The PlayStation 5 has seen some big first-party titles over the last few years of its release and is looking to receive even more. Hot off of the success of Astro Bot, the 2024 winner of Game of the Year at The Game Awards, the PlayStation 5 will see some further excitement this year with the long-awaited release of Ghost of Yotei. This will hopefully be just one of many first-party titles that will continue to make the PlayStation 5 a must-have console.
It appears that Sony is also taking a unique new direction with its first-party games, through a heavy emphasis on science fiction. Naughty Dog’s next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, is set to be a hard sci-fi game, and early rumors indicate that the next project from Santa Monica Studio will also be a sci-fi turn. Even despite existing in a similar genre, the Sony developers can still make these two games unique and help both of them stand out in a big way.
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Sony May Have Two Big Sci-Fi Games On Its Hands
Intergalactic May Be Heading Toward Hard Sci-Fi
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and Santa Monica Studios’ rumored sci-fi game won’t necessarily be cut from the same sci-fi cloth. Intergalactic, announced at The Game Awards 2024, looks to be more of a hard sci-fi game. This means its concept and story could focus on technology, logic, and scientific accuracy.
Thus, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet might take greater inspiration from sci-fi-inspired anime such as Akira and Cowboy Bebop, the latter of which is also a space adventure. The main character is a bounty hunter on a remote planet taking down robots and searching for a gang of criminals. Seemingly, this game will also feature some horror elements, which wouldn’t be out of Naughty Dog’s wheelhouse given its work on The Last of Us.
Santa Monica Studios Could Make Its Sci-Fi IP Fantasy-Based
With that in mind, Santa Monica Studios’ rumored sci-fi game could differentiate itself from Intergalactic if it pursues something like a fantasy sci-fi aesthetic. This would give it a fresh form from Intergalactic and allow it to carve its own niche instead of following in the shadow of Sony’s other project. What’s more, a move into a soft-sci-fi aesthetic – which focuses on more human and social elements – wouldn’t be surprising from Santa Monica Studios, given the emotional storytelling of the recent God of War titles.
Interestingly, this wouldn’t be Santa Monica Studios’ first time working on a sci-fi game as, in the early 2010s, the studio was developing a futuristic sci-fi project codenamed Darkside that would feature dinosaur-like enemies. However, it was canceled in 2014 following a round of layoffs at the studio. Perhaps the developer could look to that abandoned project for inspiration as it builds a brand-new sci-fi game.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and Santa Monica Studios’ rumored sci-fi game won’t necessarily be cut from the same sci-fi cloth.
Sony Could Use Some Vastly Different Gameplay Styles For Its Sci-Fi Games
Notably, if Santa Monica Studios is creating a sci-fi game and taking it in a fantasy setting, there’s an opportunity to change up the gameplay compared to Naughty Dog’s title. Where Intergalactic appears set to heavily emphasize action gameplay, a fantasy sci-fi game could switch things up by emphasizing more magic-like combat to give it a unique flavor. This would allow Santa Monica Studios’ game to stand out even as another Sony developer takes on a sci-fi project.
Of course, given that Santa Monica Studios’ new game is unconfirmed, all of this should be taken with a grain of salt. While the developer’s next game appears to be a new IP, it’s unclear if it will truly take a sci-fi turn. Still, if it does, Sony has plenty of opportunities to give it a unique flavor without taking away from what Naughty Dog is doing with Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
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Sony Interactive Entertainment