Santa Monica Studio (formerly known as SCEA SM 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.
A separate External Development group acted as both a video game publisher and business incubator for indie game studios, including 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.
History Santa Monica Studio was established 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 initially an office of 989 Studios for the developers of the Twisted Metal and Jet Moto series, referred to as "the Santa Monica studio". This office was 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.
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 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 its External Development 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 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 2026 God of War Sons of Sparta PlayStation 5 2027 God of War Laufey TBA God of War Trilogy Remake
Development support Year Title Developer 2001 Twisted Metal: Black Incog Inc. Entertainment Twisted Metal: Small Brawl 2002 Twisted Metal Black: Online 2003 War of the Monsters Downhill Domination 2005 The Con Think & Feel Twisted Metal: Head-On Incognito Entertainment 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 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 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 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
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