PlayStation Stars is our loyalty program and it’s free to join through the PlayStation App. Members have a variety of perks including access to fun Campaigns, which are updated and added to frequently. PlayStation Plus members also get points on purchases from PlayStation Store.
Completing Campaigns can unlock Digital Collectibles or PlayStation Stars points. Points can be redeemed for limited-edition Digital Collectibles, PlayStation Network wallet funds or select games from PlayStation Store.
Most Digital Collectibles are designed to celebrate great moments in PlayStation and Sony history — some will be widely recognizable, while others will be a bit more subtle.
Let’s check out some of the Campaigns and Digital Collectibles that will be coming this month for PlayStation Stars members:
Highlights: New Campaigns & Digital Collectibles coming this month
God of War Ragnarök Campaign & Digital Collectible
For PlayStation Stars members who pre-ordered God of War: Ragnarök in any software edition through PS Store or direct.playstation.com.
We want to say thank you for pre-ordering from PlayStation and making the God of War Ragnarök launch epic.
This Digital Collectible will be available to those who qualify. Check into PS Stars to collect this reward.
Available Nov 9
Happy 20th Anniversary to our beloved Ratchet & Clank Campaign & Digital Collectible For all PlayStation Stars members
Join us in celebrating 20 years of Ratchet & Clank. A collectible of the universe’s most debonair spy (with significant semiconductor content) is available to collect for those joining us in playing any game on PS4 or PS5 to celebrate the franchise’s anniversary.
PlayStation and You: PS3 For PlayStation Stars members who owned PS3 in Clear Black or Ceramic White
This is a campaign for those who owned the PS3 Clear Black or Ceramic White – you were with us then and we celebrate you now. Play any game on PS4 or PS5 to receive your Digital Collectible. Doesn’t have to be vintage!
Additional Campaigns live now
November Check-In Campaign & Digital Collectible For all PlayStation Stars members
Simply check in and play your favorite game on PS4 or PS5 this month to receive the Tyrannosaurus Rex Digital Collectible for November. He’ll be waiting to take up pride of place in your digital display case.
PlayStation and You: PlayStation Eye Campaign & Digital Collectible For PlayStation Stars members who owned PlayStation Eye
PlayStation Eye owners – we see you and salute you! Playing any game on the PS4 or PS5 will bag you this Digital Collectible of the PlayStation Eye – perfect in digital miniature.
Fight of the Month Club Campaign & Digital Collectible For all PlayStation Stars members
The first rule of picking your fight is to win. This one is for the multiplayer fighting title fans. Just play one of the titles included in this month’s tournament to claim your reward. Titles included in this month’s tournament are: Guilty Gear Strive, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Street Fighter V, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Mortal Kombat 11 and Tekken 7. The reward for November is the Incorruptible Determination Digital Collectible.
You’ll be able to showcase these collectibles for other players to view – or you can also keep that private if you prefer. There is a selection of different display cases to choose from. Check out the PlayStation Stars section in PlayStation App for mobile devices to learn more.
As always, these won’t be the only collectibles offered this month – there are more surprises in store. Check in regularly on PlayStation App to discover what’s new! You can find all the information on PlayStation Stars here.
Not signed up yet? Click here to join for free on PlayStation App.
Get ready to experience the rise of Miles Morales as a new Spider-Man, coming to PC! In just over a month, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales will release on PC on November 18, 2022. Today I’m excited to share all the details on the enhancements the team at Nixxes Software has been working on, and to tell you more about pre-purchase bonuses.
Similar to the PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered we released earlier this year in close collaboration with Insomniac Games, Marvel Games, and PlayStation, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PC features many enhancements, customizable settings and support for a broad range of hardware configurations, all the way from high-end PCs to portable PC gaming devices.
The game features options for ray-traced reflections with a variety of quality levels and newly added ray-traced shadows for outdoor light cast by the sun and the moon. This enables realistic shadows with natural gradients in softness and further enhances the visual fidelity of Marvel’s New York.
The game is fully optimized for ultra-wide gaming and supports ultra-wide aspect ratios of 21:9, 32:9 and even 48:9 when using triple monitor setups. Similar to what our team did for Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, the cinematics in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PC are adapted to be fully viewable in aspect ratios up to 32:9.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales supports the latest performance enhancing upscaling technologies, like NVIDIA DLSS 3. This technology for GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs combines DLSS Super Resolution, DLSS Frame Generation, and NVIDIA Reflex to boost your frame rate to new heights. NVIDIA DLSS 2, NVIDIA DLAA, and NVIDIA Reflex will also be supported.
In the graphics menu, you’ll find many customizable features, presets, and quality levels to choose from. These include texture quality and filtering, level of detail, crowd and traffic density, field of view, windowed, full screen and exclusive full screen rendering modes, and many other options.
With the wide range of graphical settings and features, we want to ensure that gamers with the latest hardware can push their high-end rigs, but also make the game scale to less powerful systems. Below is an overview of the recommended specifications for a variety of graphical presets.
Minimum
Recommended
Very High
Amazing Ray Tracing
Ultimate Ray Tracing
Average Performance
720 @ 30 FPS
1080p @ 60 FPS
4K @ 60 FPS
1440p @ 60 FPS (4K @ 30 FPS)
4K @ 60 FPS
Graphic Presets
Very Low
1080p @ 60 FPSMedium
Very High
High Ray Tracing High
High Ray Tracing Very High
GPU
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 or AMD equivalent
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GBor AMD Radeon RX 580
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080or AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT
CPU
Intel Core i3-4160 or AMD equivalent
Intel Core i5-4670or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Intel Core i5-11400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Intel Core i5-11600Kor AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Intel Core i7-12700Kor AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
RAM
8 GB
16 GB
16 GB
16 GB
32 GB
OS
Windows 10 64-bit
Windows 10 64-bit
Windows 10 64-bit
Windows 10 64-bit
Windows 10 64-bit
Storage
75 GB HDD
75 GB SSD
75 GB SSD
75 GB SSD
75 GB SSD
*Use of performance enhancing upscaling like NVIDIA DLSS is recommended when using both ray-traced reflections and ray-traced shadows.
The game also features extensive customizable control options for mouse and keyboard and controllers. When using a PlayStation DualSense controller on a wired USB connection, you’ll get the full DualSense controller experience, including adaptive trigger feedback and haptic response. And with Steam Input support, you can use a variety of peripherals and get innumerable remapping options.
If you want to be ready to play Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales the moment it releases on November 18, 2022, you can pre-purchase now on both Steam and in the Epic Games Store for $49.99 / €49.99 If you pre-purchase ahead of the game’s launch you’ll unlock the following game content early:
● Two-suit pack, including the T.R.A.C.K. Suit, and Into the Spider-Verse Suit
● Early access to the Gravity Well gadget
● Three Skill Points to unlock some abilities from the start of the game
Since the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered last August on PC, the teams at Nixxes and Insomniac have been amazed and humbled by the enthusiastic response of PC gamers worldwide. Our heartfelt thanks go out to all of you, and we can’t wait to get the explosive powers of Miles Morales into your hands.
What an exciting moment for PlayStation! Today marks the first regional launch of our new loyalty program – PlayStation Stars. I am pleased to usher in this new initiative for our PlayStation community, launching first in Asia, which celebrates our players’ achievements with fun and delightful campaigns and the ability to earn rewards such as points and digital collectibles.
With this launch, we commence our global rollout for PlayStation Stars, and this is just the beginning. We will continue to evolve the program by adding new features, rewards, benefits and ways to enjoy what you love about PlayStation.
Let’s take a look at some of the key details of the program.
When is PlayStation Stars launching?
Below are the following launch dates for PlayStation Stars:
Asia, including Japan: September 29 (local time)
North and South America: October 5 (local time)
Europe and Australia: October 13 (local time)
What do I need to join PlayStation Stars? Is a PlayStation Plus membership required?
PlayStation Stars is free to join. You’ll only need to have an adult account for PlayStation Network and accept the program’s Terms of Service. While you will earn certain benefits for being a PlayStation Plus member, a PlayStation Plus membership is not required to join PlayStation Stars.
How can I access PlayStation Stars?
The full PlayStation Stars experience is accessible through the PlayStation App on iOS and Android. You can also join PlayStation Stars via playstation.com.
We have plans to expand to console devices in the future.
How does the program work?
With PlayStation Stars, you earn rewards by completing a variety of campaigns and activities. Our “Monthly Check-In” campaign simply requires you to play any game to receive a reward. Other campaigns will ask you to earn specific trophies, or even be among one of the first players to platinum a blockbuster title in their country/region. One of our first campaigns is called “Hit Play/1994” where members who correctly launch games that match song-based clues receive a special collectible.
Campaigns are updated regularly so check the PlayStation App to see new campaigns.
What rewards can I earn?
There are two types of rewards – loyalty points and digital collectibles. Points can be redeemed in a catalog that may include PSN wallet funds, exclusive digital collectibles and select PlayStation Store products. As an additional benefit, PlayStation Plus members enrolled in PlayStation Stars automatically earn points for purchases on PlayStation Store.*
Digital collectibles are beautifully rendered, digital representations of things that PlayStation fans enjoy, including figurines of beloved and iconic characters from games and other forms of entertainment, as well as cherished devices that tap into Sony’s history of innovation. There will be new collectibles to earn regularly, ultra-rare collectibles to strive for, or something surprising to collect just for fun.
The digital collectibles you earn or acquire can be arranged on a display case within the PlayStation App. You can also set the display case to be viewed by others, if you choose.
At launch, by simply joining, all members will receive the Star Gazer Telescope. We’ll have Punto the gondolier from Ape Escape 2, PocketStation, Toro and Kuro celebrating, and more, as some of the first digital collectables for members to earn or acquire.
Are digital collectables one-of-a-kind? Can I sell or trade my digital collectables?
These digital collectibles are created just for our loyalty program, and while some can be rare, they are not one-of-a-kind nor does it leverage blockchain technology. They cannot be resold or traded. Digital collectibles can only be earned or acquired through PlayStation Stars.
How can I find out how rare a digital collectible is?
A digital collectible’s rarity can be found on the campaign details screen and the collectible’s details page.
How do I track and redeem my points?
Your points balance can be found on PlayStation App under your Player Profile / PlayStation Stars Points History. Points can be used to redeem items in your Rewards Catalog, which may include digital collectibles, games, or digital PSN wallet funds.
To redeem your points, go to PlayStation App > Player Profile > Playstation Stars > Rewards Catalog.
What benefits do I get for being a PlayStation Plus member if I join PlayStation Stars?
A PlayStation Plus membership is not required to join PlayStation Stars. However, as a PlayStation Plus member, if you join PlayStation Stars you can earn points for purchases on PlayStation Store, including each subscription payment for your PlayStation Plus membership. Please note PSN wallet top ups are not eligible for earning PlayStation Stars points.
What are status levels?
PlayStation Stars will have four status levels that reflect the milestones you reach. They are based on the number of non-common trophies earned for gameplay as well as full game purchases from the PlayStation Store. The higher your level is, the more perks and benefits you can get.
How long will I get to stay at my status level?
Once you reach a status level, you will stay there for the remainder of the calendar year plus an additional 13 months. For example, if you earned status level 2 in October, your Level 2 status would remain valid through that calendar year, and continue for the next 13 months from January 1 of the next year, through January 31 of the following year.
* You need to be signed into your account for PlayStation Network at the time of your purchase on PlayStation Store. Make sure you’re logged into the account for PlayStation Network you used to join PlayStation Stars, before you make your purchase.
Hi everyone! As you have just seen on State of Play we’re pleased to share an update on our brand-new loyalty program, PlayStation Stars.
Today, we provided a first look at the digital collectible rewards that you can earn through PlayStation Stars – which will be free to join. Digital collectibles represent the things that PlayStation fans enjoy, including cherished devices that tap into Sony’s broader heritage in consumer electronics.
These first look examples include a scene with Punto the gondolier from Ape Escape 2, PlayStation 3, PocketStation, Toro and Kuro celebrating a birthday, Chord Machine, and Polygon Man.
Created just for PlayStation Stars, these digital collectibles can only be earned through our loyalty program. In some instances, collectibles will be provided as a way to commemorate past activities, achievements, or product ownership. They range in rarity, just like the actual products on which they are based or the effort required to earn them. Once you’ve earned collectibles, you can arrange them in a virtual display case within the PlayStation App and, if you choose, you may display your collectibles case within your PSN profile to friends. There will be different ways to acquire or earn collectibles – the primary way will be through completing campaigns.
The campaigns in PlayStation Stars will be fun, delightful, and yes, sometimes challenging to complete. A campaign may be a point-earning or collectible-earning activity. One of our first campaigns is “Hit Play/1994,” where members who correctly launch games that match song-based clues receive a special collectible. More campaign details to come.
PlayStation Stars will first launch on the PlayStation App and expand to our console platform in the future. We will launch PlayStation Stars in most markets starting later this month with Asia (including Japan), and the Americas and Europe to follow at a later date.
We look forward to welcoming fans to PlayStation Stars.
In 2020, Sony Group established a $100 million Global Social Justice Fund to support social justice and anti-racist initiatives around the world. As part of Sony Group, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has committed more than $11 million in total to advance race equity within the gaming industry and beyond.
Through SIE’s Social Justice Initiative and our PlayStation Career Pathways, we’re supporting organizations and efforts focused on strengthening educational and career opportunities for historically disadvantaged communities. Our objective is to drive a new era of creativity, development and growth in the gaming industry that allows for more diversity and representation.
Today, I’m excited to share an update on our PlayStation Career Pathways partnerships and SIE’s Social Justice Fund portfolio as we continue our efforts to drive change – locally, nationally, and globally. This is just another step as we’ll continue to strive to make Sony Interactive Entertainment and the video game industry more diverse, inclusive, and accessible.
Hi everybody, I’m Danilo from JoyMasher and I’m super excited to tell you more about Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, our next big game! And believe me, it’s quite a ride.
After tackling the run ‘n’ gun genre with our previous game Blazing Chrome (inspired by timeless classics like Contra), I wanted with Vengeful Guardian Moonrider to keep the retro goodness of ‘90s action-platformers while updating the experience in fun new ways.
For that, I dug deep into the territory of 16-bit games and even some early CD games, and tried to craft an authentic experience, just as if you just found in your basement an unreleased MegaDrive/Genesis game. For that, I for example used redbook style audio and even recorded speech in order to give Vengeful Guardian Moonrider an authentic feel of this era.
But games were not our only inspiration for Vengeful Guardian Moonrider and I also tried to mix many different cultural influences I had during my childhood, playing amazing Japanese action games, watching dark anime and reading speculative and questionable pulp science-fiction novels. Genocyber, Cybernetic Guardians, Kamen Rider Black, and Hakaider were all rewatched to help chisel the type of universe in which Vengeful Guardian Moonrider takes place. Rewatching all those amazing shows was of course very serious work and not at all an excuse to spend some great quality time, hehe…
All the character designs in Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, and general art direction of the game, were heavily inspired by Japanese artist Keita Amemiya, the designer behind lots of video games, anime, and tokusatsu from that era. I also took a lot of inspiration from H.R. Giger, the artist behind the otherworldly visuals of the Alien series.
Most of the enemies have lots of biomechanical parts and have a very creepy feeling to them. The boss rooms’ backgrounds also have their share of body horror and organic elements, giving another good layer of that creepy feeling I was looking for while keeping a very cool look to them! I was also very much influenced by yokais (japanese demons) and their depiction in traditional Japanese art.
As you must have guessed by now, references are very important to me and a great source of inspiration, and I think they were mandatory to get me to the proper mindset for creating a horrific sci-fi atmosphere you would like to explore. Everything in Vengeful Guardian Moonrider is harsh, dark, and moody, but not without reason. The story is also a dark tale about an alternate reality where an oppressive state uses its weapons – the guardians – to subdue other nations and its own people. Moonrider is a guardian that, after an incident, decides to fight for its people and destroy the evil regime.
We know that there are lots of action-adventure indie games around, however, we’re trying really hard to create something special, something that replicates the feeling of the action-adventure games of the 90s while bringing a new edge to it. The atmosphere is of course a great tool for that, but the gameplay is also fundamental.
Vengeful Guardian Moonrider is an old-school action platformer, but we tried to make a mix of fast arcade style with a little bit of item hunting and exploration with the Chip System, giving you new abilities and powers during your playthrough. For instance, there are power chips that can grant you double jump, weapon range extension, HP regeneration, and lots of other useful abilities, allowing you to really choose and to play the way you want to.
And that wraps it up for this blog post! I hope you’re as excited as us about Vengeful Guardian Moonrider and hope you will enjoy it as much as we’re enjoying making it. Stay tuned for more retro love and keep an eye out for Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, coming to PlayStation.
Hi everybody, I’m Danilo from JoyMasher and I’m super excited to tell you more about Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, our next big game! And believe me, it’s quite a ride.
After tackling the run ‘n’ gun genre with our previous game Blazing Chrome (inspired by timeless classics like Contra), I wanted with Vengeful Guardian Moonrider to keep the retro goodness of ‘90s action-platformers while updating the experience in fun new ways.
For that, I dug deep into the territory of 16-bit games and even some early CD games, and tried to craft an authentic experience, just as if you just found in your basement an unreleased MegaDrive/Genesis game. For that, I for example used redbook style audio and even recorded speech in order to give Vengeful Guardian Moonrider an authentic feel of this era.
But games were not our only inspiration for Vengeful Guardian Moonrider and I also tried to mix many different cultural influences I had during my childhood, playing amazing Japanese action games, watching dark anime and reading speculative and questionable pulp science-fiction novels. Genocyber, Cybernetic Guardians, Kamen Rider Black, and Hakaider were all rewatched to help chisel the type of universe in which Vengeful Guardian Moonrider takes place. Rewatching all those amazing shows was of course very serious work and not at all an excuse to spend some great quality time, hehe…
All the character designs in Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, and general art direction of the game, were heavily inspired by Japanese artist Keita Amemiya, the designer behind lots of video games, anime, and tokusatsu from that era. I also took a lot of inspiration from H.R. Giger, the artist behind the otherworldly visuals of the Alien series.
Most of the enemies have lots of biomechanical parts and have a very creepy feeling to them. The boss rooms’ backgrounds also have their share of body horror and organic elements, giving another good layer of that creepy feeling I was looking for while keeping a very cool look to them! I was also very much influenced by yokais (japanese demons) and their depiction in traditional Japanese art.
As you must have guessed by now, references are very important to me and a great source of inspiration, and I think they were mandatory to get me to the proper mindset for creating a horrific sci-fi atmosphere you would like to explore. Everything in Vengeful Guardian Moonrider is harsh, dark, and moody, but not without reason. The story is also a dark tale about an alternate reality where an oppressive state uses its weapons – the guardians – to subdue other nations and its own people. Moonrider is a guardian that, after an incident, decides to fight for its people and destroy the evil regime.
We know that there are lots of action-adventure indie games around, however, we’re trying really hard to create something special, something that replicates the feeling of the action-adventure games of the 90s while bringing a new edge to it. The atmosphere is of course a great tool for that, but the gameplay is also fundamental.
Vengeful Guardian Moonrider is an old-school action platformer, but we tried to make a mix of fast arcade style with a little bit of item hunting and exploration with the Chip System, giving you new abilities and powers during your playthrough. For instance, there are power chips that can grant you double jump, weapon range extension, HP regeneration, and lots of other useful abilities, allowing you to really choose and to play the way you want to.
And that wraps it up for this blog post! I hope you’re as excited as us about Vengeful Guardian Moonrider and hope you will enjoy it as much as we’re enjoying making it. Stay tuned for more retro love and keep an eye out for Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, coming to PlayStation.
Hi everybody, I’m Danilo from JoyMasher and I’m super excited to tell you more about Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, our next big game! And believe me, it’s quite a ride.
After tackling the run ‘n’ gun genre with our previous game Blazing Chrome (inspired by timeless classics like Contra), I wanted with Vengeful Guardian Moonrider to keep the retro goodness of ‘90s action-platformers while updating the experience in fun new ways.
For that, I dug deep into the territory of 16-bit games and even some early CD games, and tried to craft an authentic experience, just as if you just found in your basement an unreleased MegaDrive/Genesis game. For that, I for example used redbook style audio and even recorded speech in order to give Vengeful Guardian Moonrider an authentic feel of this era.
But games were not our only inspiration for Vengeful Guardian Moonrider and I also tried to mix many different cultural influences I had during my childhood, playing amazing Japanese action games, watching dark anime and reading speculative and questionable pulp science-fiction novels. Genocyber, Cybernetic Guardians, Kamen Rider Black, and Hakaider were all rewatched to help chisel the type of universe in which Vengeful Guardian Moonrider takes place. Rewatching all those amazing shows was of course very serious work and not at all an excuse to spend some great quality time, hehe…
All the character designs in Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, and general art direction of the game, were heavily inspired by Japanese artist Keita Amemiya, the designer behind lots of video games, anime, and tokusatsu from that era. I also took a lot of inspiration from H.R. Giger, the artist behind the otherworldly visuals of the Alien series.
Most of the enemies have lots of biomechanical parts and have a very creepy feeling to them. The boss rooms’ backgrounds also have their share of body horror and organic elements, giving another good layer of that creepy feeling I was looking for while keeping a very cool look to them! I was also very much influenced by yokais (japanese demons) and their depiction in traditional Japanese art.
As you must have guessed by now, references are very important to me and a great source of inspiration, and I think they were mandatory to get me to the proper mindset for creating a horrific sci-fi atmosphere you would like to explore. Everything in Vengeful Guardian Moonrider is harsh, dark, and moody, but not without reason. The story is also a dark tale about an alternate reality where an oppressive state uses its weapons – the guardians – to subdue other nations and its own people. Moonrider is a guardian that, after an incident, decides to fight for its people and destroy the evil regime.
We know that there are lots of action-adventure indie games around, however, we’re trying really hard to create something special, something that replicates the feeling of the action-adventure games of the 90s while bringing a new edge to it. The atmosphere is of course a great tool for that, but the gameplay is also fundamental.
Vengeful Guardian Moonrider is an old-school action platformer, but we tried to make a mix of fast arcade style with a little bit of item hunting and exploration with the Chip System, giving you new abilities and powers during your playthrough. For instance, there are power chips that can grant you double jump, weapon range extension, HP regeneration, and lots of other useful abilities, allowing you to really choose and to play the way you want to.
And that wraps it up for this blog post! I hope you’re as excited as us about Vengeful Guardian Moonrider and hope you will enjoy it as much as we’re enjoying making it. Stay tuned for more retro love and keep an eye out for Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, coming to PlayStation.
Hi everyone, I’m Julian Huijbregts, Community Manager at Nixxes. Today we celebrate the launch of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC!
