Sucker Punch Productions

**Sucker Punch Productions** is an American game developer located in Bellevue, Washington. The company was founded in 1997 and acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2011, becoming part of SIE Worldwide Studios. The studio is best known for its critically acclaimed stealth franchise *Sly Cooper*, superhero-themed *Infamous* and 2020's *Ghost of Tsushima*. As of 2020, the studio employs over 160 employees.

Sucker Punch was founded in 1997 by a group of former Microsoft employees. After publishing their first game for the competing Nintendo 64 in 1999, Sucker Punch approached Sony with a pitch for a platformer game, *Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus*. The game was critically and commercially successful enough to spawn two more sequels by Sucker Punch and maintain a working relationship with Sony, which also led to the team's second franchise, *Infamous*.

In 2011, Sucker Punch was acquired by Sony following the launch of *Infamous 2*. Since then, the studio saw the release of 2014's *Infamous Second Son*, while *Sly Cooper* was temporarily given to Sanzaru Games until 2013. In 2017 the studio unveiled a new intellectual property, *Ghost of Tsushima*, which was released in 2020 to critical acclaim and strong sales.

Sucker Punch's video games received positive reviews and strong sales over the years, with critics also noting the studio's gradual transition from cartoonish works to more realistic aesthetics. Their games have been praised for their visual style, controls, music and entertainment value, though the studio's reliance on the open world formula attracted some criticism for their later works. Sucker Punch achieved particular acclaim for *Ghost of Tsushima*, which enjoyed a strong commercial performance and multiple end-year accolades.

## History

### 2013-2020: PlayStation 4 era, *Ghost of Tsushima*

In February 2013, Sucker Punch announced its next title, the third entry in the *Infamous* series called *Infamous Second Son* exclusively on the PlayStation 4. In March 2014, Sucker Punch released *Infamous Second Son* after the game was delayed from being a launch title for the then-newly released console. On August 20th, 2014, Sony confirmed that several employees were laid-off from Sucker Punch.

At Sony's Paris Games Week press conference in October 2017, Sucker Punch announced its next title and first new intellectual property since *Infamous* and the studio's subsequent acquisition, *Ghost of Tsushima*. *Ghost of Tsushima* was released in July 2020 to positive critical responses and strong sales, becoming one of the fastest-selling new original properties Sony ever released and selling over 9.73 million copies by July 2022.

## Game developed

### Other projects

 *Prophecy* | Cancelled | PlayStation 4 | Cancelled pitch

## References

1. ↑ https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/08/20/infamous-dev-sucker-punch-suffers-layoffs

***Sly Cooper***
*Sly Cooper and the Thievius Reccoonus* - *Sly 2: Band of Thieves* - *Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves*

***Infamous***
*Infamous* - *Infamous 2* (*Festival of Blood*) - *Infamous Second Son* (*First Light*)

***Ghost***
*Ghost of Tsushima* (*Legends* - *Iki Island*)