Following the recent unveiling of gen ATLAS, legendary game designer Fumito Ueda – known for his work on titles like Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian, and ICO – has said that his new project’s title has a deeper meaning than many might realize. In an interview with Eurogamer, Ueda spoke about how “gen ATLAS” has several layered meanings.
Starting with “gen”, Ueda explained that the word could signify several concepts, from the idea of genesis, to the concept of genes, or even generating something. Similarly, “ATLAS” could also have many meanings, ranging from a map of the world to the name of the first cervical vertebra in humans.
“So, let’s start with the ‘Gen’ part,” Ueda explained. “It’s not just one definition or meaning: it has a couple of different word associations. So ‘genesis’ is one, ‘gene’ is another, and then ‘generate’ – the act of generating – is another.”
“And then ‘Atlas’. I don’t know about you, but a lot of people think [of] ‘the world atlas, the world map’. But it also is the first cervical vertebra here that connects the head to the neck, and as you can see in the robot head design, it evokes that as well. As a whole, I felt like they would complement each other but also become a word or a title that would capture the entirety of the world that we’re building.”
Further in the interview, Ueda also spoke about how gen ATLAS, despite seemingly revolving around having an adventure alongside a gigantic companion, will be more similar in tone to Shadow of the Colossus than his most recent outing, The Last Guardian. This comparison, he explained, comes down to the balance struck between the act of exploration and action. The overall scale of the world and the things in it also plays a role in this.
“Shadow of the Colossus is the most similar,” he said. “Not at the level of detail but in terms of the balance between how much action there is and even the scale of things in the world, the adventuring, the traversing you’re going to do, the seamless loading of the environment and so forth. Overall, yes, out of the previous three games, that would be the best in terms of having similarities.”
gen Atlas was unveiled with a trailer by Ueda’s new studio, genDESIGN, over the weekend. The trailer itself was quite minimalistic, not revealing many details about the title’s story or even its gameplay. We did, however, get to see some of its world, which is seemingly in ruins, with the remnants of several robots lying around. The unnamed protagonist will be able to pilot the heads of some of the robots they find, which will likely be useful in navigating the world where traversal for a regular human has become quite difficult.
gen ATLAS doesn’t yet have a release date. The title is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and thanks to a publishing deal signed with Epic Games, its PC release will only be available through the Epic Games Store.
