Agreement will see Sony take exclusive ownership over the licence and global distribution of Firesprite’s newest game The Persistence on PlayStation VR. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool video game developer Firesprite has secured a global licensing and distribution deal with entertainment giant Sony for its new virtual reality game The Persistence.

The deal will see Sony take exclusive ownership over the licence and global distribution of The Persistence on PlayStation VR (PSVR), which has already received a raft of praise in reviews from across the games community.

Intellectual property experts from specialist law firm Shoosmiths advised Firesprite, which employs around 70 people in Liverpool, on matters such as brand protection and trade mark registrations.

Firesprite chief executive Graeme Ankers said: “While we are very much an established AAA games developer, because of the confidential nature of the work that we do, we’ve never really shouted too much about ourselves before, our work has generally been in the background, like collaborating with Japan Studio on new hardware projects.

“We’ve delivered a lot of incredible projects, but The Persistence is really the first time we are talking about our work because it’s our own intellectual property. It has been a labour of love that we’ve worked on for three years and we feel that we’re ready to really talk about that now for the first time.”

Laura Harper, head of the intellectual property and creative industries team at Shoosmiths, added: “Shoosmiths specialise in advising games studios and our experts negotiate development, licensing and publishing deals for our clients and work with accountants to draft tax structures.

“Our IP & Creative Industries team is enjoying a fantastic period of growth and this has been fuelled in part by the growth of the UK games sector, particularly in the North. We’re looking forward to the future as we continue to expand the practice and our offering even further.”