PlayStation expands again with the acquisition of Seattle-based Valkyrie

Sony Interactive Entertainment has expanded its first-party studios yet again with its fifth acquisition of the year.

On Friday, the PlayStation parent confirmed it had acquired Seattle-based support studio Valkyrie Entertainment.

Over the past two decades, Valkyrie has contributed to triple-A projects such as Halo Infinite, God of War (and it’s upcoming sequel), League of Legends, Forza Motorsport 7 and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War.

PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst said in a statement: “Today we announce Valkyrie Entertainment will be joining the PlayStation Studios family. The studio will be making invaluable contributions to key PlayStation Studios franchises.”

Valkyrie marks the latest in a busy six months of acquisitions for PlayStation. In June SIE acquired Returnal developer Housemarque. This was followed by the acquisitions of PC port studio Nixxes, ex-WipEout devs Firesprite and Demon’s Souls PS5 developer Bluepoint.

PlayStation now has 17 internal teams, and speaking ahead of its latest acquisition, Studios boss Hulst wouldn’t rule out further additions.

“We are open always to building new relationships or bringing people in-house, but only if we adhere to the quality-first mentality and the right kind of innovative content, new experiences, diverse experiences,” he told IGN in October.

“Because all of these teams, they share a lot, but they’re also very different from one another, and that’s what I really like. And I think that’s what the PlayStation audience, the PlayStation fans, deserve, it’s that diverse slate of games coming out of PlayStation Studios.”

Hulst added: “We’re not buying teams to just be bigger. We’re only buying teams because we feel that together, we’re going to make something that is going to be even better than if we did it separate from one another.”

Outside of studio acquisitions, Sony has been investing in PS5 exclusives through partnerships with several promising independent studios.

The company is funding an original IP from a AAA start-up studio established by former Stadia games boss Jade Raymond.

It has also signed an original multiplayer project from Firewalk, a new studio founded by Bungie veterans, and will publish the debut title from Deviation Games, a studio headed up by former Call of Duty veterans Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell.