The creator of the Silent Hill franchise, Keiichiro Toyama, has been making games for over 26 years. From his starting work on Snatcher for Konami through to his most recent work on the Gravity Rush franchise, he’s consistently innovated in his projects. It seems, however, that Toyama has felt stifled as a part of Sony Japan Studio in recent years. Toyama is now confirmed to have left Sony Japan Studio to form his own team, which he’s named Bokeh Game Studio.
Toyama isn’t leaving on his own, however. Joining Toyama at Bokeh Game Studios will be Junya Okura as Game Director and Kazunobu Sato as Producer. Keiichiro Toyama himself will be taking on the role of Creative Director at the company. All three were previously part of Sony Japan Studio. They also confirm that other talent that they’ve worked with have also joined Bokeh, but no other specific names were mentioned.
In a video released confirming the creation of Bokeh Game Studio, the three discussed their hopes for what they want to do with the new studio. Toyama described how, “First, I want to fulfill our fans’ expectations. But at the same time, I want to go back and enjoy how fun it is to make games.” It’s unclear whether Toyama is referencing the creation of titles like Gravity Rush, or if he’s specifically referring to pre-Sony games like Silent Hill and Siren. Still, it’s rather clear that Toyama hasn’t been wholly fulfilled with his more recent work.
Both Okura and Sato each share similar sentiments in the video, talking about how they hope the new studio will once again invoke their creativity, but at the same time, they point out their responsibilities now that they’re running their own company. There’s a particularly funny moment where Toyama says they can improvise again and Sato quickly shakes his head and says no. Improvising game development may a bit beyond the scope of the new studio’s plans.
One notable detail in the video worth calling attention to is the variety of concept art show, or, more specifically, what’s in the concept art. A closer look is that the concept art appears to be for a horror game. It could be that Toyama will be revisiting his days creating Silent Hill or Siren.
That Bokeh Game Studio could be working on a new horror game is especially interesting, as it was rumored that Toyama and the Gravity Rush team had been working on a new Silent Hill project at Sony Japan Studio. Whether that rumor is true, whether the game was canceled, or whether it’s still in development remains unclear. What is clear is that whatever Toyama was working on didn’t work out as planned. Toyama will try and make amends with Bokeh Game Studio instead.
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