Insomniac Games — the developers behind Sony’s PS4 megahit Spider-Man — are going to become part of Sony Worldwide Studios.
Sony’s acquisition of Insomniac turns the PS4 and PSVR maker into the owner of upcoming PC VR game Stormland and a host of other VR and AR projects.
Big news: @InsomniacGames is joining PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios! We are honored and thrilled to join forces with this legendary developer. Please join us in congratulating our friends and partners at Insomniac! pic.twitter.com/hhhqhxZE7k
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) August 19, 2019
Insomniac also built the more experimental project Seedling for Magic Leap’s AR headsets, The Unspoken, Edge of Nowhere and Feral Rites for Rift as well as other games like Ratchet & Clank for PS4. They’ve been at the forefront of interaction and systems development in VR games and their titles reflect an exploration of these new input systems.
We’re curious what this means for the future of PC-powered games from Insomniac. Will the parent company focus Insomniac’s efforts instead exclusively on Sony hardware? A tweet from the official account for Stormland states “Stormland is still coming to the Rift platform Holiday 2019. That is not changing.”
Stormland is still coming to the Rift platform Holiday 2019. That is not changing.
— Stormland (@stormlandvr) August 19, 2019
We certainly hope the acquisition means a fully realized version of Spider-Man VR for whatever sequel to the game the company may be developing. We enjoyed web-slinging in the recent VR version of Spider-Man, from Sony and CreateVR, but we also trust Insomniac to know how to make web-slinging systems that feel totally natural in VR.
In July, here’s what Senior Editor Jamie Feltham wrote about a potential acquisition:
People have been saying Sony should acquire Insomniac since the Spyro days, but it’s never been truer than in 2019. Not only is Insomniac making bleeding edge VR games for Oculus like Stormland but it also launched the absolutely excellent Spider-Man PS4 exclusive last year. The fact that Insomniac is sitting on this much VR experience and hasn’t yet made a PSVR game is maddening. It probably won’t ever happen, but if there was one studio we’d choose for Sony to acquire, it’d be these guys.
Chances: Not likely at all
Jamie published that piece under the headline “6 VR Developers Sony Could Buy To Secure PSVR 2’s Future.”
One down, then, for securing PSVR 2’s future.
