Interestingly, the Japanese gaming giant has recently filed a new trademark for Knack, which has given way to a ton of speculation about a possible third entry in the franchise. Of course, a trademark renewal is by no means a confirmation of a new installment in the franchise – it’s essentially just one of the many formal procedures to retain a company’s rights for an intellectual property. But the question of whether Knack deserves a third chance or not is one that’s definitely worth asking and investigating in detail.

To better understand whether Knack deserves yet another shot at life, we need to look back at its origins – the missteps and the criticisms which lead us to where the series is now. Developed by Sony Japan of Shadow of the Colossus fame, Knack was released to a lukewarm critical and commercial in 2013. Knack is an action-platformer that’s heavily marred down by uninteresting level design and a very basic concept. Leading up to its release, Knack was marketed as a showcase for the graphical prowess of the PS4 – given its exclusivity on Sony’s at-the-time current gen platform. It certainly looks great with high-quality assets and fluid animations, but it was too rooted in the traditions of something like a tech demo to be a worthwhile purchase for an asking price of $60.

Knack would return once again with a sequel aptly named Knack 2 that was released in 2017 to yet again, mostly middling reviews. That’s not to suggest there weren’t any improvements at all, but most of them like a co-op mode and fleshed out platforming felt like a half-step forward for the series. Suffice to say, both entries underperformed on a commercial front – with at-the-time SIE president Shuhei Yoshida expressing disappointment for the game’s financial front.

Cut to the present time, the critical and commercial failure of Knack has made the games a subject for a slew of internet jokes. However, it’s also important to know that Knack wasn’t as it was just because Sony wanted to try its hand at an action-platformer – it was a move at inviting younger players into the ecosystem once again, right at the PS4’s launch.

You see, when Sony burst onto the seams with its ambitious PlayStation 1 – games such as the likes of Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro the Dragon were meant to welcome players of a younger age group into the ecosystem. The turn of the century marked a shift for the games industry, as developers pushed for mature, darker, and arguably violent experiences over the family-friendly platformers that dominated the past generations. Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s debut console the Xbox heralded this change with games like Metal Gear Solid 2 and Grand Theft Auto 3 among others. That’s not to suggest that platformers were done with entirely – as games like Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper made sure to cover Sony’s paces for a young generation of gamers.

However, as we moved into the PS3 and Xbox 360 era – we see both of these now-established gaming giants built their platforms upon these mature experiences as Nintendo diverted itself into pursuing a separate target demographic entirely with the Wii – one that would value ease-of-use and family-friendly experiences over the violence and blockbuster spectacles that dominated rival platforms.

With the PS4 however, Sony tried to pivot itself once again with two entries in the Knack franchise -although it’s clear that the company’s plans didn’t pan out as well as they might have wanted it to. If I were to make a guess as to why both entries in the franchise failed, it’s because Knack itself isn’t just as interesting or recognizable mascot as say, Spyro or even Crash Bandicoot. The plot surrounding the battle between the Goblins and humanity and what have you is simply put, an uninteresting narrative with no charm whatsoever. A third entry might add a few new gameplay features, but in my opinion, it still wouldn’t be able to turn the tides for this platformer that just can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. I am not saying that it’s an impossible task and many average video games franchises have managed to do turn the tide around but Alleviating the recurring criticisms of the two games would require a major rethinking of core ideas – and I don’t think that’s a risk worth taking especially with a franchise that already has been given a couple of chances to shine.

Additionally, there’s also the topic of development. The two games were developed by Sony Japan, a prestigious studio that sadly isn’t anymore. Team Asobi is all that’s left of this once-promising studio, and the team is already hard at work on what’s being described as its most ambitious project yet. Splitting the already limited resources of this studio to pursue yet another entry in this mediocre franchise would be a meaningless endeavor. Of course, Sony could always outsource the project to an external development team or have another first-party studio make the next entry – but given how Sony only seems to take risks with known entities, that prospect looks unlikely.

With the PS4, Sony has established its reputation as the king when it comes to narrative-driven single-player blockbusters with the likes of Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon, and more. The PS5 seems to be building on these strengths with its big-budget releases like Horizon Forbidden West. Additionally, the Japanese gaming giant is also placing huge bets on live-service games, with the recent acquisition of Bungie and its plans to ship 10 live service games by 2026.

Developing an action platformer for portfolio diversification could most certainly be a great move on behalf of Sony, but a third Knack game doesn’t seem like a risk that the PlayStation of today will likely take, Especially when so many promising franchises like Jak and Daxter and Sly Cooper lie dormant for so long – who already have a much larger target demographic comprising of gamers who are both old and young and enjoy a ton of market credibility thanks to their long-standing legacies.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization. 

