Sony is ending development of the original game on its oldest primary developer, Japan Studio, several sources told VGC.
The iconic developer behind Ape Escape, Gravity Rush and Knack saw the vast majority of their development team let go, the sources said, after their annual contracts were not renewed before the company’s next business year, which starts on January 1. April.
The localization and business team will remain on site and the ASOBI team – the group responsible for Astro Bot games – will continue as an independent studio within Sony Japan, he says.
Some Japan Studio employees 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 Bokeh studio.
It is not entirely clear whether the restructuring affected the studio’s External Development Department, which collaborated on games like Demon’s Souls “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/demons-souls/ “> last year’s Demon’s Souls , but one person the VGC spoke to suggested he would continue.
Sony Interactive Entertainment “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/sony/ “> Sony Interactive Entertainment did not respond to a request for comment in time of publication.
Several developers at Japan Studio have announced their departure from the company on social media in the past few days, including producer Bloodborne Masaaki Yamagiwa and video manager Ryo Sogabe – which will leave at the end of February – while an enigmatic tweet executive producer Masami Yamamoto also suggests his departure.
This also follows the departure of several high-level employees in the studio. In late 2020, Silent Hill and Gravity Rush series director Keiichiro Toyama announced his departure to set up Bokeh Game Studio. He founded this new venture with Sony Japan veterans Kazunobu Sato and Junya Okura.
Meanwhile, producer of Bloodborne and the Demons Souls remake, Teruyuki Toriyama, said he was leaving SIE Japan in late 2020.
Knowledgeable people told VGC that Sony Japan Studio just hasn’t been profitable enough in recent years; the developer wanted to create games that would appeal to the Japanese market first with the hope of having global appeal, while PlayStation “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/ “> PlayStation wants the kind of global success that its other primary studios produce.
One person the VGC spoke to said that Japan Studio’s fate had been sealed over a year ago, after the departure of its longtime president, Allan Becker, who was replaced by Nicolas Doucet, director of Astro Bot: Rescue Mission “href =” https: // www.videogameschronicle.com/people/nicolas-doucet/”>Nicolas Doucet, allegedly due to frustration with the lack of access by the developer.
Another source said it was part of the fact that the PlayStation was transferring more power from its native Japan to its new headquarters in the United States. Since the company moved its headquarters to California in 2016, it has centralized power there, leading to layoffs and restructuring at SIE’s regional offices.
The VGC report corroborates a Bloomberg article from November last year, which said Sony Japan was “marginalized” and its development teams were cut.
PlayStation boss Jim Ryan “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/jim-ryan/ “> Jim Ryan downplayed that narrative several times; in December, he claimed that Japan remained a market extremely important for Sony Interactive Entertainment.
This week Famitsu published an interview with Ryan in which he said that he considered all SIE studios important and that he continued to support the development of Japanese PS5 games.
The previous Bloomberg report stated that in November last year, many creators at Japan Studio had already been informed that they would not have their contracts renewed.
The PlayStation office in the United States takes a critical view of the Japanese operation, says the publication, and believes that the PlayStation business does not need ‘games that only go well in Japan’.
In response to the November Bloomberg report, Sony spokeswoman Natsumi Atarashi said at the time that “our domestic market remains extremely important” and stated that any suggestion that Sony was shifting its focus from Japan was incorrect and “no reflects the company’s strategy “.
Speaking to VGC network partners at GamesIndustry.biz about PlayStation’s 2019 globalization efforts, Ryan said we shouldn’t expect his worldwide studios to create games designed for specific territories going forward.
“The nature of AAA PlayStation 4″ href = “https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/ps4/”> PlayStation 4 and certainly PlayStation 5 “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms / playstation / ps5 / “> PlayStation 5 development … Obviously, we are not going to allow Worldwide Studios to make a game for a specific European country,” he said.
“And it may have been the case at the time of the PSP with Invizimals [which was popular in Spain]. I think it will be here that Shuhei Yoshida “href =” https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/shuhei-yoshida/ “> Shuhei Yoshida’s new task [of working with indies] will come. If we are agile, flexible and global, we can work with smaller developers to allow the specific needs of these countries to be met. “
Japan Studio was founded in 1993 and created iconic PlayStation IPs like Ape Escape, Patapon and Gravity Rush, as well as 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 primary studio by Sony Interactive Entertainment, with a focus on introducing new styles of play.
The developer is known for games like Knack, LocoRoco and Ape Escape, as well as for his collaborations on games like Bloodborne, The Last Guardian and Everybody’s Golf. Most recently, he worked on Demon’s Souls for PS5 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 – also known as Team Gravity – who worked at Siren and Gravity Rush Series.