At Santa Monica Studio, one our guiding phrases is “we’re fans of our fans.” Whether it’s a reaction to a trailer, a deep-dive lore video, or cosplay – knowing that there is an audience that appreciates all the details in our work motivates us to create something worthy of God of War fans. 

Cosplayers are a huge part of our community and have been since the very first game released in 2005. Over many years we’ve seen how much time, love, and dedication it takes to create a single character. God of War characters especially have many different materials, layers, and details to account for. One thing we’ve learned is that the best starting block for any cosplayer is a good reference of the character they’re portraying!

Once you’ve taken a peek at the new guides, make sure you check out the interview below with Santa Monica Studio Art Director Raf Grassetti on how the team updated the designs of Kratos and Atreus in God of War Ragnarök! 

Official Kratos and Atreus cosplay guides

To show our appreciation for all the God of War cosplayers who have taken on Kratos and Atreus over the years, we wanted to make their updated guides for God of War Ragnarök even more comprehensive than the ones we did for God of War (2018).

We’re worked with our fantastic character artists and writers at SMS, as well as B is for Boy artist Romina Tempest, to create guides that not only give the in-depth references necessary for cosplayers, but also let us play more in the world of God of War by looking at these designs through the lens of our characters.

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Greetings everyone! I’m happy to announce that our newest trailer—Ambition—is now live. Rather than focusing on action as we did in our last reveal, this time we wanted to give the world a more in-depth look at Final Fantasy XVI’s lore and its rich cast of characters—with the Dominants front and center.

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The flames of war spread as Valisthea enters an age of twilight. Where will fate lead the Dominants and what future awaits the realm at the end of this bitter conflict? There are still many more questions to be answered, many more truths to be uncovered.

With regards to development, the team has turned the corner and entered the home stretch, and is currently concentrating its efforts on debugging, tweaking, polishing, and optimization.  

We’ll be back soon with more information about the world of Final Fantasy XVI! For now, please enjoy the new trailer and new insight into two new characters. But first, some additional words from Director Hiroshi Takai.

Clive Rosefield, the main protagonist of Final Fantasy XVI

Hello!

Our third trailer is finally here and jam-packed with exciting new information that provides a better picture of how the game’s setting, lore, and characters tie in with our compelling narrative. Hopefully it was worth the wait!

As the game edges closer to completion, the team has turned its full attention to debugging and final adjustments. Now that things are starting to

What a beautiful day! A beautiful day to surrender to the void… or, as we at Media Molecule have come to know it, The Land Of Lost Dreams. That’s right: this year’s Halloween event, All Hallows’: The Land of Lost Dreams, is available to play in Dreams right now. 

Is there a better way to get in the Halloween spirit than to explore this creepy creative purgatory, filled with strange quests, odd characters and coMmunity-created interactive delights? No. No, there is not. And if you don’t believe us, you should probably boot up Dreams on your PlayStation, then play The Land Of Lost Dreams to either confirm or deny. It’s only fair.

There’s so much to see in The Land of Lost Dreams. Challenge a king to a tabletop game of questionable quality! Get ripped off by odd little robots! Admire cursed trinkets and scream your way through a haunted forest! And maybe – just maybe – escape development hell once and for all…

Need more info about what awaits you there? Well, you’re in luck: we at Media Molecule have come into possession of a tourist brochure that lays out many of The Land of Lost Dreams’ main attractions in unnerving detail. Honestly, this place seems like a weird choice for a ‘holiday destination’, but travel agency D.Tours looks trustworthy enough – they’ve even got a logo. What evil entity ever had a logo? Exactly.

Star Ocean The Divine Force will soon touch down on PS5 and PS4! This action-packed science-fiction RPG presents a bold new vision for the beloved RPG series, with a powerful story, innovative traversal mechanics, and a combat system that’s just… *chef’s kiss.

