# Santa Monica Studio

Santa Monica Studio is an American video game developer of Sony Interactive Entertainment based in Los Angeles. It is best known for developing the God of War series. The studio was founded in 1999 by Allan Becker and was located in Santa Monica, California, until relocating to Playa Vista in 2014.

## History

Santa Monica Studio was founded in 1999 by Allan Becker, a long-time Sony employee who wanted "to break out of the corporate Foster City group" of Sony Computer Entertainment. The studio was established in an office next to the developer Naughty Dog before moving into a brick building in the suburbs of Santa Monica, California. The building at Penn Station would be occupied for fifteen years. For its first game, the racing title Kinetica, Santa Monica Studio decided to skip the PlayStation console and built the game for the console's then-upcoming successor, the PlayStation 2, instead. A game engine was developed "to give the [PlayStation 2] some legs" for Kinetica and future releases. While the game was developed during the studio's team building phase, producer Shannon Studstill focused on the game's release to prove to Sony that Santa Monica Studio was capable of delivering a product on schedule and within budget. Kinetica was released on time in 2001, with the studio staying under the allocated budget. After publication, Santa Monica Studio shifted to its next project, God of War, while re-using the engine from Kinetica.
The External Development group, a department within Santa Monica Studio separate from internal development teams, acts as both a video game publisher and business incubator for indie game studios, notably Thatgamecompany and its game Journey. Other incubated teams include Broodworks, Eat Sleep Play, Fun Bits, Giant Sparrow, Incognito Entertainment, Q-Games, and Ready at Dawn. Becker left Santa Monica Studio in 2011. By March 2012, Becker had joined Sony's Japan Studio, while Shannon became Santa Monica Studio's "Senior Director of Product Development". In January 2014, Santa Monica Studio announced that it would move from their Penn Station offices to The Reserve, a 20-acre facility on Jefferson Boulevard in Playa Vista, Los Angeles. The 30,000 square feet (2,800 m$^2$) of office space were "four or five times the size" of their previous Santa Monica office, according to Studstill. At the time, the studio employed roughly 240 people. An undisclosed numbers of staffers were laid off in February that year due to the cancelation of a new intellectual property, including Stig Asmussen, who headed the canceled project. The studio relocation was completed on July 22, 2014, coupled with a new logo, dubbed SMS "Vanguard". Santa Monica Studio would also close down this group in 2016 and sold the rights to What Remains of Edith Finch and Wattam back to their developers, as well as publishing rights to Annapurna Interactive where the group's employees had relocated.
In March 2020, Studstill left Santa Monica Studio to lead a new development studio under Stadia. Subsequently, a long-time employee and previous director of product development for Santa Monica Studio, Yumi Yang, was installed as the developer's studio head.

## Games developed

| Year | Title | Platform(s) |
| 2001 | Kinetica | PlayStation 2 |
| 2005 | God of War | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita |
| 2007 | God of War II | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita |
| 2010 | God of War III | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 |
| 2013 | God of War: Ascension | PlayStation 3 |
| 2018 | God of War | PlayStation 4, Windows |
| 2022 | God of War Ragnarök | PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows |

## External Development games

| Year | Title | Developer |
| 2001 | Twisted Metal: Black | Incog Inc. Entertainment |
| 2001 | Twisted Metal: Small Brawl | Incog Inc. Entertainment |
| 2002 | Twisted Metal Black: Online | Incog Inc. Entertainment |
| 2003 | War of the Monsters | Incog Inc. Entertainment |
| 2003 | Downhill Domination | Incog Inc. Entertainment |
| 2005 | The Con | Think & Feel |
| 2005 | Twisted Metal: Head-On | Incognito Entertainment |
| 2005 | Neopets: The Darkest Faerie | Idol Minds |
| 2006 | Blast Factor | Bluepoint Games |
| 2007 | Flow | Thatgamecompany |
| 2007 | Calling All Cars! | Incognito Entertainment |
| 2007 | Warhawk | Incognito Entertainment |
| 2007 | PixelJunk Racers | Q-Games |
| 2007 | Everyday Shooter | Queasy Games |
| 2008 | PixelJunk Monsters | Q-Games |
| 2008 | Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition | Eat Sleep Play |
| 2008 | God of War: Chains of Olympus | Ready at Dawn |
| 2008 | PixelJunk Monsters Encore | Q-Games |
| 2008 | PixelJunk Eden | Q-Games |
| 2008 | Linger in Shadows | Plastic |
| 2009 | Flower | Thatgamecompany |
| 2009 | PixelJunk Eden Encore | Q-Games |
| 2009 | Fat Princess | Titan Studios |
| 2009 | PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe | Q-Games |
| 2009 | .detuned | Farbrausch |
| 2009 | God of War Collection | Bluepoint Games |
| 2009 | PixelJunk Shooter | Q-Games |
| 2010 | Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake | Super Villain Studios |
| 2010 | PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap | Q-Games |
| 2010 | God of War: Ghost of Sparta | Ready at Dawn |
| 2011 | PixelJunk Shooter 2 | Q-Games |
| 2011 | PixelJunk SideScroller | Q-Games |
| 2011 | God of War: Origins Collection | Ready at Dawn |
| 2011 | Carnival Island | Magic Pixel Games |
| 2012 | Twisted Metal | Eat Sleep Play |
| 2012 | Escape Plan | Fun Bits |
| 2012 | Journey | Thatgamecompany |
| 2012 | Starhawk | LightBox Interactive |
| 2012 | Datura | Plastic |
| 2012 | PixelJunk 4am | Q-Games |
| 2012 | Sorcery | The Workshop |
| 2012 | Sound Shapes | Queasy Games |
| 2012 | The Unfinished Swan | Giant Sparrow |
| 2012 | PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale | SuperBot Entertainment |
| 2014 | Hohokum | Honeyslug |
| 2015 | Fat Princess: Piece of Cake | One Loop Games |
| 2015 | God of War III Remastered | Wholesale Algorithms |
| 2015 | The Order: 1886 | Ready at Dawn |
| 2015 | Everybody's Gone to the Rapture | The Chinese Room |
| 2015 | Fat Princess Adventures | Fun Bits |
| 2016 | Bound | Plastic |
| 2016 | Here They Lie | Tangentlemen |