Santa Monica Studios

AHMED NASR DP-1

What is Santa
Monica
Studios?
Santa Monica Studios is a game development
company based in Santa Monica, California,
United States. The company itself was
founded in 1999 and produces games for its
father organization, PlayStation.

Since their creation, the studio has created

multiple games including their most famous
title, God of War, one of their most profitable
game series.

This can be seen through their sales for the

game:-
Strengths
- One of Santa Monica’s key strengths is its experience,
they’ve been in the gaming market for nearly 20 years now,
with their God of War series they wanted to appeal to their
consumer’s violent urges, to give them an outlet to vent.

- Their employees are a huge advantage as well, they have

around 200+ employees. In terms of hiring them, Santa
Monica is very selective, choosing to test each one they
interview to make sure that whatever skills they have can be
utilised to the best of their abilities.

- The amount of money they gained from the God of War

games was extremely profitable for them and Sony as well.
Due to this they are held in high regard by Sony and can even
ask for special aid from them. An example of this was in 2013,
when they had asked Sony to give them a new studio, to
produce the new God of War game they were producing.
Weaknesses
- Compared to other studios their number of employees are quite less. We can see this when
comparing them to another gaming company called Naughty Dog, which has around 316 employees,
while Santa Monica only has around 200.

- They have trouble adapting to the market. The problem with this studio was that they kept on trying
to profit off the God of War games, but they never changed the game mechanics, the story or the
characters. Due to this, many consumers became bored of the games, they stopped buying any new
God of War title, this made the company go into a decline.

- One more weakness would be the amount of time it takes for them to make a game. An example of
this would be the new God of War 2018 title, they started production for this game in 2013 and spent
five long years trying to produce it, and finally released it on April 20, 2018. This in itself was a huge risk
for them as many consumers weren’t interested in God of War anymore, and the amount of time it
took them to make it made both Sony, and different consumers look down on them.
Opportunities
One of the biggest opportunities Santa Monica has is the gaming event known as E3, where different
gaming companies come to present their products and offer a demo to the consumers. Each company gets
a certain day to present all their products. And for Santa Monica, it’s a huge opportunity for marketing
their games. Something that they did with God of War 2018 for the E3 press conferences from 2015 to
2018.
Threats
- Santa Monica’s main threats include other gaming companies like Naughty Dog and Guerilla Games.
Considering that in the past five years Santa Monica wasn’t able to release any products, they fell back in
terms of sales when it came to the other companies.

- Naughty Dog’s series Uncharted has amassed over $41 million

- While Santa Monica has only just gained $10 million in 2018.
Bibliography
https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/06/e3-2019-conferences-australia-new-zealand/

https://www.owler.com/company/naughtydog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIE_Santa_Monica_Studio

https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/God_of_War

https://sms.playstation.com/

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/swot.asp