PlayStation Veteran Details Reasons Behind Sony’s Japan Studio Closure
▼ Summary
– Shuhei Yoshida explained Sony closed Japan Studio because it could not produce AAA hardware sellers like “God of War and Uncharted” for PS4 and PS5.
– Sony officially stated Japan Studio was “re-organized” into Team Asobi, but most of its staff were let go and key creatives left months before the merger.
– Yoshida noted Japan Studio focused on smaller, creative AA games fit for PS Vita, which struggled to scale up to the AAA scale Sony demanded.
– Despite closing Japan Studio to focus on system sellers, Sony has pivoted to live-service games and has not released a new Uncharted game since the closure.
– The article questions Sony’s strategy, suggesting players might have preferred smaller AA games over rare AAA releases, especially for a potentially expensive PlayStation 6.
Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida has shed new light on one of the most painful decisions in Sony’s gaming history: the closure of Japan Studio in April 2021. And his reasoning is just as hard to swallow as the shutdown itself.
For years, fans have struggled to understand why Sony would shutter a studio responsible for iconic titles like Ape Escape, Shadow of the Colossus, and Ico , games that helped define the PlayStation brand. Speaking at the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference on July 22, Yoshida finally addressed the question head-on, and his answer reveals a stark corporate reality.
“Players from around the world have said that it’s unbelievable that Sony would shut down Japan Studio,” Yoshida admitted, according to a translation by GamesRadar. “Japan Studio released loads of games, creative games, didn’t it? At that time I was saying something similar.”
But the core problem, Yoshida explained, was a mismatch between creative ambition and commercial scale. While Japan Studio’s developers produced inventive, offbeat titles, those games simply didn’t move the needle on PlayStation 5 hardware sales the way blockbuster franchises like God of War and Uncharted do.
“As the head of development, I was worried about [Keiichiro] Toyama and the other Japanese developers at Japan Studio,” Yoshida continued. “But while they came up with a lot of creative ideas, the games they made weren’t big in scale. What we call AA games are a perfect fit for the PlayStation Vita, but we were slowly shifting to AAA on the PS4 and PS5, and sometimes it’s difficult to scale up like that.”
He added bluntly: “As a company, PlayStation wanted to drive hardware sales with games like God of War and Uncharted, because that’s the kind of game that’s in demand… It’s hard for Japan Studio to launch a new series on console.”
Officially, Sony framed the closure as a reorganization, with Japan Studio absorbed into Astro Bot developer Team Asobi. But reports from VGC at the time painted a darker picture: the “vast majority” of the studio’s staff were let go before the merger, and key creatives including Demon’s Souls producer Teruyuki Toriyama and Gravity Rush director Keiichiro Toyama had already departed.
The irony is hard to miss. Since Japan Studio’s closure, Sony has pivoted heavily toward live-service games , many of which have struggled to find an audience. Meanwhile, the very blockbusters that supposedly justified the shutdown have been slow to arrive. There hasn’t been a new Uncharted since 2021, partly because Naughty Dog spent years developing the ill-fated The Last of Us Online.
Yoshida’s explanation highlights a lingering tension in Sony’s strategy: chasing AAA hardware sellers that take years to produce, while neglecting the smaller, AA-budget experiences that could keep players engaged in the meantime. As the industry looks ahead to the PlayStation 6 , a console that may come with a price tag many can’t afford , it’s worth asking whether this obsession with system sellers is truly sustainable.
(Source: Kotaku)
