PlayStation is Winding Down Sony Japan Studio (videogameschronicle.com) 19
Sony is winding down original game development at its oldest first-party developer, Japan Studio, game news outlet VGC reported, citing sources. From the report: The iconic developer behind Ape Escape, Gravity Rush and Knack has seen the vast majority of its development staff let go, the sources said, after their annual contracts were not renewed ahead of the company's next business year, which begins April 1. Localisation and business staff will remain in place and ASOBI Team -- the group responsible for the Astro Bot games -- will continue as a standalone studio within Sony Japan, it's claimed. Some Japan Studio staff will join ASOBI, we were told, while others have followed Silent Hill and Gravity Rush director Keiichiro Toyama -- who left Japan Studio last year -- to his new studio Bokeh. It's not entirely clear if the restructure has affected the studio's External Development Department, which collaborated on games such as last year's Demon's Souls, but one person VGC spoke to suggested it would continue.
Re:Japanese game developers are very arrogant. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, that little spiel has jack fucking all to do with Sony's personal Japan devs studio. This is entirely about the wokerati in the Cali HQ cutting off Japanese devs because they don't toe the line.
Re: (Score:2)
Uh, what game do you wish they would export that they didn't? Final Fantasy is certainly among the world's best game series, and they've exported that.
Re: (Score:3)
A lot of Dragon Quest leaps to mind. Aside from the Dragon Quest games that they just flat won't release in the West, Dragon Quest XI they wouldn't let us have the music for because its composer thought it was too good for non-Japanese. Mother 3. A bunch of other stuff. See https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NoExportForYou/VideoGames
Re: (Score:2)
There are certainly a few gems from the early days that didn't get released outside of Japan. Anything worth playing (like Mother 3) has a fan translated ROM that you can run on an emulator. Most of it probably just comes down to costs, and text-heavy RPGs cost a hell of a lot more t
Re: (Score:2)
Dragon Quest XI S has the orchestral soundtrack on all platforms, with the PS4, Xbox, and Windows versions of that being released last November. With VIII it is the 3DS version that doesn't have the orchestral soundtrack that the PS2 version had.
I think the only mainline DQ games not released in the west are V VI and X (that's the MMO one)
Re: (Score:2)
The Great Ace Attorney, Miles Edgeworfh Investigates 2, and the rest that are Japan only. Capcom says they are "Japanese specific" and while there have been fan translations, it falls flat as Capcom has a near-final English translation they were working on (revealed in the Capcom leak).
There are plenty of games in one region that aren't available (for various reasons) in another. There are plenty of US game releases not available in Japan or Europ
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't paid close attention in almost 20 years, but off the top of my head:
Mother 1, Mother 3, Seiken Densetsu 3, Bahamut Lagoon, Tales of Phantasia, Gundam Wing Endless Duel, some Dragon Ball games, the better Bomberman games, Tenchi Muyo RPG... many of these are better than Final Fantasy. (Not all of the FF games made it over either).
I believe some of these were eventually released, decades later, often in the form of a remake with a totally different (worse) art style.
Re: (Score:2)
Seiken Densetsu 3
Collection of Mana includes a translated SNES version. Also Trials of Mana is the Remake and is also available.
(Not all of the FF games made it over either).
Every mainline Final Fantasy game has been released in the US in one form or another. You can play every mainline FF from I to X-2 on the Vita for goodness sake.
Re: (Score:2)
I saw Trials of Mana on Steam, it looks gross.
Re: (Score:2)
Like Miley Cyrus twerking on a Gungan.
ok (Score:2)
Ape Escape, Gravity Rush and Knack
Those are the games they made?? I can see why they are being put down. It's for the good of society.
Re: (Score:2)
It's for the good of society.
don't fool yourself. "the good of society" was never ever even a parameter here.
but point taken. yes, nothing personal, just regular business as usual.
Re: (Score:2)
The first Ape Escape at least was a great game, loads of fun and notably high quality. Only played the 2nd one a bit in an emulator.
Re: (Score:2)
From never does a "2" for those exclusive games, but that could indeed hamper the next exclusive from PS title.
Winding Up (Score:1)
re (Score:1)