That said, we suspect that some of you may still be wondering what this game is all about. Read on and we’ll tell you everything you need to know:

It’s the sixth mainline entry in the Star Ocean series…

You may have played a Star Ocean game before – or at least heard of it. The series has been around since 1996 and has won many fans thanks to distinct science-fiction trappings. While many RPGs lean into fantasy tropes, the Star Ocean series embraces space opera wholeheartedly – think spaceships, interplanetary travel, advanced technologies, and the like. Even now it feels very unique in the genre.

Star Ocean The Divine Force is the sixth mainline title in the series and brings with it excitingly fresh ideas, including unparalleled freedom of movement and a blisteringly fast combat system.

…but it’s completely standalone

Similar to other RPG series like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, each entry in the Star Ocean series works as a standalone adventure. There’s no need to have played through the previous games to work out what’s going on – the entire narrative from start to finish is contained within the game. Of course, if you are a fan of the previous games, you may spot a reference or two…

It’s an epic adventure that fuses science fiction and fantasy

The adventure begins when starship captain Raymond Lawrence crash lands on the planet of Aster IV. This dangerous world is like stepping into a long-forgotten past for the young spacefarer – people still live in castles, wear plate armor and kingdoms wage war against one other. Joining forces with a warrior princess named Laeticia, he sets off to find the rest of his crew and get off the planet… unaware that he will soon find himself embroiled in a conflict that threatens the entire universe.

The dual protagonist system returns from previous games

At the beginning of your adventure, you’ll be able to choose between two main characters: Raymond or Laeticia. This isn’t just a cosmetic decision – the events that transpire and the allies you can recruit will differ depending on who you play as.

You can play as Raymond …

Raymond is the captain of the merchant vessel Ydas, operating under Lawrence Logistics – a company run by his family. He’s a friendly guy with big hair and a bigger heart. He can be brash and reckless, which often gets himself into trouble – but he’ll throw himself into the heart of danger to protect his friends. He’s a protagonist who’s easy to love.

…or Laeticia

Laeticia is Princess of the Kingdom of Aucerius: a large territory located on the underdeveloped planet of Aster IV. She’s a knight and highly skilled with the dual blades, something that makes her greatly admired by her people.   Laeticia is insatiably curious and her encounter with Raymond opens her eyes to a bigger world than she knows… but more than anything she loves her kingdom and will do whatever she can to protect it.

Hello, I am Konami producer Motoi Okamoto. When it came to reviving Silent Hill, what we saw as most important was to do so together with those who love the series. Silent Hill had been, if you will, ”silent” for many years. Yet, even during that silence, we had been receiving proposals for new entries and remakes. This is truly a franchise that is beloved by so many fans.

Bloober Team was one such team with the most passionate of proposals. They are a studio that truly loves and specializes in horror games. Together with creators who love Silent Hill, for fans who have a special place in their heart for Silent Hill, we have decided to remake Silent Hill 2. To explain more, I will hand it over to Mateusz Lenart, Creative Director & Lead Designer at Bloober Team. 

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The classic returns anew

Silent Hill 2 is a beloved and timeless classic – it’s almost a cliche to say it out loud, but it’s just so true for many of the Bloober Team members. This is also the reason why we approach working on the remake with such great care and respect for the original game. 

With that in mind, one of our primary goals is to preserve the atmosphere that made Silent Hill 2 so exceptional, while also modernizing many aspects of the game’s overall gameplay. We are working closely with the original creators, including Akira Yamaoka and Masahiro Ito, to ensure we’re keeping that unique Silent Hill feel intact.

One of the new elements that you could spot in the reveal trailer is the adoption of an over-the-shoulder camera. With that change we want to immerse players even deeper into the game, make them feel like they are a part of this unreal world, and deliver them a more visceral experience across the board.

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The release of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PC is an important one for Naughty Dog, as it lets us celebrate our past and introduce a new, meaningful audience to the world of Nathan Drake and Chloe Frazer. But it also represents a pivotal moment for us, a chance to look ahead and expand the way we develop games, all while ensuring the level of quality our audience expects.

