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Sony enthusiasts and critics seldom see eye to eye.

However there's one complaint that has been expressed by all parties.

"Where are all the games?"

Expensive, single-player blockbusters from internal teams have traditionally been the cornerstone to Sony's gaming popularity.

During the PlayStation 4 period, users had a regular supply of story-rich adventures, but this has appeared as a trickle since 2023's Spider-Man 2.

But, Sony's latest game – Ghost of Yōtei – signals a reversion to its established blockbuster format.

What Took So Long?

Sucker Punch's newest project is a sequel to the 2020 samurai-era release Ghost of Tsushima, one of the last big PlayStation-only titles from Sony.

"Video games do take a significant period to make, so it's an enormous part of your time," notes the creative director.

Ghost of Yōtei transfers the story a few hundred miles to the north, to the Honshū region, and the time period a hundreds of years later, to 1603.

Now, the plot centers on the protagonist Atsu, a heroine on a quest to obtain retribution against the six warlords – a group of rulers responsible for her clan's demise.

Building on a prior title to build on, it's not quite a brand new start but, the director clarifies, the project is nonetheless a huge challenge.

Simply having a new protagonist, for case, needs work from writers, animation artists and character designers, to mention only some of the jobs involved.

Backstage there are countless others contributors.

A Massive Team Project

Although the developer has about two hundred team members at its base near Seattle, many hundreds contribute to its titles.

The credits for Ghost of Tsushima, for example, included about 1,800 names.

A number of those were from abroad, or from third-party firms that excel in certain specialized disciplines.

"Developing a video game calls for a wide range of diverse talents, from highly technical individuals... to individuals who are highly focused on feelings, like our writing staff," says Nate.

"Furthermore all these groups work in co-ordination. It's like conducting an symphony.

"We have to have every components working in unison."

The creative director says that a staggering number of components can be part of a single sequence – from soundtrack to the programming that causes foliage float over the screen at a crucial moment.

"Each group need to have a understanding of where they're going," adds the director.

A Shift in Strategy

A sense of direction is a quality players have accused the brand of lacking in recent years.

Under its prior head, the ex-executive, the branch launched development on a dozen live-service titles, referred to as "ongoing" games in the business.

Several of the most famous games, such as Epic's battle royale, the user-generated game and Call of Duty, maintain players engaged for months and earn substantial amounts of revenue.

Sony has had success in the genre with the recent Helldivers II, but a disastrous disappointment with another game, which was discontinued merely two weeks after its release.

The company has since cancelled online titles inspired by some of its best-known series, like God of War and The Last of Us.

Targeting the multiplayer market is a approach the company has stated is not wholly "going smoothly", but it's noted some releases with multiplayer elements, such as the driving simulator and MLB title MLB: The Show, have done nicely.

The highlights of its most recent marketing stream were Saros, a sequel to 2021's Returnal, and the highly anticipated the mutant hero title from web-slinger maker Insomniac – both story-driven titles.

Debate and Attention

Major titles can often be magnets for controversy, as the developer not long ago found when a employee's joke about the death of political American personality the individual caused a outcry.

The developer eventually fired the individual responsible, and founder the studio head said that "celebrating or trivializing an individual's death is a deal-breaker for the company", when asked about it.

Certain right-wing entertainment personalities have additionally attacked Ghost of Yōtei for featuring a female protagonist.

The director explains it was an "unconventional choice", but key to the tale the developers wanted to present of an unlikely hero challenging society's conventions.

While the adventure advances, the protagonist's myth as an supernatural being – a wrathful entity seen in Eastern folklore – increases.

"People believe it can't be this woman might have eliminated members of the Yōtei Six unless she is a supernatural {creature|