Hello! My name is Tom Doyle. I am the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Endeavor One, a game studio based in Seattle, WA. Today we are excited to announce our stealth-action sandbox game, Arashi: Castles of Sin, is coming to PlayStation VR this summer!

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Your mission

Assume the role of Kenshiro, an elite shinobi and the last surviving son of the noble House Arashi. Castles across feudal Japan have been captured by ruthless bandits, the Six Oni of Iga. With your wolf companion, Haru at your side, exact revenge for their merciless destruction and reclaim the castles for good. It is a time of warring states, and the land cries out for justice. It’s up to you to deliver it.

Your arsenal

In the field, the path and methods are left to you. Every decision you make must be thoughtful. Every move – powerful. Your wits as much a weapon as your inventory; the environment both an enemy to defeat and ally to command. Take out your enemies head on? Employ deception using light and shadow? Distract and side-step obstacles and adversaries undefeatable? The choice is yours.

 Arashi is built from the ground up for VR. With state-of-the-art movement and a deadly arsenal of feudal era weapons, there are endless ways to play. Personally, I use the spider approach – setting traps and luring enemies into my web for the ambush kill. Your mileage, or playstyle, may vary.

Your allies

Ayane, Spymaster to the Shogun and your loyal cousin, will guide you in your quest. Haru, your wolf companion since you were both young, is highly-trained to take out enemies. When you’re far from home, Haru is by your side. A ruthless weapon in battle and an empathetic friend when you need her.

At Endeavor One, we’re huge fans of genre filmmaking. We have a passion for storytelling and a love of creating immersive experiences – it’s what drew us to VR in the first place. It has been an amazing journey for us to make Arashi: Cast

PS VR Spotlight returns today, with new reveals and updates on previously announced PS VR titles. We’ll be highlighting seven games in total, so keep your eyes on our channels starting at 8 AM PDT / 4 PM BST, with updates every half hour.

And as mentioned, this is all about the games. So to manage expectations, there will be no next-gen VR related news. But in the meantime, stay tuned right here to learn more about some of the amazing PS VR games launching soon!

Last week, we finally got our first proper look at what awaits us – and Aloy – in Horizon Forbidden West. Guerrilla tantalised us with new gameplay mechanics to master, new Machines to overcome and new locations to explore. And accompanying that visual showcase was the alluring yet all-too short debut of some of the game’s soundtrack. Today, we get to linger on that score. 

Firstly, the chance to absorb four tracks from that State of Play demo in isolation, forming The Isle of Spires EP that’s just released onto streaming services – listen to it here. 

Secondly, we’re excited to reveal the composers behind the music of Horizon Forbidden West. Joris de Man, Niels van de Leest and composing duo The Flight all return from Horizon Zero Dawn, and are joined on the sequel by Oleksa Lozowchuk. 

To mark the EP’s release, and share the first details of what players should expect from them for Horizon Forbidden West, we brought the composers and Guerrilla Music Supervisor Lucas Van Tol together for a roundtable discussion. That wide-ranging chat tackles amongst other things, the challenges of building upon what went before, deciding who worked on what (“we have a lot more music than in Horizon Zero Dawn,” Van Tol explains of the necessity) and individual approaches to composing (fun fact: one composer builds their own instruments). But first, introductions:

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Getting the band back together 

Consideration for the sequel’s music began “since the moment we knew there would be [one],” jokes Van Tol. 

Guerrilla’s Music Supervisor is credited not only with defining which aspects of Horizon Forbidden West’s music each of the four composers would work on but keeping track of everything. Creating the sequel’s open world soundscape – covering but not limited to tribes, characters, enemies, locations, cues – as well as evolving it from what came before was understandably a herculean undertaking. It made sense to split and divide. Van Tol played both ringmaster and conductor, briefing and guiding the group throughout production. He also wanted a different approach to the game’s score. ”In Horizon Zero Dawn our initial focus was on locations,” he explains. “This time around we wanted to follow the story a lot more closely and create a more fluent and emotional experience, also outside of the cutscenes.”

That previous collaboration helped the studio decide the best way forward. The Flight’s Alexis Smith notes that Van Tol gained valuable insight as to each composer’s sounds and st

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

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This week, Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst drops in for an interview on studio development updates and much more.

Stuff We Talked About

• Horizon Forbidden West
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
• Returnal
• Operation: Tango
• Destiny 2 (That’s right, Justin’s back!)
• Mass Effect Legendary Edition

The Cast

Tim Turi –  Manager, Content Communications, SIE

Sid Shuman – Senior Director, Content Communications, SIE

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Hi everybody, we hope you are all doing well and keeping healthy.

Today, we have colorful news coming to you from Team Asobi, the Tokyo-based PlayStation studio responsible for the Astro Bot series.

Following the release of Astro’s Playroom for PlayStation 5, Team Asobi is now spreading its wings and growing bigger! This is a very exciting time for the team, and we are very much looking forward to this next chapter. We wanted to take this chance to thank all of you, the PlayStation fans, for your kind words of support over the years, especially since Astro made its big debut on PlayStation 5 alongside the DualSense wireless controller.

While we are growing and challenging bigger things, our mission at heart remains the same as ever: bring you PlayStation magic, innovation and put smiles on your faces with fun, colorful games for all ages.

To go alongside this news, we are proud to show our new logo which you will see in our future productions. We took inspiration from what Team Asobi meant to us. Some of the old-timers might recognize other influences from the PlayStation early days as well!

To keep in touch, we are also launching our own social channels on Twitter and Instagram to keep you updated on all things Team Asobi! Please follow them and don’t hesitate to engage with us.  We have a million anecdotes to share about the making of our games so please come and say hi!

And in case you are not familiar with Team Asobi, let us tell you more about our origins.                                                                                    

The team was first assembled in 2012, a bit more than a year before the launch of PS4. Back then, a handful of us were working away on tech demos showcasing what the new hardware could do. We sat down one day and decided we needed a name for our team; something that would work as a reminder to us of what we believed to be the most important part in any video game: great gameplay and that second-to-second enjoyment it can provide!

In Japanese language, the word “Asobu” literally means “To Play” and so we settled on “Asobi “. Those simple five letters were a surprisingly fitting name with a good sound to it and it stuck!

Fast-forward a few years, the team is still expanding, we launched Astro Bot: Rescue Mission in 2018 and Astro’s Playroom for PS5 in 2020. And now, Team Asobi has become the newest internal studio within the PlayStation Studios family. At the heart, our philosophy revolves around that quintessential joy in play, be it through pixel-precise character controls, exploiting a cool new controller in surprising ways or packing humorous animations in every nook and cranny, this is the stuff that excites us :) 

So, who are the Asobis then? Well, since we are a PlayStation game development studio located in the cool and vibrant Tokyo, the majority of the team are Japanese. We also have several members coming from various other countries: England, Germany, France, Scotland, Korea, Spain, and Colombia. It’s impor

Hey everyone. I’m Ross, one of the designers here at Lucid Games. It’s been awesome seeing everyone diving into Destruction AllStars and smashing each other to pieces with our 17 AllStars. I’ve been having a great time jumping into the game myself and wrecking along with the community. Our first season is well underway and you’ve been capturing every second of the action with Photo Mode! I’ve had a blast seeing what you’ve been posting on social media, so much so that I had to pick out a few of my favourites to share below.

Today we’re celebrating the launch of Blitz, our brand new game mode in Destruction AllStars, and I wanted to give you all a closer look at the game mode and dive into some of our design goals and aspirations for the mode. I’ll also throw in a few cheeky tips to help give you a headstart in our new premiere game mode! (If you’re new to our arena of destruction, you can get a primer right here.)

Blitz and Glamor

Our new game mode, Blitz, is a highly competitive, multi-team version of Mayhem which uses rounds and a slightly modified scoring system to reward teamwork and precision. It encourages players to capitalise on well thought out, coordinated attacks rather than simply driving, smashing and evading. It’ll bring new skill based rewards for you to earn and show off to the community, just so they know who came out on top. We’ve been playing a lot of Blitz at Lucid for a while now and having loads of fun with it, so I really think you’re gonna have a blast.

From the ground up

When starting out with this kind of mode, we knew that we wanted to create something which uses the core game mechanics and what people enjoy about Mayhem, but create a highly competitive, intense and fast-paced game mode that rewards team focused play. To achieve this, we knew we had to inject various forms of teamplay into Blitz, whether it be understanding which team member should choose a specific AllStar, driving as a pack to hunt the same opponents or avenging the wreck of a teammate by wrecking an enemy player. Overall, we wanted to tone down some of the noise and allow for calculated, precision gameplay whilst enabling you to stay tuned in to how a game was progressing between multiple teams.

To accomplish this, we made the decision to have a maximum of 12 players in a game of Blitz. Splitting those 12 into four teams of three AllStars helped give more weight to your choice of AllStar throughout a match. Each match is split into round

It’s been just about 17 months since Hermen Hulst took the reins of PlayStation Studios, the international network of world-class development studios that produce some of PlayStation’s biggest hits — from Returnal and Astro’s Playroom to The Last of Us Part II, Dreams, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart and much, much more.

Over our jam-packed 20-minute discussion, Hulst provided updates on a host of topics: studio development updates, thoughts on PS5 and PS4 development, PlayStation Studios’ vision for PC releases, and a whole lot more.

Listen to our full interview on the Official PlayStation Podcast here, or read on for some key excerpts, edited for brevity and clarity. 

PlayStation.Blog: Do you see single-player, narrative games as essential to the PlayStation Studios console experience?

Hermen: Absolutely. Single-player, narrative-driven games — that’s our DNA. PlayStation Studios have made, in my mind, some of the most memorable narrative experiences available. We love making them, and we’ll keep making them as long as gamers enjoy them. For me, the idea of sitting down on a Friday night with a brand-new world, and a great story to explore — that sounds pretty perfect, right?

We also want to make sure that we’re creating a variety of experiences for our audiences. Franchises, new IP, big games, smaller and more innovative games, single-player stories, and multiplayer. Who says that multiplayer experience cannot have great stories, right?

PSB: We’ve seen the announcement of Haven, from Jade Raymond as well as a bunch of industry veterans. And more recently Firewalk, which also has some top names from the industry.

How do you see partnerships like these fitting into the larger PlayStation Studios vision?

Hermen: Yeah. You know, these partnerships are very exciting. You could, I guess, make a distinction between development teams who are part of Sony — like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Media Molecule, Sucker Punch, and so on — and then development teams who are working with us like partners… Haven, Firewalk, but also teams we’ve worked with over years, like Kojima Productions, From Software.

To me, in many ways, there really is no difference. They’re all PlayStation Studios. We are, at the end of the day, a creator-led organization. Which to me means that we want to find the best possible development studios in the world and help them passionately pursue their ideas.

To me, it’s important that PlayStation Studios is a place that allows creators to join us and do the best work of their career. That’s really what I’m after.

…. 

PSB: Are you able to give us a snapshot of the total number of titles that PlayStation Studios are currently developing for PS4 or PS5?

Hermen: Well, we have a lot going on right now. PlayStation Studios have more than 25 titles in development. Almost half of these are new IP. The other half, they’re titles that are set in franchises that PlayStation fans already know and love. So, it’s quite a lot.

PSB: How important is new IP for PlayStation Studios?

Hermen: New IP is incredibly important to us. New IP is the lifeblood of gaming. But, new IP is just one aspect of our strategy. Ultimately, I want PlayStation Studios to be fiercely daring, to take risks. I want us to continue to embrace the legacy of P

With over seven years since the last Ninja Gaiden entry, we are incredibly excited to bring back fan-favourite ninja, Ryu Hayabausa, to the PlayStation 4 (and PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility) on June 10, with the Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection.

With it being several years since the last game in the Ninja Gaiden series was released, we thought it would be a great opportunity to take a little walk down memory lane to see how Hayabusa came to be such a renowned character in the games industry. Along with that – a selection of combat tips to help you survive the challenges awaiting Ryu.

