Bloodborne producer Masaaki Yamagiwa has announced that he will be leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio by the end of February.
In a tweet announcing the news, Yamagiwa said that he will continue making video games, but didn’t detail his plans.
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
Other than Bloodborne, Yamagiwa worked on games like Deracine and Tokyo Jungle. His departure follows a string of high-profile resignations from SIE Japan Studio in recent months. It was only in December that Bloodborne co-producer and Demon’s Souls Remake producer Teruyuki Toriyama announced his departure. Prior to this, Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama resigned from Sony after a lengthy career, which saw him create franchises like Siren and Gravity Rush. Toyama went on to found Bokeh Game Studio along with two other SIE Japan Studio developers, Kazunobu Sato and Junya Okura.
A number of reports late last year claimed that Sony has been sidelining Japanese developers and gamers as it shifts its focus towards the West. The company continues to deny this, and recently stated that it enjoys a good relationship with Japanese licensees.
“Sony Interactive Entertainment has strong ties with Japanese licensees, so going forward we would like to continue to strengthen that cooperation and develop titles made in Japan for PlayStation fans around the world,” SIE CEO Jim Ryan said this week.
We’ll update our readers when Yamagiwa announces his future plans.
