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.

Launch Edition: Access to the Frontrunner Season

After the Fall’s action-packed gameplay with full cross-platform multiplayer support is now available on PlayStation VR and will automatically give you access to the full first season of content. In this immersive four-player co-op thrillride, brought to you by the team behind Arizona Sunshine, you’ll get to gather your VR friends to join a raging fight for survival, set in a hostile frozen dystopia overrun with ferocious undead—the Snowbreed. Besides fighting off hordes, specials, and colossal bosses with your squad of four, you get to team up against other survivors in PvP. And a lot more is on its way in the upcoming Frontrunner Season, which will be available to all PS VR players as part of the After the Fall Launch Edition.

Four new maps with new game features

To start off, the Frontrunner Season will bring a total of four new maps to the game; the Boulevard Harvest Run, the Stockpile PvP arena, and two maps that are part of a new activity: Horde Mode!

Boulevard, the new Harvest Map in After the Fall, will take you to the streets of Hollywood, into the Boulevard Harvest site. As you thread down the walk of fame, you’ll face hordes of Snowbreed in all existing difficulty modes.

You’ll also get to face your fellow Harvest Runners in a new Tundradome PvP map called Stockpile. And now you can truly rise to the top against everyone in our brand-new Free-for-All PvP mode! Besides going head to head in fast-paced 4 vs. 4 combat, you can fight it out alone. As a part of this PvP update, there will be Harvest rewards for the top players in each match, across both Team Deathmatch and Free-for-all.

With Horde mode coming to After the Fall, you’ll have to take it up against hordes of Snowbreed in two different maps: the Junction and Highway map. In this mode, up to four Harvest Runners will deploy to a contained area with multiple lanes where Snowbreed come running down from all sides, all the while you survive for as long as you can! We will introduce game mode as an endless horde mode, and with new variations coming in the future. Unlike the Tundradome PvP arenas, you will be able to bring your best weapons to survive the incoming Snowbreed hordes and reap the rewards.

New Weapons and Enemy

With so many Harvest Runners that joined the fray since launch and are clearing our Harvest Sites, the snowbreed are also evolving further! A new enemy called the Skimmer will soon enter the post-apocalyptic world of After the Fall.

To spice things up a bit more, the Skimmer will be appearing in your Harvest Runs to create a higher risk versus reward situation! Instead of him coming for you, you’ll have to hunt him down to collect a large bounty of harvest.

All this new content definitely calls for more firepower, which will come in the form of a new Revolver and another yet-to-be announced weapon! We couldn’t have you tackle the new content without some fresh tools. The Revolver hits really hard, but the trade-off will be your magazine count. However, as everything else in After the Fall, getting the right Gloppy or Roppy (Gold and Red floppies, as named by the community!) for its upgrades might help with that. One more special killer weapon will also arrive, but we’re keeping that under wraps for just a bit longer…

Until then, stay frosty!

Combat – Designing a visceral combat system

All of the classes in Zenith can be played as the roles of DPS, tank, and support. However, we still wanted them to have unique play styles that leverage the extra physicality that VR affords. This was especially important since, unlike traditional MMOs, we also have more intelligent AI for players to contend with that can actively dodge or block attacks.

For our two launch classes, we chose Blade Master, a dual sword-wielding warrior designed for visceral close-quarters gameplay, and a mid-ranged magic-wielding Essence Mage that can cast spells and channel bolts of energy through their launchers.

Combat for Blade Master is primarily focused on physically swinging swords to attack with powerful strikes and performing combos of swings to trigger abilities. Getting into a rhythm, carefully timing attacks, parries, and dashing to dodge will be vital to mastering this class.

Essence Mage combat is range-focused, with players having a variety of spells at their disposal ranging from hand-thrown fireballs to AoE spells initiated through simple hand gestures. To complement casting, Essence Mages are also equipped with a pair of essence channeling projectile launchers and a teleport ability to help them maintain safe positioning.

