Ex-Last Guardian producer wants to create Facebook's first masterpiece

By Martin Robinson Published 15 December, 2011

Yoshifusa Hayama on why he left Sony behind.

Yoshifusa Hayama, the man who recently left behind development of The Last Guardian to join London social games developer Bossa Studios has explained why he made the move - and how he wants to create Facebook's first masterpiece game.

Hayama, a veteran of the industry who worked at Sega's AM2 where he lent his hand to Virtua Fighter 3, F355 Challenge as well as designing the QTE sequences in the fondly-remembered Shenmue before moving on to Square and then Sumo, left Sony Computer Entertainment in August, with the departure going public earlier this week.

His departure sent ripples across the gaming community, and Hayama acknowledged the low esteem with which social gaming is held by many core gamers. "The problem is there's no game that everyone loves," he said in a roundtable discussion held by Bossa Studios in London yesterday, "We need a masterpiece in Facebook - and that's my goal."

Hayama later told Eurogamer that the disquiet that met the announcement was similar to that made when he turned his back on developing arcade games in the nineties to work on console.

"When I started making console games it was the same feeling," Hayama said, "The entertainment industry is simple - the film industry is the same. No-one cared about video, but now it's all about DVD and Blu-ray. Markets always change - and I just don't want to join after the markets change."

"The market is growing up," he continued, "It's just a matter of software. It's getting better, but we need that masterpiece."

Hayama was unable to reveal the status of PlayStation 3 exclusive The Last Guardian - due out in 2012 - upon his departure in August, but was keen to point out how strong the team behind the much delayed game are. "It's a great team," he said, "I still miss them and they're really nice people. I miss them and I miss everyone, and it's one of the greatest teams I've worked with."

As revealed by Eurogamer, Team Ico chief Fumito Ueda has left Sony and is completing work on The Last Guardian on a contract basis. Once done, he will pursue personal projects.

Hayama's new outfit, Bossa Studios, was founded in late 2010 by former Playfish and Jagex employee Henrqiue Olifiers and Roberta Lucca, and its first game, Monstermind, launched earlier this year.

Picture of Martin.

About Martin Robinson

Martin is Eurogamer's features editor with responsibility for commissioning, editing and often writing our feature and preview content. He's also passionate about driving games.

Read more articles from Martin by visiting the Martin Robinson archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • jetsetwillie #1 5 months ago

    but ive read in the internets forums that FB are crap and for causals and will never be good.

    why didnt he ask the forums first.

  • retr0gamer #2 5 months ago

    All these legends of japanese development going to casual and 'social' game developers and never being heard from again. It's a sad time.

  • Arsecake_Baker #3 5 months ago

    The cynic in me cries!

    "Oh fuck off your after a captured audience of ten of millions who will play any old dross thrown at them, all i can see is dollar signs in your eyes!"

  • MattEdWithCheese #4 5 months ago

    So Farmville but you grow fond of your livestock but you need to slaughter them to make enough money to scrape by... an emotional dilemma...
    Edited by MattEdWithCheese at 15/12/11 @ 15:01

  • Toothball #5 5 months ago

    I intend to buy a PS3 to play The Last Guardian. Still won't catch me on Facebook for whatever becomes of this though.
    Edited by Toothball at 15/12/11 @ 15:24

  • sfp_noodle #6 5 months ago

    Makes you wonder if there will even be a Team Ico left after The Last Gaurdian is released. It was already a very small team, something like a 15-20 man team, and with two of the major influences behind the studio leaving I can see Sony shutting them down. Whilst their games are incredibly beautiful they do take an awfully long amount of time to make them and use a lot of resources in the process. Couple that with the fact that the games don't sell that well and the decision is even easier to make. A shame, but probably the inevitable truth.
    Edited by sfp_noodle at 15/12/11 @ 15:00

  • Alex_V #7 5 months ago

    One hell of a CV - why haven't I heard of him before? Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

  • kingpin3000 #8 5 months ago

    The reason is not a social game that everyone loves is because the goal of a social game is to constantly take money from the player at every opportunity.

    Also whilst they are initially great at the reward structure of their games they lack any ultimate pay-off.

