Category: PlayStation

We’re thrilled to announce the return of an exciting tournament for fighting game fans, FGC Arcade PlayStation Tournaments: Road to Evo on PS4. The tournament offers gamers worldwide a chance to win cash prizes, and winners across each region will get a roundtrip ticket to compete in Evo 2023. We invite all players who want to test their skills and take on the world stage. This is your chance to represent your region at the biggest fighting game tournament of the year. 

Last year, we saw players across the world compete in PlayStation Tournaments for an opportunity to play on the world’s biggest fighting game stage. Among them, we saw amazing performances and even new champions crowned. Watch the recap from last year’s event.

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Road to Evo 2023 Tournament Details

This tournament will give players in the global fighting game community a chance to make a name for themselves in their region. See the tournament details:

Each title will have four Qualifiers per region, with the top competitors moving onto broadcasted Final matches in an ultimate showdown of talent and skill. Whether you’re planning to sign up to compete or a spectator looking to watch some amazing action — it’ll be an exciting competition that will shift the global FGC rankings and spotlight the players to watch out for at Evo 2023. 

How you can sign up for the Road to Evo 2023

*Sign up for the Road to Evo 2023 in your region on the Competition Center, or head over to the Events tab on PS4. See you there.

*Access to PS4, game title, and active PS Plus membership required. Must be 18+ and a member of an eligible country. Void where prohibited. 

*The Event in all parts is open to players from across the world, except as otherwise provided in this Section. The Event is not open to individuals wherever restricted or prohibited by applicable law or in any country where participation is prohibited by U.S. law. Without limitation of the foregoing, the Event is not open to individuals in the Crimea region, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Turkey. 

Shuhei Yoshida chats with Yugo Nakamura, creative director, art director, designer, and narrative designer for Humanity, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi, executive producer for Humanity, on how the title delivers a new puzzle game experience. They discuss the thought process behind the creation of Humanity as a new form of interactive experience and how they came up with the game’s main theme. 

Humanity is available starting today as a Day 1 PlayStation Plus Game Catalog title.*

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Inspired by the “flocking behavior of birds”

Shuhei Yoshida (SY): I heard that Nakamura-san likes to observe flocks of birds, and that’s where you found inspiration for Humanity. Can you tell us more about that? 

Yugo Nakamura(YN): I specialize in Interactive Design, and I like to spend my time programming, sharing my work, and creating visual experiences; I enjoy these things and that’s why I do them for a living. I think a lot of people like me have used a simulation program called “Boids,” which essentially simulates the flocking behavior of birds. If you focus on just a single creature, you’re able to create very organic movements just by programming three simple rules and connecting them. But in the case of birds, the simulation looked so alive, and it was fascinating to see how organically the flock of birds moved, even though it was based on such a simple mechanism. 

From there, I spent some time making a bite-size mobile game that used simple bird movements as motifs. It was like a racing game where you control a flock of birds. 

SY: It’s the one where you try to progress further into the game, right?

YN: Yes. In a regular racing game, you’re only responsible for controlling one car, but in this game, you basically had to control 300 different cars. If you made a small mistake, you lost 100 birds, but then eventually gained back 200!

SY: Game developers like us are always looking to surprise people by creating something that goes above and beyond what you’d expect from a hardware’s capabilities. So when I saw your game, I felt something similar. 

YN: I had similar thoughts as a consumer myself. I was shocked at how smoothly games ran back on the original PlayStation, and I thought that was such a great achievement. From there, I decided that since I already made a game with birds on a smartphone, next I wanted to create a system that controlled large groups of humans. That’s how the idea for Humanity was born. 

SY: Birds’ movements are driven completely by instinct, but in the case of humans, a mix of intellect and social conventions come into play. What aspects did you focus on when designing the movement of crowds of humans?

YN: My first eureka moment was when I saw huge crowds of people at Comic Market (Comiket) in Japan, all properly lined up and waiting patiently. I was fascinated by how the movement of that many people was so controlled and regulated – I think this sort of behavior is unique to humans who are not just herded by instinct.

“Humanity is something special” – how development started

SY: How did you meet Mizuguchi-san?

YN: I’ve always loved games, and I’d seen Mizuguchi-san many times in gaming magazines since his time at Sega. I was a fan of his work. I once had a chance to meet him briefly, but then I saw him again at Unity Developer’s Delight – a developer event hosted by Unity. There, one of our engineers, Yama, showcased a human crowd simulator demo which was the prototype for Humanity. Mizuguchi-san was one of the judges there, and he later got in touch.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi (TM): I met Yugo once at the Japan Media Arts Festival, hosted by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, but to me he was like a superstar creator that produced so many unique and creative products. If you turned on the TV you’d see a show that he produced, and if you walked the streets of Ginza, you’d see UNIQLO ads that he had worked on.