Team Ico’s games have continually focused on the ideas of eliciting such strong responses from gamers and its swansong title The Last Guardian is no exception in this regard. Released in 2016, The Last Guardian was perhaps the most polarizing game released that year with some fans calling it one of the best games of all time while others criticized its controls, AI, and performance issues. More than 5 years later, many have come around to appreciating its better aspects and the bold strides it took in its game design. To that effect, the time seems ripe to ask – what made The Last Guardian one hell of a game?

The Last Guardian is perhaps most well known for its extremely protracted development cycle. First unveiled as Project Trico back in 2009, The Last Guardian was initially supposed to release in 2011. However, the game went dark after the announcement as the development shifted to Sony’s next console, the PS4. Game director Fumito Ueda also left Team Ico to start his own studio GenDesign, which was then given the responsibilities for developing the game. A long period of almost 4 years passed without any news of the game. Just when most fans had completely given up hopes of playing The Last Guardian, the game resurfaced again at E3 2015 with a final release window of 2016.

The Last Guardian sees players taking control of an unnamed boy who wakes up to see himself in an old fort of sorts. Upon waking up, he sees the towering behemoth of a creature by the name of Trico in shackles as he cries in pain from all the spears pierced into his furry body. You help Trico get back up on his own four feet by providing him treatment and he starts to become friendly towards you. The game primarily revolved around players having to solve puzzles and overcome a slew of obstacles as a team to somehow get off this high-walled fort. The story isn’t the most complex, which isn’t too surprising considering that Fumito Ueda is at the helm. It intentionally leaves gaps in this very vague plot and expects players to fill those gaps with one’s own interpretation of it all.

Much like Team Ico’s previous works, companionship is the central theme of the narrative. Over the course of the game, players are expected to organically form a deep connection with the beast. Ueda masterfully uses game design techniques to establish this emotional connection without the use of expository dialogues or extensive backstories. Trico cannot survive without the nimble nature and the intelligence of the boy and the boy cannot hope to escape this gargantuan facility without the sheer strength of the creature.

Puzzles are built on this very foundation, and simply getting from point A to point B is just half the battle won. Oftentimes, you will be required to open up doors or push those pesky water paintings of an eye to help Trico get to you. On the contrary, however, you cannot hope to survive enemy encounters with the stone soldiers without Trico’s strength – and as such, you might need to lure enemies to where the beast can take care of them. Other times, you might need to just hitch a ride on the back of Trico to get through certain sections, or you might need to command Trico to stand up near a wall to get to where you need to go.

The game expertly balances the nature of these puzzles to give both characters ample amounts of time in the spotlight. However, controlling Trico is easier said than done. Unlike most video game companions, Trico is controlled by an entirely self-governed AI meaning it has a mind of its own. Thus, you can give Trico commands – but it is entirely up to his virtual brain cells if he listens to you or not. This is perhaps the biggest point of contention regarding the game, as it’s entirely possible that he just doesn’t pay attention to your commands which can be very frustrating at times.

That said, this is also one of the biggest reasons why players start to get more and more attached to this beast as they overcome increasingly tough obstacles together without any firm method of communication. A game is defined by its rules, but The Last Guardian can break those rules at certain moments to illustrate the deep connection that Trico and the boy share with each other. For instance, Trico might forgo his phobia of glass paintings if he sees you being dragged to another realm by the enemies and instantly save you. It doesn’t happen all that too often, but this is part of why it makes those moments so special.

Of course, this being a Fumito Ueda game – his design by subtraction philosophy is in full swing here too. As already mentioned, every aspect of the game serves to strengthen one core design goal that is to explore the relationship of the boy and his gargantuan pet animal, and elements that don’t serve those goals were butchered throughout development. You will not get any special tools throughout your journey so to speak, there is no side content except for optional treats for Trico, no skill trees, and so on. Most of your time spent exploring the vast environments will be coupled with just the ambient sounds of the flowing winds, rustling leaves, and complete silence. It is only in high-intensity or emotionally evocative moments that the game pulls out its fabulous orchestral soundtrack.

The art style is also minimalist in a similar vein, with the entirety of the world seemingly being drawn by watercolors. There’s heavy use of volumetric fog everywhere, which gives a grand sense of scale to these environments. Generous use of bloom also helps in giving the game a pretty vibrant look, which goes very well with the game’s art style too. It all coalesces to give The Last Guardian a pretty distinctive feeling of being lonely in a vast environment, which works very well with the themes it tries to explore.

