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From Infamous to Ghost of Tsushima: Sucker Punch on the six-year journey it took to deliver its magnum opus – GamesRadar+

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Sucker Punch Productions is seeing out the generation in the same way that it saw it in, by unleashing a massive open world adventure game. The studio has spent much of the last six years penning its love letter to samurai cinema, Ghost of Tsushima; it is undoubtedly worlds apart from the punkish sprawl of the title that preceded it, Infamous: Second Son. 

The truth is, this is an important milestone for the generation. Infamous: Second Son was the first post-launch, first-party exclusive for PS4, landing just four months after the console’s release in 2013. Ghost of Tsushima is the last first-party exclusive for PS4, landing just four months out from the suspected release of the PS5. Speaking with Jason Connell, creative and art director at Sucker Punch, he assures me that the studio never planned to bookend the generation. “The length of time that it can take to create something new is… you know what, when you look back on it and you count it up, it really is staggering, isn’t it? Like, wow, that took a long time,” he says, laughing. 

Developing an idea 

(Image credit: Sony)

Ghost of Tsushima represents the longest stretch of development Sucker Punch has ever endured as a studio. Six years between releases may seem like an eternity for players, but Connell tells me that, for the team, it was business as usual. “It didn’t really feel that way while we were working on it. We would have these milestones every six weeks, which is where you’d see what the team had contributed to the game and come up with new philosophies for the way we were making the game.”

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Those philosophies have evolved over the years, although the studio never veered from its initial dream of casting you in the role of a Samurai in an exotic, open-ended overworld. “After Second Son, Nate [Fox, game director] and I were trying to figure out what fantasy we wanted to make next. Sly Cooper was about a thief; Infamous was about a superhero; so we are writing these ideas down and we got to Samurai and were like, wait, that sounds awesome,” says Connell. “I felt like I hadn’t played that game and I would love to make it. It was exciting.”

“As you can imagine, over six years, the idea evolved a tonne. But I think you have to embrace the fact that things are going to change and shift; you’re going to change direction, and you’re going to get curve balls thrown at you. You have to embrace what you initially set out to make, and it’s a dream come true if you can create that by the end,” he says, adding, “fast forward many years later and now Ghost of Tsushima is out there – we made our samurai open world game.”

(Image credit: Sucker Punch)

“My team wasn’t upset with me, but they definitely poked me pretty hard about that statement.”

Jason Connell, Sucker Punch

Speaking of curve balls, Connell is actually responsible for throwing one at his team back in 2017. Ghost of Tsushima was a surprise reveal at that year’s Paris Games Week, although with little more than a teaser trailer to go on we all had a lot of questions and few answers. One that made waves at the time came after Connell teased that “player choice in this game will mean something very different than other games we’ve made in the past”, before going onto claim that Ghost of Tsushima would not only feature no waypoints but that navigation would be driven almost entirely by curiosity in the world itself. Years later, he’s willing to admit that he went off script on that one. 

“It’s funny you ask that, I’m so glad that someone finally asked me this question,” Connell says, breathing a sigh of relief. “My team wasn’t… they weren’t upset with me, but they definitely poked me pretty hard about that statement.”

“At that point in time, if you were to play our game, some of those elements totally existed. The beauty was there. You’d be like, ‘well, what’s in that forest? What’s on top of that mountain? Look, there’s a cool shrine!’ but the concept was not embedded deeply in every aspect of the game. And now, over the course of a couple of many years, it found its way to being – for the most part – a pretty true statement about our game. I think that, uh, I think I have to thank the team for that because they went and actually came up with the cool ideas to make it happen,” he says, adding, “it was a fun part of development because of that particular quote.” 

The Cranes are a lie 

(Image credit: Sucker Punch)

GHOST OF TSUSHIMA REVIEW

(Image credit: Sucker Punch)

Want the final verdict on Sucker Punch’s first game in six years? Then you’ll need to read our Ghost of Tsushima review

While it’s certainly true that Ghost of Tsushima isn’t free of criticism, it is undoubtedly a landmark game for Sucker Punch. Its world is a triumph, a gorgeous space that you’ll desperately waste hours away exploring. We went into detail on its construction with Connell in a separate feature, exploring how Ghost of Tsushima succeeds by finding space for quiet reflection in a world scarred by violence

The sparsity of Tsushima Island is an incredible departure from the Infamous games, the dense urban expanse that Second Son was contained within in particular. As different as the games are, Connell tells me that Ghost of Tsushima wouldn’t have been possible without first going through the experience of releasing Second Son in 2014. “We learned a lot by making our first game for PS4 – one of the first big games on the platform. We had to learn how to make the graphical fidelity impressive and… you know, we’re not a huge AAA team. We’re a big team by standards of indie studios, obviously, but we don’t have thousands of people at the studio – there’s like 160 people here.”

“So when we were creating Second Son, we knew we couldn’t create every rendering feature known to Earth. We had to work out what could create a gritty, realistic, and wet version of Seattle and focus our energy on that. We spent all of our time working on the powers and on making wet Seattle,” he laughs, explaining that the studio had to stick to this philosophy strictly; as much as it wanted to explore new rendering techniques to take advantage of the newfound power of the PS4, it had to reign in its ambitions if it ever wanted to ship the title. Game design is about creatively cutting corners to get the best results, after all. 

“That philosophy actually held true when we moved to Ghost of Tsushima as we were trying to create a beautiful, serene, and nature-filled open world feudal Japan. Some of the tech actually carried over, such as what we used to create the wet environments and how we used particles in cool new ways,” says Connell, before surrendering an example. “The birds; the Cranes in our game, that you see flying off from you, they aren’t actual animated rigs… they are particles.”

Moving on from Infamous

(Image credit: Sucker Punch)

While many of these development philosophies certainly helped Sucker Punch deliver Ghost of Tsushima to the quality that we see it is today, it also can’t be understated just how disruptive the switch between projects would prove to be. Connell tells me that the art and environmental teams, in particular, had a hard time shifting from the “punk rock” aesthetic of Infamous to the more post-rock, “take a moment to chill” vibe that carries throughout Ghost of Tsushima. If you’re wondering why this game took so long to come out, this is undoubtedly it.

“We had a practised style. It was grungy. Full of graffiti and trash, rain and loud car exhausts, loud music and punk rock, you know. It was just this huge shift, explains Connell, noting that this reverberates out across every department. It disrupts almost every one of the established design philosophies and practises that the teams have in place, right down to how the team puts texture into the environment for Ghost of Tsushima. “Think about how we even texture something like wood. Suddenly it’s like, okay, we don’t want to be grungy, we want to be minimal and we want the wood to create less noise.” 

“We needed almost painted, realistic wood, but we have all of this imperfect, scanned, noisy wood – it’s hard, this is a hardship! We had to create tools in our engine with ‘view-modes’ that you can turn on in debug that would show us noisy textures on the screen or highlight textures that are too noisy in comparison to the rest. You could look at it and say ‘hey, this tree bark is a little too noisy’,” he says, noting that this level of granular attention to detail was important for the studio. “We wanted to try and create a unified look as much as possible, because it’s in a different style. That’s just one example, but it was a pretty big shift for us.”

(Image credit: Sucker Punch)

For Connell, he says it was all worth it to deliver on the studio’s initial vision of putting you in an expansive open world as a Samurai. For as different as Infamous: Second Son and Ghost of Tsushima are in just about every respect, there is a shared philosophy behind them both. Sucker Punch makes games that let you fulfil a fantasy, and it’s something Connell is proud to be able to do at Sucker Punch.  

