Santa Monica Studio

Logo used since 2014

Type| Subsidiary
Industry| Video games
Founded| 1999; 27 years ago (1999) in Santa Monica, California, US
Founder| Allan Becker
Headquarters|

Los Angeles

Key people

| Yumi Yang (studio head)
Products| God of War series

Number of employees

| 250+[1] (2024)
Parent| Sony Computer Entertainment (1999–2005)
PlayStation Studios (2005–present)
Website| sms.playstation.com
The Santa Monica Studio at the 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards

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.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Games developed
* 3 External Development games
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## 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.[2] The building at Penn Station would be occupied for fifteen years.[3] 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.[2]

The External Development group, a department within Santa Monica Studio separate from internal development teams,[4] acts as both a video game publisher and business incubator for indie game studios, notably Thatgamecompany and its game Journey.[2][5] Other incubated teams include Broodworks, Eat Sleep Play, Fun Bits, Giant Sparrow, Incognito Entertainment, Q-Games, and Ready at Dawn.[2][6][7] Becker left Santa Monica Studio in 2011.[5] By March 2012, Becker had joined Sony's Japan Studio, while Shannon became Santa Monica Studio's "Senior Director of Product Development".[2] 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 m2) 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.[6] 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.[7][8] The studio relocation was completed on July 22, 2014, coupled with a new logo, dubbed SMS "Vanguard".[3] 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.[9]

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.[10]

## 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
2010  | God of War III | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
2013  | Software:God of War: Ascension | PlayStation 3
2018  | God of War | PlayStation 4, Windows
2022  | God of War Ragnarök | PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows
2026  | God of War Sons of Sparta | PlayStation 5
TBA  | God of War Trilogy Remake

## External Development games

Year  | Title  | Developer

|
|

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

## References

1. ↑ "Santa Monica Studio - Who We Are". https://sms.playstation.com/who-we-are.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Nix, Marc (March 21, 2012). "The House That God of War Built: Sony Santa Monica". https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/21/the-house-that-god-of-war-built-sony-santa-monica.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Studstill, Shannon (July 22, 2014). "Sony Santa Monica unveils its new logo". https://blog.playstation.com/archive/2014/07/22/sony-santa-monica-unveils-new-logo/.
4. ↑ "15 Years of Creative Partnerships". Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. https://sms.playstation.com/news/the-year-of-external-development/.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Robinson, Martin (March 15, 2013). "Inside Santa Monica Studios, Sony's development commune". https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-15-inside-sonys-commune.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Graser, Marc (January 28, 2014). "Sony Game Division Finds New Westside Home for Santa Monica Studio". https://variety.com/2014/biz/news/sony-game-division-finds-new-westside-home-for-santa-monica-studio-1201074462/.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Moriarty, Colin (February 24, 2014). "Layoffs Hit God of War Studio Sony Santa Monica". https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/25/layoffs-hit-god-of-war-studio-sony-santa-monica.
8. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (February 26, 2014). "God of War developer Sony Santa Monica suffers layoffs". https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-26-god-of-war-developer-sony-santa-monica-suffers-layoffs.
9. ↑ Sinclair, Brandon (December 1, 2016). "Annapurna Pictures gets into game publishing". Gameindustry.biz. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/annapurna-pictures-gets-into-game-publishing.
10. ↑ Valentine, Rebekah (March 4, 2020). "Yumi Yang named new head of Sony Santa Monica Studio". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-03-04-yumi-yang-named-new-head-of-sony-santa-monica-studio.

## External links

* Official website

Template:Santa Monica Studio Template:PlayStation Studios

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