Summary
- Silent Hill director Keiichiro Toyama left Sony's Japan Studio due to a push for bigger budgets, conflicting with the studio's identity of creating smaller, innovative games.
- Toyama is now focused on creating unique games with smaller budgets at his own company, Bokeh Game Studio.
- Bokeh's debut title, Slitterhead, is scheduled to be released this November.
The director behind the iconic Silent Hill franchise, Keiichiro Toyama, has revealed that he departed Sony's now-reorganized Japan Studio due to a push for ballooning game budgets from higher-ups in the company. Toyama served as a game director at Japan Studio for over two decades and is credited for creating the Siren and Gravity Rush franchises.
After the release of Silent Hill in 1999, Toyama left Konami to work on the Siren series for the PlayStation 2 at Japan Studio. Nearly a decade and three Siren games later, the director released Gravity Rush for the PlayStation Vita, which was followed up by a sequel for the PlayStation 4 in 2017. Unfortunately, Toyama parted ways with Japan Studio in September 2020, just two months before the launch of Sony's current-generation console, the PlayStation 5. Five months after Toyama's departure, Sony officially announced restructuring efforts for Japan Studio.
PlayStation Japan Studio Restructure Leads to Developer Exodus
The reorganization of Sony's Japan Studio begins today, after several of the Studio's longtime developers announced their departure from the company.
Sony didn't provide a reason for the reorganization at the time, but many theorized that Japan Studio's game output and return-on-investment may not have been financially sustainable, especially on the cusp of a new console generation. However, in a new interview with VGC, Toyama revealed that Sony's insistence on developing bigger-budget titles in recent years was the reason behind the departures of him and many other longtime Japan Studio developers. "With Sony, there was an increasing motive to make more highly budgeted games, and it wanted to go that way with the Japan Studio brand," remarked Toyama.
Sony's Emphasis On Big-Budget Games Conflicted With Japan Studio's Philosophies
Standing opposite to PlayStation's western studios and their big-budget AAA titles, Japan Studio always pioneered smaller, more creative games like Ape Escape, Patapon, LocoRoco, Puppeteer, and so on. Toyama believed that the push for more expensive and ambitious projects didn't match Japan Studio's identity. "My motive was always to create original games. I feel I can do this without a massive budget. This allows me to express myself as well," he said. After exiting Japan Studio in 2020, Toyama founded Bokeh Game Studio and announced Slitterhead, its debut game, in 2021.
Toyama capped off his answer by remarking that he's pleased with his creative freedom at Bokeh, and that he feels like he's "accomplishing" what he wanted to do, which is to make innovative and original games on smaller budgets. The studio revealed gameplay for Slitterhead at Summer Game Fest 2024, and confirmed an October 8 release date for the horror title. Meanwhile, Japan Studio is nowhere as big as it used to be after the restructuring, but its heir, Team Asobi, is carrying forward its legacy of smaller titles with the upcoming Astro Bot platformer. However, it remains to be seen whether Sony will continue to let Team Asobi develop games with smaller budgets, or if history will repeat itself.
- Date Founded
- November 16, 1993
- Headquarters
- Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan
- Parent Company
- Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Studios
- Known For
- Ape Escape