In the past year, our team has been working closely together with our friends at Insomniac Games to bring this original Marvel story and PlayStation hit to PC. To give you more insight into the support for ultra-wide monitors and multiple screen setups*, I’d like to introduce you to some of the members of our Nixxes team.
Graphics Programmer Hilze Vonck, a passionate ultra-wide screen gamer himself, worked on the technical implementation of ultra-wide aspect ratios in the PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. “For five years I have used a 21:9 ultra-wide monitor. To me support for ultra-wide resolutions in games is really important. We want to give gamers who invest a lot in their setups the opportunity to play the game in the best way possible. It really makes a big difference when you see the game on ultra-wide or triple monitor setups. It is super cool to experience the game in this way!”
Lead Software Engineer Coen Frauenfelder explains that one of the reasons to go all-out with ultra-wide monitor support was the positive feedback from the gaming community on 21:9 support in other PC games. “We initially planned support for 21:9, and after some internal tests we decided to go even wider and add support for 32:9 screens and 48:9 for triple monitor setups. The game lends itself very well for that. Swinging through the streets of Marvel’s New York on an ultra-wide screen gives a whole different and more immersive feeling.”
The PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is fully optimized for ultra-wide gaming. Not only the gameplay, but also the many cut scenes are adapted for panoramic aspect ratios up to 32:9. Coen talks about the challenges that Nixxes had to overcome, to make this possible:
“Implementing ultra-wide support in general gameplay is relatively easy. The big challenge is supporting it in cinematics that are specifically designed by artists to be viewed on 16:9 screens. Outside of that view area, lots of things are happening that need to be fixed. Characters can for example freeze or suddenly disappear. The easy way would be to place black borders in cut scenes to block these areas from view on ultra-wide screens, but we wanted to give PC gamers the possibility to fully use their screens. Our QA team meticulously went through all the cut scenes in ultra-wide view and listed all the details that had to be changed by our engineers and artists.”
Coen emphasizes how hard it was to get all of that right: “We knew it would take a lot of effort to pull off, but our team was passionate and committed to get the most out of it. Hilze’s enthusiasm towards it meant he got to work a lot on the technical aspects of implementing ultra-wide support.”
As a result, cinematics in Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC are fully viewable in aspect ratios up to 32:9. When using even wider aspect ratios, for example with triple monitor setups, the outer edges are blurred during cut scenes. This is necessary to block areas from view that otherwise may have visual errors. Apart from his work on the engine for ultra-wide support, Hilze also worked on this: “That was not an easy feature to implement. It took a while, but I think it looks really great.”
Outside of gameplay and cinematics, system engineers at Nixxes made sure that the user interface and menus support wide-screen aspect ratios. When using ultra-wide monitors, you can change the position of the HUD to different positions.
We know that not all of you have ultra-wide screens or multiple monitor setups. On traditional 16:9 screens the PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered also offers many enhancements. The game features enhanced ray-traced reflections**, supports NVIDIA DLSS and other upscaling technologies, and offers a full suite of customizable rendering settings.
Everyone at Nixxes has been incredibly excited to work on this project together with our friends at Insomniac. We would love to hear about your experiences playing the Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC. Reach out to us on Twitter and follow us to stay up to date!
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered for PC is available today on Steam and in the Epic Games Store.
Throughout our company’s 27-year history, we have been continually moved by how meaningful gaming experiences can create fond, lifelong memories for players. All of us at PlayStation take special joy in creating unique products and experiences that delight our fans. This includes everything from our consoles and critically acclaimed games, to community challenges such as Seize the Throne and Treat Codes, to digital and live events including State of Play.
Today, I’m pleased to reveal PlayStation Stars, a brand new loyalty program that celebrates you, the player, for being on this ever growing gaming journey with us. PlayStation Stars will be free to join when it launches later this year. Once you become a member, you’ll earn rewards by completing a variety of campaigns and activities. Our “Monthly Check-In” campaign simply requires you to play any game to receive a reward, while other campaigns require you to win tournaments, earn specific trophies, or even be the first player to platinum a blockbuster title in your local time zone.
All PlayStation Stars members will have opportunities to earn loyalty points. Points can be redeemed in a catalog that may include PSN wallet funds and select PlayStation Store products. As an additional benefit, PlayStation Plus members enrolled in PlayStation Stars automatically earn points for purchases on PlayStation Store.
Also, as part of PlayStation Stars, we are unveiling a new type of reward called “digital collectibles.” Collectibles are as diverse as our portfolio of products and franchises. They are digital representations of things that PlayStation fans enjoy, including figurines of beloved and iconic characters from games and other forms of entertainment, as well as cherished devices that tap into Sony’s history of innovation. There will always be a new collectible to earn, an ultra rare collectible to strive for, or something surprising to collect just for fun.
We hope this new program brings to mind past gaming memories while making you excited for the future with PlayStation: commemorating the gaming eras we created together, charting new paths to explore, and bringing players together for global celebrations. This is just the beginning for PlayStation Stars, and the program will continue to evolve over time. We’re currently doing some early tests on this program before launching it later this year in phased regional rollouts.
We hope you’ll enjoy the program once it launches. We’ll be back with more updates in the future. Thanks for reading!
Now, we’re able to quiz Yoshida-san to pull back the curtain (a little) on the game’s development. Here, we get his personal perspective on, amongst other things, answering the call to create the latest mainline Final Fantasy title, developing for PlayStation 5, and his favorite Summon. Let’s get to it.
Naoki Yoshida, Producer of Final Fantasy XVI
PlayStation.Blog:What do you think are the core tenets of a Final Fantasy game? Did the development team look to past titles in the series for guidance or inspiration when building FFXVI?
Naoki Yoshida: I’d say the core elements of a Final Fantasy game are a deep story, deep gameplay, cutting-edge graphics and cutting-edge sound… as well as chocobos and moogles, of course.
In the 35-year history of the Final Fantasy series, it’s always been the guiding policy that each new installment has to be the very best game that the director at the time can put together, no matter how the game world, the characters, or the battle system might change. Because of this, gamers and Final Fantasy fans around the world have very different ideas of what a Final Fantasy game should be—but to me, it’s those elements I mentioned.
“Each new installment has to be the very best game that the director at the time can put together”
When it came to deciding what to do with Final Fantasy XVI, I thought back to when I played the original Final Fantasy, and remembered how I felt like I was playing the leading role in a motion picture. I wanted to recapture that feeling in XVI, but with state-of-the-art game design and the latest in modern technology. The whole development team, under the directorship of Hiroshi Takai, has come together to make that dream a reality, so I hope you all look forward to it.
PSB: Thinking back to the beginning of the FFXVI project, do you remember how the conversation went when you were asked to produce this new mainline entry? What was your initial reaction?
NY: I said “Thanks, but I have my hands full with Final Fantasy XIV, so let me think about it.” I was truly honored that the company would choose my section, Creative Business Unit 3, to be responsible for making the next entry in the FF series. But, as you probably know, I’m already the producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV. I was worried that if I took on the directorship of XVI, too, fans of both games would have good reason to believe I wasn’t giving either project my full attention.
To ensure that the development of XVI didn’t affect that of XIV, we picked out a very small group of core team members to start with, and over the course of several years, slowly and carefully transitioned them across to start work on the new game, until we had the full team assembled.
PSB: How was the composition of the rest of FFXVI’s development team decided?
NY: Being the director of a Final Fantasy game is a tougher job than most people imagine. Not only do you have the expectations of the fans and the media to live up to, but you’re constantly under pressure from the development team, too. You always have to be up for the challenge.
I’d worked with Hiroshi Takai for many years, and he’s one of my most trusted colleagues, as well as a veteran developer, so I asked him if he would take on the role—and thankfully, he agreed. That’s how it all started. We brought two other members into the group, and between the four of us, we sketched out the core concepts of the game and its world, as well as the key themes that we wanted to put across, and started work on writing the main storyline. Later, we brought a few more members on board to take charge of the battle system and the graphics, and through a process of building on what worked and scrapping what didn’t, we gradually moved towards full-scale development. And all the while, in the back of my mind I was thinking “Please don’t let this impact on Final Fantasy XIV!”
PSB: Talking specifically about the story writing process (not narrative details), how has it felt switching from a multi-year, multi-expansion arc to a self-contained, standalone story?
NY: I’ve worked on games that aren’t MMORPGs before, so it wasn’t a major stumbling block. Plus, each new Final Fantasy XIV expansion has a similar level of new story content as a standalone RPG, or maybe even more, so it wasn’t too different to my work on that game. The only major difference I noticed was that, if I wanted to foreshadow something, I had to pay it off a lot faster!
PSB: Every Final Fantasy logo conveys a core theme of the game in some way. How does the Final Fantasy XVI logo do this?
NY: Yoshitaka Amano’s design for the logo is full of meaning, as you’d expect. It shows two Eikons facing off against each other… and the rest, for now, is a secret.
PSB: Following the debut of FFXVI’s new “Dominance” trailer during State of Play, we finally have a release window! Where will the development team be focusing their efforts during this final year before the game launches?
NY: Right now, the game is fully playable from start to finish, but we have a lot of voiceover in several languages that still need to be recorded. Final Fantasy XVI is a very action-oriented game, so we’re also doing a lot of playtesting to fine-tune the difficulty levels, as well as putting the final touches on the cutscenes, and going through a full-scale debugging process. A year is a short time in game development, so we’re all straining at the bit to get it over the line.
PSB: It’s now been confirmed that there are some Final Fantasy XIV dev team members (including you!) working on FFXVI — do you have specific systems or processes in place to ensure teams can perform to the best of their ability across two tonally distinct games without burning themselves (or yourself) out? I imagine lots of work on XVI must have been happening around the same time as final FFXIV Endwalker preparations…
NY: I wouldn’t call it a system per se, but the project managers and assistant producers on both projects do a great job planning out my schedule to make sure I’m not overwhelmed. I wouldn’t have a clue how to keep myself organized without them!
Any decisions regarding the overall management of the division I try to leave in the hands of the upper management as much as possible, which allows me to focus on my work as producer and director. Rather than a specific system or a process, it’s a sense of teamwork that we’ve built up over the years. Masayoshi Soken has his own people in the Sound department who handle his schedule for him.
The Eikons Garuda and Titan, and their Dominants, Benedikta Harman and Hugo Kupka
PSB: Two part question: What’s your favorite recurring Summon from the Final Fantasy series overall, and why? What’s your favorite Summon in Final Fantasy XVI, and why?
NY: It’s got to be Bahamut for me. He doesn’t just destroy his enemies, but the ground they’re standing on—even whole planets! Every time he appears, you know something incredible is about to happen. It helps that he’s a big part of the story of Final Fantasy XIV, too. As for the Summons that appear in Final Fantasy XVI, I do have my favorite, but I can’t tell you right now as it’s bound to result in a lot of speculation. What I can tell you is that they’re all as cool as hell!
PSB: The new “Dominance” trailer also teased more of the game’s music. With Masayoshi Soken now confirmed as FFXVI’s composer, can you share any insight into the trailer’s music? Was the music we heard in the trailer made just for this beat, or does it include themes and leitmotifs we can expect to hear in full in the game?
NY: Not all of the music is finished yet, but Soken’s the kind of composer who likes to repurpose parts of the in-game soundtrack in trailers. I’m sure you’ll have heard some of the themes and motifs that will make their way into the in-game music in the latest trailer. You’ll have to invite Soken for an interview to find out more—but please, only once he’s finished working on the soundtrack!
PSB: What are some opportunities afforded by the PlayStation 5 hardware that would not have been possible in previous generations?