Traversal – Movement reimagined

Zenith has always been intended to be an open-world that’s a step beyond anything currently available in VR, so one of our earliest goals was to create a custom suite of traversal mechanics to bring that lofty dream to life.

Players can climb almost any surface in Zenith, allowing levels of freedom not usually seen in classic MMOs. From climbing small trees to pick fruit to scaling a mountain just to take in the view it’s truly up to you, and to aid your safe descent; we’ve created an incredibly immersive gliding mechanic.

Simply take to the air by stretching out your arms and walking or jumping from an elevated position, and control your flight with a gentle tilt of your wrists.

Combined with our motion-based swimming, these mechanics helped us provide a deep layer of immersion freedom.

Crafting – Cooking delicious dishes in VR

As with our approach to combat and traversal, we wanted to provide a tactile VR-centric experience for our first life skill and we found cooking was the perfect fit, providing the fun mini-game-styled physical interactions we were looking for, and a new skill tree and recipes for players to unlock.

Each recipe requires its own set of cooking steps and physical prep, ranging from simmering ingredients to just the right temperature, chopping up veggies or flipping patties to keep them from burning, and while the cooking itself is fun, the dishes produced also provide a variety of benefits in the form of timed buffs like faster healing and increased stamina. So, keeping well fed when adventuring can be an essential element of success.

Content – Two designers, one massive world

Filling a game with content can be challenging at the best of times, but these challenges only increase with a small team and a game as expansive as an MMO like Zenith.

To ensure our tiny team of just two designers could implement the content needed for an engaging game world and ensure consistency throughout, we needed to work smart by leveraging a multilayered approach.

We started by defining the core content features that we wanted to include, such as mobs, quests, public events, and collectibles, and determined which features could also be used as repeatable content, then prioritized features based on how critical we considered them to be to the overall gameplay experience.

With these defined, we then implement features one by one across all of the zones, often starting at either end of the world and meeting in the middle to increase efficiency. By working in this way, we could quickly add broad passes of content, test each new feature as we layered them in, and ensured that we had a viable playable game throughout development.

Post-launch – Exciting plans for the future

It’s important to state that the launch of Zenith is just the beginning; we have lots of exciting new additions and updates planned that we’ll be rolling out over the coming weeks, months, and even years. We also pride ourselves on our community engagement and will be continuing to make quality-of-life improvements and refinements based on our players’ feedback.

For the past five years, PlayStation VR has provided the industry, specifically VR developers like us, with an incredible opportunity to create worlds and games that push entertainment and emotional connection beyond what today’s more traditional game technologies provide. VR is the only platform that truly immerses players in other worlds, allowing them to be a part of a narrative experience. You are a part of the story. Characters look at, converse with, and react to you. Not only do you have presence in beautifully rendered worlds, but you can also interact with the world in a physical way that feels intuitive and true. For instance, in Moss, whether it’s dragging a giant, heavy device to solve a puzzle, or poking hanging vines to sway them back and forth, players convince themselves that they are interacting with a genuine world. That is, until they take off their headset.

But it’s not just the physical interaction that makes VR special, it’s also the emotional connections that you make with virtual characters. When developing Moss for PlayStation VR, we learned that VR gives players the ability to build deep connections with characters over time through shared experiences. And in doing so, players believe that this connection is real—because, it kind of… is. These connections and the emotions they elicit—excitement, joy, and even heartbreak—are mind-opening for players who didn’t know they could feel so strongly within a digital experience.

Since releasing Moss on PlayStation VR in 2018, we’ve continued to experiment, learn, and advance our understanding of VR. In fact, Tyler Walters, principal technical artist, and Richard Lico, animation director, have provided a quick behind-the-scenes look at the work we’re doing to enhance both the thrill of physical interaction, and the joy of emotional connection, in Moss: Book II.

