When Sony first announced the PlayStation 4 in February, many gamers began to look forward to epic titles that they could eventually get their hands on, such as Battlefield 4 and other FPS games that have become the norm for blockbuster titles. However, Sony is trying to emphasize other aspects of the upcoming system, as seen by the first game the company showed off at the reveal, Knack. Knack is a cartoonish action game from Sony Japan, and Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has told Edge the move was deliberate.
"It was pretty intentional...We were like yeah we hate to see all the PS4 games being FPS or action-adventure or very photorealistic, you know big-budget blockbuster games. And you know people like these games, but these are not the only kinds of games that people can have fun with," Yoshida said.
Yoshida is very clear on bringing games other than the stereotypical FPS to their next-gen console, so that a wider variety of gamers can appreciate the system, and not see it as the way to bigger explosions and more realistic kills.
"Yeah, so almost the biggest message that we wanted to send in preparing for the event as well as in designing PS4 was...we at Sony and we at Sony Computer Entertainment, it's just natural for us to enhance the core technology and performance of the hardware, but it's not the hardware that is the biggest focus," he explained.
This news is further driven home by the news (via Gamespot) that Level 5, the developers behind the popular Professor Layton puzzle games and Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, will be creating a game for the PlayStation 4. Level 5 is known for delivering well received games by critics and audiences alike, while using beautiful cartoon-like animation and very little violence to do so. So while FPS games will continue to be a part of Sony's roster, other, more imaginative games will also be coming to the PlayStation 4, and will play a larger portion in Sony's future than they have in the past.