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Japan Studio Shut Down Because Double-A Market Disappeared, Indies "Filled The Gap"

By 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:James Lucas

Published Feb 19, 2025

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Summary

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida revealed that Japan Studio was shut down because the double-A market had disappeared.
Keiichiro Toyama pitched several concepts before leaving to form his own studio in 2020, but unfortunately none were approved.

Japan Studio, the beloved PlayStation developer behind icons like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ape Escape and Gravity Rush, was 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:shut down in 2021. Four years later, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has finally shed lig♍ꩲht on why.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The remnants 🦂of Japan Studio became Team Asobi, who just released the GOTY-winning 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Astro Bot.

"During my time, people give me credit, but one of the thi𓆉ngs I was not successful at was having a successful [live-service] game, and the other thing is I was not able to have amazingly successful games made in Japan," Yoshida said on the podcast (as reported by ).

"Other than 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Gran Turismo, we had many great products but didn't really have many triple-A level successful products. That became more and more important as the big games became bigger — the indies filled the gap and the ♍double-A market seems to have disappeared."

Japan Studio Had Several Ideas Before Being Shut Down

Former Japan Studio lead Keiichiro Toyama (of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Silent Hill fame), pitched several concepts before he 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:left the company in 2020, but unfortunately, all of these were rejected.

Japan Studio also co-developed 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bloodborne, Ico, and several other iconic games.

"Most of the IPs that Japan Studio had were in that smaller double-A sized group and the market became really difficult for these kinds of games. For example, after Gra🅠vity Rush 2, [Toyama] tried☂ to come up with a new concept, but we were not able to greenlight any of his new concepts, even though they were really interesting."

Yoshida explains that these ideas were rejected because they "looked like something the company wouldn't support". They were simply too small: PlayStation wanted big, flashy, triple-A blockbusters. However, that attitude appears to be changing with t🍎he longer development cycles leaving bigg☂er gaps between games.

Two years ago, which revealed that PlayStation was interested in making smaller games to start fillingℱ those gaps. It stated that one triple-A game alone could fund three mid-sized games. Unfortunately, Japan Studio no longer exists to support that new ambition, but Team Asobi is at least keeping the torch lit with hits like Astro Bot.