Gravity Rush Creator Keiichiro Toyama Leaves Sony to Establish Bokeh Game Studio - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 December 2020 / 1,402 Views
Siren, and Gravity Rush series creator Keiichiro Toyama announced on August 13 he left Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio and established the independent Bokeh Game Studio
Kazunobu Sato and Junya Okura, who have worked with Toyama for several years, have also joined the new studios to create the core team. Toyama is the CEO, Sato is the COO, and Okura is the CTO.
"Having parted with Sony Interactive Entertainment which I have been with for a very long time, we have independently established a new development studio," said Toyama.
"Looking back at my inner self, nothing has really changed at all since day one when I set foot into this industry. Firstly I want players to enjoy games built from ideas with originality, and secondly, I want to enjoy making those games—this is all there was to it. Thankfully it was possible for myself and team to develop and release many games.
"However, the gaming industry has rapidly grown globally and is still drastically changing all the time. Day by day, living in these times, I have felt the need for a substantial change to pursue my own ambitions. This is why I have decided to become independent.
"Thankfully I am blessed with a team of colleagues who share the same ambitions as myself, which is why I am able to start this new chapter with a new game studio where we can form our original ideas. We are already under development for our first work, though obviously will need some time before release. We ask for your patience and to look forward to future announcements."
Here are the games the team has worked on over the years:
Keiichiro Toyama
- Director
- Silent Hill (1999, PlayStation)
- Siren (2003, PlayStation 2)
- Siren 2 (2006, PlayStation 2)
- Siren: New Translation (2008, PlayStation 3)
- Gravity Rush (2012, PS Vita)
- Gravity Rush Remastered (2015, PlayStation 4)
- Gravity Rush 2 (2017, PlayStation 4)
Kazunobu Sato
- Lead Character Design
- Siren (2003, PlayStation 2)
- Siren 2 (2006, PlayStation 2)
- Game System Director
- Siren: New Translation (2008, PlayStation 3)
- Lead Game Designer
- Puppeteer (2013, PlayStation 3)
- Producer
- The Last Guardian (2016, PlayStation 4)
Junya Okura
- Lead Game Designer
- Siren (2003, PlayStation 2)
- Siren 2 (2006, PlayStation 2)
- Siren: New Translation (2008, PlayStation 3)
- Gravity Rush (2012, PS Vita)
- Gravity Rush Remastered (2015, PlayStation 4)
- Gravity Rush 2 (2017, PlayStation 4)
Thanks, Gematsu.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Woah... So no more Gravity Rush 3? Hope the best for him though. Sony will miss Toyama :/
We’ll miss him, not sure for Sony tho. They’ve neglected the Japanese Studio despite not admitting it. Sure, they have a handful of third-party collaborations (Bluepoint, Clap Hanz, From Software) but their internal teams have probably faced a big restructure. The only one we currently hear is Asobi and we don’t know the fate of the rest.
@Vendrom Very true friend. Sony needs to treat their japanese studios how they do with Kojima. I feel Sony needs to move their PlayStation headquarters out of California. Too much backwards thinking right now :/
Three guys with heavy achievements under their belt, I hope their studio do great games and they find sucess.
