The director behind the iconic Silent Hill franchise, Keiichiro Toyama, has revealed that he departed Sony's now-reorganized Japan Studio due to a push for ballooning game budgets from higher-ups in the company. Toyama served as a game director at Japan Studio for over two decades and is credited for creating the Siren and Gravity Rush franchises.
After the release of Silent Hill in 1999, Toyama left Konami to work on the Siren series for the PlayStation 2 at Japan Studio. Nearly a decade and three Siren games later, the director released Gravity Rush for the PlayStation Vita, which was followed up by a sequel for the PlayStation 4 in 2017. Unfortunately, Toyama parted ways with Japan Studio in September 2020, just two months before the launch of Sony's current-generation console, the PlayStation 5. Five months after Toyama's departure, Sony officially announced restructuring efforts for Japan Studio.
The reorganization of Sony's Japan Studio begins today, after several of the Studio's longtime developers announced their departure from the company.
Sony didn't provide a reason for the reorganization at the time, but many theorized that Japan Studio's game output and return-on-investment may not have been financially sustainable, especially on the...
