AAA narrative-driven game studio building PlayStation exclusives
Santa Monica Studio is a mid-scale PlayStation game developer operating across art, engineering, and production disciplines. The stack reflects a mature AAA pipeline: Maya, Houdini, Unreal Engine, C++, and PlayStation hardware alongside DevOps infrastructure (Docker, Jenkins, Perforce, AWS). Active adoption of Perforce and Ceph signals investment in version control and asset storage at scale—critical pain points for large collaborative teams. Hiring has slowed (1 role in 30 days, primarily senior engineers and leads), suggesting a focus on project execution over rapid scaling.
Santa Monica Studio develops narrative-driven games exclusively for PlayStation platforms (PS4, PS5, VR). The team comprises over 250 developers across QA, Art, Design, Programming, Production, and Sound disciplines, headquartered in Los Angeles with hiring presence in Peru. Current work centers on large-scale AAA projects and an unannounced title, alongside parallel efforts in player engagement, community moderation, and internal tooling for animation and rigging. The studio prioritizes production efficiency and artist pipeline stability—recurring challenges in their operational focus.
Unreal Engine, combined with proprietary tools built in C++, Python, and PyQt. Maya and Houdini handle 3D asset creation; Perforce manages version control across large teams.
PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation VR. The studio is owned by Sony and produces exclusive narrative-driven titles for PlayStation ecosystems.
Other companies in the same industry, closest in size