It’s been a long time since many fan-favorite PlayStation franchises have been seen. This has a lot to do with Japan Studio’s closure in 2021 and Shuhei Yoshida’s departure as president of SIE Worldwide Studios.
Sony is fixated on delivering high-energy, big-time blockbuster games for PlayStation owners. Examples of this strategy include God of War, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima (and Ghost of Yotei), The Last of Us, Spider-Man, and Returnal. However, it means a less-driven approach toward AA game development.
The gap between indie titles and AAA giants is larger than ever, and part of this is due to Shuhei Yoshida stepping down as SIE Worldwide Studios’ president, which in turn caused Japan Studio to close.
Sony PlayStation No Longer Wanted AA Games on PS4 or PS5
In a translated interview with AV Watch, Yoshida explained: “I was in charge of the first party, so I was asked to make a game that was powerful enough to sell hardware. When you make something like that, the company pushes you a lot. The company wanted such things, and while we had to make them, the scale of development and the sales required were getting bigger and bigger.”
He added that company creators were coming up with great ideas, and while they were “very creative and interesting,” they were ultimately deemed AA. He said that “Japan Studio ceased to exist” soon after he stepped down as president—an event brought on by PlayStation’s corporate restructuring.
“At that time, the JAPAN studio was a team that was good at making AA, and it was a studio. In that case, it probably doesn’t match what the company and first party are looking for,” explained Yoshida.
Japan Studio was part of the most lauded titles in PlayStation’s catalog: Everybody’s Golf, Ape Escape, LocoRoco, Knack, Patapon, Gravity Rush, and many more. While other studios might pick up these franchises—like Bandai Namco has done with the new Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots title—some of these games are now consigned to history.
I miss AA games.
Same reason why they dumped Shawn Layden and promoted Jim Ryan. Why allow Asobi though?