Enhance helps navigate the complexities of game design 

SY: Nakamura-san’s “tha ltd.” isn’t a game development studio. How does the collaboration between Enhance work?

YN: We aren’t a game studio, but our expertise lies in design and tech for interactive experiences. Even though we didn’t know much about video game design, we were overly optimistic at the beginning, and decided that our team will be responsible for development, and Enhance will take on the role of publisher and producer.

However, the deeper we went into development, we realized that game development was not at all like we had imagined. I realized rather early on that creating a fun gaming experience is not something an amateur can easily pull off, so I spoke to Mizuguchi-san to have seasoned game designers oversee our work. From there, we had staff from Enhance join our development as well.

The fun and terror of collectivized humanity

SY: I felt like the game’s title, Humanity, is ironic in a sense that it reflects how humanity as a concept can be perceived. Heaps of people walking around in hordes almost reminds me of a totalitarian society. I was really curious as to whether you developed the game with such irony in mind, or whether you were just genuinely interested in people. When creating a game, you have to implement a lot of rules, which may cause the game to end up becoming something that was not originally intended. Did you face any dilemma like that?

YN: Actually, the inspiration behind the game title is a T-shirt that I own with a logo that says “Humanity” – I thought that was a cool logo and the word itself had a nice ring to it. But when you think about it, Humanity has a very deep meaning, and when I reflected on how humanity plays a role in my daily life, many thoughts came to mind. Each and every one of us is generally kind and rational, and not many of us are inherently mad or crazy. However, this all changes drastically when it comes to ‘groups’. Politics, war, cancel culture on social media – people tend to go to extremes when they are part of a larger group. The title, Humanity, embodies the idea that humans gain a new trait when they come together.

When we view human beings as a cluster, and not as individuals, we may associate them with the totalitarian and homogenous image you mentioned earlier, and the fear and extremities that derive from that are certainly an important motif in the game.

SY: Visuals of the game evoke fear as well.

YN: It was even more terrifying and ruthless at the earlier stages. When you looked at a single human from a group’s perspective, they looked like a speck of dust or even a tiny piece of trash. Mizuguchi-san provided us with some guidance and we went in a more gentle direction.

Expanding the community with the Stage Creator

SY: What was the idea behind Stage Creator?

YN: Originally, the development team was working on a tool for level design, and we thought it would be fun to make it public. However, it was quite a challenge to develop it into something that users could play with a controller.

When we previously released the demo, I saw users creating stages that went far beyond our expectations, so I felt reassured that we made a good decision

SY: I felt the same with LittleBigPlanet and Dreams. It’s nice to see players leveraging the games in ways that the creators never imagined, and sharing their creations with other gamers. Humanity’s UI is also very well designed. Stages with high user ratings and recommendations are showcased at the top, allowing users to quickly discover fun and interesting community-made content. 

The world of Humanity in PS VR2

SY: In my position, I must bring up the fact that the game is compatible with PS VR2. The team at Enhance has produced VR masterpieces such as Rez Infinite and Tetris Effect: Connected, so I imagine it was a familiar process for Mizuguchi-san. What was your impression of VR as a medium, Yugo?

YN: I enjoy VR so I have been playing around with it since the early days, but I had an impression that the majority of VR content was immersive first-person experiences. When Mizuguchi-san suggested trying out VR, I didn’t think it would be a good fit for this game, but there were so many discoveries when I gave it a try. I didn’t realize VR was capable of capturing extremely detailed 3D human movements in such high resolution. We were able to utilize VR in a unique way, where the player can watch over small crowds of people walking around in an elaborate diorama, as if you’re observing a swarm of ants.

TM: Most of the VR games I have worked on so far are immersive first-person experiences, but I had a feeling that Humanity would be interesting to play from a third-person perspective – sort of like Sim City where you can walk around and get a bird’s eye view of everything. At first, members of the team were a little skeptical, but when we tried it out, everyone agreed that it was a good idea. The development went smoothly from there.

SY: Performance, such as framerate, can be a concern on VR. Did you run into any issues around that?

YN: It was quite challenging optimizing for PS VR, but we had a lot of leeway with PS VR2. I think we were able to achieve the level of detail we were aiming for, with the resolution of the PS VR2.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s take on the potential of PS VR2

SY: As a developer, how do you feel about PS VR2 overall – not just limited to Humanity?