  • drew327 #9 5 months ago

    le sigh

  • sfp_noodle #10 5 months ago

    @lollage

    We're still getting The Last Guardian, what are you getting on your precious 360 lollage? Last time I checked the 360 was getting jack shit exclusive wise in 2012.

  • Retro_ #11 5 months ago

    Should the Last Guardian ever make it retail, I will be front of the queue.

  • captain_Carl #12 5 months ago

    I think the problem is more that people are sick of being spammed with invites to games that just want their money

  • Alex_V #13 5 months ago

    I don't really get the hate for 'social gaming'. Sure there are poor ones, and aggressively marketed ones. But there have been poor games in every format in history. There's no reason why browser games couldn't match console titles in a few years, in both quality and availability.

    I think it's great that quality designers are taking on this new area.

  • Hedja #14 5 months ago

    That guy has clearly lost a few marbles. I mean, you'd have to lose a few to make such unique games as Ico and SotC, but at the same time you need to make sure you don't lose more than needed; which he clearly has.

  • arcam #15 5 months ago

    There's no reason why browser games couldn't match console titles in a few years, in both quality and availability

    No reason they can't today - Bastion is now a browser game and that is literally one of the best games of the year.

  • funkateer #16 5 months ago

    "Why do you refer to me as if I only own one console? You already know that I own a PS3 as well. "

    Seeing how much you love to hate the PS3, you made a great choice to buy a PS3 (if that's actually true).

  • Snufkin #17 5 months ago

    @kingpin3000 : "The reason is not a social game that everyone loves is because the goal of a social game is to constantly take money from the player at every opportunity.

    Also whilst they are initially great at the reward structure of their games they lack any ultimate pay-off."

    Sounds like an increasing number of console games to me. Look at the way that DLC is now ubiquitous across pretty much every genre and platform. Content which would have been bundled in years ago is now all too frequently sold as 'extras'. Its getting so bad now that some games are sold more as platforms than anything else - look at COD, Battlefield. At the moment they still have reasonable amounts of content on the disk that justifies their full price (just) but this is being eroded at an alarming rate.

    On topic - he's a brave soul, though misguided in my opinion. His and Ueda's departures really make me fear for The LAst Guardian. I've been waiting years for that game, but I can't help feeling its goinbg to disappoint... :(

  • Mughes #18 5 months ago

    Hey fanboys - get the fuck out of here.

    As for the article, that's an incredibly disappointing move. It seems to imply that he doesn't intend to make console games at all in the future.

  • BearFishPie #19 5 months ago

    So the world of great big living-room dominating high def games loses yet another auteur. Magnammit.

    I do sincerely hope he does bring something new to the world of social network games, but it'll have to be bloody spectacular before I'll consider it.

  • wattsn26 #20 5 months ago

    Let me get this straight, he leaves Sony who is lenient enough to allow them to consistently push back the release date of THEIR own ip, and Ueda decides to quit and this guy decides to become a Facebook game developer? That does not make any sense at all...

    The Japanese game market has already lost Microsoft, all they have left is Sony and Nintendo. And its not as if Sony wasn't giving them enough freedom, "The Last Guardian" looks amazing but I don't think its gonna sell enough to cover the cost of making it. They had no reason to leave a first part publisher

    The last thing I want is Team Ico to turn into Sony's version of Rare and have to make Avatars and Move-only games
    Edited by wattsn26 at 15/12/11 @ 17:18

  • KanePaws #21 5 months ago

    Revive your li'l Guardian™ for only 50 Hayama Points!™

    No points? Take me to the li'l Guardian™ store now!

  • LR100 #22 5 months ago

    With this and all the stuff about Metal Gear Rising etc lately, are Japanese devs going a bit mad with the supposed "The japanese games industry is dead" shit and panicking that it's true?

  • Char-Aznable #23 5 months ago

    @retr0gamer
    I couldn't agree more with you.

  • HeNiCiDe1988 #24 5 months ago

    man thats sad maybe he can do it , but maybe he a bit of a cloud that just floating around on thoughts. Hopefully last guardian still will be awesome if its not be drastically killed by his departure.

  • oerhoert #25 5 months ago

    "Couple that with the fact that the games don't sell that well"
    Well, if the team really is only 20 people, the games don't need to sell that well. And I think they sell decently; I haven't got the numbers, but I'd be surprised if SOTC didn't break a million sales eventually.

