Silent Hill Creator Keiichiro Toyama Speaks On Why He Left Sony Japan Studio

Keiichiro Toyama, the game director who’s credited as the creator of Silent Hill, one of the most iconic game franchises was – for some time – a game director at Sony’s Japan Studio. The same Japan Studio that Jim Ryan and co. closed back in 2021 and remade into Team Asobi, but by then Toyama and two other legendary developers – Kazunobu Sato and Junya Okura – had left to form Bokeh Studio. Bokeh Studio is now months away from Slitterhead, it’s debut release which is set to arrive this November, and it’s a recent interview about Slitterhead that’s revealed a bit about what went down prior to him, Sato and Okura leaving Sony Japan Studio.In an interview with VGC, Toyama reveals that Sony was pushing its teams to make bigger games with bigger budgets, even Sony Japan, a studio that has a history of making smaller titles and running support for other teams. This didn’t mesh with Toyama and his compatriots, so they left.Toyama also notes that he disagreed with the approach of just throwing more money at projects and that bigger is better, or even necessary.“With Sony, there was an increasing motive to make more highly budgeted games, and it wanted to go that way with the Japan Studio brand,” said Toyama.“My motive was always to create original games. I feel I can do this without a massive budget. This allows me to express myself as well. By going independent, this has allowed me to do that. From my time at Sony, I feel like I’m accomplishing what I want to do.”On the development of Slitterhead, Toyama indicates that everything is going well, and he’s happy with what they’re building at Bokeh.“When we opened the studio, the concept was that we would make original games, and we want to continue doing that. We’ve poured a lot of youth into the team, and they learned a lot through this process. I look forward to the younger generation making their own games on a lower budget.”Source – [VGC]



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