Looking back at gen 7 it can be said that Sonys japanese branch lost a lot of importance in those years, SCE Japan almost amounted to more of a huge lump of baggage than a real valuable asset to Sony in that time (hyperbolically speaking). I think that this is going to change this generation and that via collaborations and their own output we will get some of the best Sony first party games on PS4 out of SCE Japan these next couple years. The development in that direction has already started with the collaboration work of Bloodborne and, to some people the GOTG, Knack. And the future's looking pretty good already as well with TLG, Gravity Rush 2, Hotshots Golf, the Tomorrow Children and unannounced/rumoured projects like the other 2 From Software collaborations and the number of internally and in collaboration developed JRPGs.

Now I'm not saying we're looking at the next Naughty Dog here, but I can definitely see SCE Japan being much more part of the first party conversation this gen than they were last gen with producing more higher rated and better selling games.

What do you think? Do you agree with my thoughts? Disagree? What do you think are other studios to watch? I'd say GG and Bend are candidates as well. But while I think/hope Horizon will do great, it has to also be said that GG has been one of the Sonys most important studios already anyway (even if it's not often acknowledged like that), so the rise wouldn't come as much of a surprise to me. Bend's a possibility but we honestly have such a limited idea of what they are working on that I hesitate to make a call on that one, they might produce a multimillion seller or a complete flop, I have no idea.

I totally agree, sony japan studio is by far, the interresting developer for me at the moment, and can't wait to finally see this rumord aaa jrpg, that should be able to compete against final fantasy...

They've been my favorite first party studio (out of all 3 companies) since PS1/PS2, so my eyes are still in the same place
7th gen wasn't even that much of a downfall (several good overlooked games) when you take into account how everyone in general was worse than previous gens. Knack might be Knack but Gravity Rush, Rain (not sure how much they were involved in this one) and Puppeteer were great. 2016 should be another great year with GR2 and TLG.

I would love to see Japan Studio trying to take over Japan's console software. :D

DerNebel your thread says "prediction" so we need more concise information from you so that we can say if you ultimately were wrong or not and not leave it all to personal appreciation.

Something like a minimum number of Japan Studio games you expect to come out for PS4. Gives us them numbers!

Well it shouldn't be too hard to top their 7th gen output

Any japanese studio is to watch this gen really. It's just amazing how japanese economic crisis was reflected in the video game industry, 7th gen was almost non existent and it feels like now we are back to repeating the 6th gen.
Also super excited at Gravity rush, both remake and 2. Tomorrow Children looks neat too. Good to see Japan finally noticing minecreft. (Especially when we can easily expect crazy-er user content from Asia)

I agree, SCEJ is really doing a good job so far in this generation!

Well that's a tough question to answer. Including collaborations I'd say at least 12 (retail+digital only).

The more important part is that I see them producing a significantly higher amount of million sellers and 75+ metacritic games, I can't really tell you how many but I have a good feeling about them for this generation, they seem on the right track.

Also I just found out that Everybody's Golf has nothing to do with SCE Japan, my bad, I got confused because it was shown during the SCE WWS part of the TGS conference.

Yeah, i was thinking the same when i saw Gravity Rush Remake and the sequel announced, since we already have TLG as well planed for 2016 and the already released Bloodborne collaboration its pretty obvious to me that they are doing way more this gen than the last one,

I agree, with sony as the top dog this generation japanese games are making a comeback.