Image: Push Square

Update []: Following the appearance of scattered rumours about which team is handling the purported new Ape Escape game, credible new sources have appeared that corroborate the information.

Jeff Gerstmann, a games journalist best known for his work at Giant Bomb, has independently said (in his podcast) the below reporting is true — that Evening Star Studio is the developer working on Ape Escape.

On top of that, VGC has also backed this up, having heard from their "own sources" that this is indeed the case in a new report.

It sounds like Gerstmann heard about this a while ago, and that the game may be very early in its development.

Original Story: Word on the street is that Sony is taking pitches on its dormant, fan-favourite franchises, and among those is the supposed revival of a proper old school classic: Ape Escape.

Well, the rumour mill has continued turning over, and there's now a thin, but very plausible, fan theory about which team is bringing back those mischievous pipo monkeys.

The first thought was always Team Asobi, which would be a fantastic first-party fit for the platformer series.

However, the current theory doing the rounds is that Ape Escape is in the hands of indie developer Evening Star Studio.

If you're unfamiliar with this team, its senior staff are known for having worked on Sonic Mania, the beloved classic Sonic revival from 2017.

As Evening Star, though, the team has only released one game: Penny's Big Breakaway, a 3D platformer with unique controls, charming stylised visuals, and cutesy enemies that can appear in large numbers. Sound at all familiar?

In the above post (translated via X), Reddit user IcyPenguin28 claims to have heard from "a couple credible sources" that Evening Star is behind the Ape Escape revival.

Apparently, Hunter Bridges, CTO and game director on Penny's Big Breakaway, is a fan of the series.

It runs slightly deeper than that. @AsobiAr has also unearthed a job advertisement for the studio when they were hiring a 3D character artist "with proven experience modeling, rigging, and animating anime-styled characters."

On top of that, Evening Star's CEO and executive producer Dave Padilla relocated to Tokyo in 2025, around the same time the studio began hiring.

Again, it's all quite tenuous stuff, but I'm starting to think there could be some weight to this. The leap from Penny's Big Breakaway to Ape Escape is not a big one in my mind; I can absolutely see this studio being a great fit.

Whatever the case, we probably won't hear about any new Ape Escape, or indeed any other revivals, until much nearer their arrival.

What do you make of Evening Star helming Ape Escape? Tell us in the comments section below.

[source x.com]