This was supposed to be Pysgnosis but that will have to wait for another two weeks. I'd planned a quick look at Sony's UK presence as a follow up but events [1] have conspired to make me swap them round. This is a more bare bones article than normal. It's Sony. You know. Sony. The PlayStation. The console that sold 100 million units. You probably owned one or knew someone who did. If you don't remember the PlayStation then you probably remember the PlayStation 2 which sold 160 million units or the PlayStation 4 (117 million). It's only really the PlayStation 3 and 5 [2] which let the brand down, and they both managed sales of around 85 million so I imagine Sony is not to distressed. Anyway, that's why this is a less detailed write up than normal. Consider it an apéritif for Psygnosis. (Secretly, it's because this is being written to a very short turnaround and because I know bugger all about Sony in the UK. I hope to get out of here quickly before my ignorance shows too much.)
But before that. A bit of fun. Sony began in post World War II Tokyo. I'll swipe the next bit from Wikipedia because they said it nice and concisely:
On 7 May 1946, [Masaru] Ibuka was joined by Akio Morita to establish a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (東京通信工業, Tōkyō Tsūshin Kōgyō; Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). The company built Japan's first tape recorder, called the Type-G. In 1958, the company changed its name to "Sony".
I hoped it might be fun find the first mention of Sony in the UK press. It wasn't. The correct results tended to be dry business stories and there were a lot of false positives from actor Sonny Tufts. Here is one of the earliest which [a] has a nice if poorly printed picture and [b] is only lightly sexist. The tiny caption reads:
A Japanese beauty looks at what is claimed to be the world's first all-transistor portable television set. Made by the Sony Corporation, one of Japan's leading electronic firms, the set has an eight-inch screen and 12 channels. It is powered by a lead-acid storage battery which lasts for three hours.
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| COVENTRY EVENING TELEGRAPH 19 January 1960 page 24 |
The better known SCEE came later. The first company was called Sony Electronic Publishing, named on 25 August 1993 with Jonathan Ellis added as a director on 25 July 1993 followed by Ian Hetherington on 13 August. The office at the time was the spare room in Phil Harrison's house. I don't have a photo of Phil Harrison's house [3], which is probably for the best, but the official address of the company was 100 New Bridge Street, care of a company called Baker & McKenzie who were still there in March 2023.
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| January 2026 |
100 New Bridge Street has been under refurbishment for the last couple of years. The scaffolding has finally come down but it no longer looks like it did. New Bridge Street, by the way, leads on to Blackfriars Bridge which hasn't been new since 1869.
13 Soho Square, London, W1D 3QF
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| January 2026 |
This was the first Sony PlayStation office in London’s Soho Square.
The replies are full of people remembering cramped offices and creaking floors and picnics in Soho Square. Several people remember being there in July 1993 in what were temporary offices before the move to 10 Great Marlborough Street, where Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe are still based today. The big question for me is, how long were Sony at 13 Soho Square? It can't be long because people in the LinkedIn comments remember preparing Great Marlborough Street for the first games developer conference in December 1993; where Sony showed off the power of the console with the insanely impressive dinosaur demo. Probably no more than six months at most. This diverges from the story told by the official records at Companies House. But I'll get to that later.
10 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1F 7LF
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| January 2026 |
Great Marlborough Street is narrow and number 10 is tall. I took 17 photos and this was the best one. What's really surprising is, it's really anonymous. When I was looking over the old offices of Dennis Publishing, to see where PC ZONE was published, I stumbled across 30 Cleveland Street which is now home to Take Two. It's immediately obvious which company is based there. I've walked past 10 Great Marlborough street a lot in the past and I don't think I've ever clocked it as the Sony building. Looking a little closer, it is decorated with PlayStation PR but there's nothing that really makes the building stand out.
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| January 2026 |
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| January 2026 |
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| January 2026 |
The next few years were a countdown to the launch of the PlayStation on 29 September 1995. This is the point when I confess I didn't know Sony Electronic Publishing were a game publisher. I'm not sure how I thought about how games like Battle Arena Toshinden made their way onto shop shelves in 1995 but I certainly didn't read the small print on the back of boxes. timextension.com also interviewed Martin Alltimes who joined Sony Electronic Publishing as employee number 28 after he hand-delivered a letter to Soho. He became part of the team signing up developers for the first round of PlayStation games and in his interview listed a few titles he worked on; Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars and the sequel The Smoking Mirror, plus In Cold Blood, Bushido Blade, Spice World, Rosco McQueen: Firefighter Extreme, and the European localisation for Final Fantasy VII.
Reading this interview was my, huh!, moment. As I say, I'm not sure what did I think Sony Electronic Publishing did? [4]. I guess, if anything, I thought they existed to encourage companies to develop PlayStation games and give them support with the approval and QA process. I went and checked a lot of cover artwork on Mobygames and the main thing I've learned is how poorly archived the covers are for UK PlayStation games. Anyway, I finally found what I was looking for on the back of the PAL box for Rosco McQueen: Firefighter Extreme.
