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VGC: Sony is winding down Japan Studio

kyliethicc

Member
When you look at what made the Playstation brand. I bet most think of Japanese series, like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Shadow of the Colossus, Gran Turismo, Tekken and so on. And these california guys don't get it and come of as anti Japanese.
Except that was 15+ years ago. Of course MGS5 and FF15 sold well on PS4, as did GT Sport, Tekken, and Street Fighter. But..

The core of the PS4 was GTA 5, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Fortnite, Destiny, NBA2K, FIFA, Minecraft, Uncharted, The Last of Us, God of War, Spider-man, Horizon, Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed, Rocket League, etc. Those are the best sellers over the gen. Not Persona 5, Gravity Rush 2, and The Last Guardian. Japanese centric games sold fine on PS4, but Japan has lost a lot of interest in TV home consoles. They prefer mobile gaming and handhelds, hence why the Switch sells. That's why Sony set up an entire division outside of PlayStation to just make mobile games, mainly for Japanese audiences.

And Japan Studio had nothing to do with MGS or Final Fantasy, or Tekken, or Gran Turismo. Sony gladly gave Kojima a fuck ton of money to make Death Stranding because they know his games sell. They just announced FF16 is a timed exclusive on PS5, as was FF7 remake. They gladly promoted Persona 5, but thats of course Atlus's game. Japan Studio tho.. made Knack and Patapon remastered... They helped on Bloodborne sure, but From Software made that game. And Bluepoint remade Shadow of the Colossus. Sony doesn't give a fuck anymore about giving Ueda 10 years to make another game that will go on to sell ~ 1 million units.

The best "Japanese centric" game that Sony has made in the last 7 years is Ghost of Tsushima, made in the US by Americans. Insomniac's Spider-Man sold more copies in 2 years than every game Japan Studio made in the last 7 years combined. That's why they're being downsized to focus on making Astro Bot games, the one successful and profitable game series they've made in the last gen.

Toyama and Ueda both left to make their own studios. And guess what they will do when they make their games? Sell them on PlayStation, Steam, and Switch. Sony doesn't need to employ them to get their games on their system. Just like Sony did not make (and is not making) games like FF7, Persona 5 or P5 Strikers, Montster Hunter World, Genshin Impact, Hades, Cuphead, Inside, Kena, Little Devil Inside, Pathless, Abzu, Bugsnax, Maquette, Solar Ash, or Oddworld. But they'll all end up or already are on PlayStation.

And this reorg move of Japan Studio has nothing to do with Polyphony Digital btw. They're an entirely different studio, quite a large one, with offices in Japan, USA, and EU.


Not surprising. Japan Studio has not itself produced much of anything in the way of a big hit in a long time. Maybe 16 years ago when Shadow of the Colossus released. Team Asobi was the only part of that studio creating any kind of conversation about PlayStation and that was thanks largely to the VR game they made that got really high reviews and was actually the highest rated VR game until Half-Life: Alyx came out. It's still the highest rated PSVR game. Then they dropped Astro's Playroom as a PS5 pack-in and it was more well received than anything Japan Studio, outside of Asobi, had done since LocoRoco 2 about 12 years ago.

FACTS!
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
And this reorg move of Japan Studio has nothing to do with Polyphony Digital btw. They're an entirely different studio, quite a large one, with offices in Japan, USA, and EU.
lol. Didn't know that. I thought PD was entirely in Japan. Every time someone brings up PD, it's always Japan.
 

kyliethicc

Member
lol. Didn't know that. I thought PD was entirely in Japan. Every time someone brings up PD, it's always Japan.
Thats their main office of course, they're a Japanese studio lead by Kaz, who is Japanese. I read they have some devs in the Netherlands and California too though.

I'm totally guessing, but I bet like 75% of their team is Japanese or works in Japan. But they have to cover cars & tracks across 3 continents so it makes sense to have some devs in each.

Since they go all over the world to scan cars and tracks in person, take photographs for "Scapes" etc. That's whats fucking up GT7 right now. Covid means no travel, probably no meeting with car manufacturers, etc.
 
