Presentation
Sly Cooper, inFAMOUS, Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yōtei.
At first glance, these games could easily come from different studios.
We go from an acrobatic raccoon to an electric superhero, then to a samurai crossing tall grass fields and, several centuries later, to a new warrior in the landscapes of Ezo.
They nevertheless tell the story of a single team: Sucker Punch Productions.
Founded in 1997 in Washington State, the American studio has an unusual trajectory. It does not spend thirty years perfecting the same property. It develops a formula until it becomes identifiable, then regularly accepts leaving that safety to start over elsewhere.
Sly gives way to inFAMOUS.
inFAMOUS gives way to Ghost of Tsushima.
And when Ghost continues, the studio chooses not to make Jin Sakai indispensable to the whole franchise.
The universes, technologies, and characters change profoundly.
One idea nonetheless keeps coming back:
the path between two objectives also deserves to be gameplay.
With Sly, this goes through precise acrobatic platforming.
In inFAMOUS, the city becomes a vertical path.
With Ghost of Tsushima, movement becomes more contemplative and the world itself starts guiding the player through wind, animals, smoke, or the silhouettes of the landscape.
This continuity is more important than any particular aesthetic.
Sucker Punch does not have a unique "look."
It rather seeks to build a character, a way of moving, and an environment able to work as one system.
This method is accompanied by another historical trait: the studio seems less attached to protecting a formula than to protecting its ability to invent a new one.
Sony acquired Sucker Punch in 2011, after more than a decade of collaboration.
The integration therefore formalized an old relationship rather than suddenly creating a new identity.
Today, Sucker Punch still remains relatively focused on one main major project at a time.
This organization fits its history well.
The studio changes worlds; the team changes with it.
History
1997-2002: building a first identity
Sucker Punch Productions was founded in 1997 by six friends who left Microsoft to create their own studio.
Its first game was Rocket: Robot on Wheels, released on Nintendo 64.
The project did not immediately transform the team into a big name, but it already let them explore physics, object manipulation, and the relationship between character and environment.
In 2002, Sucker Punch released Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus on PlayStation 2.
The relationship with Sony then became structuring.
Sly is a thief, but the team chose to translate this fantasy through movement rather than through slow stealth.
The character jumps, climbs, walks on ropes, and uses scenery elements as so many footholds.
The stylized art direction directly serves this readability.
Silhouettes, paths, and surfaces must be immediately understandable during action.
The studio thus very early established a lasting relationship between character fantasy, movement, and reading of space.
Leaving Sly to learn the open world
After several installments, Sucker Punch could perfectly have continued Sly.
The studio nonetheless chose a new difficulty.
The next project became inFAMOUS.
The change is considerable.
The stylized platforming gives way to an open-world urban setting, to powers, and to a much more contemporary tone.
Yet continuity remains.
Cole MacGrath must be able to cross the city in a way impossible for an ordinary inhabitant.
Facades, cables, roofs, and urban structures therefore become traversal elements.
The city cannot only be visually credible.
It must be vertically playable.
The first inFAMOUS was released in 2009.
The series also added another dimension with the karma system, which progressively links powers to decisions made by the player.
Sucker Punch now has a second major identity.
It looks almost nothing like Sly.
But it keeps the idea that an interesting power changes how the player looks at the environment.
2011-2014: Sony formalizes an old relationship
Sony acquired Sucker Punch on August 2, 2011.
The operation came after more than twelve years of collaboration between the two companies.
The studio did not therefore join PlayStation as a team foreign to this ecosystem.
It had already worked there for several generations.
This stability also allows taking risks.
In 2014, inFAMOUS Second Son changed protagonist with Delsin Rowe and moved the action to Seattle.
Powers evolve, but they once again serve combat as much as movement.
After this period, Sucker Punch made an important decision.
It once again left a working franchise.
From inFAMOUS to Ghost: rebuilding almost all of the craft
After Second Son and First Light, the team wanted to work on a new open world and give more importance to close combat.
Several directions were explored before feudal Japan became the real center of the project.
Development of Ghost of Tsushima lasted about six years.
The transition was not just about changing universes.
Seattle relied on urban architecture and powers.
Tsushima had to work through immense natural landscapes, very present vegetation, new combat, and much more narrative content.
The studio therefore had to transform a large part of its tools and pipeline.
Sucker Punch also made several research trips to Japan and worked with various partners and specialists.
The goal was not to exactly reproduce the real island.
The studio sought a stylized interpretation fed by history, places, and samurai cinema.
2020: the landscape becomes a navigation system
Ghost of Tsushima was released on July 17, 2020.