TM: Compared to the original PS VR, the overall quality has improved dramatically, and I think it is an amazing generational leap forward. As a developer, I’m particularly interested and see a lot of potential in the new eye tracking feature.

Also, you may think that we at Enhance are obsessed with haptics – well, we are haha – but we are interested in building experiences that involve haptics. In that sense, the inclusion of haptic feedback in the headset is very significant. What I found out when I created the Synesthesia Suit for Rez Infinite, for example, is that when there is distance, you can experience the world through the senses of your whole body. You can feel the sensation of objects passing by or the alternating beat of the music. What only existed in the palm of your hands is now extended to the headset, so there are so many new possibilities.

A perfect chemistry of puzzles and narrative that make it worth playing till the end

SY: It’s been five years since development started. How do you feel looking back?

YN: We were struggling the whole time basically (haha). I mentioned earlier that the game was an extension of an interactive design we worked on, and there were parts of the process that were exactly as we had imagined and parts that were completely unexpected. The basic aspects of development were what we had expected, but the process of refining the game to make it more fun and enjoyable was very unique.

Extensive playtesting and listening to various user feedback is common practice in the game industry. Even when there were opinions I thought were okay to ignore, we diligently repeated the process of resolving them. We would eliminate even the slightest stress, and the end result would be a game that is pleasant and comfortable to play, even if you can’t quite complete it.

SY: Indeed, there is no stress when playing Humanity. You can retry immediately if you fail, and it drops you right back into the middle of what you have been doing. I felt that the game was being accommodating to the user and made them feel comfortable during gameplay.Players from around the globe enjoyed the demo released in February, and now the full version is available as part of the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog.How do you feel about that?

YN: In one word, I am terrified! The content I usually produce lasts five to 15 minutes at most. With videos, I only need to grab the attention of the viewer for that short amount of time, so I can focus on that and make it happen. Games, however, can take up to several tens of hours, so I cannot help but wonder if our game is really worth that amount of players’ time. As the creator, I don’t have that much objective confidence, and because I’ve been a part of the game’s development for so long I can’t say I’m objective anymore.

SY: Do you have a message for those who haven’t played Humanity yet?

YN: There may be people who don’t enjoy puzzles or are not too fond of it as a game genre, but I hope people will see past that and give it a try. Of course the puzzles are fun, but I encourage gamers to jump in and play around as if it’s a playground; move the crowds in various ways and experiment by making them do different things. You’ll see a lot of interesting behaviors and results. We put work in creating a game that you won’t get tired of.

It is part of the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog, so if you are already a member, you can play it whenever you feel like it. I’ll be delighted if everyone could give it a try.

TM: Humanity is a game that delivers a whole new experience. If you ask me what genre it is, I would probably say it is a puzzle game. I think it is easy enough for anyone to pick up – from children to the elderly, even our parents’ generation. Everything that happens is a spectacle, and that alone is interesting, but I think the game is about experiencing the narrative, and immersing yourself in the story of Humanity. 

It’s a fun game that can be enjoyed on your own, or have family and friends with you helping to solve the puzzles. You can also treat it like a party game where everyone beats the game together. I hope players enjoy the game in their own way, and are able to witness the end that we prepared for them.

*Humanity is available now on PS4, PS5, PS VR, and PS VR2. It’s also included with the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog with PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium memberships.

“Why didn’t the Eagles just take the One Ring and drop it into Mount Doom?” Well, as developers working on a “Lord of the Rings” game, let me tell you exactly why: because it gave us the opportunity to explore and immerse ourselves in a rich and complex universe! 

In creating The Lord of the Rings: Gollum our motto has been to honor the way J. R. R. Tolkien looked at the richness of the world he had created, using his vision as a guidepost for our visual interpretation of his world.

Tolkien always wanted other artists to bring his writings to life and continue the creation of his great English myth. Of course, he didn’t have video games in mind back then. But his passion for meticulous detail, the history, languages, and names that he used to populate Middle-earth has always inspired our industry. Whether we realize it or not, all game creators owe a lot to Tolkien’s writings.

Following Gollum’s journey, we had the opportunity to explore parts of the world that we had never seen in such detail before. We started with everything we could find in the lore. Then we filled in the gaps with our own ideas and knowledge about the cultures and peoples who lived in these places.

For example, for the mighty fortress of Barad-dûr, we wanted to emphasize the huge scale and the stark contrast to our small hero. We imagined that the fortress was constantly expanding and changing. The builders could not keep up with the speed and size of their ever-growing walls and towers. Everything around the perfectly shaped main tower became increasingly chaotic.

One example is this service bridge that crosses the tower’s enormous moat, and that the builders probably meant to be straight:

While Mordor is an iconic and recognizable place with its dark volcanic rocks and reddish lights, designing Thranduil’s palace in Mirkwood was more challenging.

The contrast is intentional. While Mordor is spiky, Thranduil’s halls feature round shapes. While Barad-dûr tries to dominate and transform its environment, the Elvish buildings preserve and respect the shape of the mountain. It’s a harmonious interplay between architecture and nature. Welcoming instead of threatening. A place that repels Gollum but attracts Sméagol. Water, his native element, is everywhere and comes alive in different forms.

King Thranduil’s chambers were another fascinating place to create. The King likes to ride out at night and hunt under the stars. His rooms are decorated like a dreamy night forest, more symbolic than functional. The King’s bed is like a ceremonial boat on a river, where he only occasionally boards to have dreams and visions.

Working on this game has been both a great honor and a big responsibility. We felt a lot of excitement and nervousness when we started this adventure together. How would it all turn out? Would it feel right in the end? And we feel a similar excitement and nervousness now that we are about to share it with all of you.

We hope that our boundless passion for the world of Middle-earth shines through in all these little details, and hopefully, you will feel the same way once you have started your journey. 

See you soon, in the world of Middle-earth!

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

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Hey y’all! This week, Executive Producer at Enhance Games Mark MacDonald stops by to discuss Humanity and strategy for the unique puzzler. Plus the team dives into their personal approaches to challenging puzzle games.

Stuff We Talked About

• DualSense Edge wireless controller
• Gran Turismo World Series 2023
• Players’ Choice Winner – Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• PS Plus Catalog May
• MLB The Show 23 Season 2 – Kaiju Series
• Interview with Mark MacDonald (starts at 10:20)
• Humanity

The Cast

View and download image

Kristen Zitani – Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE

 

 

 

 

 

O’Dell Harmon, Jr. – Content Communications Specialist, SIE

 

 

Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music.

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

Last week, we asked you to turn your Focus on Seyka, Aloy’s newest companion from the Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores expansion using #PSshare #PSBlog. From portraits to action shots, here are this week’s highlights: 

Callyforniaa_ng shares Seyka crouching in grass in front of the aged Hollywood sign.

RevolutionAndre shares Seyka using her Focus to reveal something.

AreeLyBadPun shares Seyka mid-leap, aiming her bow and arrow.

ForgottenJasmin shares Aloy’s contemplative gaze towards Seyka.

teeparty_s shares an action shot of Seyka about to fire her bow and arrow.

dande__lion55 shares Seyka in front of a colorful hologram display.

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme.

Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? 

THEME: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on May 17, 2023

Next week, we’re returning to a galaxy far far away. Share epic moments from Star Wars Jedi: Survivor using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

MLB The Show 23’s Season 2 Rewards Program drops today*, bringing an amazing array of new content including, but definitely not limited to, the Kaiju Series. 

Inspired by the Kaiju, or “Strange Beast,” film genre, the Kaiju Series features some of the most devastatingly effective MLB Legends and Superstars of the past and present, such as Monte Irvin, John Franco, and Corey Kluber.

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Kaiju Series Program

The Kaiju Series Program, available in Other Programs, is the perfect way to kick off your Season 2 Rewards Program and begin adding Kaiju Series players to your Diamond Dynasty squad. 

Play brand-new Moments and complete Missions spotlighting Kaiju Series Program players including Hunter Renfroe, Brandonw Lowe, Stephen Strasburg and Billy Williams. 

• Take on the three Kaiju Events starting today with “Kaiju, Part I” Then on May 19th, play the “Kaiju, Part II”, followed by the final “Kaiju, Part III” on May 25^th. 
• In Showdown mode, stand your ground against Showdown boss Stephen Strasburg to earn progress in the Kaiju Other Program. 
• In Conquest mode, complete the Kaiju Conquest Map to earn packs, Stubs, and progress.

Not only will completing each of these tasks provide you progress in the Kaiju Other Program, but they’ll also give you ample opportunity to earn XP towards the Season 2 XP Rewards Path.

Kaiju in Stadium Creator

Along with the monstrous amount of Kaiju content to play and rewards to earn, you can also find all-new Kaiju props in the Stadium Creator on current-gen consoles, including PlayStation 5. Create your stadium with imposing Kaiju looming directly behind the outfield walls. Combine these new Kaiju props with existing props such as the t-Rex, boats, or the UFO Mothership, among others, to create the ultimate Kaiju-inspired setting for your games to take place in.