© 1996 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (a division of Sony Electronic Publishing Limited).
There's nothing apart from that text to point the existence or function of Sony Electronic Publishing. The front of the box carries the logo of developer Slippery Snake and the orange diamond logo of Sony Computer Entertainment but nothing else. This is my excuse for my ignorance.
Not long after the PlayStation launched, around November 1995, Ian Hetherington and Jonathan Ellis both resigned as directors of Sony Electronic Publishing. They stayed on as directors of Psygnosis. For a bit, anyway.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) was founded on 25 November 1996. Two years later, on 1 April 1998, Sony Electronic Publishing changed its name to Sony Computer Entertainment UK. This followed a bout of corporate shenanigans described in the SCEE accounts to 31 March 1998:
The group has achieved significant growth during the year due to the success of PlayStation hardware and software. The group anticipates that continued growth will be difficult to achieve in the current year due to increased competition.
On 1 April 1997 there was a reorganisation of Sony Computer Entertainment companies in Europe under a single holding company Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited which is a direct subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc of Japan.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited was incorporated as Electrocorp Limited on 13 November 1996. The company changed name to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited on 25 November 1996. The company began trading on 1 April 1997.
With effect from 1 April 1997, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd acquired 50% of the ordinary shares in the newly formed Psygnosis Holdings plc. At the same date Psygnosis Holdings plc acquired the entire share capital of Psygnosis Ltd. On 1 December 1998 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd acquired the remaining share capital of Psygnosis Holdings plc.
So by December 1998,SCEE was now the holding company owning Sony Computer Entertainment UK and also Psygnosis Holdings PLC who owned Psygnosis Ltd. This obviously had an impact on Psygnosis who had previously been run at arms length but see the Psygnosis article for more details.
There was another internal reorganisation in July 2016 which saw Sony Computer Entertainment UK renamed to Sony Interactive Entertainment UK and SCEE rebranded to Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe.
And that's kind of it.
So, why does the Companies House records list two more addresses in Golden Square?
25 Golden Square, London, W1R 6LU
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| January 2026 |
30 Golden Square, W1F 9LD
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| January 2026 |
(The picture of 25 Golden Square is disappointing). 25 Golden Square and 30 Golden Square sit opposite 1 Golden Square, where Argus Press Software was based from 1984 to early 1985. The former home(s) of Sony might be two buildings knocked together. I'm not 100% sure about this because I haven't been inside.
There's one final weird stub to the saga of the corporate addresses.
C/O Corporation Service Company (UK) Limited 5 Churchill Place 10th Floor London E14 5HU United Kingdom
From 30 January 2024 to 30 July 2024 Companies House records a six month change of address for Sony Interactive Entertainment UK/ Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe to docklands and a management company called Corporation Service Company. I have no idea why.
Liverpool
Napier Court, Wavertree Technology Park, Liverpool, L13
Sony and Liverpool were linked when they acquired Psygnosis in 1993. The usual process of corporate restructuring and lack of interest in history followed and Psygnosis was renamed to SCE Studio Liverpool in 2001 and closed in August 2012. Sony moved on in 2022.
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| December 2025 |
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| December 2025 |
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| December 2025 |
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| December 2025 |
SCEE Studio Camden
Psygnosis had a London Studio who were based in Camden. Despite my best efforts I haven't been able to track them down (if you know, please leave comment, email, etc). Team Camden lasted from around 1994 to 2000, at which point they were renamed SCEE Studio Camden. Then in 2002 they were merged with Team Soho
Team Soho
Sony also had a London based development team based in Soho and unsurprisingly called Team Soho. They operated from around 1997 to 2002, and are credited on two of the three Getaway games, The Getaway (2002),and The Getaway: Black Monday (2004)
London Studio
London Studio was formed out of Team Soho and pick up the credit on the third Getaway title, Gangs of London. They mainly worked on EyeToy and SingStar titles until they were closed down in 2024.
So where were Team Soho and London Studio based? I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure its 30 Golden Square. This is reported as happening in May 1999 by the ESTATES GAZETE which means there is plenty of time afterwards for them to move elsewhere.
The Getaway
The Getaway crams something like 10 square miles of London into a PS2 and this includes Great Marlborough Street and Golden Square. When you start playing in free roam mode you appear in a car facing east outside of 16 Great Marlborough Street and you can just see the Sony offices.
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| December 2002 |
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| January 2026 |
[1] I didn't take any notes in Liverpool and this turned out to be embarrassingly important for reasons which will become clear in the Psygnosis article. I've given myself an additional two weeks to atone for my failure.
[2] The Odd numbered ones less popular. Just like the Star Trek films.
[3] Feel free to send me one, Phil.
[4] Subs please check grammar.
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