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Not surprising. Japan Studio has not itself produced much of anything in the way of a big hit in a long time. Maybe 16 years ago when Shadow of the Colossus released. Team Asobi was the only part of that studio creating any kind of conversation about PlayStation and that was thanks largely to the VR game they made that got really high reviews and was actually the highest rated VR game until Half-Life: Alyx came out. It's still the highest rated PSVR game. Then they dropped Astro's Playroom as a PS5 pack-in and it was more well received than anything Japan Studio, outside of Asobi, had done since LocoRoco 2 about 12 years ago.

Team Gravity (aka Project Siren, former members of the Silent Hill team) never managed to bring to the table for Sony what they did with Silent Hill. Siren didn't even remotely achieve the success that Silent Hill had and Gravity Rush was neat but, again, it never went beyond just being some Japanese action RPG with a twist. Team Ico was largely gone a long time ago and even then when they helped finish The Last Guardian it ended the "trilogy" on a much weaker note than what was expected after Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. The rest of the studio was giving us gems like Knack and.... Knack 2. A lot of the time when I hear people talk about Japan Studio and what they bring to the table, they list games that weren't even actually developed by them. Japan Studio has done a TON of collaborative efforts with third parties. The vast majority of games released with their name on it were just that. Collaborative efforts where the bulk of the work was done by someone else.

What Sony is doing is busting down Japan Studio to what they deserve to be right now. A Japanese developer that makes smaller scale projects and assists third parties. It's a similar situation to what they did with Santa Monica when Asmussen's project couldn't deliver. They downsized it and refocused the studio around a team they felt a lot more confident in. Refocusing Japan Studio and getting all that chaos under control should allow them to regrow into something better, more efficient, and ultimately more profitable for the company. Asobi has proven they have the talent the other teams lacked to produce the results so everything is in their hands now. All of the budget and resources.

Sony isn't going to let a studio exist and continue to drain them of money just for the sake of it. At some point you have to produce and make yourself worth it by either being a commercial success or a critical darling. If not, you either end up getting closed or restructured and told to try harder. Given time, and assuming this team succeeds, we'll likely see Japan Studio expand again but it won't be what it was. They'll likely focus on big projects the likes of which most of Sony's studios do today. Not like you'd be missing out on much if that happened based on the last decade. Besides, your best shot at a Legend of Dragoon remake or sequel was probably more likely to come from Bluepoint as it is.

This is such an excellent post and basically summarizes my thoughts. People are so over-reactionary about the news and think that Sony is literally "shutting down" vibrant studios when the reality is they are finally ripping off the bandaid on studios that were basically the walking dead.

This is not a closure of SCEJ; this is a restructuring. There's a massive difference. Team ASOBI has basically made better platforming games than Nintendo's EAD studio over the past 10 years (IMHO). The Astro titles are WAY better than Mario Odyssey or any of the other derivative spinoffs. Far more inventive with an attention to detail/charm that has surpassed what they put out now. That's an astonishing achievement. And they deliver these games ON TIME with a small team.

Imagine what Team ASOBI can grow into now that all resources will be moved over? Whenever structural issues need to be reformed, and you have underperforming teams, it's usually not a problem with the individual contributors (think artists, gameplay designers, programmers, etc), it's a problem with senior leadership and creative directors. What Sony is doing now is basically forcing that talent under the DNA of a team that has proven themselves extremely successful with quality, schedule, and budget when the previous teams maybe only had success in one of those categories.

This is a new beginning for something better. If ASOBI continues being successful, you'll see more and more projects with the same DNA and they can grow into something like what Nintendo has established.
 
And while I will say that I loved The Last Guardian, the truth is it took over 10 years to make, was a technical and budgetary mess, requiring TeamICO to be bailed out by SCEJ. Ueda is a brilliant artist, but he's not very good with project management. He's also no longer with Sony, so it's not like they "lost him" as a result of this news.

AAA development, even on a smaller scale today, has to be much more laser focused to deliver on time, within budget, and in a reasonable schedule.
 
I guess there might be some credibility to this random /v/ post after all. I know, I know, 4chan and all that.

