SIE Bend Studio (formerly SCE Bend Studio, founded as as Eidetic) is a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment based in Bend, Oregon, USA.
Originally an independent developer during the studio's formation in 1994, they were responsible for Bubsy 3D, regarded as one of the worst games ever made (Eidetic blamed its publisher Accolade for making them release their alpha build to market against the soon-to-be-classic Super Mario 64). Since their purchase by Sony, most of the studio's games have been received positively, with Syphon Filter being the company's road to redemption.
Video games developed as Eidetic:
- Bubsy 3D
- Columbo's Mystery Capers
- Syphon Filter
- Syphon Filter 2
Video games developed as (Sony) Bend Studio:
- Resistance: Retribution (PlayStation Portable)
- Syphon Filter 3 (PlayStation)
- Syphon Filter: Combat Ops
- Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (PlayStation 2, PSP)
- Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (PlayStation 2, PSP)
- Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain (PlayStation 2)
- Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Play Station Vita)
- Uncharted: Fight for Fortune (PlayStation Vita)
- Days Gone
Tropes that apply to Sony Santa Monica and its games:
- Breakthrough Hit: Syphon Filter was this to them during the PS1 days, and a reason to them becoming one of the Sony's development studios. They fell to obscurity for much of the 2000s afterwards until the announcement of Days Gone in 2016; Days Gone itself is a downplayed example. While it wasn't nearly as critically beloved as their previous franchise, it was a Sleeper Hit that was very commercially successful (becoming the sixth best-selling PS4 exclusive in less than a year of its release - beating the more critically beloved and longer-on-the-market inFAMOUS: Second Son) and gaining a strong fanbase to support it.
- B-Team Sequel: Reduced to this between the release of their last Syphon Filter game and Days Gone. Between 2008 and 2011, Bend Studio primarily worked on portable spin-offs for some of Sony's bigger PS3 titles, namely Resistance: Retribution for the PSP and Uncharted: Golden Abyss for the PS Vita; unlike many other examples, though, both titles were critical successes and considered some of their consoles' best games.
- Government Conspiracy: Seems to be a staple of their primary IP titles.
- Old Shame: Bubsy 3D is this to many of the studio's developers, both present and past.
- Shared Universe: Documents in Days Gone imply that the game's events take place some time after the events of the Syphon Filter saga.
- What Could Have Been:
- During the production of Bubsy 3D the developers started planning ideas for a game called "Jumper" it was shelved to focus on the development of a Bubsy 3D sequel that never came out.
- A sequel to Days Gone was pitched to Sony, but it was rejected due to the game's mixed-to-average reviews, in spite of being a Sleeper Hit.
