Today Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that it will acquire Montreal-based audio solutions provider Audiokinetic.
The agreement is definitive, and the deal will be closed by Jan. 31, 2019.
Audiokinetic is best known for its middleware Wwise, used in plenty of popular games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Hitman 2, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Detroit: Become Human, God of War, Monster Hunter: World, and many, many more.
While the acquisition is said to let Sony’s gaming arm “tap into Audiokinetic’s vast audio engineering expertise, adding significant value to the PlayStation ecosystem”, we also hear that “Audiokinetic will continue to operate independently, licensing its multi-platform audio tools and middleware to developers in established and growth markets.”
This means that the middleware will still be usable by developers on competing platforms including Xbox and Switch.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO John Kodera provided a statement commenting on the acquisition and further pledging platform neutrality for the tools.
“A rich and all-encompassing audio experience is increasingly critical to the overall gameplay experience, further enhancing immersion and emotion for the player. Audiokinetic is a preeminent provider of audio solutions for the gaming industry, and we are confident that this acquisition will allow us to further grow the PlayStation platform and contribute to the broader gaming industry.
It’s our goal to support Audiokinetic’s efforts to advance its audio technology while maintaining independence and platform neutrality.”
Audiokinetic Founder and CEO Martin H. Klein also commented.
“Joining the SIE family is a win for both Audiokinetic and our partners who use our audio tools and middleware.
We will remain independent and continue to deliver our suite of audio solutions to developers and platform holders, with even greater resources to continue innovating, expanding our market and enhancing our technology. We are also excited about the opportunity to contribute to SIE at a platform level.”
In other PlayStation news, just yesterday we learned that the PS4 has reached 91.6 million units sold to customers.
