Former Sony Interactive Leisure president Shuhei Yoshida has been talking out about his time at PlayStation on podcasts, and he lately commented in regards to the closure of PlayStation’s Japan Studio. Particularly, he stated that the disappearance of the “double-A” recreation market was a significant cause for the downfall of the studio.
Talking on the Sacred Symbols podcast, Yoshida acknowledged that in his time with PlayStation, Japan Studio had “nice merchandise,” however did not have many “AAA-level profitable merchandise,” aside from Gran Turismo. “That grew to become increasingly essential as the massive video games grew to become greater. The indies crammed the hole and the double-A market appears to have disappeared. Many of the IPs that Japan Studio had have been in that smaller double-A sized group, and the market grew to become actually tough for these sorts of video games.”
He cited Gravity Rush 2 for example, noting that its director Keiichiro Toyama pitched a number of concepts for a follow-up, however Japan Studio was not capable of greenlight any of them as a consequence of market circumstances. Yoshida famous that the closure of Japan Studio did permit Toyama to create his personal studio, which ultimately produced the 2024 launch Slitterhead. Sony shut down Japan Studio again in April 2021. A few of the studio’s best-known video games embrace Ape Escape, the Knack sequence, and the Demon’s Souls remake.
The remnants of Japan Studio can nonetheless be seen at Staff Asobi, nonetheless. The studio, which spun off from Japan Studio, lately developed the acclaimed Astro Bot, which received The Recreation Awards’ 2024 recreation of the yr, amongst different accolades.