Yoshifusa Hayama, executive producer on delayed PlayStation 3 adventure title The Last Guardian, has left Sony to join social games company Bossa Studios.
Hayama spent four years at SCE as its vice president, and will now take up a role at Bossa as creative director on its upcoming projects.
Bossa launched its first title, Monstermind, on Facebook earlier this year. A week prior to the release, the company was acquired by Shine Group, the British media company wholly owned by American media conglomerate News Corporation.
Regarding his move to Bossa, Hayama explained in a Eurogamer report, "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," reports Eurogamer.
He continued, "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."
Well my "wow" was about the fact that in the last story on G-Sutra about this, I suggested he left because Sony may not have ponied up the money for him to accurately finish his game, but with a statement like that it may be clear that he just wants to go in a totally different direction...
Seriously, it seems this game is in real trouble, a shame, even with the almost non existing footage, it looked like one of the interesting projects right now.
Developers appear to just be getting tired of the work conditions and risk factors of AAA game development. Is there more stability in the social gaming arena, perhaps?
that's what it seems like. the closure of all these large AAAA studios after finishing a huge highly anticipated project doesn't help either. I get the impression that game management needs to change or else the industry is going to be kind of deadlocked where it is .
Flaaaaaash A-haaaa Saviour of the Universe
Seriously, it seems this game is in real trouble, a shame, even with the almost non existing footage, it looked like one of the interesting projects right now.
One word for someone who trades a beautiful game like tLG for social games owned by Rupert Murdoch:
Sellout.