In 2006, Sony placed an advertisement in a "Famitsu" magazine with interest in hiring staff for an upcoming game. It contains a picture with four monkeys, with the first holding up "Ape Escape", the second holding up "Ape Escape 2", the third holding up "Ape Escape 3" and the fourth holding a cover with "?". The fourth entry was in development, but is still unreleased. A tweet by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan on Twitter was posted on January 5, 2016, reading, "2016 Year of the Monkey. Today, SCE will begin working! #Monkey #YearofMonkey" alongside an image of a Pipo Monkey". In 2019, the 20th anniversary of the franchise, for the first time in more than 5 years, the official Japanese website for the "Ape Escape" series was updated and an official Japanese "Ape Escape" 20th anniversary account was made on Twitter.