Potential-Sony-and-PS5-internal-issues-leak.png
 
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You statement simply bashes the games, it never states anything about them being Japanese or not.




Sooooo yea. Not sure how anyone would get your point is "don't have smaller Japanese titles" by that comment, its just getting triggered and bashing games you don't like. Thats the only point that can be taken from that post... Your own words.

Sony Japan wasn't the only team at Sony that did Japanese games.... sooo I see no evidence that they "don't have smaller Japanese titles anymore" that is factually wrong. Astro Bot is not Japanese? huh? Sir, they stated they are simply restructuring those teams, nothing about no longer making smaller titles in Japan as Sony Japan didn't even make the majority of those titles alone.


ie you can count the "developed with" as evidence that the team SOLELY didn't just EXCLUSIVELY and ONLY make those titles for Sony, many teams did.


And to that, welcome to the ignore list. Have a good one.
Astrobot is a pre installed game on the system, and thats one game, when i mention japanese games, games plural, and you just mention astrobot, then its a dire situation. imagine not seeing whats going on with sony and japan, the ongoing censorship for almost three years now, and that japanese developers have to contact the us branch to get questions answered about what they can put in their game or not, IN ENGLISH and in AMERICAN BUSINESS HOURS! Ergo its a way by proxy to strongarm smaller japanese developers to westernize their titles to avoid dealing with the costs and hassle. No wonder most of them went to Nintendo over the last few years.

If you dont see that as Japan and smaler japanes games/devs beeing a dead to Sony i dont know what to tell you, you will only get atlus/sega capcom and square and the likes, big hitters games from Japan, you are delusional if you think otherwise.

Also imagine putting me on the ignore list like a passive agressive bitch just because i have a different viewpoint than you
 
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BabyYoda

Banned
UK is getting closer at one point but I don't think it has overtaken since Japan has been growing recently (and software wise things are looking good for 2021 and 2022 as well).

I don't play games on mobiles either (did enjoy handheld gaming back when I commuted/travelled). However I don't think one is a threat to other.

PC gaming, mobile gaming and dedicated device gaming can all co-exist and be healthy.
I think the ratio will be in favour of mobile though, especially with the kids. But I suppose you're right, they all have their corner of the market.

Personally, they are all stop gaps till they invent a holodeck or equivalent!
 

yurinka

Member
To find a Japan Studio internal game before that one (minus Astrobot team), you have to go all the way back to 2012/2013, with the release of Knack 1 / Gravity Rush Vita.

The fact that the Sony producer for Bloodborne Masaaki Yamagiwa has left the Japan Studio offices throws in question this idea that everything is fine with that other side of the company and that Sony Japan will just continue on contracting developers like it used to once the shakeout of in-house creators is over. For our sakes, I hope new projects still find a path forward.
If for some reason you don't consider games the Astrobot games (I think at least the VR one should), then the most recent games completely developed inside Japan Studio are Knack 2 and Gravity Rush 2, both released in 2017.

Until now, studios like Sony Santa Monica or Japan Studio produced, localized, handled IPs etc (even incubated some of them) of externally developed games like Journey, Sound Shapes, Hohokum, Unfinished Swan, Bloodborne, the Bluepoint remakes, Everybody's Golf, Patapon and many other ones.

Now Sony will centralize this production, localization and IP management of externally developed games, so this job now will be more productive, less redundant and made with a more global focus instead of focusing too much on a single territory, while at the same time they free resources to their PlayStation Studios like Santa Monica or Japan Studio to make sure they can focus on their internally developed games.
 
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yurinka

Member
Ok, you got a point there. They did announce some games at State of Play I was interested in. I didn't know SIFU was indie. Looks damn good. I did see on EGS that SIFU was on PC as well though. Doesn't matter, SIFU reminds me of Absolver, another great indie title.

Maybe they are just restructuring. The way a lot of people have been talking though, it's like they don't care about Japanese games anymore. My favorite game of all time is a Japanese game. Sold like shit and I don't care, Phantom Dust is the best game EVER MADE.
The indie team behind Sifu is Sloclap, the their previous game was Absolver. Which unlike Sifu was published by Devolver.

