London Studio is a British video game developer based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Founded in 2002, it is a first-party studio for

PlayStation Studios PlayStation Studios (formerly SCE Worldwide Studios and SIE Worldwide Studios) is a division of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) that oversees the video game development at the studios owned by SIE. The division was established as SCE World ...

. The studio was most known for developing the '' SingStar'' series, as well as games for PlayStation's external peripherals including the

EyeToy The EyeToy is a color webcam for use with the PlayStation 2. Supported games use computer vision and gesture recognition to process images taken by the EyeToy. This allows players to interact with the games using motion, color detection, and a ...

camera and the

PlayStation VR The PlayStation VR (PS VR, known by its code name Project Morpheus during development) is a virtual reality headset developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was released in October 2016. It is fully functional with the PlayStation 4 an ...

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

headset. The studio has created more than 60 titles since the it was established.

History

''SingStar'' and EyeToy

London Studio is established in 2002 following the merger of

Psygnosis Psygnosis Limited (known as SCE Studio Liverpool or simply Studio Liverpool from 1999) was a British video game developer and publisher headquartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool. Founded in 1984 by Ian Hetherington, Jonathan Ell ...

's Camden studio and

Team Soho Team Soho (formerly credited as SCEE Internal Development Team or also known as SCEE Studio Soho) was a British Video game developer#First-party developer, first-party video game developer and a studio of Sony Computer Entertainment based in So ...

, the developer behind '' The Getaway''. As London Studio, the studio developed the '' SingStar'' series, which became extremely popular and helped broadened the appeal of the PlayStation 2 beyond the typical demographics of young male gamers. The series sold more than 20 million copies within 6 years. It also created a lot of games for Sony's

webcam, and assisted the development of other Sony titles, such as ''

Killzone 2 ''Killzone 2'' is a 2009 first-person shooter developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It is the second main installment in the ''Killzone'' series, following 2004's '' Killzone''. Simil ...

'' and ''

LittleBigPlanet ''LittleBigPlanet'' (stylized as ''LittleBIGPlanet''; abbreviated ''LBP'') is a puzzle platform video game series created and produced by British developer Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Most games in the seri ...

''. The studio was working on two AAA exclusives for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

including ''Eight Days'' and the sequel to ''The Getaway'', but both were cancelled by Sony Europe as Sony wanted to reallocate resources to other first-party games.

Virtual reality

London Studio developed a

(VR) rendering technology, called LSSDK, which supports PlayStation 4 and PC. This engine was first used in '' PlayStation VR Worlds'', which contained five virtual reality experiences: "The London Heist", "Into The Deep", "VR Luge", "Danger Ball" and "Scavenger's Odyssey". While ''VR Worlds'' received mixed reviews, "London Heist" was critically acclaimed, and the game was commercially successful. Developing titles for the virtual reality headset became the company's main focus. The studio's next game was '' Blood & Truth'', which serves as the successor to the London Heist level. It became the first VR title to reach number 1 on the UK's retail sales chart when it was released in May 2019.

Upcoming game

The studio is currently working on a cooperative multiplayer game for the PlayStation 5. Set in a modern fantasy London, it was described by studio head Tara Saunders as the company's "most ambitious project to-date". Players do not need to use a virtual reality headset to play this game.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{PlayStation Studios 2002 establishments in England British companies established in 2002 First-party video game developers Software companies based in London PlayStation Studios Video game companies established in 2002 Video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies