Hokkaido kasabaları, kar yağmadığı zamanlarda otelleri doldurmak için Ghost of Yotei filmine bel bağlıyor.

Seven towns in Hokkaido's Niseko region are building a tourism strategy around Ghost of Yotei, Sucker Punch's PS5 action game set in 17th-century Japan. The towns, joined by local tourism associations, formed a discussion group after the game sold over 3.3 million copies by November 2025. Their goal is straightforward: get Ghost of Yotei players to visit the area during spring, summer, and fall, not just ski season.

The real-life Mount Yotei sits in Shikotsu Toya National Park, about a half-hour drive from Niseko. During peak winter months, luxury hotels in the area run around 200,000 yen per night — roughly $1,200. In summer, that drops to about 10,000 yen, or $60. Tourism associations want to close that gap by tapping a fanbase that already knows what the landscape looks like from inside the game.

"We hope that through playing the game, people will discover not only the area's winter landscape but also its spring, summer and fall scenery, and that this will lead to actual visits," a spokesperson from the town's planning and environment division told Nikkei.

Niseko has already partnered with a Tokyo-based company that handles IP collaborations. Ghost of Yotei T-shirts are in production, with plans to expand the licensed merch range. One local business, Kumagera, makes sustainable products carved from local wood and released Ghost of Yotei badges and magnets earlier this year. Curated tours of locations featured in the game are also in the works.

"We want to focus these promotional efforts on seasons other than winter," a Niseko representative told Nikkei.

Sucker Punch spent time in Hokkaido doing research trips before development, and the game's recreation of Mount Yotei's landscape drew immediate recognition from people living in the area when it released last October. I think the studio's investment in that fieldwork is exactly why this kind of tourism response is possible at all — players who visited the game's version of Hokkaido are, in effect, primed to want the real one.

The Niseko initiative has a direct precedent. Ghost of Tsushima, Sucker Punch's 2020 game, brought a significant influx of visitors to Japan's real-life Tsushima Island. The game's director Nate Fox and creative director Jason Connell were named cultural ambassadors of the island in recognition of that effect. Fans also funded repairs to Watazumi Shrine after typhoon damage.

But more visitors didn't stay uncomplicated. In March 2025, Tsushima banned tourists from certain areas after reports of bad behavior from some visitors. That outcome sits somewhere in the background of what Niseko is now setting up. I know that managing tourism demand — especially when it comes from a specific, passionate fanbase — requires more than merchandise and a walking tour, and the Tsushima case makes that clear.

Ghost of Yotei was released in October 2025 and received a free Legends multiplayer update in March 2026, adding two-player story missions and four-player survival matches. Sucker Punch confirmed in May 2026 that Legends would not receive any further updates.

Read also, Sucker Punch confirmed that Ghost of Yotei: Legends, the game's free cooperative multiplayer mode, will not receive any new updates, less than two months after the mode launched in March 2026.