Sony is ending original game development with its oldest first-party developer, Japan Studio, multiple sources have told VGC.
The iconic developer behind Ape Escape, Gravity Rush and Knack has seen the vast majority of its development staff let go, the sources said, after their annual contracts were not renewed ahead of the company’s next business year, which begins April 1.
Localization and corporate personnel will remain in place and ASOBI Team – the group responsible for the Astro Bot games – will continue as a standalone studio within Sony Japan, it is claimed.
Some Japan Studio employees will join ASOBI, we were told, while others have followed Silent Hill and Gravity Rush director Keiichiro Toyama – who left Japan Studio last year – to his new studio Bokeh.
It is not entirely clear whether the restructuring has affected the studio’s external development division, which worked on games like last year’s Demon’s Souls “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/demons-souls/ ” > Demon’s Souls, but one person speaking VGC suggested it would continue.
Sony Interactive Entertainment “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/sony/ “> Sony Interactive Entertainment did not respond to a request for comment for publication in time.
Multiple developers from Japan Studio have announced their departure from the company in recent days on social media, including producer Bloodborne Masaaki Yamagiwa and video manager Ryo Sogabe – who are both leaving at the end of February – while a cryptic tweet executive producer Masami Yamamoto also alludes to his departure.
This also follows the departure of a number of high-profile employees in the studio. In late 2020, Keiichiro Toyama, director of Silent Hill and Gravity Rush, announced his departure to found Bokeh Game Studio. He founded this new venture with fellow Sony Japan veterans Kazunobu Sato and Junya Okura.
Meanwhile, Bloodborne and the Demons Souls remake producer Teruyuki Toriyama said he would be leaving SIE Japan in late 2020.
Knowledgeable people told VGC that Sony Japan Studio simply wasn’t profitable enough in recent years; the developer wanted to make games that would hit the Japanese market first with the hope of having global appeal, while PlayStation “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/ “> PlayStation wants to be the kind of global hits other first-party studios.
A person speaking to VGC said Japan Studio’s fate was sealed over a year ago, following the departure of its longtime president Allan Becker, who was replaced by Astro Bot: Rescue Mission director Nicolas Doucet “href =” https: // www.videogameschronicle.com/people/nicolas-doucet/”>Nicolas Doucet, reportedly due to frustration with the developer’s lack of hits.
Another source said this was part of PlayStation shifting more power from its native Japan to its new US headquarters. Since moving its headquarters to California in 2016, the company 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 said Sony Japan had been “sidelined” and its development teams dropped.
PlayStation boss Jim Ryan “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/jim-ryan/ “> Jim Ryan downplayed this story several times, claiming in December that Japan was still a hugely important market for Sony Interactive Entertainment.
This week, Famitsu published an interview with Ryan saying that he cared about all of SIE’s studios and that he continued to support the development of Japanese games for PS5.
Bloomberg’s earlier report claimed that since November last year, many Japan Studio creators had already been informed that their revolving contracts would not be renewed.
The US office of PlayStation takes a critical look at the Japanese operation, the publication said, believing that the PlayStation business did not need “games that only do well in Japan.”
Commenting on November’s Bloomberg report, Sony spokeswoman Natsumi Atarashi said at the time that “our home market remains paramount” and claimed that any suggestion that Sony was shifting its focus from Japan was incorrect and “not the company’s strategy. reflects “.
Speaking to VGC’s network partners at GamesIndustry.biz about PlayStation’s globalization efforts in 2019, Ryan said we should not expect the Worldwide Studios to create games designed for specific areas that are moving 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… Clearly Worldwide Studios is not going to make a game for one specific European country,” he said.
And that could be the case in PSP times with Invizimals [which was popular in Spain]I think this will be the place where Shuhei Yoshida “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/shuhei-yoshida/ “> Shuhei Yoshida’s new job will be [of working with indies] will come in. If we are agile, flexible and global, we can partner with smaller developers to meet the specific needs of those countries. “
Japan Studio was founded in 1993 and has created iconic PlayStation IP such as Ape Escape, Patapon and Gravity Rush, in addition to assisting other developers such as 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 Sony Interactive Entertainment’s oldest first-party studio, with a focus on introducing new gameplay styles.
The developer is known for games like Knack, LocoRoco and Ape Escape, but also for his collaborations with Bloodborne, The Last Guardian and Everybody’s Golf, among others. 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 housed Project Siren – aka Team Gravity – that had worked on the Siren and Gravity Rush series.