Bluepoint Games, renowned for sterling remakes of classic PlayStation titles, is now an official first-party studio for Sony Interactive Entertainment. The studio will finally have the freedom and funding to work on original games, said Bluepoint President Marco Thrush.

“It finally gives us the ability to work on original content, which is what we’re actually currently doing,” Thrush said. “There’s no other party we would want to partner with. It’s kind of like Sony is, has and always will be the perfect partner.”

Acquired for an undisclosed amount, Texas-based Bluepoint Games, with about 70 employees, has been creating games for the PlayStation platform for 15 years. Sony’s latest acquisition follows the company’s recent trend of acquiring studios that have worked almost exclusively with PlayStation already.

Bluepoint Games is most recently known for its remake of “Demon’s Souls,” a launch game for the PlayStation 5, which Sony says has sold 1.4 million copies since its November release. The studio’s most notable prior project was its critically acclaimed remake of the PlayStation 2 classic “Shadow of the Colossus." Other remakes include “Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection," “Gravity Rush Remastered,” “Metal Gear Solid HD Collection” and “God of War Collection," all of which are remakes of classics originally released on PlayStation consoles.

“Demon’s Souls” was its most ambitious project to date, taking up to three years to complete. Remakes of video games don’t usually take that long, but most remakes aren’t made by Bluepoint, who will often update a classic game’s visuals to modern fidelity while balancing the nostalgia as returning players revisit these classics.

Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, said Sony is impressed with the studio’s ability to remake so many different genres from a variety of studios.

“We deeply understand what motivates the team, their capabilities and the cultural fit between the teams,” Hulst said. “There’s no risk that we’re not going to be aligned on what the team is good at, what the team wants to make and what we expect from the team.”

Thrush said through the company’s years remaking of older games, Bluepoint has grappled with a variety of technological pain points, numerous game engines and design philosophies spanning a diverse group of top-class studios in both eastern and western hemispheres.

“We kind of got to learn from the best studios,” Thrush said. “We just look at what the original creators intended and ask ourselves, ‘How do we maintain that?’ … We’re also really lucky because we get to polish the game for another few years after the original team was done making it.”

“Technology is pretty close to Bluepoint’s heart, it really defines how they operate in the game development world," Hulst added.

Thrush said he’s sometimes encouraged by “criticism” that says his studio’s remakes don’t look much different from the original games. That means Bluepoint’s developers did their job in preserving the original experience.

“Every single one of the titles that we have released over the last 15 years have been games that we have been die-hard fans of,” Thrush said. “Our fundamental philosophy is we all enjoy gaming and we choose to work on projects we enjoy ourselves. … And PlayStation is a great platform to work on because they’ve had so much original, great content.”

When asked if Thrush could describe anything about the original titles Bluepoint is now working on as a result of this partnership, Thrush simply gestured to seal his lips.

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