The idea most representative of the project is probably the Guiding Wind.
In a classic open world, a compass or an arrow can indicate the next direction.
Sucker Punch sought to keep the player's gaze more on the landscape.
The wind, already used to animate grass, leaves, and particles, then becomes a navigation system.
The information is not removed.
It is absorbed by the world.
This solution particularly sums up the studio's culture:
technology, art, and design are most interesting when they stop looking like three separate problems.
Beautiful vegetation can guide.
Smoke can attract.
An animal can trigger curiosity.
A mountain can become an objective even before a quest names it.
The landscape therefore begins to participate directly in gameplay.
After Tsushima: making Ghost an idea rather than a single hero
The success of Ghost of Tsushima could have led to a direct sequel devoted only to Jin Sakai.
Sucker Punch chose another direction.
Ghost of Yōtei moves the story more than three centuries forward, to 1603, in the Ezo region around Mount Yōtei.
Atsu becomes the new protagonist.
This decision transforms the franchise.
Ghost is no longer necessarily the story of a single character.
It can become a figure, a legend, or a way to approach different periods of Japan.
The studio thus keeps several principles — exploration, landscapes, combat, the figure of the wandering warrior — while gaining enough freedom to change era, region, and protagonist.
Ghost of Yōtei was released on October 2, 2025 on PlayStation 5.
For a studio that often had to leave its old series to regain creative space, this evolution is particularly consistent.
This time, Sucker Punch tries to keep a franchise without being trapped by its first hero.
What Sets It Apart
The trip must be interesting before the destination
The most obvious continuity between Sly, inFAMOUS, and Ghost concerns movement.
The systems are very different, but the intent stays close.
Movement should not only serve to reach the place where the real game will begin.
It must already have value.
Precision, speed, fluidity, or curiosity produced by the landscape can make the trip interesting in itself.
In an open world, this philosophy becomes essential.
A vast territory has little value if the player has no desire to cross what lies between its points of interest.
Character, movement, and environment form one system
In Sly, the thief fantasy goes through acrobatics.
In inFAMOUS, powers turn the city into a movement network.
In Ghost, the wandering warrior crosses a territory that must constantly attract his gaze.
The character is therefore never designed separately from his space.
A good ability changes what the player considers accessible.
A good environment constantly provides opportunities to use this ability.
This relationship also explains why Sucker Punch changes its aesthetic so much.
The right question is not:
"What should a Sucker Punch game look like?"
It is rather:
"What form makes this fantasy playable?"
Making the interface disappear into the world
The Guiding Wind is the most elegant expression of this philosophy.
The player always needs information.
Sucker Punch simply chooses to give it differently.
Wind, particles, vegetation, smoke, and animals sometimes help direct attention without constantly adding a new graphical element on top of the landscape.
Technology then becomes better when it looks natural.
Sophistication exists in the background.
For the player, it simply becomes the world's behavior.
Protecting the ability to change rather than a formula
Sucker Punch has a rare habit.
The studio knows how to stop.
Sly works, then the team moves to inFAMOUS.
inFAMOUS works, then it develops Ghost.
Even Ghost abandons its first protagonist when another period seems more interesting.
Changing direction like this has a cost.
An existing franchise brings an audience, tools, and habits already mastered.
Going elsewhere forces rebuilding.
But this attitude protects something important:
the studio's ability not to become the simple guardian of its own past success.
A focused team that changes direction collectively
Sucker Punch says it focuses on one main title at a time.
This organization reinforces the impression of successive periods.
The studio does not look like a company where several major franchises constantly move forward in parallel.
When it changes project, a large part of the team changes with it.
This concentration fits its identity well.
It lets each new period impose its own art direction, technology, and vocabulary without turning Sucker Punch into a juxtaposition of several internal studios.
Good to Know
- Sucker Punch Productions was founded in 1997 in Washington State.
- The studio was born when a group of six friends left Microsoft to create their own team.
- Rocket: Robot on Wheels is its first game and was released on Nintendo 64.
- Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was released in 2002 on PlayStation 2.
- The first inFAMOUS was released in 2009 on PlayStation 3.
- Sony announced the acquisition of Sucker Punch on August 2, 2011, after more than twelve years of collaboration.
- Ghost of Tsushima was released on July 17, 2020 on PlayStation 4.
- The Guiding Wind uses wind, vegetation, and particles as a navigation system.
- Ghost of Yōtei was released on October 2, 2025 on PlayStation 5 with Atsu as the new protagonist.
- Sucker Punch says it focuses on one main title at a time.