More to come in Season 2

All of this Kaiju content, while undeniably cool, is just the tip of the iceberg for the new content available in Season 2 of Diamond Dynasty mode.

Play new content in Team Affinity 2 Programs with rewards for all 30 MLB clubs, new Mini Seasons challenges, earn rewards with your friends in the new Ranked Program and climb the leaderboards in co-op mode, complete new Collections for 99 overall bosses, as well as the mysterious Incognito Series that will all be headed your way in Season 2.

So, what are you waiting for? Now is the time to get in on the action in MLB The Show 23. See you on the field.

*Internet connection required for Season 2 update and rewards.

Player choice is a core tenant for PlayStation 5’s DualSense Edge wireless controller. The ultra-customizable, high-performance features unlock a wealth of options to tailor gameplay to players’ preferences. The array of choices to select from excites both gamers and developers alike, so who better to share insights on tuning your DualSense Edge wireless controller than the people making the games?

A new Developer Experience Series featuring perspectives from devs at Santa Monica Studio, EA Sports, and Bungie highlights game-specific ways to optimize gameplay with the DualSense Edge wireless controller. From adjusting trigger heights to rapidly blitz on the pitch in FIFA 23 to modifying back buttons for seamless weapon toggling in God of War Ragnarök, here’s a look into how you can make the DualSense Edge wireless controller work for your style of play.

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God of War Ragnarök

Developer: Santa Monica Studio

In God of War, you’re hitting the triggers a lot because that’s where your primary attacks and aiming are, so I ended up using the low stops for the triggers to make them feel more like regular buttons.
Jason McDonald, Design Director, Santa Monica Studio

In God of War Ragnarök, you want to move the character fairly quickly, especially in the middle of combat, so the left analog stick I set to the Quick setting, and I did the inverse of that on the right analog stick, which is used for camera movement, aiming, etc.
Mihir Sheth, Lead Combat Designer, Santa Monica Studio

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FIFA 23

Developer: EA Sports

The DualSense Edge wireless controller enables FIFA/FC players to personalize their FIFA/FC experience further, focusing on what matters more to them regarding the controller. Some players prefer their right stick to be perfectly precise for Skill Moves, while others favor a specific sensitivity when Switching. Some players will want to remap controls at a system level to suit their preferences. In contrast, others will be delighted with the ability to have a quicker-to-activate Sprint by adjusting the length of the triggers.

The DualSense Edge controller helped my defending game tremendously, as I can more easily keep Running Jockey active (L2 + R2) while activating Teammate Contain or player Switching by using the new back buttons (as L1 and R1). Having extra buttons on the back of the controller and personalizing them with the command you want can become invaluable when playing a decisive FUT Champions match or a rival derby in Career Mode.
Thomas Caleffi, Gameplay Producer, EA Sports

Among the most useful features that make the DualSense Edge controller stand out and particularly suitable for FC enthusiasts are its adaptive triggers and back buttons, which enable players to have faster reactions and play smarter on the pitch by swiftly switching between different team tactics or changing the team mentality without having to take their thumbs off the sticks. In addition to that, having the option to remap any button to match your preferences and adjust the sensitivity of the triggers will give FC fans more control and customization over their gameplay experience. It is certainly a more enjoyable and improved experience.
Danillo Abreu, Game Designer, EA Sports

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Destiny 2

Developer: Bungie

The DualSense Edge Controller has been amazing for letting me dig in deeper with Destiny 2’s pinnacle activities across both PvP and PvE! I’ve currently got two primary configurations I bounce between for Trials of Osiris and Raids – and, I’ve got a matching in-game loadout to compliment each one. Being able to seamlessly swap between the needs of Destiny 2’s pinnacle activities both in-game and out of game has been a game changer!
Andy Salisbury, Senior Social Media Manager, Bungie

As a massive fan of PvP modes in Destiny 2 like Iron Banner and Scorched, the ability to map my desired controller settings makes it really easy to tailor to my specific playstyle. If I’m going into Scorched, I want chaos. Being able to charge up this mode’s explode-y goodness and then mapping out exactly how I let that fire rain from above using the switchable back options is a blast. It keeps me in the flow, keeps me out of my head, and lets me enjoy the total mayhem that always ensues when taking this mode head-on. With the different options to both the front-side and back-side of the controller, it’s a more personalized experience and that personalization means more ways for everyone to play.
Liana Rupert, Community Manager, Bungie