Sony San Diego Studio Working on “Existing Franchises”

The rumored Sony San Diego Studio is reportedly working on “existing franchises” utilizing proprietary engine technology.

The information is revealed by Michael Mumbauer’s LinkedIn profile, where the former studio head and senior director of visual art of Sony San Diego says that he helped create a “brand new, all-star” team working on an AAA action-adventure titles.

“His latest achievement is having built a brand new, all-star, AAA Action/Adventure development team for Playstation”, Mumbauer’s profile reads. “Based in San Diego and utilizing proprietary engine technology, this team was assembled to expand upon existing franchises and craft all-new stories for the next generation of gamers.”

Interestingly, in the featured section on Mumbauer’s profile, he links back to several videos including RobinGaming’s video titled “Sony Is Secretly Building A New PlayStation Studio… To Make Uncharted 5?!”.

PlayStation Studios has not officially mentioned the existence of the rumored studio, or the development of a new Uncharted game, the information has not been verified and it’s debated the possibility of Mumbaer’s just teasing fans with his new project.

Sony hasn’t officially mentioned the existence of the studio as a first-party developer and its work on the company’s existing IPs, but back in 2018, Sony’s former Talent Acquisition Lead, Fiona Cherbak, confirmed that Visual Arts was looking for a gameplay animator.

It’s important to mention that Sony San Diego was the team behind the sports game MLB: The Show, Mumbauer’s information is following GameRant’s Nicholas Wilder who affirmed back in 2020 that Sony San Diego is working on a new Uncharted game.

Naughty Dog is moving onto something new. Bend Studio, Santa Monica, and Insomniac Games are all likely working on sequels to Days Gone (it sold very well), God of War, and Marvel’s Spider-Man respectively. Polyphony Digital would be in development on the next Gran Turismo game for PS5. Sucker Punch and Media Molecule are both releasing games this year with Dreams and Ghosts of Tsushima.

The initial reason that speculation about San Diego Studio developing a new Uncharted game began in the first place came down to the fact that the rumored action-adventure game was being developed in conjunction with another major Sony studio. It makes sense that Sony would want to tread carefully with such a high-profile IP and have San Diego Studio working alongside Naughty Dog before taking complete control of the franchise moving forward.

Mumbauer took the leadership of Sony San Diego between 2007 and 2020, he is one of the top developers at PlayStation taking the job of being the senior director for visual arts at PlayStation Worldwide Studios.

Source: Michael Mumbauer via wccftech

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