Monkey see, monkey do.

Sony reportedly wants to revive a selection of its long-dormant PlayStation classics with the help of smaller third-party developers, and a new Ape Escape game is apparently up first.

The tidbit comes courtesy of The Jeff Gerstmann podcast, where Gerstmann said that a new Ape Escape was on the way from Evening Star, the independent team who made the fan-favorite Sonic Mania before forming their own studio and releasing the surprisingly delightful Penny's Big Breakaway. VGC corroborated the podcast's claims, as well.

"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. "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… Evening Star. I heard that they were working on it."

VGC also reported that PlayStation isn't stopping with Ape Escape, either - the console maker is apparently keen to work with other outside developers on some of its legacy IP. It's the same blueprint Sony used for 2025's Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots, which was handled by Bandai Namco.

Ape Escape was a beloved series of 3D platformers during PS1 and PS2 generations, and had players running around levels and catching chaos-causing apes with special gadgets. The last mainline game in the series was 2005's Ape Escape 3, though a lovely playable tribute was also included in Astro Bot.

Speaking of, Astro Bot was a good reminder of just how many classic games PlayStation is sitting on, so there's certainly a lot to choose from. There's already been rumours of a new Killzone game from People Can Fly (Outriders, Gears of War: Judgement), for one. Which comebacks would you like to see? I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Sly Cooper.

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