“There was so much legacy malaise.”
In 2021 thestudio was effectively disbanded, withAstro Bot’s internal Team Asobi going independent as a PlayStation studio.
Speaking withIGN JapanatGamescomAsia, Layden discussed the end of Japan Studio and “legacy malaise”.
“That was sad,” he said.
“It wasn’t necessarily a surprise.
“There were probably two roads.
One was the road they took.
The other road was a real tough-love program.
And maybe that’s what the Team Asobi thing is.
It’s like pruning a bonsai, right?
You get it back down to its nub and see if you might grow back out again.”
In 2017 Japan Studio released Knack 2 and a year later Team Asobi released VR gameAstro Bot Rescue Mission.
Layden suggested this issue was prevalent “across the Japanese market”.
“But, you know, Capcom is prosecuting that problem fairly directly.
I think Sega finds itself in a pretty good place.
Bandai Namco has got some refactoring to do.
