Ranking PlayStation Studios 2024
Ranking PlayStation Studios 2024
A few years back, we ranked PlayStation Studios to find out the Top 5. We devised a formula, that would help objectively rank the list instead of just giving our opinion.
How it works!
The first thing to figure out before trying to give these studios a rating is to set out some rules.
Rule 1: No one hit wonders! We are only going to be including studios with at least two games on their resume.
Rule 2: The studio needs to be fairly active, which means that only studios with at least two games over the past decade would be included.
Rule 3: There will be a recency bias. This means that the last effort means the most and carries more weight towards the studios final score. This will be achieved by multiplying the most recent release score by 1.1.
Rule 4: No mobile focused studios.
Rule 5: Only games that were developed solely by the studio.
The REst
Before we start talking about the Top 5 PlayStation Studios, we should give a shout out to the ones that weren’t included, just missed the cut, and the ones that are currently ascending.
Media Molecule and Bend have only developed and released one game in the last 10 calendar years, which means that they weren’t included due to the rules laid out before creating the list. Sony San Diego is also not going to be included since they are just making MLB: The Show, which is always great but is also now on other platforms.
Bluepoint, however amazing their remakes are, they cant be judged on those titles since they are not the original creators of the material.
Bungie, although owned by Sony is not technically considered part of PlayStation Studios. We have also yet to see what studios like Firewalk and Haven can do.
Housemarque placed 8th with 83.25 and is PlayStation’s biggest up and coming studio after their transition from arcade indie style titles to the premium AAA release of Returnal and I cant wait to see how they follow it up.
Polyphony placed 7th with 85.35 on the strength of Gran Turismo 7 that seemed to sell well, but also seemingly came and went.
Finally, to speak of the quality of PlayStation Studios, there is no better way than to mention that SuckerPunch Productions isn’t considered in the Top 5, as they just missed by a little over one point placing 6th with 89.35. As much as we would love to see Sly Cooper make a full fledged return, seeing the studio evolve from Sly Cooper to Infamous to Ghost of Tsushima has been a journey to watch and their trajectory looks to be constantly heading upwards. On a quick side note, Sly Cooper is playable on PS5 with a PlayStation Plus Premium Membership.
TOP 5 PlaYstation Studios
Team Asobi
If there is one studio in the top 5 that some people might disagree with their placement, it would be Team Asobi. However, this team have proven themselves to be more than capable and extremely agile from Astro Bot Rescue Mission on PSVR and the fantastically fun Astro’s Playroom that was packed in the with the PS5.
Not only was it great to harken back to the early days of gaming when systems came with a game, but Astro’s Playroom was much more than just a technical showpiece for the PS5, it was also full of passion from people that clearly have a deep love for all things PlayStation. Sony clearly have a lot of faith in Astro Bot as a mascot and Team Asobi as the impending release of Astro Bot looks to take the little robot to the mainstream like never before with its first premium release.
Astro’s Playroom (83x1.1) + Astro Bot Rescue Mission (90) = Team Asobi Rating 90.65 (5th)
Guerilla Games
The biggest shakeup from our original rankings was Guerrilla Games moving from 5th to 3rd and just missing second by a fraction behind Sony Santa Monica and then dropping back to 4th. With their 2022 release, Horizon: Forbidden West performing better than Killzone Shadow Fall, Guerrilla were able to solidify their place in the top 5
Forbidden West feels about as safe as you can make a sequel. With a blueprint as good as Horizon Zero Dawn, Guerilla refined what made the original such a great time. A bigger and more expanse world to explore plus more robot dinosaurs.
Guerrilla would also be one of the fews studios on the shortlist to fill the Call of Duty void if needed. Back in 2004, the studio was given the monumental task to create a Halo killer with Killzone on the PlayStation 2. Although Killzone, never quite became the Halo killer that Sony would have liked, Guerrilla was still able to make some excellent games along the way. Here we are again, almost two decades later with history repeating itself and Killzone being on the very short list of IP’s that make the most sense to become a prestige FPS for PlayStation.