NY: With the boost in processing power, we can obviously make the graphics even richer than we could before, but it’s the super-fast loading times that really impress me. In Final Fantasy XVI, you jump straight from story cutscenes into real-time battles and back again without any loading times, making the gameplay flow at a breakneck pace. It’s only thanks to the power of the PlayStation 5 system that we can make Final Fantasy XVI the roller-coaster ride that it is.
With 29 years of experience in game development, Bend Studio has had a rich legacy in video games. From the iconic Syphon Filter series to Resistance: Retribution, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Days Gone, we strive to provide our players with high-quality experiences that create a lasting impact. As we reflect on our past and look toward the future, we are thrilled to unveil the new Bend Studio logo to you all.
“The wordmark and symbol were designed to be graphic and bold, so that we utilize numerous variations in colorways and stylised treatments of the symbol (exampled below), while still maintaining an identifiable brand identity. Because the Bend Studio logo is split into a symbol and a workmark, we have more flexibility with the symbol.” – Shay Casey
Our new Bend Studio logo represents an abstract and modern interpretation of the studio’s history, location, and lifestyle. Located at the base of the beautiful Cascade Mountains in Central Oregon, Bend provides us with a unique lifestyle where we can work in tech, but live life analog. After a day in the office, we like to plug into adventure and use our extra life to shred the slopes at Mt. Bachelor, drag a line in the Deschutes River, or take a long hike in the wild.
“We set out to create a new identity that would be cutting-edge, abstract, and minimalist. It should feature simple, high-tech geometry but also represent the constant motion of creativity. Ideally it would be the kind of logo that is recognizable to gamers on the street without the need for a wordmark. Over time it should be easily identified as a symbol of gaming just like a certain swoosh is of sportswear.
With those objectives in mind, we are illustrating Bend Studio’s technical innovation with a forward directional look. The letterforms are cut to run parallel to the leading edge of the outer symbol triangle but still maintain the stability of our mid-weight non-italicized font. The Cascade icon in the center of the symbol is an abstract representation of the many mountain peaks that are the center of our lives in Central Oregon and define our skyline. Additionally, there is a small break in the “I” that represents one of the lumber mill smokestacks that speaks to Bend’s history as a logging town before its current existence as an outdoor enthusiast destination.”
– Shay Casey Associate Art Director (Branding & UI)
“The new logo allows us to be creative with stylised treatments. We had a lot of fun concepting the above.” – Shay Casey
1993: Origins of Bend Studio
Bend Studio traces its origins to 1993, under the name of Blank, Berlyn and Co. The company released several puzzle games for the Apple Newton, including Columbo’s Mystery Capers, Dell Crossword Puzzles, Motil, and Notion (List Maker). Shortly after, we hired Christopher Reese, the current Studio Head at Bend Studio, who helped release the first of a series of sports games, starting with Live Action Football in 1993 on PC. Following these releases, the company had the ambition to evolve and push into the world of console gaming.
1995: Learning the 3D Landscape
In 1995, the founders renamed the company to Eidetic. Shortly after, the eight-person development team released its first console and 3D game, Bubsy 3D. From a technical standpoint Bubsy 3D was one of the few original PlayStation games that launched with a higher resolution and increased draw distances. Eidetic’s first title put the company on Sony’s radar. It proved we could develop a game on the newer PlayStation console, and that we already had an built-in engine that could run the next game. That next game was Syphon Filter.
Eidetic Logo (1995-2000)
1999: Gabe Logan’s First Mission
Syphon Filter is a third-person shooter and stealth-action game starring the character of special agent Gabe Logan. Syphon Filter released shortly after Metal Gear Solid and secured its place in the stealth genre. Bend Studio is known for its third-person action games, and that DNA began with Syphon Filter. We made sure that the camera’s angles were smooth, adapting to the player’s movement around obstacles in missions or while taking cover behind a building. While taking cover, Gabe’s head would also become invisible, giving the player a slight edge on an approaching enemy.
Syphon Filter (Original PlayStation, 1999)
Syphon Filter was all about the weapons and gadgets, giving the player multiple options to complete levels through a combination of both action and stealth. Syphon Filter offered a wide array of weapons in Gabe’s arsenal to help take down enemies. The most popular amongst them was the infamous Air Taser. It was a one-of-a-kind weapon that had infinite rounds, able to electrify enemies and even send them into flames. The taser was designed to provide the player an option when they were low or out of ammo and be effective during stealth approaches. Syphon Filter was the beginning of a legacy, not just for the IP, but also for Bend Studio.
Syphon Filter (Original PlayStation, 1999)
The team grew from eight to thirteen people during the development of the first Syphon Filter game, which hit the shelves in February of 1999 to critical praise. It immediately became a fan-favorite for years to come. After the success of Syphon Filter, Sony acquired Eidetic in 2000 and gave it the name you know today, Bend Studio.
Bend Studio Logo (2000-2022)
2000 – 2007: Legacy of Syphon Filter
In seven years, Bend Studio developed six additional Syphon Filter titles spanning across three PlayStation platforms. With the release of Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain the series jumped platforms to PlayStation 2, following the releases of Syphon Filter 1, 2, and 3.
Syphon Filter 2 (Original PlayStation, 2000)
In 2006, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror drove the team to the portable world of PlayStation, followed by Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow and Syphon Filter: Combat Ops, which also released on PSP. Both Dark Mirror and Logan’s Shadow were later ported to PlayStation 2 after their initial release.
The formula of Syphon Filter continued to evolve through story, design, gameplay, and tech. With each release came more unique missions, providing the player with new challenges and problem-solving puzzles. Starting with Dark Mirror, Syphon Filter’s graphical detail and variety noticeably improved. Each character model’s clothing had tags and buckles, along with variation in footwear. Those same details were applied to the different environments scattered throughout the game. From seeing footprints left in the snow, to dust clouds in Peru, our team took full advantage of the PlayStation Portable’s (PSP) technical capability and pushed the game to its limit, displaying what the platform could do for a player’s experience.
The team turned it up one more notch with the epic finale of Gabe Logan’s storyline in Logan’s Shadow. Logan’s Shadow was the culmination of the Syphon Filter series and displayed the smooth controls, improved gameplay elements, and the deep multiplayer system that continued from Dark Mirror. Bend Studio still regards it as the best Syphon Filter experience.
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (PS2, 2007)
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror – Refinery Concept (PS2, 2007)
Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow (PSP, 2007) Underwater combat introduced for the first time in the series
Gabe Logan’s underwater attire
Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow – Bitar’s Dam – Concept Art (PSP, 2007) ‘Shadowed’ is a bonus mission where Gabe’s infiltration is seen from Trinidad’s perspective. This mission is unlocked by completing the story on Hard difficulty mode.
2009: A New Direction
For the first time in ten years, Bend Studio reached beyond the Syphon Filter series to develop Resistance: Retribution for the PSP. Resistance introduced a new protagonist to the series, James Grayson, offering newcomers an entry point to the established series. Grayson immediately became a fan favorite with his stylish bomber jacket, which takes on a deeper meaning for players who finish the engaging single-player campaign.
Resistance: Retribution – Chrysalis Lair Birthing Chamber – Concept Art (PSP, 2009) Mission: Retribution Lost – final level in the campaign
Resistance: Retribution (PSP, 2009)
In Resistance: Retribution, we applied our expertise in creating third-person action games to the traditionally first-person Resistance franchise. We further smoothed and improved those controls with added features, such as the Aim Assist box. This feature aimed to give players an accessible playing experience by snapping the weapon’s reticle directly to an enemy located inside the Aim Assist box.
One of the best features implemented in Resistance: Retribution was the PlayStation 3-like multiplayer system on the PSP. It provided a deep playing experience to share with friends, using the PSP to put up to eight player matches into the palm of your hand. The goal was to take the quality of the single-player campaign and merge it with the online system to create one polished experience for the player.
2012: Uncharted on the Go
At Bend Studio, we always push technological boundaries to bring unique experiences to our players. With Uncharted: Golden Abyss, we were one of several PlayStation studios that participated in demonstrating the capabilities of the PlayStation Vita, helping to shape the early development of the portable device. To evaluate some of these early ideas for Uncharted-style puzzle solving and aim assist options, our team had to get creative. Early on, this included duct taping together prototype OLED screens with cameras and a DualShock 3 controller. These early experiments helped our team shape and implement the key features that Uncharted: Golden Abyss is known for, such as holding the PS VITA up to a bright light to reveal a mystery from a piece of parchment paper in-game.
Bend Studio Team (2012)
Uncharted: Golden Abyss also gave the studio an opportunity to refine our skills in performance capture. We wanted to bring the same level of quality and fidelity to the PS VITA that Uncharted was known for on console. During this development process performance capture was still relatively new, but we were able to learn from and build on the expertise of our friends at Naughty Dog and PlayStation Visual Arts Teams.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss (PS Vita, 2012)
Uncharted: Golden Abyss (PS Vita, 2012)
Uncharted: Golden Abyss – Concept Art (PS Vita, 2012)
2019: Days Gone
Bend Studio’s first original IP after Syphon Filter produced our most ambitious game yet – Days Gone. Following the launch of Uncharted: Golden Abyss on the PS VITA, the team embraced our next big challenge by creating a dynamic open world with varied systems that launched on the PlayStation 4. Developing a brand-new IP on the next generation of consoles took time, but it showed the capability and talent of our Central Oregon team.
Bend Studio Team (2019)
In Days Gone, the bike was a huge developmental shift on how the team approached the entirety of the game. How do you get from point A to point B? What random encounters can you face along the way? If the road is blocked by abandoned cars, what paths can you take off-road to maneuver around it? These were a few of the early questions that we answered while developing this large open world.
Days Gone – Drifter Bike Concept Art (PS4, 2019)
One of the biggest features of Days Gone was the hordes. The hordes pushed the limitations of the PlayStation 4, displaying an impressive number of enemies on screen at one time while showing our advancements in AI. When we shared Days Gone to the world in 2016, we highlighted the largest horde of them all, and it immediately grabbed player’s’ attention. Reactions ranged from “how am I going to face that?” to “wow, that looks like so much fun!” Those emotions were exactly what we were aiming to evoke from players, and where the tagline, “This world comes for you,” stemmed from.
Days Gone – Old Sawmill Concept Art (PS4, 2019)
Days Gone (PS4, 2019)
2022: Future of Bend Studio
First off, we want to thank our players for all your support over the years. From the Syphon Filter series to Resistance: Retribution, Uncharted: Golden Abyss to Days Gone, your passion for our games continue to inspire us to create and bring new experiences to you. We carry each game we have developed as a badge of honor that reflects our past accomplishments and builds an even better future.
The new Bend Studio logo is just the beginning of Bend Studio’s future. As part of the PlayStation Studios family, we promise to continue bringing you quality experiences that aim to leave an everlasting impact with you. Today, we are excited to share just a snippet of news on our current project. We are currently working on a new IP that includes multiplayer and builds upon the open-world systems of Days Gone, but brings you a whole new world that we are extremely excited to craft for you. We cannot wait to reveal it to you when the time is right.
Come join our growing team and help shape the future of Bend Studio! We are hiring across multiple departments, including options to be fully remote. Visit bendstudio.com/careers to learn more!
Ahoy, there! As March comes to a close, we once again open the Players’ Choice polls. You have until Sunday night at 11:59pm Pacific to cast your vote for the best new game of the month, be it a supernatural thriller set in an eerily quiet Tokyo, the latest entry in a genre-defining driving simulator, a VR sequel starring one of the most adorable protagonists of the past decade, a bizarre — yet surprisingly fun to play — action-RPG spinoff, or something else entirely.
