Lemmings publisher studio Psygnosis trademark renewed by Sony

(Image credit: Psygnosis)

Sony has renewed the trademark for Psygnosis, a studio which it shuttered in 2012.

Founded in 1984, the UK studio was best known as the publisher of Shadow of the Beast and Lemmings. It was eventually acquired by Sony in 1993, and began making PlayStation games - most notably the Wipeout and G-Police series - ahead of the console's arrival in the west in 1995.

In 2000, the company was incorporated fully into Sony, and rebranded as Studio Liverpool. From 2000 onwards, the studio helped produce a number of licensed Formula 1 games, as well as several more Wipeout games, before being shuttered in 2012. Several departing employees founded a new studio, Firesprite, which was itself acquired by Sony last year, and has been working on PSVR 2 title Horizon Call of the Mountain.

Now, as spotted by analyst Roberto Serrano, a trademark of the studio's original logo, a low-resolution image of an owl's face, was "registered and renewed" in the US in December.

The move begs the question, however, as to what, if anything, Sony is planning to do with the trademark. While the company could simply be protecting its assets, Psygnosis' historical and geographical proximity to Firesprite seems relevant, and some speculation has suggested that a second team could be spun out from the existing Liverpool studio under the old name.

For projects we're a little more sure of, here's our list of upcoming PS5 games.

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.