A former Sony Japan Studio producer who worked on Bloodborne and Demon’s Souls has co-founded a new studio in Tokyo.
Sirius Studio is a subsidiary of the Osaka-based Gz Group, but while Gz is mainly focused on VR and AR games Sirius will also be working on larger games for consoles andPC.
The studio will be run by president Tomohiro Suzuki and executive vice president / executive producer Hideki Irie (who was formerly an executive producer atSega), but it’s the appointment of Teruyuki Toriyama that may resonate most with players.
Toriyama previously worked atSony Interactive Entertainment‘s Japan Studio, where he served as a producer on such games asDemon’s Souls, Bloodborne, Soul Sacrifice andAstro Bot: Rescue Mission.
After leavingSIE Japan Studioin 2020, Toriyama joined the Japan studio of Thirdverse, where he worked alongside Irie and producer Hikaru Okamura. According to a new interview withFamitsu, the trio decided to leave Thirdverse when it started changing its focus to more casual games.
“We were part of a team that produced high-end games at the Japan studio of a company called Thirdverse,” Irie explained to Famitsu. “However, Thirdverse decided to shift its business to the production of casual games. Since we were a team that came together to produce high-end games, we wanted to make high-end games in the future, so we consulted directly with the chairman of Thirdverse and decided to make an amicable transfer.”
At Sirius Studio, the team plans to “create games that make users’ hearts shine”, and will focus on the “planning, development and sales of digital games for consoles and PCs”, as well as VR and AR titles.
Speaking to Famitsu, Irie stated that the plan is to turn Sirius into a “world class development studio”, and that it will start off working on high-end or mid-sized games for consoles and VR.
He explained that the studio will be focused on releasing games internationally, rather than focusing mainly on Japan. “It is said that 80% of the VR market is in English-speaking countries, and many of the titles that our staff, including Toriyama, have been involved with have been worldwide hits, so I think it is not an impossible goal,” he said (via machine translation).
Toriyama added that while the studio plans to take its time with its own high-end titles before announcing anything, it also planned to collaborate with other companies, working on both original works and games that use existing IP.
