MP1st has assembled some details on what they believe to be Firesprite’s next title.
Firesprite Games has been around since 2012, but the roller coaster journey of its run as an official PlayStation studio only started last 2021. Following the release of Horizon: Call of the Mountain in 2023, Sony revealed that the studio would have major layoffs.
These layoffs are well remembered, as it happened across PlayStation’s different studios and divisions across the globe. However, it should not be forgotten that there are still unresolved allegations that a toxic work environment had formed in Firesprite while they were making Horizon: Call of the Mountain.
Those allegations include claims that the studio’s founders were forced to leave, that Sony installed two new leads from another studio called XDev, who were accused of discrimination by Firesprite’s employees, and that Sony’s mismanagement led to the team lacking talent in specific roles.
While we have yet to learn the truth about these allegations, it seems that Sony already took action to resolve some of these issues. At the end of last month, we reported that Firesprite had new job openings, and these new jobs were listed after the end of layoffs.
Those job openings hinted that Firesprite is now working on a horror title, and that they have been working on it since 2022. But now MP1st seems to believe they know even more.
In their latest report, they claim that all the evidence points to Firesprite making a new game in Sony’s Siren franchise. We won’t go through the finer details, but they mainly looked at resumes of former Firesprite employees to find clues about this game. And what stood out is one resume claiming that they had worked on a ‘pre-established IP.’ They also believe the game is also coming to PC.
Siren, or perhaps more accurately, Forbidden Siren, is a 2000s franchise produced by Sony that led to three games and a film adaptation. In the peak of Japanese supernatural horror films, the franchise centers around a supernatural threat called the shibito, infecting the village of Hanuda in the first game, and then populating Yamijima Island in the second.
A key figure in this franchise is Keiichiro Toyama. He was director of the first Silent Hill for Konami, and was also director for all three Siren games. Today he doesn’t actually work at Sony, but is now at the studio he founded, Bokeh. Bokeh is preparing the release of its first original horror title Slitterhead, presumably later this year.
It’s possible that Sony is moving forward with Forbidden Siren with or without Toyama, but if he’s unlikely to be involved, it certainly casts doubt on this speculation. In any case, we aren’t likely to find out about this game for a few years more as it’s definitely in the middle of its development.
