From our other sites
The story
There hasn’t been a new ‘Ape Escape’ game since 2010’s PS3 title ‘Ape Escape Move’ (Furi Furi! Saru Getchu), but an October leak suggests a revival project is underway inside Sony. Word is that development isn’t being handled by Team Asobi but by an overseas outside studio, Evening Star — a claim that has come in independently from games journalist Jeff Gerstmann and the outlet VGC. On 5ch, posters speculated that a multiplatform release makes a Switch 2 version likely, comparing sales of previous Sony-affiliated games ported to Switch, like ‘Everybody’s GOLF WORLD,’ while also worrying that an overseas studio might change the character designs.
New Ape Escape Game Reportedly in Development at Evening Star, the Studio Behind ‘Sonic Mania’
No new ‘Ape Escape’ title has come out since ‘Ape Escape Move’ launched for PS3 in December 2010. In early October, a leak revealed that Sony is pushing forward a project to revive the series, and that development is not being handled by Sony’s in-house Team ASOBI (the studio behind ‘ASTRO BOT’) — though which studio actually is making it hadn’t been disclosed.
Amid that, games journalist Jeff Gerstmann said on his own show that he’s heard the new title is being made not by Team ASOBI but by the outside studio Evening Star. He was careful to note he hasn’t verified this across multiple sources, but the outlet VGC has also reported hearing the same thing from its own sources — meaning the Evening Star name has surfaced through two separate channels.
Source: gazlog.jp / Original article here
What people said
Is that basically what's going on?
There was more than double the gap.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202509/52127
#2 (debut) Switch — Everybody's GOLF WORLD
35,139 units (total 35,139) / Bandai Namco Entertainment / September 4, 2025
#3 (debut) PS5 — Everybody's GOLF WORLD
16,075 units (total 16,075) / Bandai Namco Entertainment / September 4, 2025
It's on SIE — they basically abandoned this kind of casual game entirely. Even 'Astro Bot' would've sold more than double if not for the PlayStation barrier to entry, but PS users show zero interest.
The victims' support group, huh…
the whole point of making it is to pull in that casual crowd,
so you can't just go and release it elsewhere.
Don't give up already, lol
Guess they're just pulling out after all, huh?
Ape Escape's probably headed the same way.
Fine if it stays like 'Ora Natsu' or 'Natsumon,' where it's strictly just 'a former Sony person happens to be involved' — but this feels different…
Sounds like hell, doesn't it?
Well, if they're playing it with their kids or grandkids, I guess that's fine…
Though the 'VR family' patent got sold off too…
It actually did, at the Nintendo Direct on June 18, 2024.
LEGO Horizon.
Poor zombie cat.
Sony itself owns the character IP, so the situation's different from other games.
Nah, I don't really buy that.
The PS2 one was fun too.
Even Ape Escape never sold as well as other SCE games on PS1, which is why the series didn't continue.
At this point it's basically got nothing to do with PlayStation anymore, right?
I bet a ton of people dropped off right around the part where you whack them with the Mecha-Bo stick and then switch to the net with the button.
The actual hero, Kakeru-kun (known in the West as 'Spike'), is even less known than that.
Same goes for Dragon Quest or Monster Hunter, right?
Still a mystery to this day.
If it were just about putting Sony IP on Sony hardware, there'd be no need to ask Bandai Namco to do it.
True, but it really is a mystery whether Sony itself wanted it on Switch.
Freedom Wars and Everybody's Golf have already come out on Switch.
They say what's happened twice happens a third time.
That's the one part giving me a bad feeling.
The playable character might end up changing.
If that happens, fans of the original might just skip it.
I'm scared the female characters like Ukki Pink and Natsumi are going to get redesigned Western-style…
their hairstyles, their clothes, all of it…
They're all dead.
If I had to pick one, I guess Gran Turismo.
Just the other day, 'Pichi-T' crawled out of the woodwork after years of silence and started spouting nonsense about playing GT7 with the family.
What are they even doing right now?
It's an IP they put on ice because they decided it wasn't worth making a sequel for, so it makes perfect sense that Asobi isn't the one making it.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The latest leak is seen as more credible than an ordinary rumor, since the same studio name surfaced independently from journalist Jeff Gerstmann and the outlet VGC — but it remains a leak, not an official announcement from Sony. Thread opinion split over how to read the precedent of Sony-affiliated IP like ‘Everybody’s GOLF WORLD’ and ‘Patapon,’ which sold far better on Switch than on PS5 after being ported over: some saw it as a deliberate play to capture the casual/light-user market, while others framed it as PlayStation’s side simply ‘losing’ the IP. There was also concern that handing development to an overseas studio could change the designs of female characters like Ukki Pink and Natsumi — reflecting the fact that ‘Ape Escape’ has a devoted fanbase among Japan’s PS1-PS2 generation but little history with overseas development or outsourcing. What Team Asobi is currently working on wasn’t revealed in the thread either.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread ‘[PS Sad News] New Ape Escape Game, Coming to Switch 2 Too?.’
Leave a Reply