The State of PlayStation's Japan Studio - IGN First We talk to Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida about the state of PlayStation in Japan and what the future might hold. Making Gran Turismo Sport:...

He was excited about the future of Japan Studio and it started at E3 2015 when he told Miller and Moliarty about a project the studio is producing is really great and he is really excited about it. By that time we didn't know if he referred to a project in very early stage and it wasn't very far along into development.Kouno-san has been working on a new project since he finished his LocoRoco spin-off project in 2009. In 2010 Japan Studio moved out from their previous studio office in to Sony City in Shinagawa. In March 2011 they moved in to a new constructed building with 18 stories + 2 stories below ground not far away from Sony City. The adress is Minato-ku, Konan, 5 minutes walkway to Shinagawa station.Allan Becker took over as studio head in April 2011. Retired in 2020 and Nicolas Doucet took over as studio head.The problem with a large project for a Japanese team they have to start from a small team and grow it over time with a new IP. First they have to go through concept phase and that pitch is hell. If it doesn't get approved you have to start over again with a new pitch. That's basically what happened to Kouno's project. Let's say Sony approved his project in 2015 when Shu was really excited about it, that's just 5 years to 2020. Just think when Days Gone was approved in early 2013 and they didn't finished up development until 2019. New IP is not easy. Even Kojima mentioned teams can take 7-10 years on a new IP and that's what happened with Kouno-san.Toyama didn't seem to have a easy route either in 2018 when he said it was a troublesome year for him. There was a new Siren game, there was a new horror IP, but nothing did panned out well. So he met fans during Siren 10th anniversary exhibitions and they encouraged him to make games again and big hints. So he wanted to go with full power in 2019 and turn over a new leaf. Established IPs have shorter dev cycle which is good for Japan Studio when Kouno's project took very long to get off the ground.Don't ask me what is happening with Puppeteer team. Gavin Moore's Linkedin profile shows spearheading a team since April 2015. What he wrote about Japan Studio's current policy: "Direction of large teams of talented individuals with one goal; create exciting and novel products". Japan Studio did remaster Castlevania Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night for PS4, so it could have been a side-project by Puppeteer team. Gavin Moore wants to make games with imaginary worlds and less games like The Getaway and Siren that are based on reality worlds.They have abolished product technology department so they must have been in need of more space in the building to pull off large teams for internal development department. It's indeed exciting times ahead at Japan Studio.