)
• Helldivers 2 (2023)
• Death Stranding 2 (TBA, maybe 2024/2025?)
• Horizon Online if rumors are true that it's codeveloped/developed by Asian team (TBA, I bet 2025)

Maybe owned by Sony too.

• Deviation's new IP (TBA, maybe cancelled or rebooted I'd say 2026)
• Unannounced Ballistic Moon (former Until Daw/Supermassive devs) new IP

 

[Perrott]

Maybe owned by Sony too.

• Deviation's new IP (TBA, maybe cancelled or rebooted I'd say 2026)
• Unannounced Ballistic Moon (former Until Daw/Supermassive devs) new IP

These two are also Sony-owned, since Sony is the publisher funding development.

Well, in Deviation's case I should've said "was", since there cannot be much of an IP when there's no game in the making anymore.

 

[riesgoyfortuna]

And other PS fans will say that censorship is not an issue.... @ethomaz @riesgoyfortuna @nongkris

dont worry u will still have your anime pillows

 

[Muddasar]

Seems like Insomniac Games owned all the IPs they developed more Microsoft, EA and Oculus.

Now property of Sony.

Insomniac Games, Inc. Trademarks :: Justia Trademarks

trademarks.justia.com

This includes obviously Sunset Overdrive, Fuse, Stormland, Edge of Nowhere, Songs of the Deep etc.

 

[Yurinka]

Cheers. Amazing work.

From the list only these are confirmed IPs which Sony own.

• Firewall Ultra (August 24, 2023)
• Helldivers 2 (2023)
• Death Stranding 2 (TBA, maybe 2024/2025?)
• Horizon Online if rumors are true that it's codeveloped/developed by Asian team (TBA, I bet 2025)

Maybe owned by Sony too.

• Deviation's new IP (TBA, maybe cancelled or rebooted I'd say 2026)
• Unannounced Ballistic Moon (former Until Daw/Supermassive devs) new IP

In recent years Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo relaxed the conditions with the 3rd party or 2nd party exclusives.

Many years ago, a Sony 2nd party game always meant Sony owned the IP and was going to be a full exclusive forever. That meant that Sony paid more for it, and the IP remained dead after the first game. In many cases, the devs would have a temporal exclusive to get more money and to own themselves the IP to make sequels or extra ports if desired.

So nowadays Sony, Nintendo and MS instead of the old school full exclusives prefer to get a 3rd party timed console exclusive, because it's cheaper for them and still does have the same PR impact. There's many cases where now even in 2nd party games the developer is the one who owns the IP, specially in the case of indie games.

If you want to know who owns the IP of the list of 2nd party games I posted, I suggest you to check ot the most recent trailer (if available) published after the announcement of their deal with Sony. Quite often at the end of the start of the video they mentions who owns the trademark of the game.