Tyler Walters: Moss proved that dynamic interactive visuals are very enjoyable and rewarding in VR. With additional team members on Moss: Book II, we found an opportunity to create many more visual effect systems and shaders that can only be experienced at their fullest within VR. This ranges from snowflakes falling in the mountains, to candle flames that move around as the player creates wind with their hands. Each of these systems create a different mood and sensation, so much so that some of us even feel colder while playing in the snowy levels of the game.

We’ve also added a new player ability that allows players to grow traversable foliage for Quill in the game. This includes a vine bridge that enables Quill to access different sections of the game. Relative to Moss device interactions, we wanted this to feel more fluid and expressive. To bring this to life, once the player initiates a bridge to grow, mossy vines spiral out to form a walkable surface, which then blooms little white flowers on top. In the world of Moss, no detail is too small.

Speaking of details, the library and book from Moss were essential narrative tools that acted as glue for the story structure. We’ve taken this formula and improved upon it for Moss: Book II. Now, players will find meticulously hand-painted artwork, audio, and visual effects that move and evolve as the story progresses. Some pages even have dynamic content that interacts with the player as they move around.

Richard Lico: In Moss, we spent time and effort to animate certain book pages. They were little snippets to highlight important moments where the characters on the page would animate like a film. Even though this approach was a strong, visually striking story tool that helped us tell more story on a single page, we noticed that players didn’t often react to seeing them. In fact, we were unable to support the animated pages in the book when porting Moss to another platform, and nobody seemed to notice. Couple that with how much people loved Quill and her reactions to in-game moments, and it became obvious that we needed to enhance the book experience like Tyler said, as well as shift additional resources to what makes Quill’s role in the game so special.

While playing Moss, players often found Quill acting autonomously to tell them how she felt or what she was thinking. For Book II, we decided to expand on this, giving her significantly more robust in-game story moments that seamlessly weave in and out of gameplay. We still have plenty of story being told in the book, but the more intimate emotional spikes will now happen organically in the game with you standing by Quill’s side. In Book II, Quill will have an even wider range of emotional performances for you to experience.  

This added range required us to change a few things from Moss. We’ve doubled the animation team size from one to two animators. We’ve reconstructed Quill’s face so she’s capable of a wider range of expression. And our engineering team built new systems to support all of the various ways in which we need to use these organic in-game performances. We believe all of this will help deepen the bond players feel with Quill in Book II.

Yet hearing about these changes isn’t the same as experiencing them in VR, and we simply cannot wait for players to re-enter the world of Moss and see it all for themselves in Book II. We remain excited and eager to further build upon these enhancements and discover new ways for players to experience physical interaction, emotional feedback, and object persistence. We’re thrilled to continue that work as we imagine what’s possible for the future.

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!

PS VR Spotlight announcements

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• Sniper Elite VR sets its sights on a July 8 release
• Rewrite the past and reshape the future in PS VR adventure Wanderer
• PS VR FPS adventure Fracked hits the slopes this summer
• After the Fall: Detailing the PS VR co-op shooter’s world, enemies & combat
• Winds & Leaves, a flora-builder in a world full of secrets hits PS VR July 27
• Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey enters a new dimension on PS VR, PS4, and PS5
• Become a ninja in PS VR stealth-action sandbox game Arashi: Castles of Sin

Ever since we first revealed After the Fall, our team has quietly worked away to bring you the most thrilling VR co-op action FPS that will pit you and your friends against a post-apocalyptic VR world in a raging fight for survival. Today we are excited to announce that After the Fall is coming soon to PS VR with full cross-platform multiplayer support.

To celebrate, we have released an all-new cinematic trailer which introduces the four heroes of After the Fall as they have left the semi-comfort of their underground hideouts to venture out into the treacherous, ice-covered snowbreed territory above:

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Now that you’ve watched the cinematics trailer, we’ll consider your memory refreshed on what snowbreed are – the ferocious, undead creatures that are roaming the frozen remains of an alternate 1980s LA. Though they are undead, they are nothing like the average zombie: snowbreed are terrifying, ferocious monsters that move around in hordes – not unlike a pack of wolves – waiting to strike in big numbers. And while you try to keep your head cool fending off these huge hordes with your friends at your back, you will want to watch (and listen) for the more twisted types; from towering brutes that can instantly flatten you with a strike of their huge ice fist to decapitators that will grab you by the neck to pull you off the ground.

