Analysis: Who’s working at PlayStation’s new studio Haven?

videogameschronicle.com:

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) announced this week that it’s set to acquire Haven Studios for an undisclosed sum.

The move wasn’t completely out of the blue, given that Sony had already confirmed plans to fund an original IP from the studio co-founded by Assassin’s Creed co-creator Jade Raymond when it was first announced in March 2021.

And following this January’s announcement that PlayStation is set to purchase Bungie for $3.6 billion, SIE boss Jim Ryan said industry watchers “should absolutely expect more” acquisitions from the company.

However, at first glance the Haven deal didn’t appear to fit the usual Sony playbook. It has traditionally opted to buy studios it has already worked with on a number of games, as it did with Naughty Dog, Insomniac and Bluepoint Games, rather than start-ups without a released product to their name.

Some observers have even questioned whether PlayStation is being pushed into making riskier bets in an effort to keep pace with rivals like Microsoft, which has been leading the recent trend in industry consolidation with big-money deals. Last year the Xbox maker paid $7.5 billion for Bethesda parent ZeniMax. And provided it receives regulatory approval, it expects to complete a $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the first half of 2023.

But analysis of Haven’s current workforce conducted by VGC shows the significant extent of the development team’s shared work history – this is a team that has shipped multiple blockbusters together over many years, just under different names.

The Montreal-based studio—which will become the 18th member of PlayStation Studios and its first to be based in Canada—was co-founded by Raymond with five other Stadia employees, and they have since