Keiichiro Toyama, best known as the director of Silent Hill and the Gravity Rush series, has left Sony in order to join a newly-founded Japanese studio headed up by other veteran developers. Kazunobu Sato (who was the lead designer of PlayStation 3 title Puppeteer and worked on The Last Guardian) and Junya Okura (lead designer on the Gravity Rush series of games) have also left Sony, joining Toyama in establishing the new studio. Bokeh Game Studio was revealed to the world in a video that included the three developers chatting about how game development has changed in the two-plus decades in which they’ve been a part of the industry. “It is hard, there are responsibilities, but we have our freedom,” said Okura, seemingly cautiously optimistic about stepping away from Sony. “This is the most important. I want to enjoy creating from now on.” Not much is known about the studio yet, but Toyama notes that other established game developers are also set to join the veterans at the new studio. “I want to enjoy creating from now on,” Toyama explains. “Many people we’ve worked with in the past are joining us too. I’m convinced that we’ll be able to deliver something everyone will enjoy. “First I want to fulfill our fans’ expectations, but at the same time, I want to go back and enjoy how fun it is to make games. I want to share that feeling to the players. This is what I’ll aim for from now on.” No projects or titles have been announced by Bokeh Game Studio at the time of writing – though a little concept art (seemingly in the vein of Silent Hill) can be seen in the video above.
