Santa Monica Studio

## Sony Interactive Entertainment Santa Monica Studio

Studio logo since 2014, dubbed the SMS "Vanguard"; said logo replaced the studio's original logo design which was used since its inception until its 2014 relocation into Los Angeles

### Parent company

Sony Interactive Entertainment (1999 - 2005)
SIE Worldwide Studios (since 2005)

### Foundation

1999
Santa Monica, California, United States

### Key people

Yumi Yang (studio head)
Cory Barlog (studio creative director)

### Notable products

Kinetica engine
*God of War* series

**Incubated titles**:
*Flower*
*Journey*
*The Unfinished Swan*
*PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale*
*The Order: 1886*

### Number of employees

200 (2018)
~250 (2021)
400 (2022)
~450 (2023)

**SIE Santa Monica Studio** (formerly known as **SCE Santa Monica Studio** from prior to 2016) is an American game development studio located in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1999 as a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment and since 2005 it is part of PlayStation Studios.

Santa Monica Studio was founded by long-time Sony employee Allan Becker and originated in its namesake of Santa Monica, California; the company moved to Los Angeles in 2014. Over the years, Santa Monica Studio included several high-profile game developers among its ranks, including directors David Jaffe, Cory Barlog and Eric Williams, artist Stig Asmussen, writer Marianne Krawczyk, and producer Shannon Studstill.

In its early years, Santa Monica Studio was responsible for the creation of the Kinetica game engine, which was used saw additional use by other studios throughout the PlayStation 2 lifespan, and whose name was derived from the studio's 2001 debut title. The studio gained worldwide recognition for the creation and development of the *God of War* franchise, which saw multiple critically and commercially successful installments released for Sony's line of PlayStation consoles. Until 2016, the studio also acted as an incubator for external partners and co-developed several titles including *Flower*, *Journey*, *The Unfinished Swan* and *The Order: 1886*.

Santa Monica Studio garnered acclaim for its work on the *God of War* series, with multiple individual titles receiving strong reviews and sales, and total series sales reaching over 50 million copies by 2020. Publications have praised the studio for its action sequences, production values, performance capture and scope present within their games. Their work on 2018's *God of War* and 2022's *God of War Ragnarök* attracted significant praise their drastic design changes and strong emphasis on narrative and characterization.

## History

### 1999 - 2001: Formation and debut

"*For me, [the memory of* Kinetica*] was shipping it on time and on schedule, just really that kind of production machine part, proving to Sony that we could ship something on time and stay within budget, and in this case we stayed under budget, which I'm surprisingly still proud of.*"
―Shannon Studstill, 2012.
Santa Monica Studio was founded by long-time Sony employee Allan Becker in 1998. Becker founded the studio to "break out" from Sony Computer Entertainment's business-centric hub in Foster City. In its early days, the studio was established in an office next to fellow developer and future SIE subsidiary Naughty Dog, but was eventually relocated to the suburbs of Santa Monica, California to move away from the company's executives. Among the studio's earliest employees were Shannon Studstill and David Jaffe, both with history at Sony and PlayStation.

Santa Monica Studio's first project was *Kinetica*, a futuristic racing game for the then-new PlayStation 2. According to Studstill, *Kinetica* was used to prove Sony that the studio was capable of releasing a title under budget and on schedule. During its development, Santa Monica Studio also developed the game engine of the same name, which would go on to be used for both its next title and by other game developers such as Insomniac Games and Zipper Interactive.

### 2014 - 2022: Reinventing *God of War*

During Sony's PlayStation Showcase of September 2020, SIE president Jim Ryan revealed that Santa Monica Studio was working on a sequel to 2018's *God of War* for the PlayStation 5; a PlayStation 4 version was confirmed in June 2021. The game was properly announced in September 2021 as *God of War Ragnarök*. Originally slated for a 2021 release, it was delayed until November 2022. Like its predecessor, *Ragnarök* received critical acclaim. It became both Santa Monica Studio and Sony Interactive Entertainment's fastest-selling title, with over 5.1 million copies in its first week.

### 2022 - current: Current projects

In May 2023, studio art director Rafael Grassetti announced his departure from the studio and Sony.

