With games such as Ubisoft's Watch Dogs, Bungie's Destiny, CD Projekt RED's The Witcher 3 and, ostensibly, Electronic Arts's Battlefield 4 all confirmed as next-gen (or multi-gen) titles, their platforms each including the PlayStation 4, the scope of Sony's third-party development support for the future console is promising to be prodigious. The manufacturer has been vocal about its efforts to make the PS4's hardware more developer-friendly than the PlayStation 3, and there's little reason to suspect that the marquee studios who've supported the PlayStation 3 recently (albeit to varying degrees of enjoyment. Sorry Bethesda) will avert course now.
Unfortunately, condensing the committed companies to a list has proven to be an inexact science.
Following its reveal of the PlayStation 4 at a press conference last week, Sony released what was then believed to be its official list of confirmed third-party developers supporting the the console. Justifiably claimed by the company to include "every" significant third party, the sprawling list was grouped into regions: 45 companies from Japan, 4 from the rest of Asia, 47 from North America, and the 53 from Europe listed below:
4A Games |
Kalyspo Media |
505 Games |
Laughing Jackal |
Abstraction |
Ludosity |
Beatshapers |
Mediatonic |
Big Ant |
Milestone |
Big Bit |
Mojang |
BitComposer |
Onmi Systems |
Bloober Team S.A. |
Prodigy Design |
Boss Alien |
Ripstone |
Bugbear |
Roll7 |
Cauldron |
Ronimo |
City Interactive |
Rovio |
Criterion Games |
Shortround |
Croteam |
Sperasoft |
Curve Studios |
Sproing |
Dakko Dakko Ltd |
Stormbasic |
Deck 13 |
Straight Right |
Double Eleven |
Targem |
Eko Software |
Tate |
FatShark |
Techland |
Flying Wildhog |
Tonika |
Four Door Lemon |
Torus Games |
Frozenbyte |
Vector Cell |
FuturLab |
Virtual Toys |
Gaijin |
Vlambeer |
GHOST GAMES - AN EA STUDIO |
Wizarbox |
Green Hill Studios |
Today, however, Sony released a revised edition of its European support list which doesn't just add or subtract a few wrongful omissions or citations -- it substitutes an entirely different field of names altogether. 28, compared to 53. Major developers like Mojang (Minecraft), Rovio (Angry Birds) and Criterion (Need for Speed) are now gone; in their stead, however, are Avalanche Studios (Just Cause 2), CD Projekt RED (The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077), 2k, Deep Silver and more.
- Avalanche Studios
- Blitz Games Studios
- Bohemia Interactive
- CD Projekt RED
- Climax Studios
- Hello Games
- Just Add Water (Developments), Ltd.
- Deep Silver
- Lucid Games Ltd
- MercurySteam
- Ninja Theory Ltd
- Nixxes Software BV
- Paradox Interactive
- Rebellion
- Saber Interactive
- Creative Assembly
- IO Interactive
- Starbreeze Studios
- 2K Games
- Team 17 Digital LTD
- Yager
- Zen Studios
- keen games
- Splash Damage
- Stainless Games Ltd
- Sumo Digital
- Codemasters
- TT Games
So why the developer dissonance? Sony's explanation pretty is straightforward: The company told Joystiq that everyone on the initial roster was listed mistakenly, and the updated draft is now correct.
But that's not to say it's final. Assuming Electronic Arts is interested in bringing Need for Speed to the next generation -- the series is fresh off one of its most acclaimed installments yet, Need for Speed: Most Wanted -- main developer Criterion will almost certainly be along for the ride. Furthermore, 505 Games, whose name was displayed in Sony's partner collage last week (see the image above) but was excised today, confirmed to Joystiq that they still have every intention of publishing games on the PlayStation 4. Considering the unlikelihood of mislabeling 53 studios as dedicated partners, it's possible that everyone announced last week is still in union with Sony in some way, only the company was planning to reveal them at a later date. Perhaps someone copied and pasted from the post-E3 2013 presser?
The PlayStation 4 has been confirmed for a Holiday 2013 release.
Follow Brian on Twitter @Brian_Sipple.
Source: Joystiq