Japan Studio, the Sony development studio behind classic games like Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian, and Bloodborne, is closing its doors.
ASOBI Team, a division of Japan Studio, will remain to focus on the Astro series.
What Is Japan Studio?
Japan Studio is Sony's oldest first-party games studio and is based in Tokyo. It formed in 1993 and has been around since the birth of the PlayStation, having gone on to publish games for every Sony console since.
Some of Japan Studio's recent games include Everybody's Golf VR, the Shadow of the Colossus remake, and Astro's Playroom for the PS5.
Other series the studio has been involved in include Ape Escape, Gravity Rush, and Knack.
Japan Studio Is Being "Re-Centered"
As first reported by VGC, sources claimed that most of Japan Studio's development staff hadn't had their annual contracts renewed.
Only ASOBI Team, a division of the studio, would remain and put its focus on the Astro franchise.
This news was then confirmed by a Sony Interactive Entertainment spokesperson:
In an effort to further strengthen business operations, SIE can confirm PlayStation Studios Japan Studio will be re-organized into a new organization on April 1. Japan Studio will be re-centered to Team ASOBI, the creative team behind Astro’s Playroom, allowing the team to focus on a single vision and build on the popularity of Astro’s Playroom.
While some Japan Studio employees will merge with ASOBI Team, VGC have been told that many are now unemployed or are following Keiichiro Toyama, director of Silent Hill and Gravity Rush, to his new studio called Bokeh.
The statement from Sony continues:
In addition, the roles of external production, software localization, and IP management of Japan Studio titles will be concentrated within the global functions of PlayStation Studios.
This part isn't so unexpected, since most other Sony studios like Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch make use of the centralized support of PlayStation Studios.
In fact, it seems the writing had been on the wall for Japan Studio for a while. One of VGC's sources claims that the studio hasn't been profitable in recent years, a problem compounded by the fact that the developer wanted to create games that appealed primarily to the Japanese market, in the hopes that it found global appeal.
A report from Bloomberg in November 2020 suggested that Japan Studio had been sidelined. Later, in an interview with Edge magazine, Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said that "the Japanese market remains incredibly important to us".
Regardless, Japan Studio's effective closure marks a sad day for a team losing their jobs, not least because they were responsible for a wealth of classic PlayStation titles.