## Design Philosophy

In regards to their *God of War* games, Santa Monica Studio prefers to rotate individual games through new directors, with *God of War: Ragnarök* Eric Williams describing it as a studio tradition; one exception to this tradition is Cory Barlog, co-director of 2007's *God of War II* and director of 2018's *God of War*, who was also slated to return for 2010's *God of War III* before leaving the project and handing the director position to Stig Asmussen. Barlog has described the approach as to give each new title a fresh perspective with a new director, while the existing director will not burn out on the series after lengthy development times.

Between 2001 and 2016, Santa Monica Studio hosted an external development team called Santa Monica Studio External, whose main job was to incubate and support game projects from both internal and external game developers working with Sony, ranging from indie teams such as Thatgamecompany and Giant Sparrow to upcoming AAA developers such as Ready at Dawn and Eat Sleep Play. Titles ranged from original one-off IPs, to dormant or semi-dormant PlayStation IPs, to Santa Monica Studio's own *God of War* games.

## Relationship with other studios

### First-party

#### Bluepoint Games

Prior to Bluepoint's acquisition by Sony in 2021, the Austin-based studio was a long-time collaborator of Santa Monica Studio. It remastered the first two *God of War* titles for the PlayStation 3 under the package *God of War Collection*, released in 2009. Bluepoint also provided ports for the Santa Monica Studio-supported titles *PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale* and *Flower*. In 2022, Bluepoint Games was listed as one of the studio that lent development support for Santa Monica's *God of War Ragnarök*.

#### Guerrilla Games

During the development of the Guerrilla Games title *Horizon Zero Dawn*, a combat design specialist from Santa Monica Studio suggested the addition of a spear as a melee weapon for the player; after presenting the design to the game directors, it was subsequently approved. According to Guerrilla's then-studio head Hermen Hulst, Santa Monica Studio and Guerrilla exchange several developers twice a year to gain experience.

#### Naughty Dog

Santa Monica Studio's game engine Kinetica was lent to Naughty Dog, which used it for 2001's *Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy*, 2003's *Jak II*, 2004's *Jak 3* and 2005's *Jak X: Combat Racing*.

During the development on 2018's *God of War*, Santa Monica Studio developers visited Naughty Dog's offices to discuss artificial intelligence in video game companions with the sister studio's programmers, for the design of Atreus. Prior to the launch of 2022's *God of War Ragnarök*, game director Eric Williams stated that the game's accessibility features were influenced by Naughty Dog's work on *The Last of Us Part II*.

## Games developed

### Collaborations

Co-development
* *Journey* (2012) - PlayStation 3 (co-developed with Thatgamecompany)
* *The Unfinished Swan* (2012) - PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 (co-developed with Giant Sparrow)
* *The Order: 1886* (2015) - PlayStation 4 (co-developed with Ready at Dawn)

Overseer
* *God of War: Betrayal* (2007) - Mobile (developed by Javaground and Sony Online Entertainment)
* *God of War: Chains of Olympus* (2008) - PlayStation Portable (developed by Ready at Dawn)
* *God of War: Ghost of Sparta* (2010) - PlayStation Portable (developed by Ready at Dawn)

## References

1. ↑ https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/god-of-war-ragnarok-cory-barlog-eric-williams
2. ↑ https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/21/the-house-that-god-of-war-built-sony-santa-monica
3. ↑ https://blog.playstation.com/2021/06/02/hermen-hulst-qa-whats-next-for-playstation-studios/#sf246401757
4. ↑ https://www.gamedeveloper.com/art/-i-god-of-war-ragnarok-i-art-director-raf-grassetti-exits-sony-santa-monica
5. ↑ *God of War: Ragnarok* - Developer Interview | PlayStation Showcase 2021, IGN.
6. ↑ https://www.vg247.com/horizon-zero-dawn-god-of-war-collaboration
7. ↑ https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/-boy-was-atreus-tricky-to-implement-says-i-god-of-war-i-director
8. ↑ https://www.gamesradar.com/god-of-war-ragnarok-accessibility-features-last-of-us/

***God of War***
*God of War* - *God of War II* - *God of War III* - *God of War: Ascension* - *God of War* (2018) - *God of War Ragnarök*

**Other Titles**
*Kinetica*

**Cancelled**
*Internal-7*

**Technology**Kinetica