(Variety) PS5 Turns 5: Creators of ‘Astro Bot,’ ‘Ghost of Yōtei’ and ‘Gran Turismo 7’ on PlayStation Console’s Best Features, Next-Gen Dreams

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Five years ago, Sony's PlayStation debuted its much-anticipated PlayStation 5 video game console amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in November 2020. This fall, as the gaming system celebrates its fifth anniversary, it comes on the heels of much success for one of its most prominent exclusive titles: Sucker Punch Productions' "Ghost of Yōtei."

A 2025 Game Awards nominee, "Yōtei" debuted in October as the follow-up to "Ghost of Tsushima." While "Tsushima" was made for the PS4, the Sucker Punch team developed "Yōtei" for a whole new console and its DualSense controller.

"For the DualSense, it's a great controller, and we definitely lean into that where we can. It's a big team effort between the combat team, the audio team and the programming team to integrate that stuff," Sucker Punch Productions director of programming Adrian Bentley told Variety. "We would lean into things, especially moments where we have critical gameplay. Combat is a big part of the game and giving you a feel for that, or even leaning into emotional moments. We do record haptic tracks to go with certain cutscenes to give you a stronger sense of what Atsu's going through. And in terms of complexity, there is a lot of detail and tuning — the little games we create with painting the kanji or things like that — so they take some time, but it's usually worth it to try and get a particular kind of feel in a particular scene."
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The group over at PlayStation's Team Asobi, the developer behind 2024 Game of the Year winner "Astro Bot," is also quite fond of the PS5's DualSense and the haptic feedback aspects. In fact, much of their work on "Astro's Playroom," a pre-loaded game that came with the PS5 and introduced players to the device's new features, helped shape what the DualSense controller team put into the final product.

"We would bring these controllers, which are like the future of games, concealed and wrapped up inside paper bags and carried from one building to the other," Team Asobi studio head Nicolas Doucet said of working on the prototype project at PlayStation's offices in Japan. "Which is great because it makes you feel like there is still very much a human story behind it, where people get together and just try things and then something good comes out of it."

While Doucet can't confirm if there will be an "Astro Bot 2," he did say that the learnings from "Astro's Playroom" that led to the first "Astro Bot" game are a good indicator of what ideas are still leftover after working on "Astro Bot" that could go into future games.

"'Astro's Playroom' gave us a great springboard to go to 'Astro Bot' because a lot of things that we tested during the DualSense exploration into 'Astro's Playroom' could not be fitted into the pre-loaded game," Doucet said. "First, we had to make our list of, what are the things that we really want people to feel that are the most immediate. And we had this really, really cool demo of a chainsaw, actually, where you could cut wood and it was classic, real-world expressions. And we felt like, OK, it's not really our content — we want it to be super friendly. But during 'Astro Bot,' as we were making the game and developing this richer story with rebuilding the mothership, we thought, Oh, hold on, maybe all of these DIY interactions that worked really well with the DualSense, that's a way to bring them back. And if we can add a sci-fi touch to them, we'll get away from them feeling maybe too real and a little bit too daunting."

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Doucet added: "What I'm saying is, as we do this kind of cycle of research, and then making a game, and then research making games, there is always something in the past that we've made that maybe didn't fit back in those days, for various reasons, that later we can go back to and with a new pair of eyes or updated learning or updated knowledge, and revisit and maybe twist and find a new usage for."
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The PS5 turns five on the heels of PlayStation celebrating its 30th anniversary. And some studios developing for the latest console have been there from the beginning, including the minds behind "Gran Turismo."

"PlayStation can be divided into a few different generations," said Kazunori Yamauchi, head of PlayStation's "Gran Turismo" studio, Polyphony Digital. "The PS1 and 2 were one generation. PS3 was another generation. And then PlayStation 4 and 5 are also a similar generation from one another. And from the PS4 and beyond, it has become easier to make video games, and it also provides really high performance. So when I first heard the plans for the PS5, I had pretty high expectations."

Yamauchi and the Polyphony Digital team's highest expectation, as a studio focused on the racing game genre, was what the PS5's ray tracing capabilities would be.

"For racing games, of course, the immersiveness and the atmosphere is very important to convey to our users," Yamauchi said. "And of course, the internal calculations and the simulation is important — but it's really important how to convey that to our users. Then that involves the display, the sound, the haptics and the touch. But the thing that we really wanted to achieve on the PS5 with 'GT7' was really the ray tracing."

Yamauchi says ray tracing technology was already being researched when the first "Gran Turismo" game was created for the first PlayStation console in 1997.

"But back then, it was being developed on a huge supercomputer, and they were doing real-time ray tracing, but it was something along the lines of four frames per second or something like that," Yamauchi said. "But with a PS5 video game console, we're now able to do ray tracing at a high frame rate — and that was pretty revolutionary for us, because when we were making 'Gran Turismo 1,' it was a sort of a dream for us to one day be able to do the ray tracing like this."

While there is still no official announcement on what the next step will be for Sony's PlayStation in the console business, beyond the PS5 and PS5 Pro, the developers that work most directly with the product say they aren't in a rush to jump to the next offering.

"I don't know, I think PS5 is pretty good!" "Yōtei" developer Bentley said, adding there are a few wishlist items for future projects: "So a lot of it is just more of the same: ray tracing is a fun technology that's still growing, and there's lots of other graphics card technologies out there you could see. For us, a lot of it is whatever helps us make games efficiently. That's one of the big things that we that we like and a lot of that is in software more than hardware. But continuing to allow us to scale up our ambitions for games is definitely a fun thing to participate in."
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variety.com

PS5 Turns 5: Creators of ‘Astro Bot,’ ‘Ghost of Yōtei’ and ‘Gran Turismo 7’ on PlayStation Console’s Best Features, Next-Gen Dreams

Five years ago, Sony's PlayStation debuted its much-anticipated PlayStation 5 video game console amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in November 2020
variety.com variety.com
 
Speaking of Astro Bot 2, it would be neat if it built from the larger, sandbox-style design of Winter Wonder on Astro Bot, the best level of the game.
 
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PS5 really turned out to be the most disappointing Sony console to date for me. Astro Bot makes up for a lot, but overall it's just been lackluster compared to 1-4.

Might just be the way the gaming industry is these days, though.

Anyway, happy birthday little guy.
 
Dacvak said:
PS5 really turned out to be the most disappointing Sony console to date for me. Astro Bot makes up for a lot, but overall it's just been lackluster compared to 1-4.

Might just be the way the gaming industry is these days, though.

Anyway, happy birthday little guy.
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i wish. ugly, bulky tech perfected...
 
PS5 is probably the worst generation ever to date. Astrobot is one the best games I ever played, but he alone can't elevate this shit generation.

Dacvak said:
PS5 really turned out to be the most disappointing Sony console to date for me. Astro Bot makes up for a lot, but overall it's just been lackluster compared to 1-4.

Might just be the way the gaming industry is these days, though.

Anyway, happy birthday little guy.
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100% this

Sanepar said:
I don't agree at ALL. Totally on par with ps4 First 5 years. The last year of ps4 was superb: last of us 2, ghost of tsushima and Death Stranding.
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On par with PS4? You are out of your damn mind.
 
EchoByte said:
If PS4 had PS4 games, and PS5 has PS5 and Xbox games.

I think the PS5 would, by definition, have better games just by sheer volume and choice. no?
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For me quality means more than quantity and honestly even these Xbox games have not been great

I have said this a few times before but for me personally 3rd party has really carried this generation
 
nial said:
variety.com

PS5 Turns 5: Creators of ‘Astro Bot,’ ‘Ghost of Yōtei’ and ‘Gran Turismo 7’ on PlayStation Console’s Best Features, Next-Gen Dreams

Five years ago, Sony's PlayStation debuted its much-anticipated PlayStation 5 video game console amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in November 2020
variety.com variety.com
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I'm still hoping to see some of those current-gen dreams delivered upon before we move on.

PS5 has had a few awesome games, but its tech came with a lot of promises. We started this gen talking about how the SSD and overall IO speed would help overcome obstacles in the way of some new types of games, but we really haven't had much of that; similarly, breaking away from baked lighting and replicated assets and other limitations was heralded as the free ticket needed to unleash physics systems and higher density in application size, but it's still been generally at the same level as before.