Of course, The Last Guardian isn’t a perfect game by any means. There are some very obvious flaws with the game. Movement never feels quite right, which can make some late-game challenges an exercise in pain. The controller layout is also different from what most players might be used to. Some textures can stick out on account of their low-resolution, which is a direct result of the game’s turbulent generation-spanning development cycle.

However, in the face of what The Last Guardian does right, these all become minor nuisances by the time you roll the end credits. The Last Guardian is simply put one of the most unique video game experiences of recent memory, and a strong reminder of the fact that video games can also be works of art. What gives it such stature and in turn, makes it one hell of a game are the bold strides it takes to accomplish its design goals, knowing well that they might not jive very well with a decent chunk of its audience. 

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Miyazaki says that the game was a moving experience for him, which ultimately motivated him to leave his job at the company he was working for at the time and begin working for FromSoftware. The Famitsu article also includes similar tributes from other renowned developers of the industry such as Yoko Taro, Masahiro Shakurai, and a few others. 

“On a personal note, after graduating from university and starting a new job, I was away from games for a while when I happened to play Ico at a friend’s house on a recommendation,” Miyazaki said (as translated by VGC).

“It was a beautiful, untold experience and story that I had never imagined, and I’m very sorry to my friend, but I was quietly moved and silent. And that’s when I left the company I was working for at the time and started working for FromSoftware. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the game that changed my life, and I’m proud that it was Ico and it was Mr. Ueda’s game. Congratulations on the 20th anniversary of Ico, Mr Ueda. As a fan, I’m looking forward to your new games. The mythology that runs through your games, including Ico, has always been a goal of mine.”

Legendary game director Fumitu Ueda – who directed Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian – is most famous for his design-by-subtraction philosophy, which entails ruthlessly chopping any and all elements of a game that don’t resonate with its core goal. When Ico was in development at the now-defunct SIE Japan Studio, the game had a more complex combat system, dedicated progression mechanics, and other things that were cut out in favor of making a tight game.

The good folks at NoClip have released another stellar documentary piece focusing on the making of the game. They talked to various individuals from both the now defunct Sony Japan and Bluepoint Games, who co-developed the game, and the latter of which is looking likely to become part of PlayStation Studios. The video is over an hour long and covers everything from graphical overhauls to the game’s iconic bosses, and much more. You can check it out in full below.

Demon’s Souls is available now, exclusively on the PlayStation 5.

Many games launched alongside the PS5 when it came last November, but one that maybe surprised people the most ended up being packed into the box with Astro’s Playroom. The game was largely a tech demo for the new features of the DualSense controller, but ended up being a fun little platformer in its own right. The critics sure took a liking to it. There was a lot of surprise to go around, including the game’s lovely soundtrack with a lot of little pop-infused hits. Now you’ll be able to own it for yourself soon.

As detailed by the official PlayStation blog, the soundtrack will be available at the end of this week. It also goes into details about how the sounds were crafted and even gives a small preview of a few songs. If you haven’t gotten the chance to listen to them, they are a treat, with some of the more notable examples signing praises on GPUs and SSDs, and it’s all appropriately cute.

Astro’s Playroom is available now on PlayStation 5, where it is packed-in with every system. The soundtrack will be available to purchase on March 12th from various online stores. It’s unclear if it will also be available via streaming services as well.

Almost as if to vindicate the point, Sony has now made its most decisive action yet in terms of highlighting and broadcasting to the world that, in fact, it may very well be done with the Japanese market to the meaningful degree many PlayStation fans would hope for or expect. We recently got the news that Sony is going to be shuttering Japan Studio, the prestige in house Sony development team that ranks as among its oldest (and responsible for some highly iconic, beloved, and critically and commercially successful games) almost entirely, including even the third party support and localization teams (with those being rerouted to Sony’s international development studios instead). And with this, I think, we can lay any notions that declarations of Sony’s abandonment of Japan are premature to rest once and for all. It is now evident they are not.

