How many key people have left Sony these past 6 years???
It seems like every few months someone else leaves.

Oh Noooooo Japan Studio is dooooooomed! Just like when Mikami and Kamiya left Capcom, just like when Sakaguchi left Square, and just when like when every other perceived face of a company left it made little difference and in fact i find it necessary for the growth of any studio and franchise since it reinvigorates said studio/franchise and allows new ideas and faces to shine and get the spotlight. 

From what i can tell SIE wanted to expand Japan Studio to Make more AAA games (as per the famitsu article), but Toyama and co were more interested in Niche AA games

No amount of marketing can turn a niche game into a million seller, its the game Quality and word of Mouth and that's fact (even with Sony Marketing GR2 at PSX and E3 alongside TV ads the game sold poorly, like about 300k or so)

https://youtu.be/0INIMjvtCL4

I guess Hades/Atelier Ryza/Hollow Knight/Atlus/Undertale/Astral Chain games sold over 1M because of their massive marketing campaigns /s.

It's an industry where people leave to go do another studio or make their own. Not that big a deal. Retro Studios hired a number of former Naughty Dog people last few years. That doesn't mean ND is doomed. People just move around. I think this is good for him as he can be free to do what he wants. Willing to bet he still works closely with Sony. We already knew the chance of a Gravity Rush 3 was about as good as well me asking for an Omega Boost remake and Bradlod asking for a Lagoon remake. It was never going to happen.

That’s sad news, even though Gravity Rush was a niche game, it indicates the shrinking of Japan Studio. Both Team Ico and Team Gravity were big parts of the internal team at Sony Japan and showed the creative magnitude and talent of the studio and its developers. I don’t think staying a support team only (like San Mateo studio) is a good choice. We need those AA games that bring more diversity to the lineup of Sony’s games

Seems it’s a little common these days to hear that a Sony dev has either joined the competition or left in general. Intriguing

I guess their wont be a Gravity Rush 3 :(

I know the sequel didn't do so well but I still enjoyed it, and for some reason it just feels better that if a series were to end that it would end on a trilogy.

On the front page now we have an article of two devs from upper management leaving Bioware, but we don't have a thread about an  EA exodus.

The industry has people moving all the time, the difference now is anyone from the CEO to the Janitor leaves, VGChartz makes an article so it has more exposure now.

As to why the movement of Sony's personnel seems to hold intrigue compared to movement elsewhere, without any negatives from those moving on to drive the interest or data showing there is a unaccountable spike in movement,I would conjecture that it comes down to human nature. 

That being that we tend to see things we align with/like from a glass half full positive standpoint, while starting from a more glass half empty critical approach towards those that don't.

Or Halo infinite Director leaving once every year.

Lost is a strange term to use in the context of game developers. I think you need to understand that the games industry is essentially a series of multi year jobs. Staff move between these projects to further their career. Some studios maintain a core staff and hire on additional (anywhere from 10's to 100's) as needed, who then generally leave after the project or their input on it, is complete. 

"A career in the games industry, for most, will involve applying for jobs at several studios over the course of many years. A recent survey found that on average, employees in the games industry have had 2.2 employers in the last five years."

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/340662/Managing_your_game_dev_career_from_early_to_late_stages.php

Taken from an interview with a developer at Creative Assembly who has switched developers 5 times already.

Naughty Dog developers get a mention often because of the prestige of the studio. 'Former Naughty Dog developer has joined etc.' some people really need to listen to interviews with ND staff though. The studio has, for the past two decades, burned through staff like an assembly line. Uncharted 1 essentially gutted the entire studio- Yet they keep releasing some of the highest quality content in the industry.

For various reasons I find that fascinating. Like an established studio seems to act like Theseus' ship, so long as not too many leave at once, you can essentially strip the entire studio over time and the culture and standards can still be maintained. Where as a new or rapidly expanding studio, that doesn't have the history or culture, seems to face an uphill battle to establish itself.

Well it’s news like this coupled with seemingly every 2 months I read that The Initiative poached another Sony dev. So there’s that. Also didn’t the Days Gone dev have a departure too?