The folks behind games like Silent Hill, Gravity Rush, and The Last Guardian are leaving Japan Studio in order to form a new one together. Developers Keiichiro Toyama, Kazunobu Sato, and Junya Okura revealed that they are heading into a new venture, forming their own company called Bokeh Game Studio.
These Japan Studio veterans have worked on some of the biggest hits for Sony. Based in Tokyo, the studio created titles such as Ape Escape, Shadow of the Colossus, and Knack for Sony. Toyama worked as a director on many games, such as Gravity Rush, Siren, and even helped create the popular Silent Hill series. Among his many colleagues, Sato and Okura have also worked with the director on a couple of projects that went on to become hits.
In a YouTube video, it documented the three men discussing their newest collaboration as founders of the new studio. In the short video, they all revealed their reasons behind forming Bokeh Game Studios and their goals for this new venture. All three of them discussed the challenges of running their own studio. In the end, they just want to create games that fans would enjoy playing. Despite not knowing what games they will be working on, the video did tease some artwork that may possibly be something being in the works. They also shared the news on the studio’s official Twitter page.
Officially founded in August this year, they will be focusing on titles for both consoles and PC. Toyama will be acting as the CEO of the studio with Sato as president and producer. Okura’s responsibilities will be as a game director and chief technical officer for Bokeh. With this latest news from Japan Studio, it will cause somewhat of a shakeup as the company has already started to work on games for the PS5, including the recent release of the remake for Demon’s Souls.
The studio’s first title will be an action-adventure game be released on many platforms, according to an interview on Famitsu. Still in development, the game will be similar to the titles that Toyama has worked on previously.
It will be a while before we hear any more of what they will be working on under their new studio but hopefully, we’ll learn more about it soon enough.