Silent Hill and Gravity Rush creator Keiichiro Toyama has split from Sony Interactive Entertainment to form a new company, Bokeh Gaming Studio. He'll be joined by creatives who worked on The Last Guardian and Gravity Rush.
What do we know about Keiichiro Toyama's new studio?
Not too much is known about Bokeh Game Studio right now. The studio's Twitter presence simply describes it as "a new game studio established by Keiichiro Toyama". For his part, in a video announcing the creation of Bokeh (for which we're using YouTube closed captions, as it's in Japanese), Toyama says he wants to "fulfill our fans' expectations" and also to "enjoy how fun it is to make games".
Alongside Toyama, two more industry veterans make up the managing staff of Bokeh. Toyama will be joined by Kazunobu Sato, who worked as a producer on Team Ico's The Last Guardian, and Junya Okura, who has served as a producer on several of Toyama's games including Gravity Rush and Forbidden Siren. Bokeh describes this new studio as "a new step in their career". Throughout the above video, you can see snippets of what may well become Bokeh's debut title, with some horror-inflected concept art and designs interspersed with the three studio heads discussing their work.
What does Bokeh Game Studios' foundation mean for Sony?
Unfortunately, this could well squash some of the rumors currently circulating regarding projects Sony has in the works. Some have been saying that a new Silent Hill game is in development at Sony, but that's looking unlikely now. Toyama created Silent Hill, so he would have been the perfect person to head up the project, but his departure suggests the game doesn't exist. In addition, this departure will leave fans of Gravity Rush out in the cold; Sony owns the Gravity Rush IP, so Keiichiro Toyama can't take it with him to his new studio.
With that being said, it's not necessarily game over for Gravity Rush. There's always a chance, however remote, that Toyama could obtain the rights to the franchise at some point in the future. Even if he doesn't, there's nothing stopping Bokeh from creating a spiritual successor to the franchise. It doesn't look like that's what the studio is working on right now, though. We'll have to wait and see what Bokeh announces in the coming weeks and months. Until then, join us in lamenting the Sony Silent Hill game that never was.
What would you like to see Bokeh Game Studios develop? Let us know in the comments below!