Aside from the cinematics trailer, sometime during the next couple of weeks we’ll be revealing an all-new gameplay trailer showing off what to expect when you’re venturing out into the world of After the Fall with your friends, players you meet in camp, or the friendly AI companions that will be at your side if you’re going at it solo. Keep your ice peeled!

Armed with full VR motion controls on dual PS Move controllers or the PS VR Aim controller, After the Fall will make you feel like your favorite, slightly overpowered 1980s action hero as you engage in the game’s high-paced combat with real-life movements. Aside from the more conventional weapon types, you’ll be able to gear up with weaponry and tools that are heavily inspired and rooted in 1980s culture. Unlocked that iconic cassette player-turned-missile launcher to keep the hordes at bay? Don’t rest on your laurels just yet, because no mission will play the same twice. We’ll keep you on your toes whether it’s your first playthrough or 50th.

Want to prep for the most intense VR apocalypse experience, and take the city’s future into your hands? Round up your friends, head on over to the official website and subscribe to the newsletter for a chance at closed beta access.

PS VR Spotlight announcements

• From the creators of Arizona Sunshine, After the Fall brings fast-paced co-op FPS action to PS VR
• Expansive JRPG-inspired MMO Zenith is coming to PS VR
• I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy And The Liar returns to PS VR
• PS VR action-adventure Fracked launches this summer
• Embrace the primal wilderness of PS VR survival game Song in the Smoke
• Face your nightmares in Doom 3: VR Edition for PS VR

The World

Zenith is a VR MMO that marries a colorful open world with adrenaline pumping action adventure gameplay. Our game has beautiful, hand-crafted environments that you’ll spend hours getting lost in. From lush canopies in the Amarite Forest, to turquoise blue waters at the Radiant Coast, to the hyper futuristic city of Zenith itself, we’ve built a stylized fantasy world dripping with detail. Of course beautiful scenery is only one part of making Zenith feel like a living world, we’ve also invested lots of time on lore, infusing the setting with intricate details that bring it to life.

Set generations after a cataclysmic event known only as The Fracture, players will be drawn into an engrossing tale as they fight man and gods alike to prevent catastrophe from striking again. Using the power of Essence, the magical lifeblood of all living beings, players will grow increasingly powerful as they adventure together — meeting a colorful cast of champions and villains along the way.

The Movement

With such a massive world, we also wanted to give you unparalleled freedom of movement. 

In Zenith you can climb anything. Use your hands to climb up the sides of skyscrapers or giant cliff faces, discovering secret areas and searching for hidden treasure. You have limited stamina, which increases as you explore the world, so you’ll need to plan your ascent carefully.

Soar through the skies using our Gliding system to quickly fly to distant areas of the map, get the drop on some enemies, or just take in the view.

The Combat

The most amazing open world doesn’t mean squat if we don’t have a deep core game loop to keep you satisfied for hours, and that’s exactly what we aim to deliver with our hyper-immersive combat system that’s only possible in VR. 

While many MMORPGs feel like spreadsheet simulators, Zenith feels tactile and simple to learn. Instead of learning a million formulas about damage, you’ll be mastering intuitive mechanics like throwing, blocking, and dodging. Parry the cold steel of your enemy’s blade, slam your staff like a wizard, and even dodge arrows while slowing time.

Mastery of blade and magic in Zenith takes both time and practice as you learn how to launch the perfect combination of attacks, blocks, and spells while fighting a variety of powerful enemies that will test your mettle. For your perseverance you’ll be rewarded with rare and powerful weapons and abilities that will help you reach the heights of power.

