It was already suspected for a while that Sony was moving to downsize Japan Studio, but the company didn’t officially confirm it until February. Numerous high-profile staff members have slowly and steadily departed the studio over the last few months and today marks the last day for one Gavin Moore, who confirmed his exit from the studio over Twitter. With that, it looks like Japan Studio is sadly no more, something that no doubt many wish was an April Fools’ prank.
Moore has been with Sony for 24 years, with 18 of those years spent in Japan. He served as director on Puppeteer, a PlayStation 3 platformer from 2013 that garnered mostly positive reviews. Back in January, he admitted to wanting to make a sequel to the game instead of remaking it, but with him no longer at Japan Studio, it’s extremely unlikely that a sequel will ever see the light of day. He was also the creative director behind the Demon’s Souls remaster for the PlayStation 5.
It should be clarified that Japan Studio isn’t necessarily being shut down. Despite the many departures, what is left of the studio is being repurposed and given the new name of Team Asobi. Asobi Team was originally a separate team with Japan Studio responsible for the Astro Bot games. As such, the renamed Team Asobi will focus entirely on more projects within that series.
Even if the studio will still exist in some form, many are lamenting the new direction, not just because of the mass exodus of talent but because the studio was responsible for many classic and beloved titles and series that have been praised for their uniqueness and originality, including but not limited to Ape Escape, Parappa the Rapper, and Gravity Rush. Many believe that the studio’s creativity is being stifled and that so many potential ideas for interesting games have been lost.
That said, some of the former staff members have already moved on to new pastures. For instance, Keiichiro Toyama, the creator of the Silent Hill and Gravity Rush series, has already set up a new studio called Bokeh Game Studio and is joined by many of his fellow colleagues from Japan Studio with the purpose of making the kind of games they want to make. They’ve begun working on an entirely new horror game but details are still rather scarce. Hopefully, though, this will mean that it and possibly other studios can help fill the void that the now former Japan Studio has left behind.
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