Now that Ghost of Yōtei has been out for a few days, Sucker Punch Productions has no plans on taking on multiple new projects at the same time. In an interview with VideoGamesChronicle, studio co-founder and head Brian Fleming has noted that Sucker Punch Productions will continue to remain a single-project studio, with all of its efforts focused entirely on one project at a time.
While Fleming isn’t quite sure what the studio’s next project will be, which could range from going back to remaster some of its older projects like Sly or working on a brand new game in the Ghost series, he doesn’t want to overextend the studio by juggling multiple projects.
“The truth is that whatever we do next, whether it’s continuing Ghost or going back to Sly, the decision is really more limited by, again, our cherishing of focus and time to iterate, which means that we really can only do one thing at a time,” he said. “If we were good at juggling four projects, yeah, we’d have a remaster, and let’s go do one of those, and one of those, and do some fan request, that would be really popular… But we only get to do one thing.”
This doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of good ideas to work on, however. As Fleming notes, Sucker Punch Productions has plenty of options. However, he also noted that working on a single project that typically takes around five years to complete also makes the studio’s decisions more meaningful when it comes to its future projects. He used the example of attending multiple universities, which can be more difficult since there is only so much a single person can do.
“So it kind of has to be your best idea, right?” he said. “And that’s really clarifying. It’s not like there aren’t 15 good ideas. But you only get to do one. And by the way, you only get to do one about every five years. So that choice is really important. I mean, that is choosing your college and your major every five years.”
“And you could go to Cambridge, but you could also go to UCLA. And you could also decide you’re going to go to the Peace Corps, but you can only do one of those in the next five years. Wow, that’s a really big decision. You’d better think carefully about it.”
As for what the next project might end up being, Fleming also noted that the upcoming 30th anniversary of Sucker Punch Productions has raised questions about it revisiting some of its older franchises like Sly or InFamous. However, it is also worth noting that many employees at the studio are people who weren’t even born yet when it was first founded. This, he said, made the decision to go back to older franchises more difficult.
“At 30 years, we now have employees who are kids of former employees. We have employees who weren’t born when the studio was founded,” he said. “And you also have had enough changes from Sly, to InFamous, to Ghost that part of those changes, when they happen, is that it means not just you’re walking away from Tsushima, and not just that you’re walking away from the actors in Tsushima, but you’re walking away from employees who’ve been a part of the studio for the last decade, because they don’t want to do a game set in a historical setting.”
Ghost of Yōtei is available on PS5. For more details, check out our review. Also check out what analysts say about its launch-week sales.
