Ghost of Yotei devs will create one game at a time: 'It has to be our best idea,' boss says

Sucker Punch productions, the team behind Ghost of Yotei and Infamous, says their studio will continue being a one-project team on PS5 and beyond.

Ghost of Yotei devs will create one game at a time: 'It has to be our best idea,' boss says
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Senior Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: Sucker Punch Productions will maintain a focused, single-project approach, prioritizing quality over quantity for its games like Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yotei. This strategy ensures cinematic-quality, polished experiences, with new releases spaced about every five years to select the studio's best ideas carefully.

The team behind Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yotei will continue taking their time and focus deliberately on one game project at a time.

Ghost of Yotei devs will create one game at a time: 'It has to be our best idea,' boss says 24
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As studios like Naughty Dog ramp up to work on multiple games at once, some PlayStation studios like Sucker Punch Productions are keeping things lean. The team's samurai slasher Ghost franchise has helped Sony continue its penchant for cinematic-quality productions, so it has a critical place within the PlayStation ecosystem.

Now in a recent interview with VideoGameChronicle, studio founder Brian Fleming says that Sucker Punch will continue its single-release cadence. That's partly because Fleming only wants to select the single best idea that the studio has for a new game. The other part is because developers want as much time to make their game look and play as best as possible, and having multiple projects can crowd the workcycle.

"The truth is that whatever we do next, whether it's continuing Ghost or going back to Sly, the decision is really more limited by--again--our cherishing of focus and time to iterate. Which means that we really can only do one thing at a time.

"If we were good at juggling four projects, we'd have a remaster, and let's go do one of those and do some fan request...that would be really popular. But we only get to do one thing.

"So it kind of has to be your best idea, right? And that's really clarifying.

"It's not like there aren't 15 good ideas. But you only get to do one. And by the way, you only get to do one about every five years. So that choice is really important. I mean, that is choosing your college and your major every five years."

The Ghost franchise is one of Sony's more popular first-party franchises; Ghost of Tsushima, the first game in Sucker Punch's series, sold 13 million copies by September 2024.

The next project that Sucker Punch is technically working on is Ghost of Yotei's online mode, Legends II, which is coming next year.