Japan Studio originally incubated Team ASOBI, which made Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Astro’s Playroom. Sony opted to spin this team out when it shuttered Japan Studio, and it expanded to create the full-blown 3D platformer Astro Bot earlier this year. Layden likened this to “pruning a bonsai”.
“There were probably two roads [to dealing with Japan Studio]. One was the road they took. The other road was a real tough-love program. And maybe that’s what the Team ASOBI thing is. It’s like pruning a bonsai, right? You get it back down to its nub and see if you can grow back out again.”
While the closure of Japan Studio does still sting, it’s difficult to argue against Sony’s decision here. The reality is that, aside from the occasional partnership with studios like FromSoftware, it simply wasn’t making commercially successful games. Team ASOBI, meanwhile, has produced a Game of the Year frontrunner which just ranked second in the monthly US sales charts.
[source ign.com, via eurogamer.net]