Sony has been praised and criticized for making a lot of their first-party exclusives feel like movies, for better or worse. On one hand, these games tend to have high production values and good stories, but on the other hand, this can lead to gameplay feeling overly simple for the sake of “cinema.” Ghost of Yotei was originally met with some of those concerns, but they were eased once the open-world with no in-game markers was revealed.
This was good news to many, as it meant that PlayStation might differentiate this entry from other games by doing something slightly different. Unfortunately, some of that hope went away when the company announced an official popcorn bucket for the game. It looks like Sony still wants PlayStation to make those “movie games.”
Realistically, Ghost of Yotei was always going to be part of that Sony trend, as the trailers have shown how story-focused this game will be. The actual gameplay will be fun and offer plenty of exploration for players, but there’s still a cinematic story here, so popcorn is needed, for some reason. We’d say “Sony hasn’t learned their lesson,” but how can they when people are buying their remasters and remakes that aren’t even that old.
Leaning into memes and criticism isn’t always a bad thing. Marvel Rivals knows that its players are huge pervs and will design female costumes based on that fact. Playing into memes can also lead to fun subversions, like when a Ubisoft open-world game doesn’t make players go on every tower to scan an area. There are absolutely benefits to this if there’s self-awareness.
Unfortunately, we don’t think Sony is being self-aware about the Ghost of Yotei popcorn bucket. They definitely weren’t self-aware when releasing that Chronological Mode for The Last of Us Part 2, even if it is a somewhat novel concept you don’t often see in games. It just gives some gamers those “we want to make movies, not games” vibes, which is self-destructive because gamers want to play games.
Is this writer putting too much thought into a popcorn bucket? Absolutely. This is just a piece of merchandise people can buy at the end of the day, and no one is better or worse off for it. I’ll even concede and say it’s a well-made bucket, but who is going to use this for popcorn when playing this game?
Everything seems to be lining up well for Ghost of Yotei, and we’re sure it’s going to be a major Game of the Year contender when it comes out. For all the flack Sony gets about making their games feel like movies, they do make solid open-world titles. That popcorn bucket doesn’t reflect much confidence, but we’re sure this game is safe in Sucker Punch’s hands.
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