Sony buys Jade Raymond's Haven Studios

engadget.com:

Almost exactly a year to the date Sony said it was working with Jade Raymond’s Haven Studios on a new gaming IP, the company has now acquired the developer. Financial terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but Sony and Haven did share a tidbit of information about the game they’ve been working on together for over a year.

“Our first new IP for PlayStation is on track to deliver a AAA multiplayer experience with a vision to build a systemic and evolving world focused on freedom, thrill and playfulness that will keep players entertained and engaged for years,” Raymond said. That’s not a lot to go on, but it sounds like Haven is working on a live-service game that the studio plans to support over many years. Sony did not share a release date for the project.

Sony’s acquisition of Haven is the latest sign the video game industry is consolidating around a handful of big players. We may only be a few months into 2022 but already both Microsoft and Sony have announced a couple of deals to carve out the industry into opposing camps. It all started in January when the former revealed it was buying troubled publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Less than two weeks later, Sony surprised everyone with the news it was gobbling up Destiny 2 developer Bungie for $3.6 billion.