🔗 Share this article

PlayStation fans and detractors rarely see eye to eye.

However one particular grievance that's been voiced by all parties.

"Where are all the games?"

High-cost, story-driven hits from first-party teams have historically been the foundation to PlayStation's hardware popularity.

In the PS4 era, fans had a consistent flow of narrative-driven games, but this has seemed more like a slow drip since last year's Spider-Man 2.

However, Sony's most recent release – Ghost of Yōtei – signals a comeback to its proven premium format.

What Took So Long?

The studio's newest offering is a sequel to 2020's feudal Japan-set adventure Ghost of Tsushima, one of the final major PlayStation-only games from Sony.

"Video games do take a long time to create, so it's no small part of your life," explains the creative director.

Ghost of Yōtei relocates the setting a several hundred miles to the north, to the Honshū region, and the era a several centuries forward, to the early 17th century.

Now, the plot centers on the protagonist Atsu, a heroine on a journey to exact retribution against the group of six – a group of warlords responsible for her clan's death.

With a earlier release to build on, it's far from a completely fresh foundation but, Fox clarifies, the game is nonetheless a massive undertaking.

Merely introducing a different protagonist, for case, demands contribution from authors, character animators and concept artists, to name just a few of the jobs involved.

Internally there are numerous additional team members.

A Massive Workforce Effort

Although the developer has approximately 200 staff at its headquarters near the Seattle area, numerous others are involved in its projects.

The end credits for Ghost of Tsushima, for instance, contained approximately over 1,800 people.

Several of those will be from abroad, or from outside studios that excel in specific specialized fields.

"Making a title demands all sorts of distinct talents, from highly technical experts... to those who are very focused on emotions, like our writing staff," explains Fox.

"Furthermore the various departments function with synchronization. It's similar to directing an ensemble.

"You must have every pieces aligning."

The creative director states that a staggering variety of factors can go into a single sequence – from music to the programming that ensures particles float across the environment at a crucial point.

"All these teams must have a understanding of where they're going," says Nate.

A Shift in Focus

Clear leadership is a quality the community have accused PlayStation of not having in recent times.

With its prior boss, Jim Ryan, the branch launched work on twelve online multiplayer titles, known as "live-service" experiences in the business.

Some of the best-known examples, such as Fortnite, the user-generated game and Call of Duty, retain players involved for months and generate huge revenues of money.

Sony has had positive results in the space with the recent Helldivers II, but a disastrous failure with a certain title, which was discontinued merely 14 days after its launch.

The company has afterward cancelled live-service titles using some of its best-known franchises, including God of War and The Last of Us.

Pursuing the multiplayer sector is a plan the company has admitted is not wholly "going smoothly", but it's explained some games with multiplayer elements, such as the racing series and MLB title MLB: The Show, have done nicely.

The highlights of its latest marketing presentation were an upcoming game, a successor to 2021's Returnal, and the long-awaited the mutant hero title from superhero developer Insomniac – both story-driven experiences.

Controversy and Attention

Major titles can often be sources for controversy, as the developer not long ago discovered when a staff member's joke about the passing of political American personality a public figure triggered a outcry.

The studio eventually dismissed the employee responsible, and founder a senior figure stated that "applauding or joking about someone's death is a red line for the company", when asked about it.

A number of conservative gaming personalities have furthermore attacked Ghost of Yōtei for featuring a heroine.

Nate notes it was an "unusual decision", but crucial to the tale the team wanted to tell of an outsider defying traditional conventions.

When the story unfolds, the protagonist's myth as an Onryō – a revenge-seeking spirit found in Eastern mythology – grows.

"Players think it's impossible a female would have eliminated members of the six warlords unless she is a mythical {creature|