Major gaming deal done after advice from Leeds legal team

The intellectual property andc creative industries team at the Leeds office of Shoosmiths helped on the deal which will see Firesprite land a major licensing and worldwide digital and disc distribution deal for its new virtual reality game The Persistence. Headed by partner Laura Harper, the Shoosmiths team also provided advice on brand protection and trade mark registrations.

The deal will see Sony take exclusive ownership over the license and global distribution of The Persistence on PlayStation VR, which has already received a raft of praise in reviews.

Liverpool-based Firesprite have previously collaborated with some of the games industry’s biggest names.

Graeme Ankers, CEO at Firesprite, said: “Whilst we are very much an established AAA games developer, because of the confidential nature of the work that we do, we’ve never really shouted too much about ourselves before, our work has generally been in the background, like collaborating with Japan Studio on new hardware projects.”

Ms Harper said: “It was a delight to work on this project with Graeme and continue to provide support for the growth of Firesprite as a leading game development studio. In particular, we have enjoyed working with the company to negotiate this major deal with Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe and Sony Interactive Entertainment America for one of Firesprite’s own VR titles.

“Firesprite’s latest game is already drawing great excitement from across the games industry and we’re pleased to have been able to support the team on this significant deal for the PSVR platform.”