In addition to their own output with Polyphony (Gran Turismo) and games published by Japan Studio (full list here, it's very long https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Studio ) without considering if totally developed by them, co-developed by them or totally outsourced their development to an external Japanese Studio they also signed a tons of exclusive deals with basically all decent Japanese 3rd party publishers or devs for PS4 or PS5:

And in addition to these exclusives, all the important Japanese console 3rd party publishers or devs published their multi games on PS, in a few cases after a temporal console exclusive somewhere else.

They do care about Japanese games.

They published a ton of Japanese games, both developed internally or externally, got a ton of 3rd party Japanese exclusives, from basically every important 3rd party Japanese company, and also got a ton of multi 3rd part Japanese games from basically every important 3rd party Japanese company.

Or are you able to make a list of important 3rd party Japanese console publishers or devs who without PS4 or PS5 games? I bet you aren't able even to make a list of important 3rd party Japanese console publishers or devs who don't have PS4 or PS5 exclusives.
 
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Papacheeks

Banned
The indie team behind Sifu is Sloclap, the their previous game was Absolver. Which unlike Sifu was published by Devolver.

They do care about Japanese games.

In addition to their own output with Polyphony (Gran Turismo) and games published by Japan Studio (full list here, it's very long https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Studio ) without considering if totally developed by them, co-developed by them or totally outsourced their development to an external Japanese Studio they also signed a tons of exclusive deals with basically all decent Japanese publishers or devs for PS4 or PS5:

I mean they literally featured Sifu and Solar ash in state of play. This puts bigger light on indie games for people vto take notice on. Hohokum hardly was promoted well, and difference in strat you can tell.

Jim ryan knows what he's doing to keep games flowing regardless if they are developed by japan studio or a external japanese indie dev.

If Sifu and others do better with this new strat, I think things will be more clear to people.

Also believe Ueda's next game is going to be featured on playstation.
 

yurinka

Member
I mean they literally featured Sifu and Solar ash in state of play. This puts bigger light on indie games for people vto take notice on. Hohokum hardly was promoted well, and difference in strat you can tell.

Jim ryan knows what he's doing to keep games flowing regardless if they are developed by japan studio or a external japanese indie dev.

If Sifu and others do better with this new strat, I think things will be more clear to people.

Also believe Ueda's next game is going to be featured on playstation.
Fun fact: In the Sifu trailer they mentioned their partnership with Kowlooon Nights, Epic and Sony.

Ueda's next game is also being made with a partnership with Kowloon Nights and Epic, so it would be too rare to see Sony there too.
 

Rikku-X

Member
Sloclap are not Japanese. Also remember Microsoft are buying studios, where previously there games have not sold that good as well. With the plan to give them better support, so there next games do sell. Not only is Sony not buying studios, they are closing them down. Plus Sony can not say Gravity Rush did not sell well, at the same time not even showing it at E3.
 
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Varteras

Gold Member
I would hoped for a new Gravity Rush game
You likely weren't getting one no matter what happened with Team Gravity and Japan Studio. If my memory serves me right, Toyama and his team were done with that franchise after the second game. He never envisioned it being much more than a couple entries. By the end of Gravity Rush 2, the story he wanted to tell was complete. He wanted to go back to making horror games. Even if he wanted to, it's unlikely that Sony would have greenlit the project. Toyama's group had already been given 22 years to try and make something truly successful and they never did. In all that time under Sony they only managed to push out five games over two franchises and at no point were they anywhere close to giving Sony a success story the way they had with Silent Hill and Konami when they worked there. After two decades Sony was probably just done with him.


