Sony to shut down Knack and ‘The Last Guardian’ developer Japan Studio

Sony would shut down its oldest in-house developer. According to VGC, the company did not renew the contracts of many Japan Studio employees. The developer is best known for his work on franchises like Gravity Rush, Ape Escape and Knack, as well as his help Bloodborne, The Last Guardian and the recent Souls of the demon remake. Parts of the studio, including the team working on Sony’s Astro Bot franchise, will continue to work for the company, but judging by this, Sony has split off from most of the other staff.

Recent tweets by many people who worked at the studio seem to corroborate VGC reports. The move comes after several prominent employees, including Gravity Rush and Silent Hill director Teruyuki Toriyama and Bloodborne producer Masaaki Yamagiwa left the company late last year. We have reached out to Sony for feedback and will update this article when the company responds to us.

VGC suggests that Sony’s decision to shut down Japan Studio stems from the developer not being profitable in recent years. In November, Bloomberg released a report stating that in recent months, many Sony Japan development teams have been downsized. According to the publication, the feeling within the US division of Sony Interactive Entertainment was that the company did not need games that “only work well in Japan.”

Update 8:37 p.m. ET: Sony has confirmed that it is reorganizing Japan Studio. “In an effort to further strengthen business operations, SIE can confirm that PlayStation Studios JAPAN Studio will be reorganized into a new organization on April 1,” a company spokesperson told Engadget. “JAPAN Studio will be refocused on the ASOBI team, the creative team behind THE GAMES ROOM of Astro, allowing the team to focus on a single vision and build on the popularity of Astro GAME ROOMThe company added that it will focus the majority of its localization, IP management and outside production efforts within its PlayStation Studios brand.