Hit the poll below, then scroll even further down to leave a comment telling us what you picked. See you with the winner soon!
How does it work? At the end of every month, PlayStation.Blog will open a poll where you can vote for the best new game released that month. Soon thereafter, we’ll close the polls, tally your votes, and announce the winner at PlayStation.Blog. PlayStation Store will also showcase some top Players’ Choice winners throughout the year.
What is the voting criteria? That’s up to you! If you were only able to recommend one new release to a friend that month, which would it be? In keeping with our long tradition in the Game of the Year Awards, remastered or re-released games won’t qualify. Ambitious, larger-scale rebuilds and remakes like Demon’s Souls and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy will.
How are nominees decided? The PlayStation.Blog and PlayStation Store editorial teams will gather a list of that month’s most noteworthy releases and use it to seed the poll. Write-in votes will be accepted.
Selene’s looping adventure evolved with new gameplay modes when the Returnal Ascension DLC launched last week. The team at Housemarque is thrilled to create new ways for fans to play the challenging-yet-rewarding, arcade-inspired shooter on PS5. In fact, iterating on satisfying gameplay is deeply ingrained in the studio’s culture, starting back in 1994.
I am sure that not everyone reading this blog is aware of our long history as a studio, so please continue to find out more about our story and how we ended up launching Returnal and becoming part of the PlayStation Studios family.
Whether Returnal was your first introduction to Housemarque, or you have played some of our previous games, you might not know that we are the oldest game studio in Finland, founded just a few months before our friends at Remedy, creators of the Alan Wake series and Control.
But how did Housemarque come to be, and how did we end up being part of the PlayStation Studios family?
90s Demoscene Origins
Before Housemarque, there were Bloodhouse and Terramarque, two gaming studios headed by Harri Tikkanen and me respectively, both with deep roots in the 1990’s gaming demoscene. In 1995 me and Harri decided to join forces and our studios, and that’s how Housemarque was born.
Housemarque Studio Head Ilari Kuittinen
The demoscene was formed around hobbyists called demo groups, creating tech demos with the best visuals possible and pushing the limit of the hardware available at the time, and Finland had a strong demoscene community, developing on systems such as Amiga, Commodore, Atari, and more. Local game developers took part in it, because it was just the coolest thing to do back then; many of them were young and still studying. This was the pre-gaming industry in Finland, and likely one of the drivers in its beginning. But even with such a thriving community, the game development industry was still quite small in Finland: it was difficult to make games and actually complete them. Many games ended up in game development limbo for a year or even more. That was the reason why Housemarque got its start.
In December 1994 myself – Ilari Kuittinen – and Harri Tikkanen sat down and had our first serious chat about joining forces, as we had already known each other because of the small size of the game industry, where everybody knew everybody else. We quickly reached an agreement and in June 1995 we decided to create a new gaming studio. We chose to name it Housemarque, as the combination of our companies: Bloodhouse and Terramarque.
Super Stardust (Amiga, Amiga CD32, 1994 | PC, 1996)
Enter Housemarque
The first games we released as Housemarque – a year after its creation – were Alien Incident (1996), a point-and-click adventure game, and Super Stardust on PC (1996), a space shooter that was the beginning of our arcade roots, and a game we are still proud of to this day. Super Stardust was originally developed by Bloodhouse and released on Amiga and Amiga CD32 in 1994. These games were just the beginning of Housemarque’s story.
True to the local gaming culture of the time, we wanted to create an incredible experience with limited hardware, while also pushing the boundaries. Something we still do to this day! We want to make impressive games with amazing audio-visuals to complement the gameplay experience of our players. It is a less traditional approach to game making, but it’s what works for us.
Our first professional gig with the PlayStation business was in 2006 through Guerrilla, during the development of Killzone: Liberation, when we helped on various aspects of the game. It was an interesting experience helping out Guerrilla: our coders mostly worked on optimizing the game and its frame rate. We had gained experience on this while working on some game demos on the PlayStation Portable, so we had a good understanding of the hardware. After our collaboration with Guerilla, the PlayStation business was looking for small game studios to produce games for their new initiative, then called the E-Distribution Initiative (EDI), which later became the PlayStation Network. Housemarque was one of the companies they reached out to discuss whether we would be interested in working with them. Looking back, our KillZone: Liberation work was the first job we did for the PlayStation business and many more followed later.
Concept mood piece for Super Stardust HD (PS3, 2007)
Before midsummer of 2006, Housemarque traveled to Liverpool to pitch some of their games for the platform, one of them being Super Stardust HD. The PlayStation team really enjoyed the concept of the game, so we went straight back to Finland to work on completing it. Super Stardust HD has a special place in Housemarque history. After a couple of challenging years, we had a chance to get back to our roots, but at the same time we were able to do innovative things in the shoot-em-up genre, as the power of PS3 allowed us to do things that had been previously impossible. A game changer was to wrap the game level around a globe, which to our knowledge hadn’t been done before. This allowed us to create a unique game experience and freedom of maneuverability on the surface of the globe. When combined with the now famous “Housemarque dash” and an elaborate scoring system, Super Stardust HD was a game which started a new chapter in the company’s history, allowing us to further explore possibilities for arcade action games in the modern console era.
Around the same time, publishers were beginning to be interested in smaller digital games. This proved to be a great opportunity for us, as we could focus on making the games we wanted to make without having to chase trends, allowing us to remain original.
Game Is King
From very early on, we decided to live by a purpose statement instead of a mission statement: we want to create unique gaming experiences. We want to create something that others aren’t doing the way we do.
This is reflected also in our company motto: Game is king. Great and fun gameplay is the thread that connects all of our games, together with unique audio-visual experiences and a passion for everything that has made arcade awesome.
Dead Nation (PS3, 2010)
Dead Nation monster concept Art
Before releasing Super Stardust Delta for the PlayStation Vita launch in early 2012, we were starting to think about what we want to do next. We had been running two, or at times even three, development tracks simultaneously and we had finished the DLC development of Dead Nation: Road of Devastation in Autumn 2011. One of the ideas was to revive side-scrolling shmup and Resogun was one of the three Reso game concepts we had that time, others being Resoman and ResoCastles. Dead Nation had been inspired by great arcade dual-stick shooter games like Smash TV, which was created by our hero Eugene Jarvis. He also had created one of the most recognizable arcade games of all time: Defender.In 2013 we released Resogun, one of the PS4’ launch titles, and one of the most recognizable of all our games. It was definitely a high point in our history as we were named next to other bigger studios in the genre! As a consequence, we became a more mature studio than we had been before. We did something we hadn’t seen anyone else do before and wrapped a game level around a cylinder shape and used voxel-based graphics. The rest is history as they say, and Resogun was the best reviewed PS4 exclusive game for over 15 months after its launch.
Resogun (PS4, PS3, PS Vita, 2013)
Resogun signature art
Resogun level art
A little-known fact is that we completed our “Tribute Trilogy to Great American Arcade Games” by adding Commando mode to the DLC Resogun: Defenders. The game mode completed our tribute to three great arcade games – Asteroids, Defender, and Missile Commando. Much better-known trivia is that we actually met with Mr Jarvis, when Resogun was a nominee for the best action game and Eugene got his lifetime achievement award at DICE Awards in 2014. Eventually we ended up working together on Nex Machina, filmed the whole process and made a documentary called “The Name of the Game.”
Nex Machina (PS4, 2017)
Alien Nation concept art (PS4, 2016)
Birth of Returnal
While before 2021 we were mainly focused on making small downloadable games on the PlayStation Network, our biggest comeback and success story has definitely been Returnal. And what a story it’s been!
Returnal (PS5, 2021)
From the outside, Returnal must have seemed like a tremendous leap in scope compared to previous Housemarque titles, and that’s absolutely true. Could we have done Returnal if it had started with the same scope it ended up with? It’s hard to say, but the path we ended up taking felt right as it was organic. On the other end, we didn’t plan to make the game it ended up being, and we had to adapt several times during the process. Maybe it was foolish, but foolishness paid off. But we didn’t do it alone: Returnal would have never happened the way it did, without an open-minded publisher backing us up.
Due to the pandemic, I could mostly play the alpha version of Returnal, but even back then I could see the game’s potential and knew that the game was going to be something special. When the PlayStation legend Shuhei Yoshida visited, he couldn’t stop playing: that showed us what the players’ reaction could be a few months down the road.
Returnal (PS5, 2021)
Joining the PlayStation Studios Family
The option for Housemarque to join the PlayStation Studios family after 26 years of being an independent studio was discussed with some key employees already before the launch of Returnal, back in March 2021. It was made official to everyone after the game’s launch, when everything had been finalized. The rest of the company was informed at the end of June. The reaction was really positive – albeit in a very Finnish way, muted and reserved.
We have felt very warmly welcomed and have the feeling that we have now joined the right company. Our purpose as a company hasn’t changed, and it is still to create unique game experiences. As a part of this world-class family of game studios, we have the best possible opportunity to plan long term, grow further and be better prepared for the demands of creating our next games hoping to live up to the extremely high standards set by other members of the PlayStation Studios family.
When approaching Housemarque games, I can hope to offer some advice: come with an open mind and be ready for a different kind of experience. Be ready for challenges but also greater rewards and a feeling of accomplishment after you conquer our games by yourself. If you want to practice for Returnal (or any future games), our past catalog is the best way! Personally I recommend Resogun on PS4. Many players don’t know the amount of games we have released before the bigger titles: we have more than 15 games under our belt and we are planning to make many more!
Today, I’m delighted to announce that Haven Studios is officially joining PlayStation Studios! Jade Raymond brings a wealth of experience from her industry achievements and an infectious passion for creating games, and the leadership team at Haven is an equally impressive group of industry veterans who have collaborated on some of the biggest and most beloved games and franchises that many of us still enjoy today.
We began working with Jade and her team in early 2021 when they were on the brink of announcing the formation of Haven Studios. From their first pitch, we were inspired by Haven’s vision for creating a modern multiplayer experience that brings gamers together in positive and meaningful ways. We were confident in their creative and technical expertise to deliver on such an ambitious project and were thrilled to invest in their journey developing a new, original IP for PlayStation.
We’ve had the privilege of working closely with Haven this past year and have been impressed by the studio’s growth and progress. So now, practically on the anniversary of when we made our partnership official, it’s especially exciting to formally welcome them into the PlayStation family. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for Haven Studios.
Welcome to PlayStation Studios, Haven!
One year ago this month, we embarked on a journey to start Haven Studios with a small team and big ambitions. Our goal was to build a studio where we could make the kind of games we’ve always wanted to create – and games we’ve longed to play!
We’ve made amazing progress in a short time thanks to our talented, passionate team and their exceptional contributions. We established a culture at Haven grounded in kindness, adaptability and courage that unlocks creativity. Our first new IP for PlayStation is on track to deliver a AAA multiplayer experience with a vision to build a systemic and evolving world focused on freedom, thrill, and playfulness that will keep players entertained and engaged for years.
Today, the Haven team begins a new phase of our journey, as part of the PlayStation Studios family. Working with Hermen, Connie Booth and the team at PlayStation over the past year has been a career highlight. SIE is a supportive partner that truly understands the creative process and what it takes to make a blockbuster AAA game. They have empowered and encouraged us to bring our bold vision to life and make our dreams come true and we could not be more thrilled about this opportunity to strengthen our partnership.
