Sony to acquire machine learning company Cinemersive Labs

Image via Sony Interactive Entertainment

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has entered an agreement to acquire machine learning company Cinemersive Labs for an undisclosed amount.

The agreement was announced via SIE’s newsroom on April 2. According to SIE, the agreement is part of its broader efforts to explore new ways to push the boundaries of visual computing and deliver “richer, more immersive” gameplay experiences.

The UK-based machine learning and computer vision company, which was founded in 2022, is focused on immersive, three-dimensional photography and video for virtual and augmented reality. 

According to its LinkedIn profile, the in-house technology allows the “acquisition, conversion, processing, storage, and transmission” of images and videos in six degrees-of-freedom 3D via two setups: a proprietary portable rig (used for filmed entertainment or allowing viewers to experience concerts from a stage POV), and a monocular acquisition technology based on a proprietary generative AI approach. The latter allows the capture of six degrees-of-freedom 3D photographs and videos “using just a single smartphone camera and from as little as a single photograph.”

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“Following the acquisition, the Cinemersive Labs team will join SIE’s Visual Computing Group (VCG) and contribute to our broader efforts in advancing state of the art visual computing within games,” reads the announcement. “This includes applying machine learning to enhance gameplay visuals, improve rendering techniques, and unlock new levels of visual fidelity for players.”

Sony’s VGC was established back in 2024, following the merger of the iSize team in late 2023 with parts of the SIE Game Platform Artificial Intelligence group. As a result, the team is made up of R&D engineers with skills in neural networks, video coding, quality assessment, generative models, game rendering, and high-performance computing. The group’s mission, according to SIE, is to “design and deploy advanced neural networks and machine learning (ML) for game rendering and streaming systems of SIE that exceed the state-of-the-art in runtime efficiency, visual quality, and latency.”

Acquisitions aside, Sony has had an eventful last couple of months. The company announced it’d be shuttering Bluepoint Games in March, noting that 70 employees were facing layoffs. Then, sources told Bloomberg that Sony is reportedly adjusting its multiplatform strategy and will no longer release major PlayStation 5 titles on PC.

Now, starting on April 2, Sony has once again raised the price of PlayStation hardware in response to “continued pressures in the global economic landscape.”  

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