Nooooo . Now I understand why Bloodborne is kinda abandoned
That really doesn't have anything to do with Japan Studio. They don't need Japan Studio to do another Bloodborne title. If From Software needed any kind of help developing it then any number of Sony's studios or support departments could do it. Sony clearly sees the value in the Soulsborne games which is why they contracted Bluepoint to remake Demon's Souls. Sony wouldn't want anyone else to develop the next Bloodborne except From Software. Right now their hands are tied with Elden Ring and the next Armored Core game and they had just made Sekiro and Dark Souls 3 before that. They do supposedly have a third project in the works rumored to be a Sony game but it's years away if true. That may be a Bloodborne sequel. It comes down to whether or not From Software wants to do it. If they don't then Bloodborne is done but not because Japan Studio got downsized.
 

yurinka

Member
If you dont see that as Japan and smaler japanes games/devs beeing a dead to Sony i dont know what to tell you, you will only get atlus/sega capcom and square and the likes, big hitters games from Japan, you are delusional if you think otherwise.
Bullshit.

Sony just made a 3 ways gaming deal with Kadokawa Games and CyberAgent (parent company of CyGames) to help bring their games to a global market, and Kadokawa gave 2% of its shares to both Sony and CyberAgent. It's fair to assume that if Sony gets involved into publishing, marketing or producing it will be in exchange of some kind of exclusivity.

List of Kadokawa Games titles, some published under other Kadokawa labels like Kadokawa Shoten, Enterbrain, Chara-Ani (Darius Burst CS, Senko no Rondo 2, Langrisser I & II...) or ASCII Media Works:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/角川ゲームス

Kadokawa also owns From Software, list of their titles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FromSoftware

Kadokawa also owns Spike Chunsoft, list of their titles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Chunsoft

List of CyGames titles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygames

If we look at the currently published or announced PS4 or PS5 exclusives there are ton of Japanese ones, basically from any known big and small Japanese 3rd party console publisher and developer:
https://www.gematsu.com/exclusives/ps4
https://www.gematsu.com/exclusives/ps5

Plus obviously all the Japanese multiplatform games.

Nooooo . Now I understand why Bloodborne is kinda abandoned
From Software has been busy with other projects. As I said above, Sony recently got a gaming deal with Bloodborne's devs parent company, so it's pretty likely that they will continue to work with Sony in the future, maybe once they are done with Elder Ring.

Sony changed how they manage the production of externally developed games, localization, etc. Now instead of being handled from development studios like Santa Monica or Japan studios they will be centralized to give a more global and productive approach to all these games while freeing resources from internal development studios like Japan Studio or Santa Monica to make sure they can focus on developing internal games.

This means they will continue producing and publishing externally developed games like Bloodborne but from a centralized way, which very likely means that now will have access to more tools, budget, knowledge and manpower. They don't need Japan Studio to produce an externally developed game like Bloodborne, or to localize it.

Thats their main office of course, they're a Japanese studio lead by Kaz, who is Japanese. I read they have some devs in the Netherlands and California too though.

I'm totally guessing, but I bet like 75% of their team is Japanese or works in Japan. But they have to cover cars & tracks across 3 continents so it makes sense to have some devs in each.

Since they go all over the world to scan cars and tracks in person, take photographs for "Scapes" etc. That's whats fucking up GT7 right now. Covid means no travel, probably no meeting with car manufacturers, etc.
Polyphony Digital is a Japanese studio. But basically AAA games get a portion of their work outsourced to external studios or freelancers, mostly in the art side of the games.

As an example, there was a talk from a Turn 10 guy (or Playground?) talking about that around 80% of the art of their games were developed in external outsourcing studios spread all around the world. As another example, there are over 20 studios who did work on games like Street Fighter IV, a game that isn't that big. Same goes with Street Fighter V.

Some of these outsourcing studios work for a ton of different companies. The same guys who work in Uncharted can also work in Halo or Assassin's Creed. In many cases they aren't credited in interviews, news or even in the game credits, but they have been there for decades.
 
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The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Is Sony going to use that new studio that formed out of Team Ico?

