Japan Studio has been officially removed from Sony’s list of studios.
ThePlayStationwebsitehas a pagethat lists each of Sony’s studios, including the likes ofInsomniac Games,Naughty DogandGuerrilla.
As of last month (as spotted byPushSquareand captured by theInternet Archive), the page includedJapan Studioin the list, referring to it as “the long-standing talent behind some of PlayStation’s most original titles”.
As the page stands now, however, Japan Studio is no longer present. In its place isTeam Asobi, the studio behind the pre-installedPS5gameAstro’s Playroom.
Sony reorganised Japan Studio into “a new organisation” on April 1, and the vast majority of its development staff was let go,VGC exclusively reported in February.
The iconic developer behind Ape Escape, Gravity Rush and Knack saw the vast majority of its development staff leave after their annual contracts were not renewed ahead of the company’s next business year starting on April 1.
Localisation and business staff remain in place and Team Asobi will continue as a standalone studio within Sony Japan.
Some Japan Studio staff have joined Team Asobi, while others have followedSilent Hilland Gravity Rush directorKeiichiro Toyama– who left Japan Studio last year –to his new studio Bokeh.
People with knowledge of the mattertold VGCthat Sony Japan Studio simply hasn’t been profitable enough in recent years; the developer wanted to create games that appealed to the Japanese market first with hopes of having global appeal, while PlayStation wants the kind of global hits that its other first-party studios produce.
VGC’s reporting corroborated aBloombergarticle from November of last year, which said that Sony Japan had been “sidelined” and its development teams had been cut.
PlayStation bossJim Ryanhas downplayed this narrative several times; in December, he claimed thatJapan continued to be a hugely important marketforSony Interactive Entertainment.
Famitsu later published an interview with Ryan in which he saidhe considered all of SIE’s studios to be importantand that he continued to support Japanese game development for PS5.
Japan Studio was founded in 1993 and created iconic PlayStation IP like Ape Escape, Patapon and Gravity Rush, in addition to assisting other developers such asFromSoftware,BluepointandQ-Games.
further reading
Japan Studio was Sony Interactive Entertainment‘s oldest first-party studio, with a focus on introducing new styles of gameplay.
The developer was known for games such as Knack, LocoRoco and Ape Escape, as well as its collaborations on the likes of Bloodborne, The Last Guardian and Everybody’s Golf. It most recently worked on PS5’sDemon’s Soulswith US studio Bluepoint.
