The Last Guardian Producer Quits

Yoshifus Hayama was most recently the Executive Producer on Sony exclusive, The Last Guardian. Now he works for Rupert Murdoch at an unproven social network gaming developer in London. The world of gaming, my friends, has changed.

Sony had not announced that Hayama had quit the company prior to this news of his joining up with recently acquired Bossa. The move is sure to raise a few eyebrows: Hayama is going from a studio famous for its engaging narratives and deep, encompassing worlds to a young studio that are focussing on forging News Corps’ path into the massively expanding social gaming market.

Here’s how Hayama – former Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment – announced his move:

[the future of gaming] is definitely online and thanks to recent developments with Flash 11, there is no reason why a social game can no longer be as visually stunning and as compelling as the big console titles.
Together at Bossa we have plans to bring a plethora of games to Facebook and eventually other appropriate social media channels, which include 3D elements and can be enjoyed by all age and interest groups,

Is it just me that withers a little inside to see that quote?

Apparently, last week, Fumito Ueda also quit Sony and will now be finishing The Last Guardian’s development on a freelance capacity. Sony aren’t talking about that move either, which I also find slightly worrying for the state of The Last Guardian. Please, someone tell me it’s all going to be okay…

Source: Develop

44 Comments

  1. What a sellout.

    I hope TLG even gets completed. So much talent that Sony is letting wither away…

  2. *sigh* I don’t mind about the guy leaving but I don’t like that quote. And The Last Guardian, I’m beginning to wonder if that’s even going to surface anymore.

  3. normally i’d say good luck to the guy, if that’s what he wants to do then that’s up to him, even though i really aint a fan of these social network games.
    but considering who he’s gonna be working for i can’t honestly say i hope he does well there.

    news corp needs to be destroyed, razed to the ground, broken up into a billion tiny pieces and shot into the sun.
    by sun i mean the big ball of flaming gas, not the big pile of excrement spread across lots of paper.

    have you heard the latest fox news piece?

    according to them, the muppets are promoting communism.

    i hate to think what kind of propaganda any news corp owned studio will put out.

    also, this probably isn’t good news for the Last Guardian, i’m still looking forward to that

  4. I play the odd game on Facebook but I do not find them fulfilling or that enjoyable. Yeah they fill the odd ten minutes or so during the day. But to play them like I play a ps3 or proper pc game (wow, age of empires etc) Well that would get boring very quickly, and the sense of accomplishment I find when I complete certain games (portal, metal gear, final fantasy etc)I would not get with these ‘Facebook games’
    I hope the world of gaming inst changing into farmvillie, it would be horrible and I would hate it.
    I just hope the last guardian lives up to the great game we all hope its going to be and not some Commercial shit…

  5. Oh, no

  6. Sony, whatever your doing to piss off your top people, stop it.

    im getting stressed wondering who else Sony will lose (Insomniac and Lead creators of TLG) and if it will really harm the company in the end.
    and at Christmas time no less.

  7. How is he expected to accomplish beauty in a social game by working for News Corp? News Corp are only concerned with promoting bias propaganda, marketing and segregating groups of people through their media and their balance sheets. The end product is unlikely to come out of love and a passion for game development as a result.

  8. Maybe the mayan’s where correct and this is the start!

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