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PlayStation enthusiasts and opponents infrequently find common ground.

However a single complaint that's been raised by everyone.

"Why are there so few games?"

Big-budget, story-driven major releases from first-party teams have long been the key to the company's hardware success.

In the PlayStation 4 days, fans enjoyed a consistent flow of narrative-driven experiences, but this has felt more like a drip since last year's Spider-Man 2.

But, Sony's latest release – Ghost of Yōtei – represents a comeback to its successful premium formula.

Why Did It Take So Long?

The studio's latest offering is a successor to 2020's feudal Japan-set adventure Ghost of Tsushima, one of the final high-profile console-exclusive games from Sony.

"Video games do take a considerable duration to create, so it's an enormous chunk of your life," explains the creative director.

Ghost of Yōtei transfers the setting a several hundred miles to the north, to the island of Honshū location, and the time period a several centuries later, to the year 1603.

In this installment, the story revolves around Atsu, a female warrior on a journey to seek vengeance against the Yōtei Six – a faction of rulers accountable for her family's demise.

With a previous game to build on, it's not a totally new start but, Fox explains, the undertaking is still a massive effort.

Just creating a different protagonist, for example, needs work from scriptwriters, character animators and design artists, to cite a handful of the jobs participating.

Backstage there are numerous additional contributors.

A Massive Workforce Project

While Sucker Punch has roughly 200 staff at its headquarters near the Seattle area, numerous others are involved in its games.

The list of contributors for Ghost of Tsushima, for example, included about eighteen hundred names.

Some of them will be from abroad, or from third-party studios that specialise in particular technical areas.

"Making a title demands all sorts of different skills, from highly technical people... to individuals who are very focused on feelings, like our writing staff," explains the director.

"Plus these teams work in co-ordination. It's similar to directing an ensemble.

"You must have each pieces aligning."

Nate notes that a staggering array of components can go into a single moment – from audio to the code that ensures particles blow over the scene at a critical moment.

"Each group have to have a understanding of the end goal," adds the director.

An Adjustment in Direction

Clear leadership is something fans have criticized PlayStation of lacking in the last few years.

With its previous head, Jim Ryan, the company initiated production on twelve live-service titles, called "continuous" games in the gaming sector.

Several of the top games, such as Fortnite, the sandbox platform and the FPS series, retain fans involved for months and earn huge amounts of income.

The company has had success in the area with the previous year's Helldivers II, but an catastrophic failure with Concord, which was taken offline just two weeks after its debut.

Sony has subsequently cancelled multiplayer titles using a number of its best-known series, like God of War and The Last of Us.

Pursuing the multiplayer market is a strategy the company has stated is not wholly "going smoothly", but it's noted certain games with online elements, such as Gran Turismo and baseball title MLB: The Show, have performed well.

The highlights of its recent showcase event were a new title, a successor to 2021's Returnal, and the eagerly awaited Wolverine adventure from web-slinger maker Insomniac – the two story-driven titles.

Controversy and Examination

Big games can also be sources for debate, as the studio just discovered when a staff member's joke about the death of conservative activist figure the individual caused a reaction.

The developer ultimately let go the individual involved, and founder a senior figure said that "celebrating or making light of someone's death is a deal-breaker for the team", when questioned about it.

Certain conservative video game personalities have additionally attacked Ghost of Yōtei for featuring a female protagonist.

The director explains it was an "unconventional decision", but crucial to the tale the team wanted to tell of an underdog resisting cultural conventions.

When the adventure progresses, the character's legend as an supernatural being – a revenge-seeking apparition found in Japan's mythology – increases.

"The public believe it's impossible a woman might have eliminated members of the Yōtei Six unless she is a supernatural {creature|