Sony Japan Studio
From 1 April Sony Japan Studio will undergo an internal restructuring that will lead the Japanese company to focus on the ASOBI Team (authors of Astro's Playroom and Astro Bot Rescue Mission), a decision that has led in recent months to the abandonment of numerous key figures of the studio. .After Masami Yamamoto, Masaaki Yamagiwa, Teruyuki Toriyama, Keiichiro Toyama, Kazunobu Sato and Junya Okura, Shunsuke Saito also leaves Sony Japan Studio starting today, Wednesday 31 March. Saito worked as a character designer for Gravity Rush and Gravity Rush 2, as well as being the art director of the latter project.
Sony Japan Studio was founded in the early 1990s to develop PlayStation games, with the goal of supporting the Japanese giant in its debut in the console market. In recent years the team has worked on productions such as Bloodborne (with FromSoftware), The Last Guardian, Everybody's Golf VR and Gravity Rush and Gravity Rush 2, from April 1st the studio will continue to exist but with a new shape and the employees will be incorporated into the Team ASOBI while all activities related to localization, IP management and collaborations with other studios will be managed by PlayStation Studios.
Team ASOBI remains an important asset for Sony Corporation, also in light of the great success achieved by Astro's Playroom and Astro Bot Rescue Mission for PlayStation VR.