Sony has unveiled the official opening animation for its upcoming PlayStation Studios brand, which will go live alongside PS5 later this year, and will only be featured on exclusive first-party games developed and managed by Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios organization.

It’s worth pointing out that the PlayStation Brand opening animation features Nathan Drake from Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise, Aloy from Guerilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn, Ratchet & Clank from Insomniac Game’s franchise of the same name, Kratos from Sony Santa Monica’s God Of War, Ellie from Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us, and Sackboy from Media Molecule’s Little Big Planet.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvXVA_ZLAWo&w=560&h=315]

In a statement to GameIndustry.biz, Sony Interactive Entertainment senior vice president and head of global marketing Eric Lempel said:

“We are really excited about this.

Over the last few years — and even the last decade — the strength of the titles coming out from our studios has been stronger than ever.

We have been thinking about how we unite all of these great games under one brand, and really the purpose of that is to make the consumer understand that, when they see this brand, they’re getting ready for a robust, innovative, deep experience that they’ve come to expect from games coming from PlayStation.

So we came up with PlayStation Studios.

You’ve seen the animated asset that will exist primarily during the beginning of our titles, but the brand will exist in a lot of different places.

There are different, shorter animations that will exist in trailers… It will exist in advertising.

It will be in any other creative assets, such as the game packaging and the game discs themselves.

We think this is a good way to let consumers know that, if they see it, then the quality games they’ve come to expect from us are here.

And this brand will exist for well-known existing franchises, as well as brand new franchises that we have yet to explore.”

Future exclusive PS4 games will also carry the PlayStation Studios branding, with the exception of The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost Of Tsushima, which are both due to launch this summer. The PC version of Horizon Zero Dawn on PC will also not feature the PlayStation Studios logo, but Lempel has clarified that any future games from Sony Worldwide Studios on other platforms like PC will still carry the branding.

In addition, the PlayStation Studios logo will also appear on marketing, box art and physical discs. Lempel adds that there will be modified versions of the PlayStation Studios opening animation, like a Marvel Cinematic Universe from Marvel Studios would. He even admits that they were inspired by the folks at Marvel.

“What we really wanted to do was create a way to bring the consumer into the world.

When they play our games that’s the nice robust piece that happens, and then you’re transported into an adventure with rich worlds, old characters, and really captivating stories.

We’re all huge Marvel fans.

One of our biggest games of all time has a Marvel character in it with Spider-Man.

But this is really about doing something specific for our games and our industry.

The cinematic you’ve seen is the one that has multiple games in it.

But over time, as we introduce well established franchises, we can tailor that opening a bit to possibly show the franchise over the years, new characters that have come into play.

There’s a lot we can do that we’re really excited about.

For the average consumer, it’s not always clear what games come directly from our Worldwide Studios.”

The PlayStation Studios brand will also apply to exclusive first-party games made by work-for-hire developers not owned by Sony.

Lempel adds:

“If our studios are managing the production of these games and working with an external developer, it will still come out under the PlayStation Studios brand.

It doesn’t mean that we outright own the developer, but it just means we brought it up as a first-party. In a lot of cases we don’t own the developer.”

The reason why Sony has decided to add this new PlayStation Studios branding is to make more average and casual gamers aware that these are all games under the same brand, which (once again) is very similar to how Marvel Studios’ films are marketed and promoted.

Exclusives have been one of the biggest, or perhaps even the biggest, factor of how the PS4 has managed to conquer the current games generation, with single-player exclusives like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Marvel’s Spider-Man, God of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn winning awards and selling millions of units worldwide.

Lempel concluded:

“It’s something we’ve thought about for a while, and especially as we move towards the next-generation we really want to back our games in an even bigger way.

We’ve done everything in terms of massive robust marketing campaigns, and this is an even better way to bring together these games, united, in an easy way for fans to understand what they’re getting into.

We’ve never had any problem getting people to play these games.

They’re usually critically acclaimed, award-winning franchises that are games of the year, but for the average consumer it’s not always clear what games come directly from our Worldwide Studios.

And to your point, they’ve come to understand in many cases that these are really robust, innovative, single-player experiences.

Of course, there is a variety of other games that don’t fit into that mould, but nonetheless we wanted to make sure people know that these are the games coming from our Worldwide Studios.”

In the meantime, stay tuned on Kakuchopurei for all the latest news on the PS5, and check out all the latest updates and developments on all things PS5 to date here.