Games look better these days (despite all the new artifacts of techniques which stick in our craw), but I'd love to see a developer paid specifically to explore tech boundaries rather than just graphical bounds.
 
DeepEnigma said:
Quality over mediocrity quantity.
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I mean...
  • Astro Bot is better than Knack.
  • Gran Turismo 7 is better than Gran Turismo Sport.
  • Sackboy: A Big Adventure is better than LittleBigPlanet 3 (same franchise).
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is better than Ratchet & Clank (2016).
  • Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is better than Death Stranding.
  • Ghost of Yōtei AND Rise of the Ronin are both better than Ghost of Tsushima.
  • Demon's Souls (2020) is a better remake than Shadow of the Colossus (2018).
  • Returnal is, at least, as good as Resogun, and better than Alienation and Matterfall. Saros will likely follow the same path.
  • Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarök and Spider-Man 2 all have better gameplay than Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War (2018) and Spider-Man (2018). Spider-Man: Miles Morales is definitely better than Spider-Man (2018) as a more focused package.
  • You don't even have a Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls equivalent on PS4, SIE's last fighting game was Bleach: Heat the Soul 7 on PSP in 2010.
 
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nial said:
I mean...
  • Astro Bot is better than Knack.
  • Gran Turismo 7 is better than Gran Turismo Sport.
  • Sackboy: A Big Adventure is better than LittleBigPlanet 3 (same franchise).
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is better tan Ratchet & Clank (2016).
  • Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is better than Death Stranding.
  • Ghost of Yōtei AND Rise of the Ronin are both better than Ghost of Tsushima.
  • Demon's Souls (2020) is a better remake than Shadow of the Colossus (2018).
  • Returnal is, at least, as good as Resogun, and better than Alienation and Matterfall. Saros will likely follow the same path.
  • Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarök and Spider-Man 2 all have better gameplay than Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War (2018) and Spider-Man (2018). Spider-Man: Miles Morales is definitely better than Spider-Man (2018) as a more focused package.
  • You don't even have a Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls equivalent on PS4, SIE's last fighting game was Bleach: Heat the Soul 7 on PSP in 2010.
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Cool. I enjoyed most of those games.

I still think the PS4 gen was more banger so far.
 
DeepEnigma said:
Cool. I enjoyed most of those games.

I still think the PS4 gen was more banger so far.
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I just don't think it's a huge enough gap to classify one as pure quality and the other as pure mediocrity.
The irony is big when also considering how a good chunk of the forum will shit on stuff like Uncharted 4 and Horizon Zero Dawn from time to time. And the less we talk about Knack, the better. Or The Last of Us Part II, probably the single most hated Sony game here.
 
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nial said:
I just don't think it's a huge enough gap to classify one as pure quality and the other as pure mediocrity.
The irony is big when also considering how a good chunk of the forum will shit on stuff like Uncharted 4 and Horizon Zero Dawn from time to time. And the less we talk about Knack, the better. Or The Last of Us Part II, probably the single most hated Sony game here.
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I think the gap lies in derivative. PS5 feels more derivative. All 3 consoles do so far.
 
So far, only Astro Bot was really amazing. The rest of Sony's first-party efforts have been either mediocre (or disappointing) or a no-show so far. Well, maybe Saros will be another "Astro Bot level of quality" game.
 
