Sony Shuts Down Its First-Party Game Developer Japan Studio – Gaming – News

Sony is about to shut down its first-party game developer Japan Studio. The game maker will be part of Team Asobi, another first-party studio from Sony. Many Japan Studio employees have reportedly been laid off during this transition.

Sony says closure and partial merger is part of an “ effort to strengthen Sony Interactive Entertainment’s business operations, ” the company said in a response to Video Games Chronicle, among others. The new strategy would start on April 1, the new business year.

Japan Studio has been “simply not profitable enough” for the parent company in recent years, according to VGC sources. Moreover, Japan Studio wanted to make games that were mainly interesting for the Japanese market, while Sony wants games that are interesting internationally.

Team Asobi started as a division of Japan Studio. It was founded in 2021 and has to date been The Playroom, The Playroom VR, Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Astro’s Playroom to its name.

Japan Studio is Sony’s oldest first-party studio; his first game was released in 1994. That was Crime Crackers for the first PlayStation. That game, like many other games, made it in collaboration with another game studio. Examples of prominent games that Japan Studio is partly responsible for include Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian. Games it made from scratch include Knack II, LocoRoco, Kung Fu Rider, and Ape Escape.

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