As a SIE first-party studio, we will have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the world’s most renowned development teams, including studios like Guerrilla, Naughty Dog, Media Molecule, and Insomniac Games, the creators of games that have inspired us as players and developers for years. We’re excited to learn from these world-class studios, as well as the exceptional central creative, technology and marketing teams whose expertise will enable us to deliver even better games to players.
To our Haven team – a huge thank you. It’s been one of the most rewarding years of my career – and to the players out there, we can’t wait to share more. We’re just at the beginning of what is sure to be a wondrous adventure that will span generations.
Uncharted is rolling out in theaters across the globe this week, marking Nathan Drake’s big screen debut. The entire PlayStation Productions team is thrilled to see Uncharted brought to life for movie theater audiences around the world.
Our goal with creating PlayStation Productions was to introduce our unforgettable stories, characters, and worlds to new audiences, by bringing together creators with a passion and respect for the legacy of our gaming IP. So when Sony invited me to be a part of the second instalment of their Creator to Creator series, alongside Naughty Dog and the visionaries behind the Uncharted film, I jumped at the chance.
I sat down with Naughty Dog Co-President Neil Druckmann, Uncharted movie star Tom Holland and director Ruben Fleischer to discuss bringing one of PlayStation’s most beloved heroes to the silver screen. During our chat, we covered moments from the games that directly inspired the movie, and some of the similarities between Uncharted’s game and film process. I was even surprised to learn that Tom and Neil have a shared gaming history!
Watch our full conversation here for a treasure trove of insights into the making of Uncharted:
(Seated at a table, left to right: Tom Holland, Asad Qizilbash, Ruben Fleischer, Neil Druckmann)
On behalf of our teams, we can’t wait for fans new and old to join the adventure with Uncharted in US theaters February 18.
On behalf of our teams, we can’t wait for fans new and old to join the adventure with Uncharted in UK theatres now.
Hot on the heels of this week’s news that Bungie will be joining PlayStation, I had a chance to chat with Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios, to learn more about how the developer collective might collaborate with the celebrated studio. We also touched on Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7 (State of Play tonight!), and MLB The Show 22.
See below for a transcript, edited for length and clarity, or listen to our chat in full.
Sid: So Hermen, it’s official – Bungie is joining PlayStation. Not exactly something I would have predicted a few weeks ago, but spectacular nonetheless.
Hermen: Exciting news, right? It’s a really good surprise. We like surprises. Let me just say that I’m so pleased that we could make this happen because Bungie is truly a world-class developer.
Sid: Yeah, absolutely. Just a legendary developer, really. I don’t think that’s overstating it. They’ve been around for a long time, about 30 years…. I was curious, what are some of the ways you’ve seen Bungie influence the gaming medium over the past few decades?
Hermen: It’s actually an amazing story, when you look at it. As you said, they’ve done many genres on many different platforms. And of course their work on Halo was phenomenal, in my mind some of the best shooters in history. Halo also had a very strong component. And then there’s Destiny, a series still going strong after eight years, I think. Many people have tried to build a successful live service, and failed. Because it’s really hard. So Destiny’s success is very special. I’m also impressed by the production values from them, in terms of technology, graphics, performance capture, sound and music…all of that is really top-class at Bungie.
Sid: They’re trailblazers. Halo: Combat Evolved — it’s been, what, 20-something years since that came out? But they laid the groundwork for first-person shooters on console, and a lot of those ideas have endured over that time, whether it’s grenades, melee, sticky aim was an innovation of theirs, having a recharging health bar… and all the things you pointed out with Destiny and the live service element, making this game that evolves over time. Very innovative studio.
Hermen: Yes, everyone in gaming knows that Bungie’s gameplay is one of the benchmarks. It always feels fluid, it’s always very responsive, easy to pick up and hard to put down. They’ve either started or perfected so many innovations in their games. I follow their design choices very closely since, obviously as you know, I was working on Killzone while Bungie was developing Halo.
Sid: Moving forward, how do you see PlayStation Studios partnering with Bungie? Do you envision a close working relationship with them?
Hermen: Absolutely. And obviously it’s still early, the deal itself needs to be finalized before we can officially start discussing detailed collaboration. But I’ve spent a lot of time with folks like Jason Jones and Pete Parsons, and some of the senior team over at Bungie. And let me tell you that everyone’s very excited for Bungie and PlayStation Studios to share ideas, share some of our battle scars as well. And really, just learn from each other.
Sid: Sounds like a dynamic time to be a game designer at PlayStation. With all this news, the last 12 months for PlayStation Studios has been really interesting with interesting Housemarque and Bluepoint and others… kind of a crazy time.
Hermen: Well, exciting times. We have a few very good months coming up for PlayStation fans. Horizon Forbidden West is only a few weeks away. I’ve been playing it for a while now, and it’s everything that I know Guerrilla wanted it to be. We actually began the game back when I was still at Guerrilla, and I’m just amazed at the scope, the depth, and the sheer quality that the team has achieved. You know, I think they’ve actually gotten a bit better since I left them, so really proud of that team.
And in March, we will have Gran Turismo 7. And there’s a State of Play about to hit, so later today you’ll be able to see a lot more of this game. I know that GT fans have been waiting to see what Polyphony can do on PS5, and I think they’re going to be quite happy with that.
It’s beautiful, as you would expect. But I’m really impressed with how Polyphony has used the DualSense controller. We all know that Kazunori [Yamauchi] is fanatical about recreating that driving experience for players. In that context, the DualSense is just perfect.
And then there’s MLB The Show 22 in April, of course. We gave an update on MLB The Show this week unveiling our cover athlete, the amazing Shohei Ohtani. We also announced that this year, MLB The Show will be on Nintendo Switch, as well as PS4, PS5, and Xbox. San Diego Studio is doing such a great job on this series, it just keeps getting better.
Sid: Thanks for joining us – always a pleasure to hear from you!
In 2021 there were a lot of fantastic experiences that many PlayStation fans enjoyed, such as Returnal, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Deathloop. As the new year is in full swing, we’re pleased to bring back the PlayStation 2021 Wrap-Up report, celebrating your gaming achievements on PS4 and PS5.
Starting today through February 20, PS4 and PS5 users* can access and share their PlayStation 2021 Wrap-Up report, with stats such as the number of games played, earned Trophies, playtime on PS4 and PS5 titles, and more.
Here are a few of the stats from my 2021 wrap-up report:
You can also view stats achieved collectively by PlayStation players from around the world in 2021, including the most popular weapon in Returnal, total number of wrecks in Destruction AllStars, and the percentage of players who have met Kit in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
A code to download four free avatars will be available to both PS5 and PS4 users who access their PlayStation 2021 Wrap-Up report. For more details, you can visit the PlayStation 2021 Wrap-Up page.
*Users need to have a registered PSN account in their region, be age 18 years or over, have played games on a PS4 or PS5 console for at least 10 hours between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021. Users who have not consented to the collection of “Full Data” from their PlayStation 5 system settings, may be unable to participate in the Wrap-Up campaign.
Users located in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australasia, India, and Russia, who have not consented to the collection of “Additional Data” from their PlayStation 4 system settings, may be unable to participate in the Wrap-Up campaign.
Tomorrow on January 14, God of War (2018) launches on PC. To ensure you’re ready, we’ve released our PC system requirements and features – be sure to check them both out.
Ultrawide trailer
One of the unique PC features that we’re very excited about is the 21:9 ultra-widescreen support that will allow you to play the game with an incredibly unique theatrical feel. Take a look below:
We can’t wait to see your ultrawide screen shots!
Nine Realms survival guide
With our release on the PC, we’re hoping that many new players will be able to experience Kratos and Atreus’ story for the first time. To help you get started, we’ve put together some beginner tips that will prepare you for the journey to come.
Don’t forget your Boy
Atreus may be young, but he’s one of your best assets in combat. As your journey progresses, Atreus will grow stronger and gain access to abilities that can make all the difference in your toughest fights like being able to stun monsters, bring Kratos back from the brink of death, and unleash powerful magical abilities along with his bow attacks.
Atreus has three different gear sets that can synergize with your playstyle. Make sure you’re equipping him to best support Kratos’ needs in combat. At their first tier, the sets have the following effects:
Sharpshooter Garb: Lower the Talon Bow recharge time. Aimed shots fired at enemies in the air deal extra damage.
Fighter Tunic: Boosts melee damage and exposes enemy weakness. Choked enemies will take increased damage.
Runic Vestment: Increased recovery speed from enemy attacks and provides Healthstone assistance. When Kratos is injured, Atreus has a chance to find Healthstones.
Upgrading Atreus’ abilities and equipment will be as important as upgrading Kratos, invest in his progression early and often!
Friendly Favors
In God of War, there are side quests called Favors. Some let you get to know your allies better, like helping the blacksmith brothers Brok and Sindri, while others will let you journey deeper into the rich Norse mythology of the world.
All offer rewards that will help you in battle. Alongside the XP you’ll earn, many of the Favors will also give you equipment and ability upgrades.
Earn XP with the Labors of Kratos
Labors are tracked activities that will reward you for interacting with the world and playing the game. Completing them will grant you a big chunk of XP, so they’re great for leveling up. They’ll also encourage you to switch up your playstyle, try out new tactics, and explore the world.
Labors come in four different categories:
World: Engaging with the world by completing activities like closing Realm Tears and finding Hidden Chambers.
Crafting: Crafting and upgrading your gear.
Skill: Killing enemies in a specific way, like lighting them on fire or performing parries.
Kill: Defeating a certain amount of an enemy type.
Bestiary combat tactics
Atreus will keep notes of all the enemies you face in the Codex. Not only is it a great way to track the information you learn on important figures and the realms themselves, the Bestiary section will also provide helpful gameplay tips on the weakness of monsters. Enemies are not one-size-fits-all, if you’re having difficulty with a certain type of creature, make sure you check Atreus’ notes for tips on how to dispatch them.
Understand your Gear stats
Your combat style can greatly benefit from the gear that you equip. Once you figure out the type of gameplay you like, there will be gearsets that help you excel in that area.
Whether you want to focus on standard attacks, your runic abilities, or a mix of both – understanding your gear stats will help you decide which pieces to invest in.
Strength: Increases the damage for all standard attacks.
Runic: Increase both Runic Attack and Elemental Damage.
Defense: Reduces all damage taken.
Vitality: Increases maximum health and decreases the severity of hit reactions from enemy attacks.
Luck: Increases Perk activation chance. Increases XP and Hacksilver gains.
Cooldown: Reduces recharge time of Runic Attacks, Runic Summons, and Talismans.
Certain gearsets will also be better for a specific playstyle, make sure you find the one that works best for you!If you would like to pre-purchase God of War for PC, it is available on both the Steam and Epic Game Store.
One of the joys of working as a game developer is experiencing the deep impact games can have on players’ lives across the world. Within the PlayStation Studios family, we often hear stories about how our games have sparked new friendships, rekindled old ones, formed life-defining memories, helped people overcome grief or inspired them to greatness.
This week, our friends in the United States are celebrating Thanksgiving. And while Thanksgiving isn’t a globally recognized holiday, I couldn’t think of a better time to celebrate some of our favorite developer-fan moments. Many of the best interactions between fans and developers occur unnoticed, without spectacle.
We asked the teams at PlayStation Studios to share some poignant memories that have positively affected them. These are their stories.
Bend Studio
“When I played Days Gone for the first time in 2019, I had no idea how it would completely change my life. Over the past two years, I began forming relationships with some of the team at Bend Studio — first, as a passionate fan through my Days Gone content. This included my personal blog focused solely on Days Gone that consisted of fan-fiction stories I wrote, interviews with the actors and dev members of Days Gone, a gallery of my in-game photo mode shots, fan art from around the community, the weeklong anniversary event and more.
