Silent Hill, Gravity Rush, and Forbidden Siren creator Keiichiro Toyama has left Sony Japan Studio to team up with two other Japanese development veterans and create their own independent development house. He is joined by Kazunobu Sato, who was a producer for The Last Guardian as well as lead game designer on Puppeteer, and Junya Okura, who also worked on the Gravity Rush series. Together, they have formed Bokeh Game Studio.
In the announcement video embedded above, dubbed "A New Chapter", a sneak peek at concept art for the new developer's first project is provided alongside discussions about how the three founding members will return to industry ways of old. Game director Junya Okura said: "It is hard, there are responsibilities, but we have our freedom. This is the most important. I want to enjoy creating from now on." Some corners of the internet have taken this news to essentially mean the death of recent Silent Hill rumours and speculation, but that's purely conjecture for the most part. We still have no solid proof to suggest the project even exists.
What do you hope Bokeh Game Studio's first title is like? Share your wishes in the comments below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 32
Interesting. Having creative freedom is a wonderful thing.
EDIT: having watched the clip the artwork looks like a focus on the horror genre. Interest sky high now.
Dear PushSquare,
Can you stop using the words "Silent Hill" in titles please unless it actually concerns news about a new entry.
Many thanks,
My heart rate
This essentially kills the Silent Hill rumours, Kojima has said he isn't working on it and Toyama was the only other dev linked alongside his team at Japan Studios.
As our dear friend always says, word up son.
@DonJorginho not necessarily, this might actually be a technical requirement of Konami allowing another party to work on their IP. An entity technically independent of Sony. Although yes, at this point I think it is unlikely that they're working on a Silent Hill game, and these people would have been the most likely candidates internally at Sony.
All the best to Toyama and his team! Can’t wait to see what they come up with!
When are the being bought out by Microsoft? 😉
Edit: Disclaimer tongue in cheek
So much for a persistent rumor that Sony Japan Studio is developing a new Silent Hill game leaded by Keiichiro Toyama.
@Crazybuttocks198 Well Microsoft would love a Japanese studio so I guess this is a chance.
A return to industry ways of old can only be a good thing.....I wish these guys success now they have left the umbrella of Sony.
@Crazybuttocks198 they should establish themselves first and release a decent title (which takes 3-4 years). Otherwise MS could just have recruited them to one of their 23 studios.
@ShaiHulud lol!
Dont know what they were saying but man some of those pics were really cool and MUST be horror oriented!! The music was really cool and ominous too!
@DonJorginho
By your logic DS Remake shouldnt even exist then? I dont really get it.
I thought there was a new recent 'rumour' that Kojima had patched things up with Konami so he can finish Silent Hills for PS5 (giving Konami their reputation back!). This would be the best news this year if true. Image PT the game. I still play that game and still have to wince my way through it every time.
@Dr_ENT @Snake_V5 definitely. Would love to see what they come up with. Just a tongue in cheek thing, given MS buying plenty of studios in last couple years
@JJ2 I think it is more that the rumours actually centered around Toyama & specifically these people who have gone to set up this studio. The names mentioned alongside the Sony Japan led reboot are pretty much all at this new studio now.
Part of the reasons I chose to play on PlayStation since many years is because they had strong support by Western and Japanese games and devs. Now that seems to be a thing of the past, they're more focused on the Western market, just look at Kratos in Fortnite or the rumours of rapper Travis Scott directing a PlayStation game, it's disappointing, PlayStation need a new directive ASAP, we need Shawn Layden and Kaz Hirai equivalents in the wheel again, maybe Shuhei Yoshida.
@Crazybuttocks198 getting independent for creative freedom to being again a slave of another mayor company??? That doesn't make sense.
According to them, while they don't have control over franchises like Gravity Rush and Siren, they still wouldn't mind collaborating again with Sony if it's to work on these series again or for a new IP.
@JJ2 That makes no sense, I am talking about the Silent Hill Rumours. Which have linked only Kojima and Toyama to direct the project in conjunction with Sony.
Toyama leaving Sony kills those rumours.
So what does this mean for Sony Japan Studio? I've loved the games they make but these are big losses.
@Shepard93n7 That's cos western games are more lucrative. Whenever Sony made a Japanese centric game it hasn't done well because the market is niche and the Japanese have moved on to portable gaming.
@Shepard93n7 of course you wouldn't do that, but the post wasn't serious at all.
@Gamer83 I don't know alot of team of japan studos anymore. Team asobi (astro bot). They seem to have good games. Do they build a new Team Siren or is this team dispelled with the lost of toyama? And nobody knows what happen with team ico.
Good. I love the sorts of games they made previously, and their talents are frankly better spent on original, highly Japanese games than VR stuff.
I learned a new interesting word, bokeh: (from wikipedia)
In photography, bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image. Bokeh has also been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause very different bokeh effects.
This might spell low odds of new Gravity Rush chronicles... but then again, higher odds of its creator's subsequent games on Switch where the odds of any Gravity Rush chronicles are safely zero. Win some, lose some.
@Turbodream Interesting, so it's quite an onimous-sounding company name.
That's some pretty sick concept art.
Also, I don't think this necessarily kills the possibility of Silent Hill PS5. Toyama may be the creator, but there are plenty of other talented people who made the series what it is.
Greatness awaits...
@Tamlyn
Yeah, Team Asobi is great, hope to see it become a bigger part of PlayStation's plans. Astro's Playroom is phenomenal and though I haven't played it I've also heard very good things about Astro Bot Recuse Mission.
@DonJorginho
Sorry didnt mean to offend. I just think the rumour details maybe made up but the project actually exist.
Often lies maybe built on one solid ground. Who knows really.
Edit
It's been known that individual has been spreading BS for a while. Still could have built some tale but from a reality. Other sources were quite vague and he would have taken from that.
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