Gravity Rush Artist Shunsuke Saito Leaves Sony Japan Studio

Today another veteran developer announced his departure from PlayStation's beloved Sony Japan Studio, continuing a veritable exodus of talent.

[annoyedgamer]

Sony has decency and doesnt condone pedophilia. Glad he is gone.

/sarcasm

[Sonic-and-Crash]

While these are sound like bad news,from a different perspective if you exclude Gravity Rush which i consider brilliant game...
Sony did well to reorganize (relieve of duties) the specific developers as they didnt have accomplish anything worthy since Ico /SotC /TLG which by the way were Fumito Ueda s hard work...(i consider Siren series mediocre and Demon Souls/Bloodborne mainly From SOft s accomplishments)

Asobi Team (where Sony put all its weight on lately ) created 2 games that are almost perfect and what exactly PS4-5 was needing at the moment -->Good Quality platformer IP that can look Mario in the eyes (in comaprison to illfated Knack that suffered from art standpoint)

[Abriael]

What a terrible take.

Those developers were among the most creative in Sony's lineup, and most of their games were quirky but awesome. That's something absolutely missing on Sony's first-party slate without them.

Calling them "nothing worthy" just induces facepalms, really.

Asobi's games may be more Western-friendly and sellable (to a certain crowd), but they're way, way less interesting and unique.

The only good news is that those developers will likely do much better without having to be limited by Sony's AAA western-focused approach.

Also, the assumption that Sony relieved anyone of their duties is a pretty silly one. This has been going on for quite a while and the reorganization is likely a consequence of a gradual sequence of high profile departures, not a cause.

Devs from Japan Studio have been packing their bags for a while as they realized that Sony was basically pushing only on Asobi's games as its Japanese output, completely neglecting the plenty of other great franchises Japan Studio has. Not everyone wants to spend their creative life making Astro's Playroom.

[Sonic-and-Crash]

@Abriael ...i mostly agree with what you say ....but can you name smthing the specific devs created lately and was creative/appealable/ sellable enough ?.....

Gravity Rush were their best games (which i super love) but other than that had staled artistically (dont forget their age and the need quit working generally ) without smhting worthy in their portofolio (i repeat that i consider Siren mediocre and ICo series Fumito Ueda work , not theirs, which i consider him as the true loss of Japan Studio... also locorocco and Patapon which were great quirky as you say games were not theirs..

...From a company perspective it was logical to let them go, as they payed them without getting results....

[Abriael]

Again, assuming they were "let go" and they didn't simply quit on their own when they saw Sony wasn't interested in having them make the games they wanted to make is a pretty tall assumption. This has been going on for far longer than just a few weeks or months.

What you personally consider mediocre doesn't really concern me. Siren is great. Games like Bloodborne, Patapon, and other collaborations have a lot more of Japan Studio in them than you think. They've always worked in collaboration with external teams to help them punch above their development weight. Japan Studio has almost always been a co-developer, not just a publisher, so saying those games "aren't theirs" is simply false.

Games like Puppeteer, Freedom Wars and many more were really good experiences that received nearly zero marketing because Sony was too busy pushing western games, just like Gravity Rush 2.

Sony has great JRPG IPs from its past and fans have been literally begging them to bring them back, and what do they do? They shoehorn them into low-profile mobile games instead of giving them a good budget and making some great PlayStation exclusives.

There's tons to list and seeing those developers belittled (mostly to defend Sony) is honestly painful for my brain to see.

[Sonic-and-Crash]

@ Abriael ,,im not defending Sony onthis, not at all and i agree again mostly with you...Japan Studio should have never be shrinked but to the contrary add more personel to them...i just trying to understant from business standpoint Sony moves and they have some logic ...

Freedom Wars and Puppeteer have qualities and are fun to play , but also have big desing flaws (mostly artistically)....when you have Mario against you , you dont throw Puppetteer to gain players, when you have MH4 on 3DS , you dont just throw Freedom Wars without proper polishing and concept ..(for example Freedom wars was sacrificed so badly that became food for MH World that stole many ideas from it) ...

