Summary
Within the last few months, Sony’ssemi-recently acquired Firesprite studios, creators of games likeHorizon Call of the Mountainand The Persistence, suffered layoffs as part ofPlayStation Studio’s mass redundancies. Over the last 24 hours, however, the studio has posted six new job listings for an unannounced title.
These job listings give a brief indication of what the new title may involve, describing it as a “dark, story-driven ‘Narrative Adventure’”.
Firesprite Studios' “Dark, Story-Driven ‘Narrative Adventure’”
Six new job listings appeared on Firesprite’scorporate siteandLinkedInover the last 24 hours, looking for key development roles. These includea senior cinematic designer,a principal level designer,a principal graphics programmer, anda head of audio.
The new game, also described as an “exciting AAA project,” will have a “heavy focus on art, animation and delivering unique character performances to heighten player presence and immersion to new levels” and will contain “photorealistic, AAA quality characters and creatures.”
Firesprite continues by calling the game a “huge, highly ambitious project,” with plans to take “atmosphere, storytelling, player agency, and narrative firmly into ground-breaking territory on next-generation hardware technologies,” with “a compelling cinematic experience”.
With details spread across all six adverts, Firesprite plans to “develop an unforgettable audio experience… whilst finding ways to continue pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the world of audio.”
With the limited information on offer, it seems like the game is going to be more of The Persistence and less Run Sackboy! Run. It was reported in 2022 that the studio wasworking on a narrative-driven horror-adventure game, so these job listings could conceivably be related to that.
A Troubled Recent History
Back in May, it was confirmed that Horizon Call of the Mountain’s game director, Alex Barnes,had been laid off from Firespritefollowing seven years withPlayStation. It came a little over a year after Horizon’s first VR title launched, and was part of a significant cost-cutting exercise by SIE, which cut around 900 jobs.
Alongside the cuts,Eurogamer also reportedthat the studio had been “shedding talent” due to a toxic work culture that included heavy crunch, and accusations of sexual discrimination and ageism.
Horizon Call of the Mountain
WHERE TO PLAY
Horizon: Call of the Mountain is a VR-specific spin-off from Guerilla Games' Horizon series, developed in cooperation with Firesprite. Using the PlayStation VR2 headset, you must guide protagonist Ryas through a story of atonement.