But what exactly does Sony’s decision comprise of, and what are its implications? Well, it can actually be understood fairly in three broad strokes:

• Sony Japan, the development studio, is now mostly done;
• Sony Japan, in terms of local marketing and support for Japanese third parties, as well as Sony’s own Japanese IP, is also being wound down, and those functions will instead be handled by western studios, and
• Other Sony Japanese studios, such as Polyphony Digital and Team ASOBI, remain unaffected by this move

So, let’s tackle those one by one. In terms of Sony Japan’s loss as a development studio, that is truly a tragic outcome (especially given how iconic and integral to the history of PlayStation they have been), but, let us be honest, in practical and functional terms, this one will probably actually have minimal effect. Unfortunately, Sony Japan had already been slowly gutted by PlayStation over the last decade or so; Sony Japan had been bleeding important and notable talent over the last five years (they lost people as notable as Keiichiro Toyama, Fumito Ueda, and Masaaki Yamagiwa in this period), their game output had been dwindling in the last ten years (especially on consoles, they managed to put out only a fraction of games they used to on the PS2 or PS3), the budget allocated to them had been steadily going down, and Sony Japan games got next to no marketing support by PlayStation anywhere – not even in Japan, let alone western markets (even when those games were extremely well received, such as the cult favorite Gravity Rush series).

Functionally, all that happens is that the nearly no games they were putting out are now reduced to no games; the nearly no marketing they got is now no marketing (since there’s nothing left to market); and the nearly no important remaining personnel they had at Sony Japan are now no remaining personnel.

That is, of course, a cold way to look at it, because as I have said before, a lot of the heart and soul of PlayStation comes down to the diversity, depth, and variety provided to it by the Japanese games it gets in its library, that its competition Xbox definitely does not – or certainly not to the same degree. And Sony’s capability to have those games on its platforms is now hamstrung, at least in terms of being able to produce its own.

However, the wording of Sony’s confirmation, which explicitly states “the roles of external production… of JAPAN Studio titles will be concentrated within the global functions of PlayStation Studios” seems to suggest that Sony Japan may also have acted as an interface, a liaison, between the PlayStation platform and Japanese third parties – and that that function has also been gutted from them, and been reassigned to Japanese third parties – and this would be a hefty loss indeed.

Now, again, to be very clear, the writing has been on the wall here for a while too, for those who have been observant of many smaller things here. We have heard complaints from smaller Japanese developers about being forced to submit their games for certification to PlayStation’s western headquarters, adhering to their western certification guidelines, even if they have no plans on international release; we have heard of PlayStation arbitrarily applying content restriction guidelines, such as for violent content in CyberConnect2’s Naruto games, on Japanese games; we have heard of reports regarding Sony’s strategy from anonymous insider sources, who have claimed that Sony allegedly plans on focusing on big hits as far as Japan goes, counting on the fact that mid and smaller tier Japanese games don’t have any place else to go (which is a calculation that may have started to backfire on them, given the success of the Switch and the recent underperformance of PlayStation); we have heard Sony is not supportive of smaller Japanese developers; even something as innocuous and minor as Sony forcing the western layout and functions of the X and O buttons on Japan (which are the reverse of what Japan has been used to, where O is Accept and X is cancel, in keeping with Japanese cultural symbolism of those two symbols, and the long held standards of the Japanese console market) has pointed at this.

Even accounting for this, however, I feel like this will definitely start to have a bigger visible impact on the quantity of smaller Japanese games on PlayStation going forward. If these smaller companies find PlayStation hard to work with, which they may, especially if there is no local contact for them, and they have to deal instead with someone placed in a different part of the world, in a different timezone, speaking a different language, then they may choose to forego PlayStation for their releases (a move which will become more and more admissible as sales of Japanese third party games on PlayStation platforms continue to fall as they have been for the past year). Even in terms of bigger Japanese support, collaborations with independent Japanese developers may be impacted. Something like Bloodborne? After all, that was a Japan Studio collaboration with FromSoftware – but Sony explicitly notes that that function has also been rerouted to its western first parties. Even the long rumored (and never quite materializing) Silent Hill game could see adverse effects, as that too would fall under the purview of something like this.

If all you cared for from PlayStation are their big western third person action adventure games, you really should be safe, those aren’t going anywhere. Even in terms of Japanese support, if what you wanted are big blockbusters like Resident Evil or Final Fantasy, the future of those on PlayStation is secured, those won’t stop coming to the platform. But the flavor of PlayStation libraries came from smaller Japanese games and developers, both first and third parties, and going forward, we will definitely see that being impacted negatively as a result of this – it will almost play out like Xbox, which gets the big Japanese games without trouble, but smaller fare isn’t always guaranteed.

