Sony is terminating the original game development at its oldest first-party developer, Japan Studio, several sources told VGC.
The sources said that the iconic developer behind Ape Escape, Gravity Rush and Knack has abandoned the vast majority of its development staff.
Localization and business staff will remain and ASOBI Team – the group responsible for the Astro Bot games – will continue as an independent studio in Sony Japan, it is claimed.
Some Japanese studio staff will join ASOBI, we were told, while others followed Silent Hill and Gravity Rush director Keiichiro Toyama, who left Japan Studio last year, to his new studio Bokeh.
It’s not entirely clear whether the restructuring affected the studio’s external development department, which collaborated on games like last year’s Demon’s Souls “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/demons-souls / “> Demon’s Souls, but one person VGC spoke to suggested it should continue.
Sony Interactive Entertainment “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/sony/ “> Sony Interactive Entertainment did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Several developers from Japan Studio have announced their departure on social media in recent days, including Bloodborne producer Masaaki Yamagiwa and video driver Ryo Sogabe – both leaving at the end of February – while a cryptic tweet of the executive manufacturer, Masami Yamamoto, also indicates his departure.
It also follows the departure of several high-profile staff at the studio. At the end of 2020, Silent Hill and Keiichiro Toyama, director of the Gravity Rush series, announced their departure to set up Bokeh Game Studio. He co-founded this new venture with fellow veterans of Sony Japan Kazunobu Sato and Junya Okura.
Meanwhile, the producer of Bloodborne and the Demons Souls, Teruyuki Toriyama, has released a new version that he will leave SIE Japan at the end of 2020.
People with knowledge of the matter told VGC that Sony Japan Studio has simply not been profitable enough in recent years; the developer wanted to create games that first addressed the Japanese market with the hope that it would be globally attractive, while PlayStation “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/ “> PlayStation wants the kind of global hits have what his other first-party studios deliver.
One person VGC spoke to said that the fate of Japan Studio was sealed more than a year ago after the departure of its longtime president Allan Becker, who was replaced by Astro Bot: director of the rescue mission, Nicolas Doucet “href = “https: // www.videogameschronicle.com/people/nicolas-doucet /”> Nicolas Doucet, apparently due to frustration over the developer’s lack of hits.
Another source said it was part of a move to shift more power from its native Japan to its new US headquarters. Since the company moved its headquarters to California in 2016, it has centralized power there, leading to layoffs and restructuring in SIE’s regional offices.
VGC’s reporting confirms a Bloomberg article from November last year, which states that Sony Japan has been ‘eliminated’ and that its development teams have been cut.
Jim Ryan, boss of PlayStation, “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/jim-ryan/ “> Jim Ryan underestimated this story several times; in December he claimed that Japan remains an extremely important market for Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Famitsu published an interview with Ryan this week in which he said that he considers all of SIE’s studios important and that he still supports the Japanese game development for PS5.
The earlier Bloomberg report claims that many creators of Japan Studio have been notified since November last year that their current contracts will not be renewed.
The publication claims that the PlayStation office in the United States had a critical view of the Japanese operation, believing that the PlayStation business did not ‘need games that do only good in Japan’.
Sony spokesperson Natsumi Atarashi said at the time in response to the Bloomberg report in November that “our housing market remains of paramount importance” and claimed that any proposal that Sony would shift its focus from Japan was incorrect and “reflective”. the company’s strategy ‘.
In a conversation with VGC’s network partners at GamesIndustry.biz about PlayStation’s globalization efforts in 2019, Ryan said that we do not expect Worldwide Studios to create games designed for specific areas going forward.
The nature of AAA PlayStation 4 “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/ps4/ “> PlayStation 4 and definitely PlayStation 5” href = “https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms / playstation / ps5 / “> PlayStation 5 development … Of course, we are not going to allow Worldwide Studios to make a game for one specific European country,” he said.
‘And that was possibly the case in the PSP times with Invizimals [which was popular in Spain]. I think this is where Shuhei Yoshida’s new job “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/shuhei-yoshida/ “> [of working with indies] will enter. If we are agile, flexible and global, we can work with smaller developers to meet the specific needs of the countries. ”
Japan Studio was founded in 1993 and has created iconic PlayStation IPs like Ape Escape, Patapon and Gravity Rush, in addition to helping other developers like From Software “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/fromsoftware/ “> FromSoftware, Bluepoint Games “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/bluepoint/ “> Bluepoint and Q-Games” href = “https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/q-games/” > Q-Games.
Japan Studio is the oldest first party studio of Sony Interactive Entertainment, focusing on the introduction of new game styles.
The developer is known for games like Knack, LocoRoco and Ape Escape, as well as his collaborations on like Bloodborne, The Last Guardian and Everybody’s Golf. It recently worked on PS5’s Demon’s Souls with the American studio Bluepoint.
SIE Japan Studio “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/sony/sie-japan-studio/ “> SIE Japan Studio also hosted Project Siren – or Team Gravity – who worked on the Siren and Gravity Rush series.