“I know some people are maybe fatigued on the standard open world experience, but I quite like games that let me have a sense of escapism. Games that let me roam a beautiful countryside, or a place that I’ve always wanted to go but couldn’t because it’s hundreds of years in the past, or maybe I can’t fly there because of the pandemic. To me, I think that having a true open world, where there’s an express sense of freedom – where you can, for the most part, go do whatever you want – I don’t know, man, that’s a sense of agency you don’t find too often in many other games. That’s integral to the way that we think.” 


Ready to learn more? We spoke with six creative leads at Sucker Punch Productions to find out what movies, games, and books inspired Ghost of Tsushima


Ghost of Tsushima tips | Ghost of Tsushima map | Ghost of Tushisma armor | Ghost of Tsushima skills | Ghost of Tsushima supplies | How to get the Ghost of Tsushima grappling hook | Ghost of Tsushima fox dens and inari shrinesGhost of Tsushima bamboo strikes | Ghost of Tsushima hot springs | Ghost of Tsushima Shinto Shrines | Ghost of Tsushima Komatsu Forge | Ghost of Tsushima duels

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Ask Andy: How can you tell whether a startup is a good place to work? When is it safe to disclose a mental-health challenge to coworkers?

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As a software developer who would like to work for a startup, what should I look for in a company so that I know it’s legit? If I am putting a lot of work into a product, I want to know that at minimum it’s for a legitimate company and founder—not just another person with an overdone app idea that knows nothing about the tech world. Sarah C.

If you’re learning the startup game, the best bet here is to go later-stage. Focus on a pre-IPO company that is growing quickly, has raised money from blue-chip investors, and is getting positive buzz in the market that it will go public within the next two years.

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Then, don’t believe any of it.

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Network your way into three of the company’s team members on LinkedIn or through your network. Have three virtual or IRL coffees. Have them tell you about the culture: If they’re learning; if the company’s really growing; and most importantly, whether or not they respect and, ideally, admire the leadership.

Keep looking until you find this vetted opportunity.

That’s a systematic, rational approach. But that’s not the only way to go. You could throw it all out the window.

Find a company where you believe in the mission. One where you fall in love with the product or service. You might already be a high LTV customer or a power user. Check your credit card statement and your app home screen to source ideas. Your passion for the mission will make it work for you for some time, even if the company doesn’t work in the long run.

However you get there, once you’re inside for a year or two, you’ll be learning.

You may have to switch horses. That’s okay.

When you do, you’ll know more people, you’ll have more insight, and the path on what to pick next will be clearer. Heck, you might even notice an inflection point and meet a cofounder that leads to you starting a company yourself.

It’s like dating.

You probably won’t marry your first love—but you might. If you don’t, your judgment will iteratively improve. And the good news is unlike a marriage, you can change out your partner every few years. (What I’ve found, though, is that the most successful people professionally, and those who generate the most wealth, have more like 5- to 10-year runs.)

Trust your intuition. Follow your heart on the mission or product. Then, don’t trust yourself.  Study the market. Use the product.  And do at least three off-list references outside of who you interview with. Read every single Glassdoor entry.

And then jump!

You’ll be fine.

Do you think you could have shared your mental health conditions publicly BEFORE you were professionally successful, and still have been successful? Or was the fact that you had already achieved professional success what allowed you to be open? Zack

No, I don’t think I could have shared before we succeeded. I wouldn’t have had the courage to, and I feared it might be career-limiting.

Then again, it was almost seven years ago that I had my I-can’t-deny-this-any-longer moment with my Bonobos colleagues and investors. As of today, I think it’s becoming more possible to be candid about mental health. I hope we can move to a world where I could have been more open, sooner, at least selectively with my leadership team and board.

Some entrepreneurs ask me when to tell their VCs about the mental-health challenge or mental-health diagnosis they wrestle with. I always say the same thing: at a breakfast meeting, four months after you’ve closed the round and hit your numbers. Nobody cares about your neurodivergence if you’re performing—and most VCs actually know enough to know that most founders have more going on than meets the eye.

