Why Among Us’ New Skin Is PlayStation Exclusive

Despite surging to popularity last year, Among Us has been conspicuously absent from consoles, apart from the Nintendo Switch. Recently, though, plans for an Xbox port in 2021 were joined by the announcement of Among Us for PS4 and PS5. Gamers trying out the social deduction game on PlayStation will get a few exclusive cosmetics, even as developer InnerSloth maintains a crossplay-friendly philosophy.

These exclusives consist of a hat, skin, and pet, all themed around Ratchet & Clank, an iconic PlayStation series dating back to 2002. Crewmates can wear Ratchet’s orange jumpsuit and a pair of Lombax ears while Clank follows them around. To a degree, exclusives are nothing new to Among Us; the Switch edition launched without access to the game’s DLC store, which meant PC and mobile players enjoyed different looks than their console counterparts.

Beyond marking Among Us‘ arrival on PlayStation, the new exclusives will promote the upcoming release of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for PS5, due out on June 11. As with Xbox, the PlayStation edition of Among Us has only a vague “2021” release window, so it’s unclear if InnerSloth’s game will reach the PS5 in time to generate any pre-launch publicity for Rift Apart. That would be an obvious goal for Sony, though, and could be a clue to InnerSloth’s plans. Internally, the developer is likely aiming for specific month or quarter – there are business expectations to meet, after all, and any company needs a sense of its own progress to steer people and resources.

What Among Us’ PlayStation-Exclusive Skin Says About Its PS5 Launch

Before the game makes it to Xbox and PlayStation consoles, InnerSloth will likely need to finish some vital Among Us updates. The game is getting six new crewmate colors, a bump in lobby size from 10 to 15 players, and a new meeting screen. It would seem like a waste of InnerSloth’s labor to ship the Xbox and PlayStation ports and then immediately need to patch them, but if the studio does have a timed deal with Sony, that agreement might take priority. It could be that gamers will get to see the PlayStation-exclusive Among Us skin sooner rather than later, depending on the terms of the Ratchet & Clank deal and how important Sony considers it to the game’s marketing campaign.

InnerSloth has promised more news in May, but this won’t necessarily involve the new console ports. It’s unclear if Xbox owners will get the same red carpet of cosmetic DLC as their PlayStation counterparts; there are certainly plenty of Xbox franchises to choose from (Halo Infinite‘s Master Chief would be particularly fitting), and even if Xbox wasn’t planning exclusive skins beforehand, the Among UsPlayStation news might kick Microsoft into gear.

About The Author

Roger Fingas
(307 Articles Published)

See also  20 Secrets About John Krasinski And Emily Blunt’s Marriage

Originally from Ottawa, Canada, Roger now lives with his family in Austin, