Ghost of Tsushima devs will become permanent tourism ambassadors of real Tsushima

If you are a fan of Sucker Punch's excellent PS4 game Ghost of Tsushima, you might be familiar with the fact that the location is based on the real-life island of Tsushima.

This beautiful but lesser-known area of Japan has inspired developers at Sucker Punch to create one of the most breath-taking video game worlds from the last generation of consoles.

The huge popularity of the game had a positive effect not only on the studio but on the real-life city of Tsushima as well.

The word about Tsushima's beauty and rich history has spread all around the world thanks to the game, and the local government wanted to express their gratitude to the developers for helping the city and spreading "the name and history of Tsushima".

Beautiful Ghost of Tsushima is inspired by a real-life island (Picture: Sucker Punch)

As a way to honour them for what they did for the city and the island, Game director Nate Fox and Creative director Jason Connell will become permanent tourism ambassadors of the city of Tsushima in Nagasaki.

This has been announced by the city officials on Thursday this week.

"[Sucker Punch] spread the name and history of Tsushima to the whole world in such a wonderful way,” Tsushima mayor Hiroki Hitakatsu said. "Even a lot of Japanese people do not know the history of the Gen-ko period. When it comes to the world, the name and location of Tsushima are literally unknown, so I cannot thank them enough for telling our story with such phenomenal graphics and profound stories."

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This will be the first time in the city's history for this award to be given to a foreigner and the mayor says that  “the appointment of Tourism Ambassador is from today until Mr Jason and Mr Nate no longer wish to have it.”

He explains that this title is an award, not an obligation and that the city has nothing but gratitude for everyone involved in creating  Ghost of Tsushima.

"Thanks to the two of them, Sucker Punch Productions, and SIE, I have heard from people all over the world who have learned about Tsushima through their works, and now want to see, know, and go to Tsushima,” Hitakatsu explained.

Due to travel restrictions, the ceremony will be held online in cooperation with Sony Interactive Entertainment, but the city of Tsushima plans to welcome Connell and Fox once things get better.

A shrine in Tsushima has been rebuild thanks to the fans of the game (Picture: Sucker Punch)

While Ghost of Tsushima was a huge success all around the world, the game was particularly popular in Japan, where it had the best launch week sales of any first-party PlayStation 4 game in the console's history.

In January, Ghost of Tsushima fans participated in a fundraising campaign that helped to rebuild an ancient shrine that was destroyed by a typhoon.

Although the major said that devs have already done more than enough for the island, Sucker Punch is possibly already working on a Ghost of Tsushima sequel, which will help to spread the word about this beautiful island even more.