With your team, I think it’s doable, even now. Perhaps especially now. The truth is, they know. They know you deal with stuff because they’re around you. And the vulnerability you share in disclosing will multiply their respect for you. More importantly, it’ll give those team members the space to reciprocally share their stuff with their colleagues, and potentially you as well, and bring their full selves to work.

Wouldn’t that be cool?

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Take-Two Buys Gearbox And Its New ‘Borderlands’ Game From Embracer

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If you’re a game developer owned by Embracer Group at this point, you are nervous about layoffs, shutdowns or game cancellations after the last few years. But now, there is a somewhat happy ending for one of them, Gearbox.

It’s just been announced that Take-Two, which owns GTA developer Rockstar, will purchase Gearbox for $460 million. This also includes the properties Gearbox owns, the Borderlands and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands franchises, Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms and Duke Nukem. The report says Gearbox has six games in development, five sequels, including a new Borderlands game, the not-announced-but-definitely-happening Borderlands 4. Here’s Strauss Zelnick:

“Our acquisition of Gearbox is an exciting moment for Take-Two and will strengthen our industry-leading creative talent and portfolio of owned intellectual property, including the iconic Borderlands franchise,” said Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two. “This combination enhances the financial profile of our existing projects with Gearbox and unlocks the opportunity for us to drive increased long-term growth by leveraging the full resources of Take-Two across all of Gearbox’s exciting initiatives.”

Gearbox has been working with 2K and Take-Two for decades, so it was a logical place for them to land. This is, of course, not a great look for Embracer, who only purchased Gearbox three years ago. The price tag back then was “worth up to $1.3 billion” but there were a lot of strings attached to that where it’s not necessarily the case that selling for $$460 million netted them a ~$900 million loss.

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As for what this means for gamers, it would seem something like the Borderlands franchise is now on more stable ground, as it was hard to believe any project at Embracer is fully safe these days. Last year, Embracer quietly cancelled 29 different unannounced games and shut down seven studios in a six month period including Volition and Free Radical Design. That came with around 1,400 layoffs. More recently, Embracer laid off 97 people at Eidos in Janaury and cancelled a Deus Ex game.

Sufficed to say, those at Gearbox probably feel pretty good about this. And as for Take-Two, Borderlands is still a valuable IP, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderland was a surprise hit. There’s a new Homeworld game coming as well. In an era for multi-billion dollar acquisition, Gearbox for $460 million doesn’t seem that bad. That’s probably a third of what GTA 6 will sell on day one next year.

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What's Brewing in the iPhone 16 Rumor Mill? AI, Action Buttons and More – CNET

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As the iPhone 15 settles into the market, the tech community is buzzing with anticipation for Apple’s next-generation handset, which is expected to be named “iPhone 16.” 

We’ve heard whispers about the iPhone 16’s features, which are said to span from a new power-efficient display to larger screens, better zoom lenses, an action button and, perhaps not surprisingly, a suite of new gen-AI powered features.

Read more: Best iPhone of 2024

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However, the iPhone 16 is still presumably six months away and nothing will be confirmed until Apple’s iPhone event in the fall. Still, these rumors could give us an idea of what to expect from the next iPhone.

Here are the most credible rumors for the iPhone 16.

Will the iPhone 16 fold?

Probably not. The newest rumors suggest Apple has been working on iPhone Flip models in two different sizes, though there have been difficulties in making the devices to Apple’s standards. The company may also be working on a folding tablet with a screen around the size of an iPad Mini. Even though virtually every major phone-maker — from Google to Oppo to OnePlus and Samsung — have launched their own bendable handsets, Apple has been characteristically quiet about whether there will ever be an iPhone Flip or an iPhone Fold.

Prior rumors said Apple may not launch its own flexible screen device until 2025. Samsung hasn’t let phone fans forget it — by releasing an app that will let Apple phone owners experience a Z Fold-esque experience by placing two iPhones side-by-side.

iPhone 16 Pro models to get bigger screens?

