Today, Sucker Punched announced Ghost of Tsushima: Legends. It’ll release as a standalone package later next month. This is separate from the next-gen Director’s Cut of the original game, which is due to come out this August. Legends will comprise the co-op game mode from the original game as a separate, slightly cheaper, package. However, it begs the question why mini releases like these need to exist in the first place.
Ghost of Tsushima: Legends first dropped as part of the base game in October 2020. In this mode, you and up to three friends can select different classes of warrior to harness. From there, you can try out exclusive missions, with a separate plot to boot. It was available free of charge to owners of Ghost of Tsushima upon its release. Now, those without the base game will be able to try it for a price. You can even play Legends with friends who have the base game. However, if you want to try out the full story mode, you have to pay extra.
This all comes on top of the Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut due for release later this month. Confusingly, that release effectively nullifies the need for a Legends standalone to exist. That’s because if you buy the Director’s Cut, Legends comes included. Additionally, you can still purchase a used copy of the original base game and get Legends for cheaper than the new $19.99 price tag.
It’s all part of a confusing release strategy that seems to be fragmenting the game’s release as much as possible. It’s hard to imagine there’s many who will buy Legends without the base game, and the motivations for this announcement are equally hard to decipher. Since you can get Legends free as part of the original release, you don’t even need to buy the incoming Director’s Cut. The way Sucker Punch is treating Ghost of Tsushima’s post-launch support all seems to be a bit of a mess.