Masterpieces like Last Guardian and Shadow Of Colossus cannot disappear
The Last Guardians development was a mess and didn't sell that sell.
Sony or Microsoft? I fail to find the difference. You're going to have your rotation of Gran Turismo, Halo, Gears, Uncharted, and Forza, and like it.
The average users won't feel a difference. It's more the hardcore gamers like those from Gaf
from the same bloomberg leak, ms still wants to invest big with japanese developers.

put the fan boyism and pr aside, it does seem ms has been trying hard to communicate to us they value the gamers voices and desires
Microsoft are only doing it because they are the underdog, but they have been nothing but pro consumer last gen.
Is that supposed to be a good thing now it’s Sony we’re talking about?
For some you-know-you Fanboys will always defend Sony, and say that its different.
But tbh there is quite a big backlash here
Just buy Capcom. Brother Sony Pictures makes anything they release into movies.
We don't need both passive and interactive movies
 

Keihart

Member
OH the horror, the small Toyama's team made a game 3 years ago they had to be let go. Their time frame was more than in line with the rest of Sony studios, we probably didn't hear about new games because the pre production of their new horror game kind of overlapped with the change on management, you can hear Toyama's frustration in his Bokeh video. The only unsuccessful Siren was the episodic one in PS3 , Siren it's like one of the last amazing survival horror games ever released, i considered the studio dead the moment that it was official that Toyama and company left, that was the last critical darling team there. Sony before never had a problem fostering studios with critical hits while they performed good according to budget, under Shu at least, if this wasn't the case Guerrilla games would have been in the toilet after their second game.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
The indie team behind Sifu is Sloclap, the their previous game was Absolver. Which unlike Sifu was published by Devolver.

In addition to their own output with Polyphony (Gran Turismo) and games published by Japan Studio (full list here, it's very long https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Studio ) without considering if totally developed by them, co-developed by them or totally outsourced their development to an external Japanese Studio they also signed a tons of exclusive deals with basically all decent Japanese 3rd party publishers or devs for PS4 or PS5:

And in addition to these exclusives, all the important Japanese console 3rd party publishers or devs published their multi games on PS, in a few cases after a temporal console exclusive somewhere else.

They do care about Japanese games.

They published a ton of Japanese games, both developed internally or externally, got a ton of 3rd party Japanese exclusives, from basically every important 3rd party Japanese company, and also got a ton of multi 3rd part Japanese games from basically every important 3rd party Japanese company.

Or are you able to make a list of important 3rd party Japanese console publishers or devs who without PS4 or PS5 games? I bet you aren't able even to make a list of important 3rd party Japanese console publishers or devs who don't have PS4 or PS5 exclusives.
Oh I'm definitely interested in Sifu then. Absolver was awesome. You're probably right, I couldn't, at least I don't wanna try. My confirmation bias at work, I guess. I don't want Sony to give up on Japanese games. Why are people then saying Sony is giving up on Japan then?
 
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Javthusiast

Banned
None of Sony Japan studio games made a big splash, all just niche. And it's not like third party japanese games will die out. Resi, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Nier, Yakuza etc. We will have our fill even with sony abandoning that studio.
 

graywolf323

Gold Member
Oh I'm definitely interested in Sifu then. Absolver was awesome. You're probably right, I couldn't, at least I don't wanna try. My confirmation bias at work, I guess. I don't want Sony to give up on Japanese games. Why are people then saying Sony is giving up on Japan then?
because they're fanboys latching onto a narrative so they can attack something they don't like, that or trolls, GAF seems to have quite a few vocal users that represent both those types of posters

while I do miss the heyday of Japan Studio they clearly have been struggling this past gen so hopefully this reshuffling helps them find their footing again
 
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Woopah

Member
You are simply in love with semantics. You need to see the word "shut down" in print to some how support something.

So when you say



Consider you are not aware of how many people any major company actually layoff on any given day. Pretending the same thing isn't happening is naïve as fuck.

You simply want to see the word "shut down", them being laidoff and those teams being outsourced for those big projects instead of in house development teams sounds nicer in print and great for PR.

As to why where not aware of many of those layoffs. I see no reason for them to even continue to have the same number of staff if they are just going to pay other studios to handle that work outside of Nintendo like Ubisoft, Koei, Platinum Games etc.
You're right about layoffs happening and us not always being being aware. I've already conceded that point with Nintendo restructuring their European operations (plus I just remembered Project Sora closing, which was in 2013 I believe and so within the last decade) but to make sure I'm being clear, yes I was wrong about that.