Massively Multiplayer

No MMORPG would be complete without the “Massively Multiplayer” ingredient and we’re no exception. The social experience is especially important to us as developers because we believe that online games can empower people, and build relationships as strong as real life! (No joke, I got married to my wife in Final Fantasy 14 before we got married in real life)

Zenith will feature loads of party content including epic world bosses, public events, and dungeons. Particularly challenging content will require careful coordination, and that’s where our guild system comes into focus. Start your own guild with your friends and rise to prominence, or join an established guild to conquer Zenith’s greatest challenges.

Customize classes to fit your playstyle

One of the joys of VR is that it gives you a chance to completely reinvent yourself and we crafted our class system to do just that. In Zenith your class doesn’t dictate what role you’ll play. Roles aren’t tied to your class, so you can Tank as an Essence Mage or heal as a Blade Master whenever you want! RPGs are all about choice, so we designed all our systems to provide fun and surprising new combinations to match any playstyle.

We love MMORPGs and JRPGs — some might even call it an obsession. Working on Zenith has been a dream realized for all of us. We are honored to have a chance to build this world, and can’t wait for you to visit. Please let us know what you’re excited about in the comments below!

PS VR Spotlight announcements

• From the creators of Arizona Sunshine, After the Fall brings fast-paced co-op FPS action to PS VR
• Expansive JRPG-inspired MMO Zenith is coming to PS VR
• I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy And The Liar returns to PS VR
• PS VR action-adventure Fracked launches this summer
• Embrace the primal wilderness of PS VR survival game Song in the Smoke
• Face your nightmares in Doom 3: VR Edition for PS VR

It has been more than four years since the award-winning original I Expect You To Die launched on PlayStation VR, back in December 2016, and fans have been requesting more content and missions ever since. “We are thrilled to be coming back to PlayStation VR with the sequel,” Project Director Charlie Amis says. “It was really a no-brainer. Our PS VR Agents are an integral part of our community, and we can’t wait for players – both new and returning – to experience the new twists, turns, perils, and puzzles IEYTD2 has to offer.”

Following the events of I Expect You To Die, IEYTD2 sends you back into the immersive world of espionage and undercover danger. Leaving nothing to chance, the Agency has assigned you with the task of going deep undercover and putting a stop to the Zoraxis organization’s new scheme of world dominance. After all, you did stop Zor before and survived the Death Engine! Now, you’ll need to step up your super spy game! Take advantage of your telekinetic abilities in all-new environments and surroundings. Expose the diabolical plot and learn even more about Zoraxis. Risk your life for the greater good; because, remember: we expect you to die.

We have plenty more surprises and information in store for you as we get closer to our release. But, until then, there’s more to uncover and decipher in these images – and perhaps even within this very article – for now! Stay sharp, Agents. We’ll be reporting back very soon.

PS VR Spotlight announcements

• From the creators of Arizona Sunshine, After the Fall brings fast-paced co-op FPS action to PS VR
• Expansive JRPG-inspired MMO Zenith is coming to PS VR
• I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy And The Liar returns to PS VR
• PS VR action-adventure Fracked launches this summer
• Embrace the primal wilderness of PS VR survival game Song in the Smoke
• Face your nightmares in Doom 3: VR Edition for PS VR

You can check out the teaser trailer here:

Play Video

I love gaming and I love VR – it has so much potential especially for us gamers.  Since I started working in VR many years ago I’ve longed for a proper action adventure that includes the gameplay depth and freedom of traditional games with the immersion and control you only get in VR. I don’t just want to play games and watch movies on a TV when I can literally be the hero in my very own VR action movie. I’m also frustrated by the limitations of on-rails and stationary experiences – we’ve moved beyond this. So, with Fracked we set out to create a VR game from the ground up that does all this, seamlessly combining combat and free traversal gameplay in a single experience, just like transitioning between on-foot and driving when getting in and out of cars in an action game.

