Developers Honored as Tourism Ambassadors by Tsushima Mayor
Ghost of Tsushima Game Director, Nate Fox and Creative Director, Jason Connell are set to be honored as permanent tourism ambassadors of the real-life Tsushima Island in Japan.
According to a report by VGC, the game’s senior developers will be presented the award and a letter of appreciation in a digital ceremony.
“[Fox and Connell] spread the name and history of Tsushima to the whole world in such a wonderful way,” explained Tsushima mayor Hiroki Hitakatsu. “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 is literally unknown, so I cannot thank them enough for telling our story with such phenomenal graphics and profound stories.”
According to Hitakatsu, the tourism ambassador is theirs as long as they wanted. The idea of presenting them with this honour also isn’t a new one as he has considered it “ever since I discovered they were using Tsushima’s name as the name of their work”
Connell expressed his gratitude for the award on his Twitter page earlier today:
I've had a really fortunate career but this is almost hard to even process. Thank you Tsushima. ? https://t.co/C5GB2IkDVm
— Jason Connell (@artenvelope) March 5, 2021
The city will also be collaborating with Sony Interactive Entertainment to create a new tourism campaign based on the game. The new campaign will be used to encourage fans of the game to not only visit the island, but to learn more about its rich history and landmarks.
This isn’t the first time we’ll see the game have a positive effect on the local community of Tsushima, as fans of the game previously helped fund the restoration of a damaged Torii Gate on the island by making donations to a fundraising campaign organized by Yuichi Hariyama, a priest of Watatsumi Shrine.
It turns out that a Ghost of Tsushima sequel or spin-off may also be in the works, or at least if this job ad is any indication.