The division of the Japanese giant Sony responsible for producing video games for the PlayStation announced on Monday the acquisition of the Montreal publisher Haven Studios, led by producer Jade Raymond, well known in the industry for her past experiences, particularly at Google. and Ubisoft.
Founded in March 2021 with financial participation from Sony Interactive Entertainment, Haven Studios does not anticipate any major changes to its operations following this acquisition, the value of which has not been disclosed. Its mission to produce a high level video game environment (referred to as “AAA” in the industry) exclusive to the platforms of Sony’s PlayStation division remains. The sixty people currently employed by him are keeping their jobs and the process of hiring to fill other positions continues.
For Jade Raymond and her four other co-founders, there is a tangible benefit to this transfer of power: they will be able to focus on the production of their video game and will have easier access to Sony’s management and creation tools. “We will no longer have to worry about the operation of the payroll or accounting department”, explains Jade Raymond in an interview with The duty. “We will be able to focus our efforts on finalizing our first major title and ensuring that it exceeds players’ expectations when it is released. »
Running a business on a day-to-day basis can sometimes weigh more than expected when embarking on a new adventure like that of Haven Studios. The Montreal SME has also lost one of its founders during the winter. Its chief operating officer, Sébastien Puel, left the ship and had not been replaced, his tasks having been redistributed internally.
Without it being said explicitly, we feel that the arrival of Sony within Haven will allow management to delegate more corporate tasks to other people within the Japanese multinational.
wind of consolidation
Sony’s acquisition of a Montreal publisher represents its first direct investment in Canada in the video game sector. The company does not officially intend to occupy a larger space in the Canadian industry, which remains internationally one of the most important in terms of the number of workers.
The good reputation acquired by Canadian multimedia professionals is not lost on PlayStation Studios chief executive Hermen Hulst, to whom the folks at Haven Studios will report. “This is an opportunity for us to help Jade and her team grow their business faster while tapping into this renowned pool of talent that is the Canadian video game industry,” he explained. by videoconference from Amsterdam.
Sony still sees more than just Canada in the strategy of expanding its video game activities. The company took over at the end of January for the sum of US$3.6 billion the American publisher Bungie, which originally created the Halo series of games, which has long been the flagship title of the Xbox console. Microsoft, Sony’s main rival in video games. A few weeks earlier, Microsoft announced for its part the acquisition of the publisher Activision Blizzard for 68.7 billion $US.
There is certainly a wind of consolidation these days in an industry where the main platforms – we can add to the Sony-Microsoft-Nintendo trio newcomers like Amazon and Netflix – try to obtain exclusivity on titles that will attract more consumers.
The integration of Haven Studios into the PlayStation team goes a little in the direction of this movement, but not so much, nuance Hermen Hulst. An agreement already bound the two companies before the transaction on the creation of an online video game with a persistent environment, accessible by the PlayStation but also by a personal computer. There is therefore in this gesture a desire to bring Montreal creators closer to other studios located elsewhere in the world that make up the PlayStation group.
“We will be part of one of the most renowned studios in the world but we will remain independent”, assures Jade Raymond. “We will now rub shoulders with the game creators who inspired us first as players and then as producers. »