I did all of this simply because I love to create and share my passion of games. Between being a father of three little ones and my full-time job where I worked in a warehouse, most of my spare time would go into creating more content and working on community events to hold in my small space on the Internet because I loved to do it. I started out as just a fan of Days Gone, but crazily enough that led to landing my dream job at Bend Studio, where Chris Reese (Studio Director) and Eric Jensen (Design Manager) gave me an opportunity to join their team and officially become the Online Community Specialist.”
– Kevin McAllister, Online Community Specialist
Guerrilla
“For us here at Guerrilla, one of our fondest memories was when it became clear how much Aloy was going to mean to people. This became very real when people started cosplaying as Aloy before the game was even out. Cosplayers spent so much time crafting these beautiful outfits and trusting us to make Aloy everything they hoped her to be.
During one of our later playtests for Horizon Zero Dawn, we had a whole group of Aloy cosplayers over, in full costume, playing our game as Aloy, and we were all hoping that we pulled it off for them. Speaking with them afterwards, they let us know that it was an emotional experience for them, and they were thrilled with Aloy. That made us really happy, and was a special moment for me personally, as my own daughter Laura provided the voice for Baby Aloy. Laura is almost six now, and is starting to realize how cool it was to be ‘the voice of Baby Aloy’. When she’s a bit older, I will give her the beautiful Nora necklace Raven Star, one of those first few cosplayers who came to the playtest, custom made for her when Laura was barely a year old.”
– Lucas van Tol, Music Supervisor
Insomniac Games
“In 2007, Insomniac had the unique privilege to partner with the network television program Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to celebrate a young fan, James, and his father. I had the honor of designing an avatar so James could join forces with Ratchet to cruise the solar system while vanquishing some galactic villains. With the modified game code in hand, we rocketed to Lawton, Oklahoma. On site, amidst a flurry of builders, volunteers, and cameras, I was most struck by James’ courage in the face of hardship. His excitement and positivity beamed throughout the house as he grabbed the controller and reminded me of the impact games can have on the lives of our players. He was a hero on screen, and to all of us at the studio.”
– Dave Guertin, Principal Artist
London Studio
“At London Studio, we have lots of fond memories of our SingStar days – but the one that stands out the most is when a father completed a 24-hour nonstop singing challenge for charity. Julian Hill’s baby daughter, Amelia received lifesaving open-heart surgery from Great Ormond Street Hospital, which saved her life. Our dev team heard about this and we set about supporting Julian with donations as well as equipment so the event could be hosted at a hotel and get the attention it deserved!
The final result saw Julian play SingStar continuously for 24 hours 21 minutes 25 seconds, a total of 314 songs in that time. Achieving this meant he was awarded the Guinness World Record for “longest video games marathon playing a karaoke game.” Julian went on to raise over £3.2k for the hospital’s charity so they could continue to pioneer research, fund advanced medical equipment, provide child and family support services and more.”
– Annem Hobson, Studio Communications Manager
Media Molecule
“Community has always been at the heart of what we do at Media Molecule, and throughout Dreams’ journey we’ve seen international friendships formed and ambitions reached. Just in the past few months we’ve seen two Dreamers reach incredible goals – Mystical_Vortex was nominated for an award at the BAFTA Young Game Designers awards for their game ‘The Little Ninja’ and HalfUp_ won the Student Game award at this year’s Freeplay Awards for their creation ‘The Snowgardens’. It is really quite something to know that our game is enabling up-and-coming game developers to achieve such incredible feats!
As for friendships? We’ve seen Dreamers across the world come together to work on projects together. Take the team behind the Pig Detective series as an example – they’re made up of German, Australian, British and American folks who met through Dreams! We’re constantly hearing stories of new connections and global friendships and seeing the most imaginative creations from people around the globe.”
– Tom Dent, Senior Community Manager
Naughty Dog
“Nothing makes me prouder as a game developer than hearing from players who have used the accessibility settings to remove barriers from their gameplay experience. One player told us how the accessibility settings allowed his father to reconnect with gaming as a hobby after losing his vision due to a degenerative eye disease. Another described how he watched his wife (who is completely blind) play The Last of Us Part II, and how delighted they were to share the experience.
A player with cerebral palsy worried the Rat King fight might be impossible without asking his dad for assistance. He tweaked the accessibility settings, got the timing down, and (to quote him directly): “FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I DEFEATED A BOSS!”
These stories remind me of our duty to consider the needs of all players with our design choices, and how accessible design invites everyone to play. We’ll strive to continue reaching further as we create games at Naughty Dog.”
– Matthew Gallant, Game Director
PixelOpus
“At PixelOpus, we were all incredibly moved by the community reaction to Concrete Genie’s themes and story. But I think the most powerful interaction we’ve had with a player actually relates to our first game, Entwined. A father approached art director Jeff Sangalli and myself at a PlayStation Experience event to talk to us about the special bond gaming provides between himself and his son, who is autistic. This connection was especially important as his son did not like physical contact or proximity, so co-op gaming and collaborative experiences were very important to their playtime.
When his son started playing Entwined, the father could tell that it had caught his imagination, and was helping him relax. He went on to tell us that the mechanics of the game in particular (controlling two characters at the same time with each stick) had enabled a different type of co-op for them: sharing a single controller to play the game collaboratively. When they played like this, the father explained, it allowed him to put his arm around his son – and that was something he hadn’t been able to do for years.
As parents ourselves, Jeff and I were so moved by this story and it has stayed with us as a constant reminder about the power our medium has to make connections, and to never underestimate the nature of those moments or the unexpected places they can come from.”
– Dominic Robilliard, Creative Director
San Diego Studio
“Every day we interface with some of the most passionate players online through various social channels, forums, etc… but finally meeting some of those fans and being able to talk with them about The Show face to face at gatherings like PSX, E3, and Twitch Con is where we had some of our most memorable fan interactions. We’ve met MLB The Show players from all over the country and even had fans travel from overseas to come and see us! I will never forget seeing a small group of designers who sat and chatted with some players who visited us from Australia for more than a few hours at PSX. We’ve formed many friendships at these events, and we hope to have opportunities for more in the future!”
– Victor Reynolds, Manager, Online Community
Santa Monica Studio
“One of the most memorable fan highlights for our studio was one year after God of War (2018) released, when we invited Emmanuel, a God of War memorabilia collector, to the studio. Emmanuel’s story isn’t just impressive for the sheer number of unique God of War goodies he’s amassed over the years (583 items as of 2019, I’m sure he’s added a few more since then), it was his equally unrelenting positivity in the face of adversity that really hit home for our team.
Emmanuel drew confidence from Kratos’ journey to change his fate as a personal source of motivation in his own life, which ended up sparking the initial desire to start his now Guinness World Record-sized collection. Hearing how much the God of War series had a positive impact on him in turn has truly been a huge source of inspiration for our entire team.
Emmanuel said it best himself, “If you make something with passion, that passion is contagious.”
I couldn’t think of a better phrase to articulate how we feel when we see the incredible things our players have created based on their passion for God of War. When you know you’re doing something to excite the people who truly love and appreciate your work, it makes even the most challenging hurdles of game development worth it. As the saying goes in SMS, ‘We’re fans of our fans!’ and we couldn’t ask for a more amazing community!”
– Grace Orlady, Senior Communications and Community Manager
Sucker Punch
“Rayshawn was a huge Infamous fan who was very excited about Second Son. However, odds were very low that he would live to play it. So, dressed as various Second Son cast members, we knocked on Rayshawn’s door and asked him to hide us from the DUP. As a reward for his bravery, he got to play the gold disc version of Second Son pre-release. We also gave him the Delsin vest and beanie that were scanned for the costume in the game. To top it all off, Troy Baker FaceTimed him. We ultimately named one of the fictional stores in Infamous First Light “Rayshawn Games” in honor of him. The impact he had on me was priceless. This kid’s positive attitude while dealing with the final stages of a terminal illness and his mantra N.E.G.U (Never Ever Give Up) has helped me through various personal rough spots since that day.”
– Billy Harper, Animation Director
Team Asobi
Thomas (UK), posing after his first-ever Platinum trophy.
“At Team Asobi, we try hard to make our games fun for experienced players but also for newcomers alike. So it’s not unusual we get private messages or videos from parents with children who had their first gaming experience playing one of our games. Recently, with the launch of PlayStation 5 and Astro’s Playroom, we received lots of video clips of kids with their faces in awe as they could see and feel little Astro wandering on their TV and inside their little hands.
These first moments in front of video games are extremely powerful, there is nothing like the pure and innocent joy of discovering a whole new magical world through the eyes of a child. Sadly, as we grow older, we sometimes get jaded and tend to over-scrutinize details and a part of the magic vanishes away.
So to all kids out there, keep those dreaming eyes wide open and thank you so much for reminding us why we chose this life and above all, for giving us the most amazing purpose to go to work every day!”
One of the joys of working as a game developer is experiencing the deep impact games can have on players’ lives across the world. Within the PlayStation Studios family, we often hear stories about how our games have sparked new friendships, rekindled old ones, formed life-defining memories, helped people overcome grief or inspired them to greatness.
This week, our friends in the United States are celebrating Thanksgiving. And while Thanksgiving isn’t a globally recognized holiday, I couldn’t think of a better time to celebrate some of our favorite developer-fan moments. Many of the best interactions between fans and developers occur unnoticed, without spectacle.
We asked the teams at PlayStation Studios to share some poignant memories that have positively affected them. These are their stories.
Bend Studio
“When I played Days Gone for the first time in 2019, I had no idea how it would completely change my life. Over the past two years, I began forming relationships with some of the team at Bend Studio — first, as a passionate fan through my Days Gone content. This included my personal blog focused solely on Days Gone that consisted of fan-fiction stories I wrote, interviews with the actors and dev members of Days Gone, a gallery of my in-game photo mode shots, fan art from around the community, the weeklong anniversary event and more.
I did all of this simply because I love to create and share my passion of games. Between being a father of three little ones and my full-time job where I worked in a warehouse, most of my spare time would go into creating more content and working on community events to hold in my small space on the Internet because I loved to do it. I started out as just a fan of Days Gone, but crazily enough that led to landing my dream job at Bend Studio, where Chris Reese (Studio Director) and Eric Jensen (Design Manager) gave me an opportunity to join their team and officially become the Online Community Specialist.”
– Kevin McAllister, Online Community Specialist
Guerrilla
“For us here at Guerrilla, one of our fondest memories was when it became clear how much Aloy was going to mean to people. This became very real when people started cosplaying as Aloy before the game was even out. Cosplayers spent so much time crafting these beautiful outfits and trusting us to make Aloy everything they hoped her to be.
During one of our later playtests for Horizon Zero Dawn, we had a whole group of Aloy cosplayers over, in full costume, playing our game as Aloy, and we were all hoping that we pulled it off for them. Speaking with them afterwards, they let us know that it was an emotional experience for them, and they were thrilled with Aloy. That made us really happy, and was a special moment for me personally, as my own daughter Laura provided the voice for Baby Aloy. Laura is almost six now, and is starting to realize how cool it was to be ‘the voice of Baby Aloy’. When she’s a bit older, I will give her the beautiful Nora necklace Raven Star, one of those first few cosplayers who came to the playtest, custom made for her when Laura was barely a year old.”
