Sony is shutting down its oldest in-house developer. According VGC, the company has not renewed the contracts for many of Japan Studio’s employees. The developer is best known for his work on franchises like Gravity Rush, Ape Escape and Knack, as well as for helping with Bloodborne, The Last Guardian and the recent Demon’s Souls redo. Some parts of the studio, including the team working on Sony’s Astro Bot franchise, will continue to work for the company, but Sony appears to have separated from most of the other employees.
2 IE で SIE JAPAN Studio を 離 れ る こ と に な り ま し た。 こ れ ま で あ り が が う ご ご ざ い ま し た。 次 の 場所 場所 も ゲ ー ム 制作 を 頑 張.
I’m leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment later this month. I will continue to work hard on creating games. Thank you all! pic.twitter.com/WPpiLpCtoY– 山 際 眞 晃 Masaaki Yamagiwa (@giwamasa) February 25, 2021
Recent Tweets from several people who worked in the studio seem to corroborate VGC’s communicating. The move comes after several prominent employees, including Gravity Rush and Silent Hill, director Teruyuki Toriyama and Bloodborne producer Masaaki Yamagiwa left the company at the end of last year. We have contacted Sony for comment and will update this article when we have a response from the company.
VGC suggests that Sony’s decision to close Japan Studio stems from the fact that the developer has not been profitable in recent years. In November, Bloomberg published a report that said that in recent months many of Sony Japan’s development teams have been downsized. According to the publication, the feeling in the Sony Interactive Entertainment division in the USA was that the company did not need games that “only go well in Japan”.
Update 20:37 ET: Sony confirmed that it is reorganizing Japan Studio. “In an effort to further strengthen business operations, SIE can confirm that PlayStation Studios JAPAN Studio will be reorganized into a new organization on April 1,” a company spokesman told Engadget. “JAPAN Studio will again be centered on the ASOBI Team, the creative team behind Astro’s PLAYROOM, allowing the team to focus on a single vision and take advantage of the popularity of Astro’s PLAYROOM. “The company added that it will focus most of its location, IP management and external production efforts on its PlayStation Studios brand.