The first information about the gaming service of the British studio London Studio.
Tara Saunders, Head of London Studio explains what to expect from their next project:
It is an online co-op combat game set in modern fantasy London. The important thing is that this is a PS5 exclusive, not a VR game like our previous game, and it’s our most ambitious project yet. There are several important aspects to this image. This is a modern fantasy London and co-op action game. And what we really like about this project is that it gives us the opportunity to showcase a lot of wonder and magic.
Our studio heads @SaundersTara and @StuWhyte sat down with the SIE blog team to talk about life at London Studio and share a look at the new game we’re making! 👀
Read more here: https://t.co/MBPcbEuCWa pic.twitter.com/jkww36TVHc
— London PlayStation Studio (@LondonStudioHQ) October 27, 2022
The capital of England will again be the site for a new license from London Studio, a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment:
We had a lot of ideas that we didn’t have in London, but we had a connection that constantly brought us back to this city. If you look at our history, we did other projects like Blood and Truth and even Escape – that was the first project I worked on – both of which had their home and heart in London. It’s an eclectic city, very vibrant and very inclusive, which is one of the values of our studio, namely inclusiveness. And we love the richness it offers us culturally.
Soho Engine, London Studio’s graphics engine for PS5.
Stuart White of London Studio explains that the development of the new PS5 license required the creation of a new graphics engine:
We have a very talented team working on our own Soho Engine. The important thing is that this is not an engine that we have modified for PS5, but an engine that we have rebuilt from the ground up for this generation of hardware and the needs of the game we are creating. It has been designed to take full advantage of the PS5. I remember when we saw the first PS5 specs – things like ray tracing and ultra-fast storage – it inspired us to create an engine that could take the console as far as it could go. It started when we received our first PS5 Prototyping Kits, but to be honest, the current toolbox and some of the pipelines are older, and go back to VR Worlds and Blood & Truth. These games required very fast and very efficient engines. Soho Engine is the same engine, but it was developed for PS5.
Guerrilla Games inspired London studio
The London-based studio was inspired by Guerrilla Games’ process to make a big difference between their old productions and the new PS5 license by betting on online collaboration:
The initial concept of the game is the result of an ideation process that we had within the team. We created a comprehensive white paper that gave general guidelines for the types of titles we wanted, but it was very vague and left a lot of room for creativity. In fact, this process was similar to what Guerrilla Games used to create Horizon Zero Dawn, which inspired us to follow a very similar process. So we set up this process, and in a few months the team had about 60 different ideas that we finalized and then finalized. Finally, we were able to come up with a final decision that is exactly the same as our first illustration. There were so many variations on many of the concepts that we discussed, but for us it was about creating something, what the whole team was really passionate about. We rigorously interviewed the team to find out which ideas they liked the most, as well as which ideas were most intriguing to PlayStation Studios management. We solicited the opinions of several partner studios and finally did some real market research. We polled hundreds of gamers in the UK and US to get their opinion. All of these different inputs and perspectives have led to the project we are currently working on. We rigorously interviewed the team to find out which ideas they liked the most, as well as which ideas were most intriguing to PlayStation Studios management. We solicited the opinions of several partner studios and finally did some real market research. We polled hundreds of gamers in the UK and US to get their opinion. All of these different inputs and perspectives have led to the project we are currently working on. We rigorously interviewed the team to find out which ideas they liked the most, as well as which ideas were most intriguing to PlayStation Studios management. We solicited the opinions of several partner studios and finally did some real market research. We polled hundreds of gamers in the UK and US to get their opinion. All of these different inputs and perspectives have led to the project we are currently working on. We polled hundreds of gamers in the UK and US to get their opinion. All of these different inputs and perspectives have led to the project we are currently working on. We polled hundreds of gamers in the UK and US to get their opinion. All of these different inputs and perspectives have led to the project we are currently working on.