Stranger Than Heaven will apparently be essentially the most technically achieved sport that developer RGG Studio has ever produced, and that’s largely resulting from the truth that it is being created solely for present era {hardware}. The sport’s producer, Hiroyuki Sakamoto, confirmed as a lot to IGN throughout an interview performed at Gamescom Asia x Thailand Recreation Present 2026 this week.
“We got down to make Stranger Than Heaven as a totally brand-new sport, with the objective of making one thing solely recent whereas placing forth the very best high quality we are able to produce proper now,” defined Sakamoto. “[So] we determined to drop previous-gen platforms just like the PS4 and give attention to creating an expertise finest loved natively on current-gen consoles just like the PS5.”
For the reason that launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X|S programs again in 2020, all of RGG Studio’s video games have nonetheless stored one foot caught within the earlier console era. 2024’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was developed to run throughout two eras of PlayStation and Xbox, and whereas Xbox One was lastly dropped for Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Darkish Ties earlier this yr, help for PlayStation 4 remained.
Nevertheless, by growing Stranger Than Heaven purely for PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X|S, and PC, the group hasn’t needed to make any hardware-based compromises to its imaginative and prescient for the brand new sport’s a number of decade-spanning journey by early twentieth century Japan.
“Prior to now, {hardware} constraints meant limiting the variety of characters we might show on display without delay, amongst different issues we had to surrender on,” continued Sakamoto. “With Stranger Than Heaven, by absolutely leveraging the PS5’s capabilities we have been in a position to showcase extra characters on display concurrently than ever earlier than and lift character high quality to the subsequent degree.”
Regardless of some lingering reservations relating to its digital resurrection of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, IGN’s Michael Higham discovered so much to love about Stranger Than Heaven in his latest hands-on preview. With simply over two months to go earlier than its scheduled launch in January, Sakamato appears supremely assured in the place the sport is at, occurring to state, “I feel we succeeded in attaining our objective of making a richer visible expertise with a stronger creative identification than something we have performed prior.”
Throughout the identical chat, Sakamoto additionally confirmed the inclusion of in-game “cheats” in Stranger Than Heaven that you could examine right here.
Stranger Than Heaven is ready for launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X|S and PC on January 15, 2027.