Towns located near the real-life Mount Yotei in Hokkaido are planning to leverage the success of Sucker Punch’s PlayStation 5 exclusive Ghost of Yotei to attract more visitors to the area outside ski season. Official merch collaborations with local craftspeople and curated tours of in-game locations are just some of the initiatives in the works.
Set in 17th century Japan, Ghost of Yotei puts you in the shoes of Atsu, a warrior setting out to take revenge on the six men who slaughtered her family. Backed up by Sucker Punch’s in-depth research trips to Hokkaido, Ghost of Yotei recreates and shows off the natural beauty of Mount Yotei and the surrounding area, prompting positive comments from Japanese people living in the area upon the game’s release last October.
Now, towns in the Niseko region surrounding the real life Mount Yotei are hoping to attract Ghost of Yotei fans to the area, as reported by Nikkei (and spotted by VGC).
The real life Mount Yotei is in Shikotsu Toya National Park in Hokkaido. Nearby is Niseko, which is already a popular tourist destination due to its high snowfall, giving it a long ski season that runs from November to May. During peak months, luxury hotels in the area charge around 200,000yen (approx. $1,200) per night, however this drops to around 10,000yen ($60) in the summer off-season. The towns in the Niseko area are hoping Ghost of Yotei will draw more visitors to the region even when there’s no snow around. “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.
With Ghost of Yotei selling over 3.3 million copies by November 2025, a discussion group was quickly established to explore tourism strategies related to the game. Seven towns in the area, plus tourism associations joined the group. A representative from Niseko told Nikkei: “We want to focus these promotional efforts on seasons other than winter.”
So far, Niseko has teamed up with a Tokyo-based company specializing in IP collaborations and are aiming to sell Ghost of Yotei T-shirts, with further plans to expand the range of officially licensed merch. Local businesses are also getting involved. Kumagera, which makes sustainable products carved from local wood, has already released a series of Ghost of Yotei badges and magnets. There are also plans to offer curated tours of locations featured in the game.
Sucker Punch’s previous game Ghost of Tsushima boosted visitors to Japan’s real-life Tsushima Island, resulting in the game’s director Nate Fox and creative director Jason Connell being named cultural ambassadors. However, more tourism to the island has been a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Tsushima’s Watazumi Shrine was repaired after a typhoon thanks to donations from Ghost of Tsushima fans. But on the other, it ended up banning tourists in March 2025 due to the bad behavior of some visitors.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
