Sony has announced that it has acquired “machine learning and computer vision company” Cinemarsive Labs, adding the new acquisition to its newly formed Visual Computing Group in June.
In a blog post on Sony’s website, the gaming and technology giant confirmed it has acquired Cinemarsive Labs, although the purchase price was not disclosed.
According to Sony, Cinemarsive will have a “dedicated team with deep expertise in computer vision and machine learning.” Sony says Cinemarsive’s expertise will be used to “enhance gameplay visuals, improve rendering techniques, and unlock new levels of visual fidelity” within the game.
Although Cinemarsive is not a traditional game developer, the company created the Meta Quest “experience” in the form of: parallaxwhich allows you to “immerse yourself in volumetric 6 degrees of freedom 3D photography.”
Cinemarsive Labs’ official website also touts the studio’s “Cinemersive AI” software, which “turns a single photo into a three-dimensional 3D immersive experience.” That will be the machine learning element of the company that Sony is looking forward to.
Given Sony’s recent track record with closing in-house studios, it’s fair to think Cinemarsive won’t have a long lifespan thanks to this acquisition, but since the company isn’t a traditional development company, it probably won’t be held to the same level of expectations.
We’ll likely get a more behind-the-scenes look at the company’s efforts, as Sony says it wants Cinemarsive to drive its “broader efforts to advance cutting-edge visual computing in games.” Don’t expect the Cinemarsive name to be central to Sony’s productions.
For now, we need to see exactly how Sony plans to integrate Cinemarsive into future work, but this at least shows that the tech giant, like many of its peers, isn’t opposed to incorporating AI into its workflows.