In Fracked, we’ve cast the player as a hero thrown into the fight. Stuck deep inside a mountain fracking facility the region has been taken over by an army of gun-wielding, interdimensional maniacs known as (you guessed it) the Fracked! As the last hope for the world, you must take them down before it is all too late… We’re not going for subtlety here – it is bold, brash and uncompromising in its vision.

And so is the gameplay – it is fast, exhilarating, and accessible.  Skiing, running, climbing, base jumping and ziplining are all possible and all happen seamlessly and fluidly. No on-rails gameplay and cinematic cutscenes here, everything is 1:1 and driven by the player’s controls, movements, and actions. Combat is unconstrained too, combining free movement for outflanking foes with 1:1 grabbable cover and tactile weapon reloading. What we’ve shown so far is just scratching the surface – we can’t wait to show the breadth and variety of the game in the coming months.

Here are a few other nuggets about the game I’d like to share:

• This is unashamedly a true VR game only possible with PS Move controllers! Climbing, ziplining, reloading and in-world interactions are all driven 1:1 by the player’s hands. We couldn’t do this using a traditional gamepad.
• Skiing requires you to physically lean to steer and control. As with the rest of the game it is integrated with the combat – we’ll be showing this in the weeks ahead.
• We have nicknamed the combat “run and cover” gunplay because it mashes run and gun action with an innovative 1:1 grabbable cover system to create an all-new VR-only combat style. Not only does it play differently to what you’ve experienced before, it feels different too.
• To maximise VR’s 360˚ potential and our free movement vision we have designed arena style combat encounters that double down on verticality.
• Whilst we have aimed for a new, stylish take on classic action cinema – think a 2021 version of Die Hard or Cliffhanger – below the surface there is a Robocop-style cutting-edge satire about corporate greed and the climate change emergency. If Paul Verhoeven made a VR game (which would be AMAZING), we don’t think it would be a million miles away from Fracked!
• The game is getting PS5 enhancements! Those playing on PS5 can expect improved framerates, loading times and resolution. For those playing on PS4 and PS4 Pro, never fear, it looks incredible and plays the same.
• We can assure you that it is a complete coincidence that the name sounds a lot like a popular/unpopular profanity.

We can’t wait for everyone to get their hands on it. Fracked will be launching this summer exclusively on PS VR. In the meantime, we’d love to hear what you think!  Let us know in the comments below.

PS VR Spotlight announcements

• From the creators of Arizona Sunshine, After the Fall brings fast-paced co-op FPS action to PS VR
• Expansive JRPG-inspired MMO Zenith is coming to PS VR
• I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy And The Liar returns to PS VR
• PS VR action-adventure Fracked launches this summer
• Embrace the primal wilderness of PS VR survival game Song in the Smoke
• Face your nightmares in Doom 3: VR Edition for PS VR

Play Video

Doom 3: VR Edition features Doom 3 and its expansions, Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission, retooled for PS VR technology. Uncover the secrets of the UAC’s unholy experiments, encounter uncanny monstrosities in claustrophobic environments, and wield an arsenal of iconic (and even otherworldly) weaponry with new textures, shaders and sound effects as you survive against the forces of Hell across over 15 hours of heart-stopping action.

Feel even closer to the terror with all-new VR enhancements that allow you to peer around corners, angling your shots with flashlight-mounted weapons using motion controls, 180-degree quick-turn functionality to catch demons sneaking up from behind and an immersive wrist-mounted display to track your health, armor and ammo. Combined with the original Doom 3’s critically acclaimed blend of action and horror gameplay, virtual reality fans are in for one Hell of an experience with Doom 3: VR Edition. 

PS VR Spotlight announcements

• From the creators of Arizona Sunshine, After the Fall brings fast-paced co-op FPS action to PS VR
• Expansive JRPG-inspired MMO Zenith is coming to PS VR
• I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy And The Liar returns to PS VR
• PS VR action-adventure Fracked launches this summer
• Embrace the primal wilderness of PS VR survival game Song in the Smoke
• Face your nightmares in Doom 3: VR Edition for PS VR