Destruction AllStars exclusive to PS5 is the next generation of car accidents

Destruction AllStars is a game about destroying cars. It’s there, the first word of the title. It’s also a major milestone for the PS5 – a huge exclusive found solely on the next-gen console that isn’t a remake or spanning generations.

It’s a title that, by necessity, will be used to show what kinds of games developers can create when unleashing the new features and firepower of the PS5. But crush is still the heart of Destruction AllStars: so much so that the seed of the game was a simple idea. “Imagine how incredible we can do damage on PS5,” says John McLaughlin, Senior Producer at Sony XDev. The edge.

It was a small jump from there to partnering with Lucid Games for development, given the studio’s heritage. Game director Colin Berry had previously worked at Sony Clean series, while other members of Lucid came from other classic car games, such as Metropolis Street Corridor, Gotham Racing ProjectY MotorStorm. “One thing that was for sure was these guys knew cars,” says McLaughlin. “And then we basically went to those guys with that seed and said ‘We want to do something on PS5, with a lot of destruction and cool stuff, what’s your idea, what’s your proposal?

Lucid’s team came back with a different kind of battle car game. As McLaughlin explains, “They came to us, not so much with Destruction AllStars – the name came later – but they came with the tone of a game that featured cars, featured a lot of destruction, [and] encouraged destruction. It wasn’t about hiding from destruction, it was about smashing and smashing as quickly as possible, and so on. “

The other goal was to raise the bar for a derby-style game of destruction. While older games would cheat by showing damage or debris, hiding behind texture changes or low-resolution polygons, Destruction AllStars tries to offer a better experience, according to Berry. “Regarding the PlayStation 5 and what we were told about the specs early on, that we could look at warp and damage and physics in a way that we haven’t done before, and at a level that we haven’t done before. . So the wrinkling of the cars, the number of parts of each car that are made up, all these accidents, we can really push the screw on that kind of thing. “

That level of detail in the headline destruction is a big part of why Destruction AllStars it’s limited to the PS5 only, even though a PS4 port would have opened up the game to more players, something key in a game that’s heavily focused on multiplayer modes. A PS4 version just “wouldn’t have performed the same in terms of damage, libel and physics, actually in-game,” Berry says.

The flip side of that exclusivity, of course, is what happens to Destruction AllStars Next. As a free PS5 exclusive title being offered via PlayStation Plus for the next two months, you’ll be virtually guaranteed a huge opening audience, much like previous PS Plus hits like Rocket league or Fall boys They have achieved. Rocket league became an internet sensation, with massive esports tournaments still popular even years after launch. Fall boyson the other hand, it has largely faded into the background, paralyzed by new content leaking too slowly to hold the interest of most players after the first few weeks.

“We have a plan, we have a roadmap, not just for the … game launch window, but for the first three, four weeks, for a couple of months, for the next year,” McLaughlin says, with new characters, new game modes and more, all planned for free in the future. “We have a plan with a content schedule for next year that I think will keep people entertained and engaged and keep them coming back and wondering what they will leave behind. this week and they will wonder what they will leave next. week.”

Destruction AllStars is available as free download for PlayStation Plus subscribers on PlayStation 5 during the months of February and March.