Ape Escape[b] is a series of video games developed primarily by Japan Studio and published and owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The series incorporates ape-related humour, unique gameplay, and a wide variety of pop culture references.

The next year, Ape Escape 2 was developed by Sony and published in Japan in 2002 and in Europe and North America in 2003.

Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed was released in Japan through Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and the US through Ubisoft in 2004.

Ape Academy 2 was released in 2006 for the PlayStation Portable to mixed success and sold very well in Japan, entering the "Best of" category, but failed to perform well in Europe, due to Sony focusing on Million Monkeys.

Million Monkeys was released in Japan in July 2006, making it the last official PlayStation 2 game in the series.

Its impact in Japan led to the inclusion of its iteration of series protagonist Spike in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale in 2012.

In 2006, Sony placed an advertisement in a Famitsu magazine with interest in hiring staff for an upcoming game.

A tweet by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan on Twitter was posted on January 5, 2016, reading, "2016 Year of the Monkey.

Ape Quest, a role-playing game, was released in 2008 on the PSN store in North America and Europe and in March 2009 in Japan.

In Q3 2010, PlayStation Move: Ape Escape was officially announced under the party genre, and with a different name for every region.

It was released in Japan in December 2010, Asia in January 2011, and the UK and Europe in mid-2012 as a GameStop exclusive.

[5] The Ape Escape series is notable for its radical departure from the tried-and-true control method in many other games.