PlayStation Bringing Back Ape Escape With Ex-Sonic Devs, Report Says

Published Oct 7, 2026, 10:02 AM EDT

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“I don’t think this game is close to being out or anything like that, but I guess it’s been almost a year since we started talking about Ape Escape,” Gerstmann said on his podcast, The Jeff Gerstmann Show.

“Who is making it? That’s a good question. My understanding is that it’s an external studio. You know, because people were immediately like, ‘Oh, Team Asobi (Astro Bot) is making it.’ My understanding is that an external team has been working on that. What do they make… Penny’s Big Breakaway. Evening Star. I heard that they were working on it.”

Team Asobi is what remains of the acclaimed Japan Studio, which developed Ape Escape, LocoRoco, Siren, Gravity Rush, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian. Sony disbanded Japan Studio in 2021, merging its employees into Team Asobi and other Sony teams. After the success of Astro Bot, many assumed Team Asobi would handle the game. Astro Bot included an homage to Ape Escape with the "Apes On The Loose" level in the Gorilla Nebula section of the game.

Rumors about the return of Ape Escape have been swirling for quite some time, but this is the most concrete information we’ve received. According to VGC, multiple sources confirmed that Sony is looking to bring back many of its other dormant franchises through licensing these titles to outside studios (probably because it dismantled the internal studios that could do it in pursuit of failed live-service games). Sony previously did this when it partnered with Bandai Namco for 2025's Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots.

Sony is also reportedly looking into reviving the Killzone series.

When was the last mainline Ape Escape game?

While the last Ape Escape release was technically PlayStation Move Ape Escape, this maligned tie-in wasn’t a mainline entry. The series debuted in 1999 with Ape Escape,followed by Ape Escape 2 (2003) andApe Escape 3 (2005). There were also numerous spinoffs and party games, but it’s been more than 20 years since a central entry in the series.

If you’ve never played the games, you're tasked with capturing wily apes who have, well, escaped. To do so, you use gadgets like a Stun Club, Time Net, and more to corner these swift little guys. The original game is often considered one of the best PS1 games ever, largely because it made such effective use of the DualShock controller’s new dual analog sticks.