It's March, which means it's once again another hectic month for video game releases as Q1 2022 continues to be one of the most intense first quarters of any year for video game releases yet. One of the biggest titles launching this month is Ghostwire: Tokyo, the newest title from Tango Gameworks, the beloved Japanese horror studio behind The Evil Within, led by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. Ghostwire: Tokyo is somewhat of a departure for the team however, with the horror setting taking a backseat to more action gameplay, and to ease players into this shift the studio has just launched a visual novel prequel to the game on PS4 and PS5.
Ghostwire: Tokyo was first announced during Bethesda's E3 2019 press conference, which is where fans were first introduced to the games eccentric creative director Ikumi Nakamura, an understudy of industry legend Shinji Mikami. After Nakamura departed the project later that year, there was some skepticism leveraged at the game until it was re-revealed at Sony's PS5 showcase in 2020 as a timed PlayStation 5 console exclusive, which became an even more bizarre situation once Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media and, by association, Tango Gameworks in early 2021.
Now, after a seemingly eventful development cycle, Ghostwire: Tokyo is finally gearing up for release later this month, and to celebrate Tango Gameworks has launched Ghostwire: Tokyo - Prelude: The Corrupted Casefile, a visual novel prequel to the game that is free to download on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 titles. According to Tango Gameworks, the narrative introduced in The Corrupted Casefile leads directly into the events of Ghostwire: Tokyo, and introduces many of the characters and events that the game builds off from.
Perhaps most surprisingly, this visual novel is available right now on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and is itself a PS4 native app that can be played on PS5 through backward compatibility. This is especially surprising considering Ghostwire: Tokyo is skipping Sony's last-gen machine and launching as a full on next-generation exclusive. This means this is the only way for PS4 players to experience the world of Ghostwire: Tokyo.
As for PC players, this visual novel tie-in will be available from March 8th on PC, with PlayStation players getting first dibs. It will also likely make its way to Xbox next year as the game's timed PlayStation exclusivity means that it will take one year before Xbox players see it not only come to Microsoft's platform, but also join Xbox Game Pass, as Tango's status as an Xbox Studio means all of its titles on Xbox platforms will come to the service.
Ghostwire: Tokyo - Prelude: The Corrupted Casefile is available now on PS4 and PS5, and it will arrive on PC on March 8th.