I don't think your right about Nintendo outsourcing to replace internal teams though. The publisher has partnered with external developers for over three decades and many of their franchises have always or almost always been developed externally. They're just doing this more and more since games take longer to make now.

You say you see no reason for them to continue having the same number of staff, but the reason is simple. By growing their internal teams and partnering with more external teams they increase the number of games they put out, which then increases their hardware and software sales. Their total number of employees is increasing since the Switch launch and more specifically we know Monolith Soft is being expanded and Next Level Games have just been acquired.

In terms of number of retail games they publish Nintendo is one of the most prolific major publishers in the industry, and their partnerships with external companies is pretty much the number 1 reason why that is.
I think the ratio will be in favour of mobile though, especially with the kids. But I suppose you're right, they all have their corner of the market.

Personally, they are all stop gaps till they invent a holodeck or equivalent!
In terms of ratio yes it'll change (since mobile gaming wasn't so big a thing decades ago) but ultimate that doesn't bother me. As long as the market for dedicated video game devices is strong that's all that matters, and right now that is case (for kids and all other age groups).
 
I know Sony’s games haven’t been resonating with the Japanese audience, but I’m not sure it‘s the best idea to shut down the Japanese studio. Obviously they have shifted focus to the west, but I think some of their recent decisions are going to have unforeseen consequences.

We have already seen Nintendo getting SKU’s of series that have rarely been on Nintendo platforms and in some cases it’s either the lead platform or even Switch exclusive. This is going to help Nintendo in Japan, but also world wide by filling out their lineup with midtier 3rd Party games.

These midtier 3rd Party Japanese games seem to pair fairly well with Nintendo’s first party by filling in gaps in their lineup. Sony allowing Nintendo to gain a foothold with 3rd Party‘s doesn’t seem like a wise long term move.
 
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BabyYoda

Banned
In terms of ratio yes it'll change (since mobile gaming wasn't so big a thing decades ago) but ultimate that doesn't bother me. As long as the market for dedicated video game devices is strong that's all that matters, and right now that is case (for kids and all other age groups).

What am I talking about, I've been a gamer since the late 70's/early 80's and things were arguably better when gaming was niche and frowned upon.

I wanted it to become mainstream for the longest time, but although we've gained in some ways (technologically and sheer amount of software & hardware), over all, I think I'd like it to return to a smaller group of passionate developers and gamers.

Either way I take solace in the fact that even if the gaming industry implodes again, indie games will always be a thing!
 

Woopah

Member
What am I talking about, I've been a gamer since the late 70's/early 80's and things were arguably better when gaming was niche and frowned upon.

I wanted it to become mainstream for the longest time, but although we've gained in some ways (technologically and sheer amount of software & hardware), over all, I think I'd like it to return to a smaller group of passionate developers and gamers.

Either way I take solace in the fact that even if the gaming industry implodes again, indie games will always be a thing!
With the variety we have now of indie games, mid-tier games and AAA titles there's something for everyone. There's been loads of indie games I've enjoyed and I can't wait for Silksong!
 
None of Sony Japan studio games made a big splash, all just niche. And it's not like third party japanese games will die out. Resi, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Nier, Yakuza etc. We will have our fill even with sony abandoning that studio.
RE and FF aren't even japanese games anymore if you know what I mean. Also it still takes away from other style of games no matter how you look at it, PS is supposed to be about variety.
 

Woggleman

Member
Japan has moved on to mobile and handheld games. What else is Sony supposed to do. The Japan of today is not the Japan of 20 years ago sadly.
 

Areiz

Banned
You likely weren't getting one no matter what happened with Team Gravity and Japan Studio. If my memory serves me right, Toyama and his team were done with that franchise after the second game. He never envisioned it being much more than a couple entries. By the end of Gravity Rush 2, the story he wanted to tell was complete. He wanted to go back to making horror games. Even if he wanted to, it's unlikely that Sony would have greenlit the project. Toyama's group had already been given 22 years to try and make something truly successful and they never did. In all that time under Sony they only managed to push out five games over two franchises and at no point were they anywhere close to giving Sony a success story the way they had with Silent Hill and Konami when they worked there. After two decades Sony was probably just done with him.



