Stranger Than Heaven will apparently be the most technically completed recreation that developer RGG Studio has ever produced, and that’s largely due to the incontrovertible fact that it is being created solely for present technology {hardware}. The sport’s producer, Hiroyuki Sakamoto, confirmed as a lot to IGN throughout an interview carried out at Gamescom Asia x Thailand Sport Present 2026 this week.
“We set out to make Stranger Than Heaven as a totally brand-new recreation, with the purpose of creating one thing totally recent whereas placing forth the absolute highest quality we will produce proper now,” defined Sakamoto. “[So] we determined to drop previous-gen platforms like the PS4 and deal with creating an expertise finest loved natively on current-gen consoles like the PS5.”
Since the launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X|S methods again in 2020, all of RGG Studio’s video games have nonetheless saved one foot caught in the earlier console technology. 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, assist for PlayStation 4 remained.
Nonetheless, by creating Stranger Than Heaven purely for PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X|S, and PC, the group hasn’t had to make any hardware-based compromises to its imaginative and prescient for the new recreation’s a number of decade-spanning journey by means of early twentieth century Japan.
“In the previous, {hardware} constraints meant limiting the quantity of characters we may show on display at as soon as, amongst different issues we had to hand over on,” continued Sakamoto. “With Stranger Than Heaven, by totally leveraging the PS5’s capabilities we have been ready to showcase extra characters on display concurrently than ever earlier than and lift character high quality to the subsequent stage.”
Regardless of some lingering reservations relating to its digital resurrection of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, IGN’s Michael Higham discovered rather a lot to like about Stranger Than Heaven in his current 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 recreation is at, happening to state, “I believe we succeeded in reaching our purpose of making a richer visible expertise with a stronger creative id than something we have accomplished prior.”
Throughout the identical chat, Sakamoto additionally confirmed the inclusion of in-game “cheats” in Stranger Than Heaven which you can examine right here.
Stranger Than Heaven is set for launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X|S and PC on January 15, 2027.
Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN primarily based in Sydney, Australia. He has 25 years of expertise protecting video video games, having served as Deputy Editor on Official PlayStation 2 Journal Australia and as Editor of Official Xbox 360 Journal Australia, earlier than becoming a member of IGN in 2009. You’ll find him on Bluesky @tristanogilvie.bsky.social