In the summer of 2012, Sony closed the longstanding studio responsible for the WipEout series. Sony Liverpool closed after almost a decade of developing PlayStation games following their acquisition by Sony in 1993. Today, pieces of Sony Liverpool formed a new studio called Firesprite. Their first project – helping develop The Playroom for the PlayStation 4.
When speaking to IGN, managing director at Firesprite, Graeme Ankers, explained how the idea to form Firesprite after a friendly meet-up. “The founding team met up socially after Studio Liverpool and we talked about all the things we had achieved over the years, the platform launches, the variety of games, going back to [the] Psygnosis days and through to F1 and WipEout. We knew we wanted to carry on making great games.”
Members of the Sony Liverpool team continued to meet regularly. Through multiple gatherings at each other's apartments, they discussed future projects and eventually formed the Firesprite studio. The new team consists of 20 people, 15 of which came from Sony Liverpool. "It’s an energetic mix of experience and new talent," Ankers said.
With many years of experience developing on PlayStation platforms, Firesprite helped Japan Studio develop The Playroom on the PlayStation 4.
Firesprite didn't reveal what their next game involves, but the studio continues development on a new engine that allows them to materialize their visions. When asked if they plan to develop a PlayStation exclusive, Ankers responded that the studio does "have a lot of experience on PlayStation platforms and it’s been fantastic being part of the journey on all of them.”
