Rumor: In 2020, Sony stealthily launched new AAA studio in Japan while already planning to shut down Japan Studio

Sony might be building a brand new studio in Japan to work on new AAA titles that can be successful in Japan as well as in the West.

This is coming from redditor Air_Radiant who received the information from a source that accurately predicted the Housemarque acquisition by Sony.

According the source, Sony has been working towards the launch of a new studio since early 2020. At the time, Sony was already planning to restructure Japan Studio, known for games like Gravity Rush and Knack. Japan Studio was re-centered around Team ASOBI, the creative team behind Astro’s Playroom, in February.

The new studio in Japan will allegedly develop games in the scale of Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Devil May Cry or Metal Gear. The source also claimed Sony is approaching veteran devs from Capcom’s Resident Evil team, devs from Square Enix, and Konami alumni. Looks like Konami laid off a lot of devs as part of the restructure earlier this year.

Another source corroborated the information saying that the new studio will be announced within the coming months alongside the IP it has been working on.

While Sony is obviously silent on the matter, SIE CEO Jim Ryan did say several times that Japan remains a relevant game development hub for the company. The existence of an unannounced studio in the country might just explain what he meant.