• Posted February 28th, 2013 at 23:55 EDT by Kyle Prahl
• 12 Comments

Last week, in the aftermath of its PlayStation 4 reveal, Sony released a list of developers with PS4 projects currently in-the-works. The list is massive and amounts to over 100 studios across Asia, Japan, North America, and European territories. And it's no secret what some of these studios might be working on; high-profile names like Bethesda Softworks, ATLUS, and Gearbox Software are often associated with only one or two key brands. For some of these franchises, with regards to PS4's impending release, the timing couldn't be more perfect.

Take Bethesda Softworks, for example. Because Bethesda Softworks is marked by Sony as a PS4 developer, I'm inclined to see its spot on the list as synonymous with Bethesda Game Studios, the company's development branch and the house that Todd Howard built. So, what games has Bethesda Game Studios developed in the last decade? The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and its expansions. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and its expansions. Fallout 3 and four of its five expansions. Skyrim.

I'm ignoring IHRA Professional Drag Racing 2005 and its 2006 'Sportsman Edition' (surely, fine games in their own right), but you get the point. For the entirety of Bethesda Game Studios' existence, the developer has never worked on a triple-A franchise that isn't The Elder Scrolls or Fallout. Both franchises have received immense critical acclaim. The former put a game on store shelves in 2011. The other hasn't done so since 2008's Fallout 3 (or, if you like, 2010's Obsidian-developed Fallout: New Vegas). Guess which franchise is next in line?

With the same lens, we can see why ATLUS is poised to release Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5 on PS4. We know that Persona 5 is in development, and the last game ATLUS' "Persona Team" developed was 2011's Catherine. Furthermore, nearly every Persona game has been a PlayStation exclusive - only a 1999 Windows port of the 1996 original and an Xbox 360 port of last year's Persona 4 Arena buck the trend.

What about the main Shin Megami Tensei saga? Not likely - the fourth installment is coming to Nintendo 3DS later this year. But couldn't any number of Shin Megami Tensei spin-offs be targeted for PS4? Doubtful - these entries traditionally skew toward handheld Nintendo platforms.

Persona 5 is in development for PlayStation 4, and you should be very, very excited.

And the games just keep coming. With Aliens: Colonial Marines out of the picture and little other ownership to speak of, how could Gearbox Software not be working on Borderlands 3? FromSoftware's appearance on the list screams Dark Souls II. What could Paradox Interactive have in store but a next-gen RTS? Could Season 2 of Telltale's incredible The Walking Dead episodic series get its due on any current-gen platform?

And let's not forget Saber Interactive, who might just be constructing the sequel of sequels, a monument of machismo: Will Rock 2!

I don't mean to pigeonhole teams that hold immense talent and creative potential. But when I read between the lines of Sony's PS4 developer list, I can see the future: amazing and familiar experiences are right around the corner.

By taking a gander at Sony's list of PS4 developers, you can draw some conclusions of your own. By all means, share your predictions in the comments below or in our official forums. What developer are you most excited to behold on PS4?