Masami Yamamoto leaves Sony Japan Studio, worked on Bloodborne and Freedom Wars

Masami Yamamoto leaves Sony Japan Studio, worked on Bloodborne and Freedom Wars

Masami Yamamoto leaves Sony Japan Studio

The list of Sony Japan Studio abandonments is getting longer: the latest in chronological order is Masami Yamamoto, production director and executive producer who announced today that he left his Japanese partner on January 28th.

Masami Yamamoto has worked on productions such as No Heroes Allowed, Tokyo Jungle, Rain, Bloodborne, Freedom Wars, Soul Sacrifice and many others. Yamamoto started his career in Sony Music Entertainment 25 years ago and in this time he has always worked for the Japanese company, but now it is time to look to the future.

On Twitter Yamamoto says that "in the future I will be able to create games for any platform ... what a strange feeling", it is not clear, however, if I have already found a new use or not. Masami Yamamoto's farewell is just the latest in a long list that includes Teruyuki Toriyama, Bloodborne producer Masaaki Yamagiwa and Keiichiro Toyama, father of Silent Hill, Siren and Gravity Rush.

From April 1st Sony will scale Japan Studio focusing on Team ASOBI (authors of Astro's Playroom and Astro Bot Rescue Mission) while the localization and adaptation activities will be handled by the international headquarters of PlayStation. An important change for Sony's "oldest" Japanese studio, founded in the early 90's with the aim of developing games for the first PlayStation.




Masami Yamamoto leaves Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio

Masami Yamamoto


Masami Yamamoto left Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio on January 28, the developer announced on Twitter.


Yamamoto was an external production director and executive producer, and has worked on titles such as the No Heroes Allowed series, Tokyo Jungle, Rain, Bloodborne, Soul Sacrifice, Freedom Wars, and more.


“Including my last position at Sony Music Entertainment, I was with Sony Group for 25 years,” Masami said. “As a game creator, my job at a first-party was full of happiness. And it was all thanks to your support. Ah, in the future, I’ll be able to make games on any platform… what a strange feeling!”


Sony Interactive Entertainment confirmed back in February that it will reorganize Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio into a new organization on April 1, re-centering it to Team ASOBI, the creative team behind Astro’s Playroom. Masami is the latest in a long line of developers who have left the company as a result of its downsizing.


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