SCE Santa Monica Studio

Santa Monica Studio, formerly known as SCEA SM Studio, was set up in 1999 by Allan Becker, a long-serving Sony employee who wanted to get away from Sony Computer Entertainment's corporate group in Foster City. It began as a 989 Studios office for the Twisted Metal and Jet Moto teams, next door to Naughty Dog. It then moved into a brick building at Penn Station on the outskirts of Santa Monica, California, which it occupied for fifteen years.

Its first game was Kinetica (2001), a racer for which it skipped the original PlayStation and went straight to the PlayStation 2, building its own engine. Producer Shannon Studstill was determined to ship it on time and within budget to prove to Sony that the studio could deliver, and she did. The same engine carried over to its next project, God of War (2005), followed by God of War II (2007), God of War III (2010) and God of War: Ascension (2013).

Alongside its own games, the studio ran an External Development group that acted as publisher and incubator for independent studios such as Thatgamecompany, maker of Journey, Q-Games and Ready at Dawn. Becker left in 2011 and Studstill became senior director of product development. Layoffs followed the cancellation of a new intellectual property in February 2014, and that July the studio moved to Playa Vista, Los Angeles, with a new logo. In 2016 it closed the external group and returned the rights to What Remains of Edith Finch and Wattam to their creators.

The series returned with God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarök (2022). In March 2020 Studstill left to run a new Stadia studio, and long-time employee Yumi Yang took over as studio head. Today it is part of PlayStation Studios, within Sony Interactive Entertainment. Its 2026 slate includes God of War Sons of Sparta, made with Mega Cat Studios, and it has God of War Laufey lined up for 2027 and God of War Trilogy Remake, still without a date.