Enkele maanden geleden werd bekend dat Sony Japan Studios opnieuw werd gestructureerd.
Fans van Japanse PlayStation Games en de internationale media waren bang dat PlayStation steeds meer westers zou gaan worden en Japanse games langzaam zouden gaan verwijden.
PlayStation Worldwide Studios-hoofd Herman Hulst stelt iedereen nu gerust. In een interview met Game Informer, zegt Hulst dat Japanse studio’s en games, altijd de identiteit van PlayStation is. Sterker nog, Sony gaat juist meer investeren in Japan waaronder Team ASOBI, Polyphony Digital en third party samenwerkingen. Hulst geeft als voorbeeld From Software aan voor de oplevering van Bloodborne en Kojima Productions voor de game Death Stranding.
PlayStation-fans hoeven dus niet te vrezen, Japanse creatieve input voor PlayStation zal niet nu en ook niet in de toekomst verdwijnen.
“I will say that we are in some ways very much a Japanese company still,” Hulst said. “That’s our heritage. That’s still part of who we are. We love our Japanese games.”
“We’re building out Team ASOBI under Nicolas Doucet, so we’re actually investing in that team. People forget sometimes that we have Polyphony Digital, which is a team in two locations.”
“We are investing in our external development group out of Tokyo as well, and that’s a team that has obviously worked with the likes of FromSoftware and Kojima Productions. So we are very invested in Japanese development, and Japanese development is something that we love… I think it’s such a core part of the PlayStation identity, that I can’t ever see us shy away from Japanese or even Asian development.”
“We are investing in the amazing teams we have. We are signing up new developers. We continue to focus on quality. We continue to focus on experiences that in my mind are experiences that matter—that sometimes only could have been created by us. That’s what I stand for. And I will ensure that we’re going to carry on making those.”