– Lucas van Tol, Music Supervisor
Insomniac Games
“In 2007, Insomniac had the unique privilege to partner with the network television program Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to celebrate a young fan, James, and his father. I had the honor of designing an avatar so James could join forces with Ratchet to cruise the solar system while vanquishing some galactic villains. With the modified game code in hand, we rocketed to Lawton, Oklahoma. On site, amidst a flurry of builders, volunteers, and cameras, I was most struck by James’ courage in the face of hardship. His excitement and positivity beamed throughout the house as he grabbed the controller and reminded me of the impact games can have on the lives of our players. He was a hero on screen, and to all of us at the studio.”
– Dave Guertin, Principal Artist
London Studio
“At London Studio, we have lots of fond memories of our SingStar days – but the one that stands out the most is when a father completed a 24-hour nonstop singing challenge for charity. Julian Hill’s baby daughter, Amelia received lifesaving open-heart surgery from Great Ormond Street Hospital, which saved her life. Our dev team heard about this and we set about supporting Julian with donations as well as equipment so the event could be hosted at a hotel and get the attention it deserved!
The final result saw Julian play SingStar continuously for 24 hours 21 minutes 25 seconds, a total of 314 songs in that time. Achieving this meant he was awarded the Guinness World Record for “longest video games marathon playing a karaoke game.” Julian went on to raise over £3.2k for the hospital’s charity so they could continue to pioneer research, fund advanced medical equipment, provide child and family support services and more.”
– Annem Hobson, Studio Communications Manager
Media Molecule
“Community has always been at the heart of what we do at Media Molecule, and throughout Dreams’ journey we’ve seen international friendships formed and ambitions reached. Just in the past few months we’ve seen two Dreamers reach incredible goals – Mystical_Vortex was nominated for an award at the BAFTA Young Game Designers awards for their game ‘The Little Ninja’ and HalfUp_ won the Student Game award at this year’s Freeplay Awards for their creation ‘The Snowgardens’. It is really quite something to know that our game is enabling up-and-coming game developers to achieve such incredible feats!
As for friendships? We’ve seen Dreamers across the world come together to work on projects together. Take the team behind the Pig Detective series as an example – they’re made up of German, Australian, British and American folks who met through Dreams! We’re constantly hearing stories of new connections and global friendships and seeing the most imaginative creations from people around the globe.”
– Tom Dent, Senior Community Manager
Naughty Dog
“Nothing makes me prouder as a game developer than hearing from players who have used the accessibility settings to remove barriers from their gameplay experience. One player told us how the accessibility settings allowed his father to reconnect with gaming as a hobby after losing his vision due to a degenerative eye disease. Another described how he watched his wife (who is completely blind) play The Last of Us Part II, and how delighted they were to share the experience.
A player with cerebral palsy worried the Rat King fight might be impossible without asking his dad for assistance. He tweaked the accessibility settings, got the timing down, and (to quote him directly): “FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I DEFEATED A BOSS!”
These stories remind me of our duty to consider the needs of all players with our design choices, and how accessible design invites everyone to play. We’ll strive to continue reaching further as we create games at Naughty Dog.”
– Matthew Gallant, Game Director
PixelOpus
“At PixelOpus, we were all incredibly moved by the community reaction to Concrete Genie’s themes and story. But I think the most powerful interaction we’ve had with a player actually relates to our first game, Entwined. A father approached art director Jeff Sangalli and myself at a PlayStation Experience event to talk to us about the special bond gaming provides between himself and his son, who is autistic. This connection was especially important as his son did not like physical contact or proximity, so co-op gaming and collaborative experiences were very important to their playtime.
When his son started playing Entwined, the father could tell that it had caught his imagination, and was helping him relax. He went on to tell us that the mechanics of the game in particular (controlling two characters at the same time with each stick) had enabled a different type of co-op for them: sharing a single controller to play the game collaboratively. When they played like this, the father explained, it allowed him to put his arm around his son – and that was something he hadn’t been able to do for years.
As parents ourselves, Jeff and I were so moved by this story and it has stayed with us as a constant reminder about the power our medium has to make connections, and to never underestimate the nature of those moments or the unexpected places they can come from.”
– Dominic Robilliard, Creative Director
San Diego Studio
“Every day we interface with some of the most passionate players online through various social channels, forums, etc… but finally meeting some of those fans and being able to talk with them about The Show face to face at gatherings like PSX, E3, and Twitch Con is where we had some of our most memorable fan interactions. We’ve met MLB The Show players from all over the country and even had fans travel from overseas to come and see us! I will never forget seeing a small group of designers who sat and chatted with some players who visited us from Australia for more than a few hours at PSX. We’ve formed many friendships at these events, and we hope to have opportunities for more in the future!”
– Victor Reynolds, Manager, Online Community
Santa Monica Studio
“One of the most memorable fan highlights for our studio was one year after God of War (2018) released, when we invited Emmanuel, a God of War memorabilia collector, to the studio. Emmanuel’s story isn’t just impressive for the sheer number of unique God of War goodies he’s amassed over the years (583 items as of 2019, I’m sure he’s added a few more since then), it was his equally unrelenting positivity in the face of adversity that really hit home for our team.
Emmanuel drew confidence from Kratos’ journey to change his fate as a personal source of motivation in his own life, which ended up sparking the initial desire to start his now Guinness World Record-sized collection. Hearing how much the God of War series had a positive impact on him in turn has truly been a huge source of inspiration for our entire team.
Emmanuel said it best himself, “If you make something with passion, that passion is contagious.”
I couldn’t think of a better phrase to articulate how we feel when we see the incredible things our players have created based on their passion for God of War. When you know you’re doing something to excite the people who truly love and appreciate your work, it makes even the most challenging hurdles of game development worth it. As the saying goes in SMS, ‘We’re fans of our fans!’ and we couldn’t ask for a more amazing community!”
– Grace Orlady, Senior Communications and Community Manager
Sucker Punch
“Rayshawn was a huge Infamous fan who was very excited about Second Son. However, odds were very low that he would live to play it. So, dressed as various Second Son cast members, we knocked on Rayshawn’s door and asked him to hide us from the DUP. As a reward for his bravery, he got to play the gold disc version of Second Son pre-release. We also gave him the Delsin vest and beanie that were scanned for the costume in the game. To top it all off, Troy Baker FaceTimed him. We ultimately named one of the fictional stores in Infamous First Light “Rayshawn Games” in honor of him. The impact he had on me was priceless. This kid’s positive attitude while dealing with the final stages of a terminal illness and his mantra N.E.G.U (Never Ever Give Up) has helped me through various personal rough spots since that day.”
– Billy Harper, Animation Director
Team Asobi
Thomas (UK), posing after his first-ever Platinum trophy.
“At Team Asobi, we try hard to make our games fun for experienced players but also for newcomers alike. So it’s not unusual we get private messages or videos from parents with children who had their first gaming experience playing one of our games. Recently, with the launch of PlayStation 5 and Astro’s Playroom, we received lots of video clips of kids with their faces in awe as they could see and feel little Astro wandering on their TV and inside their little hands.
These first moments in front of video games are extremely powerful, there is nothing like the pure and innocent joy of discovering a whole new magical world through the eyes of a child. Sadly, as we grow older, we sometimes get jaded and tend to over-scrutinize details and a part of the magic vanishes away.
So to all kids out there, keep those dreaming eyes wide open and thank you so much for reminding us why we chose this life and above all, for giving us the most amazing purpose to go to work every day!”
Taking the reins of a series as iconic as Ghostbusters would be a daunting task for any director. But Jason Reitman, the mastermind behind the franchise’s latest chapter Ghostbusters: Afterlife, has Ghostbusters in his blood – not only is he a massive fan of the legendary 80s adventures, he is also the son of Ivan Reitman who brought the first two entries to the big screen, and who also adds his producing chops to Afterlife.
Rather than being weighed down by the shadow of his father’s films, the younger Reitman saw his dad’s involvement and presence on the set of Afterlife as a huge boon to this entry. “I was lucky enough to have not only the world’s foremost expert on Ghostbusters sitting next to me,” Reitman told me when we sat down, “but also one of my favourite storytellers.”
“It’s funny,” he laughs, “I’m the child of a Ghostbuster, so I guess it should be no surprise that when it came to making a Ghostbusters movie, I would make a movie about the granddaughter of a Ghostbuster. And there was no way to do this except with my father right by my side.”
This father-son relationship has created a high level of consistency between Afterlife and the original Ghostbusters movies, to which the new film is a direct sequel. Despite over 30 years passing, Afterlife truly feels like a part of the same world we were first introduced to in 1984. Its tone, comedy and design will be instantly recognisable to fans of the originals.
“We were trying to echo the original film in every way possible, and most of all in comedy. That’s why we cast actors like Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace.” These big stars are joined by relative newcomer Logan Kim who plays Podcast, a wise-cracking misfit with a penchant for microphones and audio recorders.
“You know, audiences don’t know him yet,” Reitman nods, “but I think they’re gonna love him. He feels exactly like the kind of guy you would have cast in the original.”
But the sense that you’re jumping back into the world from the original movies doesn’t end with the humor. Afterlife starts with an as-yet-unnamed family discovering they’ve just inherited a ramshackle farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Formerly inhabited by Phoebe (Grace) and Trevor’s (Wolfhard) absent grandfather, the house is packed floor-to-ceiling with books on the paranormal, unused farming equipment and, as it turns out, ghostbustin’ gear.
And when it comes to the appearance of iconic Ghost Trap and other classic tools, there’s no sleek redesigns here. The clunky, worn-down 80s look from the original movies is preserved perfectly; these could be lifted straight from the studio’s archives. Practical effects and physical props are heavily featured, with CGI limited to a small selection of scenes to preserve the style of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II.
“We always wanted to get at the original recipe of what was a Ghostbusters movie. And that involved really doing the archaeology, understanding how they made the original, and finding ways to mix the bleeding edge of computer technology with the most old school Hollywood effects.”
Reitman’s wish to blend different technologies is showcased best in a scene which sees the return of the Terror Dog, a fan-favourite monster whose image is surely seared into the minds of anyone who watched the original movie as a child. The beast is back, and more terrifying than ever, thanks to a mix of practical and digital effects. And we’ve got your first look at its resurrection in this exclusive clip:
On the creation of practical effects, Reitman said “we’re talking magnets and wires and smoke and mirrors, animatronics, puppets. We basically had a real Terror Dog on set that was operated by the greatest puppeteers alive. It’s that kind of filmmaking which I think gives the movie its feel and its tone. It’s that grounded camera work. It’s being on real sets instead of green screen stages.
“So when you stand in front of the Terror Dog and it looks you in the eyes, you feel that. There’s just no two ways about it. It becomes way more intimidating when you have these puppeteers who bring that thing to life and you feel like you’re in the presence of a real creature.”
It’s not just monsters which make their return in Afterlife; the movie is littered with Easter Eggs for eagle-eyed fans to spot. When asked for his favourite, Reitman couldn’t be pressed to choose just one. “I’ll give you a few to look for,” he laughs. “There’s a line from the original movie in which Egon Spengler says, ‘I once had half a slinky, but I straightened it’, so there is a straightened slinky somewhere in the movie if you can find it. There’s the Ghost Sniffer that Bill Murray uses at Dana’s apartment from the original, too.”
And fittingly, given Ghostbusters: Afterlife is “a movie about a family, by a family”, Reitman couldn’t help but sneak in a reference to his dad’s previous work as well. “There is also a nod to Cannibal Girls, my father’s first movie,” he teases.
That family connection clearly means a lot to him. One that’s at the heart of this new movie, resonating through him, and everyone else involved in the production, onto the big screen.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife launches exclusively in cinemas November 19. Buy your tickets here.
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