Sony's Liverpool Studio and Evolution Studios (acquired in 2007) are highly experienced in the racing genre, having worked on the Wipeout and MotorStorm franchises, respectively. As it turns out, Sony will be combining resources, and in fact Liverpool (which released Wipeout HD on PSN in 2008) already assisted Evolution with certain aspects of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift

Speaking to GI.biz, Michael Denny, senior vice president of Worldwide Studios Europe, confirmed that Sony does plan to merge Liverpool with Evolution. "Yes, it was always the intention with them being in the same geographic location and working so closely together, it would be ideal if they could be housed at some point within the same site, but it's not happening overnight," he explained.

It seems that both Liverpool and Evolution have been directed to come up with concepts with more global appeal beyond just Europe. That's why Evolution moved away from its World Rally Championship series to work on MotorStorm. "What we and Evolution achieved is a great example of how worldwide studios has worked," noted Denny. "We worked with Evolution on PlayStation 2 exclusively for four years on World Rally Championship products that were very Euro-centric. When PS3 was on the horizon and we wanted to go more global with products we gave them the brief of coming up with an IP that was more relevant globally.

"Obviously, they've now moved that original concept on with MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and they'll be looking at future iterations of MotorStorm. But, you may be aware that Evolution and our Liverpool Studio have now merged in terms of management structure and using combined resources. Liverpool had great success this year with Wipeout HD and they also helped on MotorStorm as well. Each studio has its own internal concepting group which will always be looking at new opportunities and new IPs, and we'll continue to extend and innovate within our existing franchises as well."