To achieve that, we partnered with Iron Galaxy Studios to bring two of the most emotional and thrilling Uncharted adventures to a new platform with PC-centric quality-of-life features. We’re so thrilled new players can experience these two incredible stories, all in one great package. So with its launch, let’s reflect a bit on why this release is so meaningful to Naughty Dog, and how we hope it will continue to showcase our commitment to delivering unforgettable games, now to more players than ever.

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Bringing Uncharted to PC

While PlayStation 5 remains our primary platform, we saw the possibility of bringing our games to PC as a great chance to reach a new massive, worldwide audience. When considering what to debut on PC with, we looked through our catalog and decided the beautiful, globetrotting stories of the Uncharted series felt like a natural fit to introduce to players all around the world. Now, you may be wondering why we didn’t start with the original Uncharted. We felt that, while Nathan Drake’s first three adventures from the PlayStation 3 console still stand the test of time narratively, they would require a major overhaul visually to stand-up to modern PC releases and the expectations players may have.

The Uncharted franchise comprises standalone adventures that players new and old can jump into, and so while there’s still incredible stories and character development in those first three games, we felt players could easily dive into Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and pick up Nathan, Elena, and Sully’s stories. Especially with the introduction of new characters like Sam Drake, Rafe Adler, and Nadine Ross, A Thief’s End offers so much to players regardless of their history getting into and out of trouble as Nathan Drake. And Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which is also included in the collection, offers a new playable protagonist in Chloe Frazer. Fans who know the original trilogy will be delighted to see her return, but newcomers will have no trouble understanding her wonderful story by starting with the collection.

And so, these two games, both developed on more modern hardware, and also receiving a remaster for the PlayStation 5 console, felt like perfect candidates to introduce the franchise, and Naughty Dog, to mode

Gran Turismo players! The 1.25 update for Gran Turismo 7 arrives today October 19 at 11:00pm PDT* (October 20 at 7am BST / 3pm JST). We’ll take a closer look at what’s included, but first, check out the launch trailer. 

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Four new cars join Gran Turismo 7: 

Maserati Merak SS ’80

This high-output model of the Merak has been tuned for even sharper performance. 

The Maserati Merak was a mid-engine sports car introduced in 1972. It was developed to be a sister model to the Bora which had debuted a year earlier. The exterior stylings were very similar to the Bora, both having been designed by Giugiaro. However, while the Bora had been a fastback, the Merak was a notchback with a fastback style pillar. This allowed it to retain the same silhouette while making the car feel lighter and improving engine cooling. Similarly, while the Bora housed a V8, the Merak was equipped with a 187 BHP 3L V6 taken from the Citroen SM. With this more compact engine, the seating arrangement changed to a 2+2 layout which allowed for some luggage space. A high-performance model was later released in 1975 as the Merak SS. The compression ratio was increased and other adjustments were made to tune the engine to 216 BHP, increasing the top speed from 139.8 mph to 155.3 mph.

Mazda Roadster NR-A (ND) ’22

This motorsports base model epitomizes the core concepts of the Roadster. 

Released in 2015, the 4th generation ‘ND’ Roadster received worldwide praise for its return to the Roadster’s original concept of ‘Jinba Ittai’ (“horse and rider moving as one”). The essence of the ND was most purely expressed in the NR-A grade, a motorsports oriented base model. The NR-A first joined the line-up on the 2nd generation ‘NB’ model, where it was introduced with the idea of providing an easy way for anyone to experience the joy of circuit racing. 

These ideas are carried on in the ND version which has been modified with a particular focus on sports driving. The power plant frame that connects the transmission to the rear differential has been upgraded, along with accompanying parts such as the driveshaft, LSD and differential case. 

T

Sharpen your senses, warriors – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is just around the corner. 

Let’s dive into more details on a special new Operator while we wait for launch on October 28 (MWII Campaign Early Access* also available starting October 20 to those who pre-order digitally).

