Sony acquires Media Molecule

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I just wish SCEJ would be more active in this regard. In the past four years, SCEA have bought Zipper Interactive, and SCEE have bought Guerrilla Games, Evolution Studios, and now Media Molecule. SCEA have become the strongest arm of Sony's first party, with SCEE actively trying to catch up (and I think they're just about there with this latest move).

Meanwhile SCEJ just pumps out the occasional GT and Ico game, and not much else. Even when it comes to second parties, they basically work with Level 5 on few RPGs and that's it. The only really new relationship they've formed this gen is with From Software for Demon's Souls, but it's unlikely we'll get anything out of that aside from a Demon's Souls 2.

Granted, we never really know what's going on at the quite large and rather amorphous Japan Studio, which contains Team Ico, Team Siren (though is it really a specific, dedicated team?), and the guys that work on Ape Escape, Patapon, and Loco Roco, so I suppose they could simply be expanding that, possibly cooking up something big in addition to the Last Guardian.

Either way, I just wish SCEJ would step up their game. I generally favor the style of Japanese games, and as much as I love LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, and Killzone, I want more Japanese love for this Japanese console. It's so odd that Sony themselves focus so heavily on Western development when the console's roots are far from being Western focused.

But I guess that's what happens when you get used to 10 years of having Japanese developers almost exclusively backing you up. You get to thinking you don't need too many developers of your own. Hopefully this gen will give SCEJ a nice big kick in the rear. While they still share a majority of Western third party support with Microsoft, Japan is the one region in which they're actively losing development support to a competitor, that being Nintendo.

Because of this, I wouldn't be surprised to hear some interesting announcements from SCEJ over the next year or two. Especially given that they recently announced 2010 is the year SCEJ starts to focus heavily on the PS3 vs the PSP. But at the same, given SCEJ's seemingly lethargic attitude at the start of this gen, I can't help but have my doubts that they'll start making good decisions (rather, decisions I like) any time soon.