On the heels of other recent exits, Bloodborne producer Terujuki Toriyama has departed Sony Japan Studio to create new IPs.
SIE Japan Studio producer Terujuki Toriyama, who worked on the likes of Bloodborne and the Demon's Souls remake, has announced his departure from the team. Toriyama's exit follows on the heels of news that a few other key developers recently left the company.
Earlier this month, Silent Hill and Siren creator Keiichiro Toyama exited his role as director and writer at Sony Japan Studio. His departure wasn't the only one, either. Other Sony veterans stepped away from their positions as well, including Gravity Rush's lead designer Junya Okura and The Last Guardian producer Kazunobu Sato. Both Okura and Sato have since joined Toyama at his newly founded development house, Bokeh Game Studio. Now yet another integral figure from Sony's creative operations in Japan is leaving for greener pastures.
In a Twitter post on his official page, Bloodborne producer Terujuki Toriyama revealed he's set to leave Japan Studio at the end of this month. As of writing, Toriyama has not yet divulged too many specifics about what he plans to do next. However, the producer's brief message did note he will "continue to take on the challenge of creating new game IPs in [his] new company." Given his impressive pedigree, Toriyama's next project may be something fans of Japan Studio want to keep their eye on when the time comes.
While this could all be completely unrelated, these high profile departures from Japan Studio harken back to a Bloomberg report, which claimed Sony has been actively shifting its focus away from Japan. SIE CEO and President Jim Ryan soon thereafter debunked the story, telling Edge Magazine: "The Sony stance is that the Japanese market remains incredibly important to us." Hopefully, the seeming Japan Studio exodus is not indicative of the opposite being true.
Sony recently lost talent at one of its North American first-party studios, too. A few weeks ago, two key members of Bend Studio, both of whom were central to Days Gone's creation, announced that they'd moved on from the Oregon-based team. John Garvin, a 20-plus-year veteran of the company, revealed in a Twitter post that he resigned last year after shipping Days Gone. The title's Game Director, Jeff Ross, left at the end of November. Both of these Bend Studio departures, like those at Japan Studio, count as huge losses for Sony.
SIE Japan Studio's most recent projects, Astro's Playroom and Demon's Souls, are available exclusively on PS5.
Source: Terujuki Toriyama - Twitter