Sony needs to follow the Nintendo strategy in game development (overpolished , amost perfect games from every aspect) and with Team Asobi i think that is what they r trying to do

[Lore]

@abriel

“most of their games were quirky but awesome. That's something absolutely missing on Sony's first-party slate without them.”

And Sony isn’t missing massive/quality WRPG’s/JRPG’s from their first party lineup? They have plenty of quirky, awesome (albeit small) platformers and action adventure games. While I agree they should have found another way to expand Japan Studio into something grand, if they don’t plan on filling a prominent hole that Playstation first party studios are definitely missing (Lore and grand RPG’s), then they might as well have made this decision.

[VileAndVicious]

@Abriael
"Sony has great JRPG IPs from its past and fans have been literally begging them to bring them back, and what do they do? They shoehorn them into low-profile mobile games instead of giving them a good budget and making some great PlayStation exclusives."

I STILL hold out hope at every major event that one day Sony will decide to give us a new Legend of Dragoon or Wild arms... breaks my heart.

[phoenixwing]

belittling the achievements of japan studio in their good years doesn't help make Sony sound any better. And saying what else besides gravity rush 1 and 2 is like saying: yeah I know these games are good but what else? Anyone who has played gravity rush 1 or 2 knows it is of good quality. That alone would be enough to be annoyed with Sony but they've also worked on other things too.

[Thundercat77]

Wow Sony is doomed. They will have to close business soon.

/s

[King_Noctis]

Sony is not doomed, but their Japanese branch is. You might as well say goodbye to quirky and somewhat fun games like Gravity Rush, Astro Bot, and The Last Guardian.

[RazzerRedux]

Astro Bot is the primary focus of Asobi which is now the primary studio for PS in Japan.

[BattleCat]

Astro bot is by asobi :) You know how many sales gravity Rush 2 had? There would have never been a part 3. Last guardian was in cooperation with another main studio. They just needed 2 generations for the last Guardian.

[CrimsonWing69]

i'm not liking this, but hopefully these devs will be acquired by other studios and they can create something unique again. I really enjoyed Gravity Rush.

[HankHill]

Sad news. Both Gravity Rush games were great and underrated.

[phoenixwing]

that's the real sad thing, they didn't do anything wrong as a studio. They made two good games and because Sony had no faith in them with marketing or keeping them around since they obviously can make games, they disappear. Reminds me of the Motorstorm devs. Those games were quality but because they're not pulling in numbers like they want they disappear. I like Sony but those are two big missteps that come to mind.

[Redemption-64]

Or maybe it's the fault of the so called fans who now all of a sudden care about them, but didn't seem to care about supporting them when they were releasing games.

[HankHill]

Yeah, I loved the Motorstorm games and I liked Driveclub too. It's disappointing when studios close, but there's not much we can do sadly. I still miss Visceral, among many others.

[RedDevils]

I'm still waiting for a racing games as good as motorstorm

[JackBNimble]

If Sony had "no faith in them" they wouldn't have made any games.

[DefaultComment]

Will considering that they shut Sony Japan Studio, then what else is he gonna do??
I wish him the best of luck, idk maybe be the artist in a new game for another studio or company with that gravity rush style!

edit: I know this might be a long shot but I will definitely buy gravity rush is they ever ported to PC.

[Teflon02]

Kat and Gravity Rush is one of my fav series. Such a cool series that deserves more

[drizzom]

No worries, PC and Switch are always welcoming.

[DarXyde]

That's a shame. It's really sad to see people from Japan studio upping and going. They're actually my favorite studio from Sony, above even Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, and Insomniac. Their games are stellar for reliving the wonder and whimsy of gaming that I believe has been sidelined for massive budgets and narrative excellence. Those are not bad things, but not the reason I love this hobby.

Like many others from the studio, Saito was delightfully talented. His work in Gravity Rush was really charming. I think Sony is going to have to crawl on glass to assemble a team with this kind of synergy again.