Sony today has announced that its PlayStation arm, Sony Interactive Entertainment, will be acquiring Audeze, a maker of high-end headphones who has gained popularity with the gaming crowd.
To be clear, both companies have only entered into an agreement for the acquisition, but the deal hasn’t been finalized yet. That being said, an acquisition like this isn’t likely to be one there’s much of a hold up on. Should the deal go through, Audeze will bring its expertise to the PlayStation ecosystem’s already advanced audio features. In particular the PS5‘s Tempest 3D Audio Tech. “We’re excited to bring Audeze’s expertise into the PlayStation ecosystem, building on the great strides we’ve made with PlayStation 5’s Tempest 3D AudioTech and the Pulse 3D wireless headset,” says Senior Vice President of Platform Experience at Sony Interactive Entertainment Hideaki Nishino.
It’s not exactly clear yet how Sony plans to use Audeze’s experience within the industry. But it wouldn’t be surprising to see Audeze gaming headsets in the future gain an officially licensed PlayStation badge on products. And there’s a good chance future headsets will have special features for PlayStation users.
Audeze will not be a PlayStation exclusive brand
This acquisition will be good for both PlayStation and Audeze. Without a doubt. But it doesn’t mean Audeze is going to be exclusive to the PlayStation platform. On the contrary, it’s exactly the opposite. Much like when SIE acquired Bungie, Audeze will continue to operate independently. It will also continue to release multi-platform headsets. Which means they’ll have products that work for PC and Xbox in addition to PlayStation.
But Sony is clear that Audeze will benefit from being part of the PlayStation ecosystem. Albeit without mentioning specifics here. One thing worth noting is that many of Audeze’s products feature planar magnetic drivers. And Sony just announced its first PlayStation headset to offer planar magnetic drivers on August 23 with the Pulse Elite.
So it seems like Sony is keen to learn from Audeze in this space.