Silent Hill icon says Sony's desire for more big-budget games at Japan Studio was at odds with his 'motive' to 'always' create original games

Sony wanted Japan Studio to focus on big-budget games, but director Keiichiro Toyama left to make original games with a smaller budget.

Slitterhead director Keiichiro Toyama says Sony wanted Japan Studio to make "more highly budgeted games" before it was ultimately closed.

Speaking to VGC in a new interview, Toyama, who departed PlayStation's Japan Studio in 2020, reflected on what Sony wanted from the studio itself. "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," Toyama says.

"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," Toyama continues.

Toyama is largely famed for pioneering the survival horror genre with Silent Hill at Konami, and later went on to direct Siren at PlayStation's Japan Studio, a similarly horrific adventure, but one with more of a cult-like status than Silent Hill. Toyama would then go in a markedly different direction with the two Gravity Rush games, in 2012 and 2017.

Gravity Rush 2's online servers were planned to shut down less than a year after launch in January 2018, but backlash from fans prompted the servers to stay open until July 2018 instead. Arguably the biggest game Japan Studio ever helped develop was FromSoftware's modern classic Bloodborne in 2015, so it's a little surprising to hear Sony wanted it to make "more highly budgeted games."

Slitterhead launches later this year on November 8 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Take a look over our new games 2024 guide for a look over all the other new titles launching throughout the rest of this year.