Announced at last month’s Call of Duty: Next showcase event, PlayStation players who pre-order any digital edition of the game at PlayStation store will receive the Oni Operator Pack** at Modern Warfare II’s launch, which includes the Hiro “Oni” Watanabe operator as well as a high-end weapon blueprint both playable in Multiplayer, Special Ops, as well as the soon to launch Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0.

It wasn’t only creativity that led to the development of this special operator, it was a great sense of collaboration between Infinity Ward and PlayStation to develop an operator that PlayStation players will want to make their main on day one. Below are some details of how Oni came to be.

Hiro “Oni” Watanabe

One concept that stood out early on was the idea of creating a samurai-inspired operator. A name that came to the fore amongst the Infinity Ward team was “Oni”, meaning “Demon”, and that helped kick start a unique narrative around the operator.

When developing the narrative background for Oni, it was important for the narrative team at Infinity Ward to develop a unique character story that they could continue into the future.

Oni descends from an ancient samurai clan, one that was well respected and lived by a code of honor. As the decades passed and the samurai disbanded, Oni’s family fell on hard times. These hardships eventually forced them to live by less than honorable means. By the time Oni was born, his father had already become well established in the criminal underworld.

Yet Oni’s grandfather worked to remind him that his family wasn’t always about this criminal enterprise.  Oni learned his family used to have a very high standing within the community and had a noble name.

To escape his father’s path, Oni left home and joined the military. He was very proficient, quickly rising through the ranks and even earning a spot in an elite multi-national special forces unit with missions across the globe. He learned how to protect himself and how to efficiently wield weapons.

In time, he returned home, eager to come back to Japan and do what his ancestors had done all those years ago – – protect and fight the threats on the home front – – all the while trying to reestablish his family’s good name.

At this point, Oni’s father had become a respected fixture in the criminal underworld. He harnessed his corrupt influence to have Oni discharged from the military.

Now, Oni acts as a gun for hire, vowing to continue the fight against his father and anyone who should cross the samurai code. 

Since the very first moment of development on God of War Ragnarök, our team at Santa Monica Studio has made hundreds of decisions each day that have shaped this game into the experience and story that we are about to share with you on November 9.

Over the course of this journey, every single team member who has touched God of War Ragnarök in one way or another has left their mark, each with their own perspective that has given life to everything you will see, hear, and interact with at launch.

The story of God of War Ragnarök is not only that of a father and son who must confront the coming tides of war, it is also the story of the individuals who chose to devote their time, skill, and passion to build this game together in the face of unprecedented uncertainty during a global pandemic.

In the God of War Ragnarök Behind the Scenes series, we will be taking you to all Nine Realms – from Midgard to Asgard (and perhaps a pitstop along the way). With each episode, we hope to provide you not only a unique perspective on the years long endeavor of creating this title, but also bring you insights from many of the team members who have made this possible.

Starting today, on every Tuesday for the next nine weeks we will be diving into one aspect of the game – from shaping the story and elevating combat, to creating the score and crafting cinematics.

Our first episode begins much like our story does, in Midgard, where we’ll be discussing the key narrative beats from the last game that will come back into play in God of War Ragnarök, as well as how our team approached taking on a sequel that will conclude the Norse saga.

We’ll keep these spoilers free until launch, so don’t worry about us spilling every secret! Unless you’re the All-Father himself, you’ll have to wait for November 9 to figure out everything we’ve got hidden up our sleeves.

Without further ado, we hope you enjoy God of War Ragnarök Behind the Scenes Episode 1: Shaping the Story!

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Next week on October 25, we’ll depart the from the icy cold of Midgard and head to the land of the Elves, Alfheim, as our team gives a glimpse into the refined, brutal combat of God of War Ragnarök, alongside some of the fearsome enemies who will test your skills in battle.

We hope you’ll tune in each week as we lead up to launch and beyond to learn more about the making of God of War Ragnarök.

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