Ghost of Yōtei: Sony's console Revives Blockbuster Releases

PlayStation supporters and opponents rarely find common ground.

Yet there's one issue that's been raised by both sides.

"Where are all the games?"

Expensive, single-player hits from first-party developers have historically been the key to the company's gaming dominance.

Throughout the last generation days, players enjoyed a steady stream of story-rich games, but this has seemed more like a drip since last year's Spider-Man 2.

But, the company's most recent title – Ghost of Yōtei – signals a return to its proven premium format.

What Took So Long?

Sucker Punch's latest game is a follow-up to 2020's Japanese history-based adventure Ghost of Tsushima, one of the most recent big PlayStation-only games from Sony.

"Titles need a considerable duration to create, so it's a major part of your time," explains Nate.

Ghost of Yōtei moves the setting a several hundred miles northward, to the island of Honshū area, and the time period a hundreds of years afterward, to the year 1603.

Now, the plot follows Atsu, a female warrior on a quest to seek revenge against the Yōtei Six – a group of rulers to blame for her family's death.

Using a previous game to develop from, it's far from a brand new foundation but, Fox clarifies, the game is still a huge undertaking.

Simply having a new main character, for case, requires work from scriptwriters, animation artists and design artists, to mention only some of the positions involved.

Internally there are many, many more specialists.

An Enormous Workforce Effort

While the developer has approximately 200 team members at its headquarters near Seattle, many hundreds work on its projects.

The end credits for Ghost of Tsushima, for case, listed about 1,800 names.

Some of them are from abroad, or from outside studios that specialise in specific advanced disciplines.

"Creating a video game calls for various distinct abilities, from incredibly technical individuals... to people who are extremely guided by feelings, like our writing staff," comments Fox.

"And these teams function with synchronization. It's similar to conducting an orchestra.

"We have to have all of the pieces working in unison."

Nate states that a dizzying number of factors can go into a one scene – from music to the programming that causes leaves float across the scene at a pivotal juncture.

"Every department must have a sense of the overall direction," concludes the director.

An Adjustment in Direction

Clear leadership is an aspect fans have accused Sony of lacking in recent years.

With its previous boss, Jim Ryan, the division initiated production on a dozen multiplayer projects, referred to as "live-service" experiences in the gaming sector.

Several of the top titles, such as Fortnite, the user-generated game and Call of Duty, keep fans involved for extended durations and earn massive revenues of money.

PlayStation has had a hit in the genre with last year's Helldivers II, but a disastrous flop with Concord, which was shut down merely 14 days after its launch.

It has since halted live-service games based on a number of its best-known IPs, such as God of War and The Last of Us.

Chasing the live-service market is a strategy Sony has stated is not entirely "going smoothly", but it's noted some releases with online features, such as the driving simulator and MLB simulation MLB: The Show, have been successful.

The main attractions of its most recent showcase stream were a new title, a follow-up to the earlier Returnal, and the eagerly awaited Wolverine game from web-slinger developer Insomniac – both single-player games.

Debate and Scrutiny

Big games can often be sources for controversy, as the studio recently found when a staff member's comment about the demise of political American figure the individual triggered a outcry.

The company eventually let go the employee involved, and founder a senior figure said that "glorifying or trivializing an individual's death is a red line for the team", when questioned about it.

Some political entertainment commentators have furthermore attacked Ghost of Yōtei for featuring a woman hero.

Fox says it was an "unconventional decision", but crucial to the narrative the creators set out to tell of an outsider challenging cultural norms.

While the story advances, the protagonist's reputation as an vengeful spirit – a revenge-seeking spirit seen in Japan's folklore – increases.

"The public assume it can't be a female might have eliminated figures of the six warlords unless she is a otherworldly {creature|