Shuhei Yoshida Says PlayStation’s Japan Studio Closed Because the AA Market Disappeared

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William D’Angelo
, posted 3 days ago / 2,149 Views

The former President of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida with the Sacred Symbols + podcast explains why PlayStation’s Japan Studio was shut down.

Yoshida it was the market that dictated Sony in shifting away from Japan Studio IP and because the AA market disappeared.

“During my time, people give me credit, but one of the things I was not successful at was having a successful service game, and the other thing is I was not able to have amazingly successful games made in Japan,” said Yoshida (via VideoGamesChronicle).

“Other than Gran Turismo, we had many great products but didn’t really have many AAA level successful products. That became more and more important as the big games became bigger – the indies filled the gap and the AA market seems to have disappeared.

“Most of the IPs that Japan Studio had were in that smaller AA sized group and the market became really difficult for these kinds of games. For example, after Gravity Rush 2, [director Keiichiro Toyama] tried to come up with a new concept, but we were not able to greenlight any of his new concepts, even though they were really interesting.”

Yoshida on Toyama added, “In my mind, I remember his product looked like something the company wouldn’t support, the company was looking for AAA titles, and we really struggled to get the game going. So when Japan Studios was shut down and he became independent, he was able to create and release Slitterhead.”

PlayStation’s Japan Studio was re-organized and centered around Team ASOBI in April 2021.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.

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