RIP Sony Japan Studios

[Becksworth]

While it technically isn’t fully dead, it’s going to basically just be the Astrobot team going forward from the sound of it.

Anyway, I thought we could reminisce about our favorite games by them. I’ll come back here tomorrow and post Gravity Rush music once I’m less sleepy...

 

[Patrick]

I mean, Demon's Souls and Ico.

But they made or helped with so many phenomenal games. I just looked through their Wikipedia page and there are a ton that I hadn't realized they helped with. Just to call out a few more, Patchwork Heroes is a wonderful gem, Tokyo Jungle is really wild, and I've always wanted to try out Jumping Flash! I should probably pick it up on Vita.

 

[Zef]

I just looked through their Wikipedia page and there are a ton that I hadn't realized they helped with.

Aw, man, all the good Level-5 games (and White Knight Chronicles) were developed together with SJS, and that just makes me wonder how much of their charm and success came from the latter as opposed to the former.

 

[Ludendorkk]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1365137727218360320

This sucks. They haven't been the most successful studio in a long time but they were a living link to that first golden decade of the Playstation platform, when it seemed anything was possible

 

[Becksworth]

Looking at the wiki list there are so many games that were that I leaned towards in terms of 1st party Sony stuff. Parappa the Rappa, Arc the Lad, Wild Arms, Team Ico games, Xi/Devil Dice, Patapon, LocoRoco, Puppeteer, Gravity Rush...

Even weirdo stuff that wasn’t strictly good like WTF! Work Time Fun I appreciate as an artistic statement.

 

[conchobhar]

I feel like this was a long time coming; their original output had dropped off in the last generation, and a lot of the key talent (the cores of Team Ico and Team Gravity, at least) had already left.

Still, this is a bummer. Japan Studio was a huge and important force on the PS1, PS2 and even PSP, so it's sad to see them get this sort of ignoble end. The three Team Ico games are some of my all-time favourite games, Wild Arms was a fantastic series, and they were one of the few studios to consistently do bold and interesting things on the PSP— LocoRoco, Patapon and Echochrome among them.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I feel like this was a long time coming; their original output had dropped off in the last generation, and a lot of the key talent (the cores of Team Ico and Team Gravity, at least) had already left.

Yep. I went back and looked through "their games" and seems like in their glory days, they were just a publishing house/brand for tons of smaller studio games, and stopped being that quite a while ago. Which is fine because Sony doesn't really need that anymore in the brave new digital age. Still sad to see 'em go get reorganized, but it's probably for the best? Like, this was something that needed to happen internally since their other internal divisions were basically zombies. I'm definitely gonna miss them as a brand though. They were responsible for the PS1 and PS2 era's most inventive titles and gave the PlayStation brand its unique edge and allure that still has yet to be matched. Man, PS1 era... what a magical time for gaming. My only regret is that the best stuff never got a chance to make it over here.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I don't know the full extent of their involvement in all the games on that list, but my god, the classics and otherwise-memorable games there...they had a hand in an absurd number of the most iconic PS1 games, particularly the ones that really defined the PS as a brand against other consoles (i.e. not including multi-console or pre-PS IPs and series). Less but still a lot of that on the PS2 - ICO and SotC are obvious hallmarks there. Gravity Rush. Even on up to Demon's Souls on PS3 and Bloodborne on PS4, they had their hands in a lot of prime PS-exclusive games. Damn.

I really hope Bokeh studio gets up to something good. I know he left quite a while ago, but does anyone have any idea what Ueda has been doing recently, if anything?

 

[conchobhar]

I know he left quite a while ago, but does anyone have any idea what Ueda has been doing recently, if anything?

Through his new studio genDESIGN, he's been working on a new title for the past couple of years. They've teased some concept art, but nothing concrete is known yet. It's also being funded by Epic Games.

 

[MetManMas]

I'm sad that Sony Japan Studios is basically defunct, but I am more sad that so much of their quirkier Japan-only output has never seen so much as a fan translation.

 

[Ludendorkk]

One shouldn't downplay Japan Studio's role in a shepherding a lot of those games to creation, even if they weren't the primary developer -- for a relevant example, it was Japan Studio that pitched to Fromsoftware a spiritual successor to King's Field (which would become Demon's Souls), and not the other way around.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Sony has essentially ceded the Japanese market to Nintendo now, so this not surprising. The writing was on the wall with the global X and O button mandate.

Also, Sony’s big, cinematic stories for adults are what defines the PlayStation now, not the more experimental smaller games that the Japan studio excelled in.

R.I.P. Soul Sacrifice.

 

[Seven]

I don't have any nostalgia for their home console titles, but I loved the games they released on the Playstation handhelds. Patapon, Soul Sacrifice, and Gravity Rush will always be highlights of Sony's brief foray into the portable space.

 

[Becksworth]

On a relared note Sony is shutting down one of its smaller western studios as well