It’s a move that makes sense, financially – but conceding on an entire country as a market and as a development community might not be the wisest long term move, and may end up impacting the health of PlayStation, at least relatively. I don’t think PlayStation will suddenly fall to selling only 30 or 40 million units – I just think that its insane global success owes itself to it being a global platform, and very explicitly and specifically sidelining a market (and such a big one at that) is anything but global.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

It’s hard to look at where Sony is right now and say that their Japanese division is thriving. While their first party output is bigger than ever, that almost exclusively comes from western markets and developers where their Sony Japan teams largely do smaller scale titles or work in conjuncture with other studios. The PlayStation brand sales has declined in Japan while Nintendo has effectively taken the market by storm. Still, though, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan says they still have strong connections to the market.

In a recent interview with Famitsu, Ryan commented that he still felt the Sony brand was strong with licenses in Japan, echoing some previous statements he made about Sony not downplaying Japan after reports suggested the company was shifting away from the region business-wise. He also said they would continue developing games for the region, though did not go into specifics.

“We’re really happy and proud of the PS Studios titles that have been released by Worldwide Studios. Some of them have already been announced, and others are in the works. SIE also has strong relationships with licenses in Japan, so we will continue to strengthen our ties with them and develop titles made in Japan for PlayStation fans around the world.”

It’s not saying much in the end, but at the very least, the company is doing what they can to show they aren’t abandoning the market, with other third party developers echoing the sentiment. Still, it does feel like the Japan development brand of the company is far from its western studios. But who knows, maybe that Silent Hill game that’s been rumored to be developed by Sony Japan will finally come. That’ll be something.

In 2009, there was a small game called Demon’s Souls released on the PS3 as a collaboration between Sony and FromSoftware. The title ultimately was a flop in Japan, so much so that Sony decided to pass publishing duties in other regions to Atlus. However, it managed to garner a following, which lead to a spiritual successor, and over a decade later at the launch of the PS5, Demon’s Souls returned in a remake (though without the addition of a lot of rubber ducks), and it is meeting much the same acclaim as the original.

Sony released a new accolade spot for the remake which was done by Bluepoint Games with support from Sony Japan. Much like the critical reaction of the PS3 original, this one is garnering high praises, and considering just how little the game changed the core gameplay itself, that says a lot about how well the game aged. You can read our full review through here.

Demon’s Souls is available now on PlayStation 5.

While there was a lot to chose from when the PS5 launched last month, not a lot of it was only on the PS5. But one game was there to showcase what the console could do, and that was the Demon’s Souls remake. A retelling of the 2009 title that launched the now popular Souls franchise and its many, many imitators afterward. It also was, at one point, filled with rubber ducks.

Talking to GamesRadar, Bluepoint Technical Artist Colin Harris shared a humorous story about the title’s development. At one point, a friend of his was interning at the studio as they worked on Demon’s Souls. While there he modeled a little rubber duck which ended up being perfect as a test dummy for various effects in the game. That means for a time Demon’s Souls was filled with rubber ducks flying all over the place. He took to his Twitter to give an example video of a character rolling through a table and well, see for yourself below.

Demon’s Souls is now available exclusively on the PlayStation 5, though it seems as if all the rubber ducks have been cut out. Even with that knowledge, we still enjoyed the game, and you can read our full review through here.

https://twitter.com/hollincarris/status/1334185063798411268?s=20

While the Japanese gaming market landscape has changed and shifted significantly over these last couple of decades, it’s hard to deny that there isn’t still a lot of history and talent within it. Sony has been rumored to be shifting away from Japan, however, and while it’s impossible for anyone to say for sure that’s happening, today we have now heard some big talent has left the company to form a new studio.

It was announced Keiichiro Toyama, Junya Okura and Kazunobu Sato would be leaving their stations at Sony Japan to form a new company, Bokeh Game Studio. Toyama is notably the original Director and one of the original Creators of the Silent Hill series (there has been rumors of a Silent Hill reboot coming from his team in Sony Japan floating around for ages, but this seems to contradict that), and all three were involved with Gravity Rush, a series that began on the Vita and then got a sequel on the PS4, neither of which were big sellers. They say they’re working on a new game that is an action adventure title that will be out within the next few years. There is some concept art briefly shown and it looks to lean into horror, though it’s hard to say how it’ll translate or what that could turn into.

Sony Japan has largely been a support studio the last few years, with them helping on this year’s Demon’s Souls, for instance, and mostly releasing smaller titles like Astro’s Playroom. It’s been rumored that Sony has decided to shift focus away from Japan as home console gaming continues a slow decline in the region. Whether this is a response to that is anyone’s guess, but none of these three have been involved in a major project since Gravity Rush 2 in 2017, at least not one that was revealed to the public. Creators striking out on their own tend to have a spotty record, so here’s to hoping these guys are some of the lucky ones.