Sony may license old PlayStation games to external devs as it sells VR patents to Meta

Sony seems to be reshuffling its priorities with a transfer of its extended reality patents to Meta with a potential impact on its PlayStation VR hardware business. Moreover, it may be considering handing out dormant PlayStation franchises to outside studios to resurrect popular titles of yesteryear without setting resources aside for the task that's been on fans' wishlist for a long time.

PlayStation comeback: Ace Escape, Killzone, Sly Cooper

According to the PlayStation tipster who previously leaked the 2D God of War game that turned out to be Sons of Sparta, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has started accepting multiple pitches for its original game IP. The franchises the leaker knows of are Sly Cooper, Ape Escape, and Killzone, but others may be lined up, too.

PlayStation Studios would reportedly fund and publish the games, while external studios handle development. The leaker also stressed that this is different from Sony's earlier licensing deals with companies like Bandai Namco, which mostly involved porting older games.

Some supporting chatter from SIE insiders confirms that Sony is looking to bring back some dormant franchises, and he indicated that Team Asobi is not behind the rumored Ape Escape project. An earlier Killzone rumor also pointed to an external development partner.

Still, naming three franchises does not mean three projects are in production, and Sony has not confirmed a formal program inviting development pitches. The wait has been long for fans, with Sly Cooper's last title, Thieves in Time, arriving in 2013, while the last mainline Ape Escape game dates way back to 2005, though the game is present in the PlayStation 5 catalog for $9.99. With Sony's own studios reportedly having their hands occupied for the next two or three years, licensing would be a practical way to revive these famed PlayStation games, though any resulting game is probably a long way off.

VR patent sale

According to the US Patent and Trademark Office records, Sony has already transferred 43 US extended reality (XR) patents to Meta between June and September, split into 2 in June, 20 in July, and 21 in September. They cover VR, AR, and MR, as well as head-mounted display systems such as PlayStation VR and Meta's own Quest series that goes for under $350 on Amazon. 

Those 43 are only the beginning, though. Under a Confirmatory Assignment agreement the two companies signed in December, the deal covers 419 patents worldwide. 119 of them are reportedly US patents, and the remaining 300 are family patents filed in Japan, China, South Korea, Europe, and other regions. The USPTO has only recorded the transfer of an initial batch of 43 patents so far, so that number should keep climbing.

This could mean that Sony intends to scale back its XR hardware business, with Apple cited as a precedent. Sony was the sole supplier of the OLEDoS microdisplays in the Vision Pro, but it turned down Apple's request to expand production capacity. At the time, the industry took that as a sign Sony was not keen on growing this side of its business. Sony competes with Apple in entertainment, so it had little reason to help, as it also supplied the displays for Samsung's Galaxy XR headset, too.

Meta, on the other hand, is happy to stock up, as global smart glasses shipments in the first half of the year have more than doubled to 4.2 million, with Meta holding the lion's share at 81%. Sony has not clarified what these XR patent transfers mean besides earning extra revenue, or whether they would affect the focus on its own PSVR business.