Fin de siècle
As you might expect, we’ve spent a lot of time lately reflecting on the closure of game studios. It’s easy to get caught up in recent examples, but two of this month’s previews have us looking back further: specifically to early 2021, when Sony announced the closure of Japan Studio.
At the time it felt like a damning indicator of the way the wind was blowing within PlayStation. But with three years’ distance, we can at least trace where some of that DNA ended up. Keiichiro Toyama’s Team Gravity formed the foundation of Bokeh Studios, on which we’ve kept an eye. And having got our hands on its debut, Slitterhead, we can confirm it’s as unpredictable as the studio’s reputation would suggest. Frankly, it’s impossible to imagine the SIE of 2024 putting out this game.