    I think the problem is more that people are sick of being spammed with invites to games that just want their money
    1. The Facebook TOS hasn't allowed this for quite some time. The only feed posts allowed are those for games you installed already.

    2. Games that want to be paid for! The outrage!
    Edited by oerhoert at 15/12/11 @ 19:24

  • Subdominator #26 5 months ago

    Just shows how far behind Japanese development really is. How can anyone today talk about the first masterpiece on Facebook? And social gaming has been around long before Facebook. He is just one of those mad guys like the one recently that wants to make a game played by billions. It's this kind of gold digger mentality that only happens when something is too hot. The vast majority of Facebook games has less than 5000 players. And only a small percentage of those actually pay for content.

  • F3r0city #27 5 months ago

    @sfp_noodle Halo 4, Fable? :p

  • silversun #28 5 months ago

    Facebook at least for me (my own personal view) is not a games platform , it is a great social tool to keep in contact with freinds and get the latest status updates from stuff though.
    Am intrested in indie games though would like see some the japanese developers try them , just not facebook though.
    Edited by silversun at 15/12/11 @ 20:11

  • wattsn26 #29 5 months ago

    @oerhoert That doesn't change the fact that things like creating the engine using up studio time, advertising, 5+ years of development time, yes this game will eventually begin to bleed money each year its not released

  • Dewin #30 5 months ago

    Its like quiting your job at a 5 star restaurant where you could do whatever the fuck you want, and take a job at McDonalds baking burgers.

  • Ryze #31 5 months ago

    Absolute BEST OF LUCK to the fella.

    Although I currently HATE Facebook gaming, he does have a HUGE point regarding the Arcades and Film industry parallels.

    I reckon Facebook probably has the infrastructure, and HTML5 the tech to POTENTIALLY make a game that's as fun as New Super Mario Bros Wii is with your mates playing together.

    Let's wait and see what he can come up with, with his new team.

    /fingers crossed...

  • bionic_v2 #32 5 months ago

    Good luck to him. It shouldn't prove too difficult given the amount of cr4p out there. I'm not into Facebook games, although I have to admit, over the past week I have been checking out Castle Ville. I'm not sure I'd go as far as to call it a game. Its something you can do half asleep while eating breakfast. The aim appears to simply involve clicking on various areas of the screen to achive tasks. The player nevers dies, but simply reaches a point of zero energy. From there on in you can either A. Part with Credit Card details or B. Return to the "game" another time, at which point energy will have replenished. As for excitement, well there isn't any. It plays like a game desinged for people who can't play proper games. Maybe that's their target audience.
    Edited by bionic_v2 at 15/12/11 @ 20:35

  • bionic_v2 #33 5 months ago

    Last Guardian - I can't wait to play it!
    Edited by bionic_v2 at 15/12/11 @ 20:37

  • wattsn26 #34 5 months ago

    I horribly doubt he'll be able to make something as amazingly beautiful as Ico or Shadow of the Colossus as a Facebook game....

  • evnewell #35 5 months ago

    @sfp_noodle and let's not forget, their games are monumentally boring.

  • Snake_2011 #36 5 months ago

    why are there so many immature people that come to this site lollage is another example. lollage you buy a console to play games PS3 has loads of great games but you still slag it of your not being honest your a MS lover.
    Edited by Snake_2011 at 15/12/11 @ 21:52

  • Okamiwolf #37 5 months ago

    Good luck with that buddy. You're gonna need it.

  • funkateer #38 5 months ago

    @lollage
    "It is true. I can list all of the games I own for it and post a pic of any of them, with Eurogamer in the background if it somehow eases your suspicions."

    Considering your trolling behaviour on every PS3 topic, you can't blame people for being suspicious about that. It just seems rather stupid to buy stuff you hate, keep buying more games for it, and then go online to complain about it. I just can't see any sense in that.

    But you might actually have a PS3. And then again you might just be showing pictures of your big brother's PS3, who knows?
    But I really don't care if you do or if you don't, because it wouldn't change anything.

  • petran79 #39 5 months ago

    if you consider it, The Last Guardian is like Farmville but with beautiful graphics and a Griffin as farm animal.