Killzone would have a much greater chance of success this time around due to the pedigree that studio has shown after developing the Horizon series. It will be very interesting to see where Guerrilla Games goes from here.
Horizon Forbidden West (85.5x1.1) + Horizon Zero Dawn (89) = 91.53 (4th)
Insomniac Games
It’s hard to argue that any Sony first party development studio is on a hotter streak at the moment than Insomniac, who seem to be producing excellent games at an unbelievable rate. Insomniac also doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon Marvel’s Wolverine in development and likely landing in 2025
With a studio of over 400 people, Insomniac have the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously to keep their release cadence high and their quality even higher, which is why we have seen such a steady stream of excellent titles. This also begs that questions that if Wolverine is due out in 2025, what does Insomniac have planned for 2026? A new Ratchet title or another Marvel title or possibly a revisit of their older IP like Sunset Overdrive or Resistance.
Insomniac would also be on the shortlist of PlayStation Studios to develop a prestige First Person Shooter if Sony wants to plan for Call of Duty going exclusive eventually. They have shown their ability with the FPS genre with the Resistance series and could either do a revival of the IP or something completely new.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart (88) + Spider Man 2 (90x1.1) = Insomniac Rating 93.5 (3rd)
Naughty Dog
Naughty Dog and their fall from the Top spot is mostly about the studio not having released an original game since 2020 when The Last of Us: Part 2 came out. Since then, we have seen amazing entries from almost every other studio on this list. Horizon Forbidden West, God of War: Ragnarok, Spider Man 2 and Returnal are some of the excellent first party titles we have seen since summer 2020.
Naughty Dog did release The Last of Us: Part 1 in 2022, but when the competition is this fierce at the top of the list, games need to be nearly perfect. What we know from Naughty Dog is that the studio is somewhere between 500-600 people and their recent multiplayer, live service game in the Last of Us universe was cancelled. But the studio has to be up to something else with a large portion of their studio. One theory was that since Sony didn’t green light Bend developing the Uncharted Sully origin game, it must have been because Naughty Dog was already doing something similar.
The Last of Us: Part 2 (93) + The Last of Us Part 1 (89x1.1) = Naughty Dog Rating 95.45 (2nd)
Santa Monica Studios
After an unbelievable reception for God of War: Ragnarok, Sony Santa Monica was finally able to seize top spot on this list. The revolution of Kratos has not gone unnoticed commercially as God of War 2018 easily became the best selling game in the series over 10 million copies in its first year, which led to anticipation levels for the sequel to be though the roof. As a result, God of War: Ragnarok was somehow able to top those sales figures. As of November 2023, Sony announced that Ragnarok had sold over 15 million units.
It’s hard to believe that it has almost been two years since God of War: Ragnarok released and with the sequel taking about four years to develop, one could assume that they are halfway to their next release. For a studio known mostly for God of War, where do they possibly go from here?
Whatever the studio decides to do, that is another question for another day as for the foreseeable future, they will remain atop this list of best PlayStation Studios
God of War 2018 (94) + God of War: Ragnarok (94x1.1) = Santa Monica Studios Rating 98.7 (1st)
Ratings Outcome
The rankings have had quite the shakeup since the original list we compiled. Although the Top 5 still remain the same, which makes sense, the placement of the Top 5 has drastically been rearranged. While Team Asobi was 5th and remains 5th, everything else has changed.
Guerrilla Games have slipped from 3rd to 4th, which is a testament to the quality of the Top 5 PlayStation Studios. It’s less about what Guerrilla Games didnt do and more about what other PlayStation studios have done since then.
With the release of Spider Man 2, Insomniac have moved up the rankings to 3rd, and Naughty Dog no longer retain the top spot as God of War: Ragnarok supplanted Sony Santa Monica as the best PlayStation Studio. Sony Santa Monica also speaks to the formula that this list is based on, with the studio showing consistency with their last two releases being extremely high caliber with 94 review averages for both.