London Studio Profile
Established in 1993, London Studio is Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s largest internal development studio, with 225 staff working in a purpose designed 7-storey building located in the heart of the London’s creative Soho district. The studio has a proud tradition of developing ambitious and innovative titles and is committed in its aim to further the PlayStation® brand by creating a variety of entertainment experiences that are fun to play and which appeal to an ever broadening and diverse audience.
With the launch of the critically acclaimed SingStar™ and EyeToy® series of games, London Studio has created truly revolutionary and commercially successful IP and introduced the concept of social gaming to a whole new generation of consumers. With these two titles gaining 3 BAFTA awards between them and a whole host of accolades from the press and consumers as well as industry peers, the studio has gained an enviable reputation for creating fun, innovative games which appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike.
The Getaway® achieved new standards for presentation and production values, seamlessly combining videogame action with filmic narrative, and selling in excess of 3.5 million copies in the process. The success of this franchise continued with the release of The Getaway: Black Monday selling in over 1 million copies of the title on its launch in December 2004.
The launch of the PSP™ has allowed London Studio to venture into handheld game development for the first time, with two titles due for release with the European launch of the console. Fired Up™ is a vehicle combat action game for up to 8 players, set in an anarchic world of high-octane vehicles, big guns and even bigger explosions. World Tour Soccer™ is a fast paced portable soccer title, with an innovative new scoring system set to become the must have sports title for the latest must have console.
With a deep commitment to developing multiplayer titles for SCEE’s Network Gaming Service, London Studio launched the first European developed online PlayStation 2 game, Hardware™: Online Arena, at the end of 2003. The studio further cemented its commitment to online entertainment with the recent release of EyeToy: Chat, enabling PlayStation 2 owners to turn their TV into a video phone using the EyeToy USB camera.
Working on such a rich and varied range of games has allowed London Studio to build up enviable levels of expertise across the whole spectrum of game development disciplines. London Studio currently has a number of projects in development for the PlayStation 2 and for the PSP. Some of them are extensions to our established franchises, some are exciting new titles, all of them are innovative and all of them are ambitious.