Apple has maintained the two screen sizes for iPhone Pro models since 2020 when it launched the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro and the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max. However, that’s rumored to change with the iPhone 16 Pro models, which might get bigger screens.

Display analyst Ross Young suggested earlier this year that the iPhone 16 Pro models will have larger screens, putting the sizes at 6.3 inches for the iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9 inches for the iPhone 16 Pro Max. That rumor was later corroborated by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who said the iPhone 16 Pro models could grow by “a couple tenths of an inch diagonally.”

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models are believed to be sticking with the current 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch sizes. If the size increase is accurate, it would be yet another move from Apple to distinguish its Pro iPhone models from its regular ones.

iPhone 15 screen sizes

  • iPhone 15: 6.1 inches.
  • iPhone 15 Plus: 6.7 inches.
  • iPhone 15 Pro: 6.1 inches.
  • iPhone 15 Pro Max: 6.7 inches.

Rumored iPhone 16 screen sizes

  • iPhone 16: 6.1 inches.
  • iPhone 16 Plus: 6.7 inches.
  • iPhone 16 Pro: 6.3 inches.
  • iPhone 16 Pro Max: 6.9 inches.

iPhone 16 gets more AI tricks

One of the most salient selling points of Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series and Google’s Pixel 8 lineup were each of their souped-up AI tips and tricks, and it wouldn’t be a major shock if Apple went in the same direction. Apple CEO Tim Cook has gone on the record this year confirming Apple sees “a huge opportunity for Apple with gen AI and AI.”

According to Gurman’s Power On newsletter, iOS 18 will feature generative AI technology that “should improve how both Siri and the Messages app can field questions and auto-complete sentences.”

A September report from the Information says Apple plans to use large language models, a crucial part of generative AI, to make Siri smarter. The report said this feature is expected to be released with an iPhone software update next year. 

Read More: iPhone iOS 18: A Possible Big Leap In AI

iPhone 16 design: New action button?

In March, AppleInsider published a collection of photographs purportedly displaying 3D-printed dummy models of the rumored iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. The images revealed that the iPhone 16 may have a vertical camera stack as opposed to a diagonal one and an action button, similar the one on last year’s iPhone 15 Pro.

iPhone 16 gets more power-efficient display?

Another change that could make its way to iPhone 16 displays is greater power efficiency. Samsung Display is apparently developing a new material set, dubbed M14, specifically for Apple, according to a TheElec report, which says the new technology should arrive on iPhones launching next year. M14 will replace the blue fluorescent technology that’s used now with blue phosphorescence technology, creating an even more power-efficient screen than the current LTPO ones used on Pro models, the report says.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

iPhone 16 gets better zoom?

Both the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max could both have 5x telephoto lenses next year. According to Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo, a tetraprism lens will make its way to both Pro models next year, as opposed to just the Pro Max model. Apple equipped the iPhone 15 Pro with a 12-megapixel 3x optical zoom, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 12-megapixel 5x optical zoom camera, which is the equivalent of 120mm lens on a full-frame camera.

If this rumor is true, it could mark a breakthrough in design. When Apple launched the 15 Pro Max with its 5x telephoto lens, it cited the phone’s bigger body as to why the Pro Max had it, but the Pro didn’t.

iPhone 16 processors: A18 chip for all models?

In a break with the past two years, all four iPhone 16 models will apparently get a next-generation Apple chipset, which will all receive A18 branding. According to a MacRumors report citing Jeff Pu, an executive analyst for Haitong International Securities, all four models will have an A18 series chip with Pro iPhone models getting an A18 Bionic Pro and base models getting a regular A18.

The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus currently have an A16 Bionic, which debuted on the 2022 iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, while the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max run on the A17 Pro processor. Pu says the A18 chip will be manufactured with TSMC’s cutting-edge 3 nanometer process.

Read more: Apple iPhone SE 4 Rumors: iPhone 14 Design, Face ID and More



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