Teruyuki Toriyama announced through a tweet who will leave Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan at the end of December 2020. He went on to say that he will continue to “take on the challenge of creating new gaming IPs” at his new company. He also asked for the continued support of his follower.
Toriyama is known for his work as a producer, recently working on games like Astro’s Playroom and the Demon’s Souls remake for PlayStation 5. The first is free software included with every PlayStation 5 that features some of the hardware features. The latter is a faithful remake of a PlayStation 3 title, albeit with some additions of its own. He also served as a producer in Bloodborne, that was created by the original Demon’s Souls developer, FromSoftware.
Toriyama’s departure follows in the wake of some other notable figures leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan. Gravity Rush and silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama left the studio in late September 2020 to work on the Bokeh Game Studio, which he founded. He was accompanied by Last Guardian producer, Kazunobu Sato, and Junya Okura, who was a designer at Gravity Rush Series.
In addition to stating that he will continue to work with video games, Toriyama has not yet announced his immediate plans.