nial said:
I mean...
  • Astro Bot is better than Knack.
  • Gran Turismo 7 is better than Gran Turismo Sport.
  • Sackboy: A Big Adventure is better than LittleBigPlanet 3 (same franchise).
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is better than Ratchet & Clank (2016).
  • Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is better than Death Stranding.
  • Ghost of Yōtei AND Rise of the Ronin are both better than Ghost of Tsushima.
  • Demon's Souls (2020) is a better remake than Shadow of the Colossus (2018).
  • Returnal is, at least, as good as Resogun, and better than Alienation and Matterfall. Saros will likely follow the same path.
  • Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarök and Spider-Man 2 all have better gameplay than Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War (2018) and Spider-Man (2018). Spider-Man: Miles Morales is definitely better than Spider-Man (2018) as a more focused package.
  • You don't even have a Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls equivalent on PS4, SIE's last fighting game was Bleach: Heat the Soul 7 on PSP in 2010.
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1. Agreed
2. Agreed
3. Agreed.
4. I disagree. I feel that maps and weapons in R&C 2016 are better than rift apart. Rift apart had the bigger spectacle, but as someone who has platinumed both, 2016 is easily the better game, imo.
5. Gameplay wise? Sure. But I personally preferred ds1. It had a more zen feel to it. And since the weapons and gadgets were more slowly unlocked, they felt earned. In Ds2, you get a vehicle within mins and it just ruins the traversal. Ds1 is the better game, imo.
6. Unfortunately haven't played yotei yet, so can't comment.
7. I disagree. Shadow of colossus is simply amazing, even with its weird controls. Demons souls is great and all( looks bonkers) but I feel gameplay wise bloddborne and dark souls are better. Shadow of colossus is different enough from everything else, that I feel it is more special. But can agree with a tie.
8. Agreed.
9. Considering you only mentioned gameplay for spiderman 2, god of war Ragnarok and forbidden west, I can you and I both know that has a complete package, spiderman 1, gow2018 and zero dawn are the better games. And I say as someone who has plats in all 6. I love Ragnarok, but 2018 is simply better. It has more spectacle and far better narrative. Ragnarok has weird pacing and the "Ragnarok" event was a let down, imo. The carter section though, is simply perfect. Spiderman 1, similarly, has a better narrative and pacing. I would even say it is the best one out of the 3( I cluding miles morales). Same case with zero dawn( although in this case, I think forbidden west is closer as it does everything else better and I feel you can argue either with those two games).
10. Agreed.

Personally, I do like the ps5 and even like how Sony is trying different things( multiplayer, gaas, fighting games, rogue likes, etc), feels more like Sony is experimenting again, which is good, even though it is not always a success. But, I still think ps4 was better
 
HeisenbergFX4 said:
I know its all subjective but I thought PS4 had much better games
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PS4 was ridiculed for its first few years. It wasn't until Bloodborne that they had an exclusive of high quality but that was just one game. I would say that PS4 picked up better by 2017 though(4 years) but also games back then didn't take as long to make.
 
HeisenbergFX4 said:
For me quality means more than quantity and honestly even these Xbox games have not been great

I have said this a few times before but for me personally 3rd party has really carried this generation
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With the idea of Bloodborne being the best thing last gen it carried last generation too only difference being some people didn't bitch and moan about third party exclusivity back then. This gen we got Elden Ring so not sure what the big fuss is about. PS5 gen got quality games too.
 
"Next gen dreams" - again, talk of ray tracing ffs.

Splatoon's painting mechanic.
Fallout's V.A.T.S. system.
Nemesis system.
Sekiro's parrying system.
Kojima's Social Strand system.
Shuten Order combining various genre's in one game.
Unicorn Overlord's combat "programming" system.
Bananza's wild take on level design/gameplay.

Outside of those kinds of examples, I honestly haven't experienced much that feels truly new or groundbreaking in gameplay, neither this generation nor the previous one.

Where's the complex, layered NPC behavior?
Where's the non-animated body physics stuff (Euphoria)?
Where's the AI enhanced NPC behavior and memories?
Where's the fresh take on recycled gameplay mechanics?

True innovation and "next gen" is still rather far to be seen imho. Even though I'm very happy with great games like Astro Bot, Expedition 33, Nightreign and the recent Dispatch.
 
From what I remember ps4:
2013 Killzone, knack
2014 infamous, driveclub
2015 Bloodborne lbp3
2016 uncharted 4, ratchet
2017 Horizon, GT sport, uncharted Lost legacy
2018 god of war, Spiderman

Ps5:
2020: Miles Morales, demons souls remake
2021: returnal, ratchet
2022: Horizon 2, GT7
2023: Ragnarok
2024: spiderman2, astrobot
2025: DS2, yotei

Imo on par. 2013 and 2014 were miserable on ps4 and 2015 only Bloodborne saved. Ps4 got great years after 3rd year.
 
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