PlayStation, over the years, has always tried to reinvent itself, trying not to stick too much to the usual IPs but always creating new ones. Apart from company cornerstones such as Ratchet & Clank and God of War, both born in the PlayStation 2 era, all the franchises currently in the hands of PlayStation were born much more recently.
Although this is an indisputable quality of the company, namely the constant attempt to experiment, some fans have criticized PlayStation and Sony’s apparent reluctance to revisit franchises from its past. This fan impatience increased considerably following the Concord announcement and everything that followed up until its disastrous launch.
This debate reached its peak after the release of Astro Bot, recently elected Game of the Year. The title developed by Team ASOBI celebrates many of PlayStation’s historical IPs but many fans considered it almost an affront given that almost all the franchises mentioned in the aforementioned video game (such as Ape Escape or Jak & Daxter) have been totally abandoned by the company.
In this sense, co-CEO Hermen Hulst, speaking with Famitsu magazine, revealed that PlayStation intends to bring back some of the company’s historical IPs. Here are his words on the matter:
The various IPs we own are an important asset to PlayStation, and as part of our efforts to grow our revenues, we are constantly looking for opportunities to leverage past IPs, as well as develop new franchises.
The executive continued by explaining that his company’s priority is to publish games made by the best developers in the world and hinted that PlayStation will continue to collaborate with independent studios such as Team Ninja (Rise of the Ronin) and Shift Up (Stellar Blade) .