The Origins of Ryu Hayabusa

Hayabusa first graced our screens back in the 1988 arcade game, Ninja Gaiden, donning his classic blue ninja costume (which he also wears at the beginning of Sigma). In this first outing, he travelled across America in a side-scrolling beat ‘em up adventure to defeat an evil cult seeking to end the world. The game quickly became a hit across the world for its unforgiving white-knuckle gameplay, pushing players to bring their A-game. 

With the series’ success, Hayabusa would go on to star in a variety of different home-console Ninja Gaiden releases, as well as appearing in the Dead Or Alive series where he became an ass-kicking mainstay, further rocketing his popularity as the ultimate ninja in video game lore. 

Nearly 20 years after the arcade classic was released, Ninja Gaiden Sigma finally brought the brutally challenging gameplay to the 3D battlefield of PlayStation, making its long-awaited debut on the PlayStation 3. The developers of Team Ninja drew inspiration from popular action-adventure games and titles such as Onimusha, working by trial and error to come up with a unique identity for a modern 3D Ninja Gaiden experience. These games would challenge gamers with no-holds-barred fights, forcing them to improve their gameplay skills in order to progress – something very different from how the highly-difficult “masocore” style games of today (such as the Nioh series), which provide various options aside from full-on combat to empower yourself. These modern Ninja Gaiden games set the trailblazing standard for stylish action games thanks to their merciless but rewarding difficulty level!

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Combat Tips

With the series requiring you to hone your skills to overcome the challenge, we thought it would be best to provide some tips and tricks to Ninja Ga

May has come to a close, which means it’s time to open up the Players’ Choice polls and decide which new release had the most players buzzing last month. 

We’ll keep the polls open until Sunday night at 11:59pm Pacific, so be sure to cast your vote before then. Want to defend your pick? Drop a comment below on why it was your favorite.

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 Shadow of the Colossus 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.

Hey, hey everyone! I’m Adam Volker, creative director at Flight School Studio, the team behind the 2019 game Creature in the Well, a top-down, pinball-inspired, hack-and-slash dungeon crawler… or “pinbrawler” as we all lovingly called it.

Published by MWM Interactive, our next title, Stonefly, a mech adventure game launches today (woohoo!) and I want to pull the curtain back on some behind-the-scenes tidbits we’ve never shared before.

At Flight School Studio, we like to make things that feel a little weird and different. Storytelling and art are things that we love and we’re always trying new approaches to games to see what’s fun and exciting. Stonefly is definitely our next iteration exploring those ideas. 

You play as Annika Stonefly, a brilliant yet naive young inventor who sets out on her own journey after disappointing her father. The Stonefly family runs the local repair shop, working on mechs and because of Annika’s oversight, her father’s prized rig, Chrysa, is stolen by a thief in the middle of the night. Chasing the thief, Annika discovers a big fantastic world, that inspires her to invent new mech capabilities, all of which come in really handy when she encounters buggos out in the wilderness.

Inventing a world

Annika’s story was inspired by the journey that many of us on the development team have had. Sometimes taking on a huge journey can be paralyzing, and Annika not knowing everything she is about to undertake is just what she needs to get started. Her determination and directness is really inspiring. As she ventures out into the woods, she takes notes of the people she meets, the creatures, and fauna. She uses all of it as inspiration and she funnels that creativity into upgrades and abilities for her mech. It is in her curiosity that she finds knowledge.

In Stonefly’s world, tiny people travel in mechs that glide along the wind and are composed of a few upgradable components: the hull, legs, and antenna. Annika is no stranger to how these mechs function and is constantly upgrading her’s as you adventure through the game. Depending on how you play you’ll be encouraging Ann to invent wind abilities, upgrade the utilities of the mech or find inspiration for cosmetic upgrades hidden throughout the world. 

For example, after being slowed down by silken worm goo over and over Annika invents a similar ability for her mech that makes bugs move slowly while she gets the loot. And, for any fashionistas, you can also scan elements in the environment to change the color of your rig, or even come up with your own cu