That really doesn't have anything to do with Japan Studio. They don't need Japan Studio to do another Bloodborne title. If From Software needed any kind of help developing it then any number of Sony's studios or support departments could do it. Sony clearly sees the value in the Soulsborne games which is why they contracted Bluepoint to remake Demon's Souls. Sony wouldn't want anyone else to develop the next Bloodborne except From Software. Right now their hands are tied with Elden Ring and the next Armored Core game and they had just made Sekiro and Dark Souls 3 before that. They do supposedly have a third project in the works rumored to be a Sony game but it's years away if true. That may be a Bloodborne sequel. It comes down to whether or not From Software wants to do it. If they don't then Bloodborne is done but not because Japan Studio got downsized.
I guess you have right.
A shame considering the potentiality of the ip
 
Just buy Capcom. Brother Sony Pictures makes anything they release into mFrogged?
Capcom already has so many classic movies. Both excellent Oscar-worthy Street Fighter movies, the modern classic Monster Hunter and, of course, about 1000 Resident Evil movies, all of which are among the best movies ever created.
 

NahaNago

Member
This is all I can say disappointing to me. I've been wanting a AAA non-racing first party studio Japanese studio from Sony for awhile. I was really hoping I could see a Japanese studio view of a story in Sony's famous third person cinema games. Don't get me started on how I was hoping Sony would keep up the fight to rival Squareenix in jrpgs. They just keep going in the opposite direction of what I would like in games.
 

SSfox

Member
If Jimbo and Hermen plan is to feed us with mostly AAAA western open world games with big budget, i mean those can be cool, when they're great, they pretty much nailed all the games this gen, but it doesn't mean they will nail it this time with the sequels, also abusing on same thing over and over can become tiring and boring for people, Assassin's Creed was awesome with the first games, now it just garbage can, Ubisoft used to make POP games, beyong G&E, Assassin's creed, Splinter Cell, and look at what they become now? Big ultra forgettable AAA AC game with huge budget + bunch of other shitty games.

At this rate Sony will find themselves like Ubisoft 2.0, forgettable AAAA open world western games, with other few exceptions like GT.

I'm not playstation fan because i love and want AAAA open world western games, but because o the variety that it has always offered
, like gravity rush. Ico, SOTC, Last Guardian and more. Of course i loved Ghost Of Tsushima, Uncharted and above all God Of War and Bloodborne, but it doesn't mean all i want is the sequel with a bigger budget ect. But new, exciting, and surprising stuff instead. But Jimbo and Hermen seems forgot that. And tbh the only sequel i really wanted from those is GOW sequel, but for the other games while i really loved the games, but i don't necessarily want sequels from those games, Bloodborne 2 as well actually, but then again i don't mind it if FS will choose to make new IP.

I've never been so much disappointed about Sony in gaming,

And the icing in the cake is that now they start port the games that define PS brand on PC, smfh
 
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jhjfss

Member
Japan is nintendo land. No point in sinking money on niche titles that never sell. PS is making record revenues and profits year after year due to their pivot to the west and western AAA gaming. Japan studio was just worthless baggage that dragged PS down. Best to leave them and Japan to nintendo/switch and move on. Jim Ryan is cut throat but he's no fool.
 
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Jim Ryan is the reason I left the Playstation brand after a lifetime of owning all the Playstation consoles that have come out. I said months ago that JR was going to kill Sony, I've already switched to Nintendo.
 
Japan has moved on to mobile and handheld games. What else is Sony supposed to do. The Japan of today is not the Japan of 20 years ago sadly.
I‘m not sure the Japanese audience has completely abandoned consoles. We see that the OG Switch is still the preferred Switch version by a wide margin. We also still see titles like Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter, etc... perform well on consoles, including Sony consoles.

My question is if Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter, and others can sell a million units on consoles how would Sony consoles perform in Japan if they focused more on projects like those. Instead it seems they just give up on Japan without even trying to appeal to those consumers.
 
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