Masaaki Yamagiwa, a producer who has worked on Bloodborne and also the VR-exclusive Deracine, and also Tokyo Jungle, has revealed he is leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan at the end of February.
2月末でSIE JAPAN Studioを離れることになりました。これまでありがとうございました。次の場所でもゲーム制作を頑張ります。
I’m leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment at the end of this month. I’m going to continue working hard on creating games. Many thanks to everyone! pic.twitter.com/WPpiLpCtoY— 山際眞晃 Masaaki Yamagiwa (@giwamasa) February 25, 2021
Revealing the news on Twitter, Yamagiwa took the time to thanks his friends and colleagues, while confirming he will continue to make video games. Unfortunately, he didn’t confirm where he would end up, but at the moment, we know that SIE Japan has let go of several staff members over the last few weeks.
In December, Teruyuki Toriyama announced his departure from Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan, followed shortly after Keiichiro Toyama who left to start up his studio, Bokeh Game Studio, which enlisted another two former SIE Japan members, Junya Okura and Kazunobu Sato.
At this point, the writing is on the walls for SIE Japan and it is sad to see such an iconic Japanese development studio fold after years of amazing properties on PlayStation.
