- Pronouns
- He/Him
Today, we are seeing the closure of London Studio, a studio founded by Sony 22 years ago. While their releases became much more scarce in the PS4/5 generation, they were synonymous with Sony and PlayStation peripherals in the PS2/3 eras.
While they started out making soccer games in their early days, they also experimented with new ways to interact with games. In 2003, London debuted the Eye Toy, a camera accessory that allowed people to play with motion. It was a very early Kinect. EyeToy spawned several games in the PS2 and PS3 era. London Studios even put out a smaller form for the PSP to go with the release of EyePets. Some of the MLB games utilized the Eye Toy as a way to put your own face into the game via create a player. I remember seeing demos for this device at a kiosk in Toys R Us back in the day.
In 2004, London Studios started the Singstar franchise. As one of the first music peripherals of the PS2 generation, it spawned several games over the course of a decade. It became a great party game franchise in the days before franchises like Just Dance. Guitar Hero and Rock Band took the world by storm in the late 2000's, but London Studio managed to keep the franchise relevant. There was a free to play PS4 game that stayed in service until 2020.
Late in the PS3 generation, London Studio debuted the Wonderbook. It was meant to be an interactive game using a combination of the eye toy, PS Move, and a Wonderbook accessory. While the final product didn't live up to expectations, check out the infamous E3 live demo, it was still nice to see Sony still thinking outside the box.
With accessory add on's starting to phase out, London Studio pivoted to the PSVR. In 2016, they came out with PlayStation VR World. In 2019, they launched Blood and Truth. It was a FPS VR game where a former special forces soldier needed to save his family from a successful
After toying around with more VR ideas, London Studio announced in 2022 that they were embarking on a brand new AAA game. It was meant to be a fantasy co-op combat game set in modern London. The studio was excited about this opportunity as they had not made a "traditional" console game since the PS2 generation. Unfortunately we will never see their new vision realized.
While London Studio may not have created a modern tentpole franchise like Uncharted or God of War, they were a huge part in shaping the identity of the PS2 era for fun and different ways to game. While London Studio isn't a household name in the AAA space, their innovation helped to make PlayStation what it was in the 2000's. A treasured part of Sony's history died today.
