In a surprise announcement, PlayStation confirmed it will be acquiring Demon's Souls and Shadow of the Colossus remake developer Bluepoint Games. Bluepoint has been responsible for a number of PlayStation ports, remasters, and remakes, including Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection on PS4. The studio has worked closely with Sony platforms since its inception, so its move to PlayStation Studios has been a widely predicted one.
It was rumored that PlayStation was acquiring Bluepoint Games earlier in 2021, and those suspicions were all but confirmed following an official leak. PlayStation Japan's Twitter account accidentally confirmed Bluepoint's acquisition in June, but the company quickly backtracked the announcement. Since then, the two parties have been silent regarding the matter, leading some to forget about the incident altogether. Now, the deal is official and Bluepoint is joining PlayStation Studios.
On September 30, PlayStation Blog announced the acquisition of Bluepoint Games, with a PlayStation Twitter video showcasing some of the studio's highlights. The developer has worked on ports and remasters of some of PlayStation's most well-known franchises, including God of War and Uncharted. Bluepoint is not ready to discuss what it's working on quite yet, but did note to IGN that it's developing an original title as opposed to another remake or remaster.
Unfortunately, that statement could put rumors about Bluepoint remaking Metal Gear Solid for PS5 to rest. Bluepoint hasn't made an original game since the PS3 era and even then, it was a relatively simple downloadable game. Now that the studio has taken on so many massive games and successfully modernized them, it's rather exciting to see it pursuing something original. It's equally exciting that Sony also felt the need to lock Bluepoint down, similar to how it acquired Insomniac Games after the success of Marvel's Spider-Man.
Sony has a knack for realizing talent and has consistently shown it can produce results with its first-party team. Bluepoint will likely get far more opportunities now as a Sony studio, allowing for bigger budgets, better teams, and likely high-quality games. Although it's been an open secret that PlayStation was acquiring Bluepoint, it's nice to know it's finally official. Since Bluepoint is working from scratch on its next game, it'll likely be a while before the title sees the light of day. It's currently unclear if the team plans to work on remakes of other games anymore or if it will use this new opportunity to focus on delivering new experiences.
Sources: PlayStation, PlayStation/Twitter, IGN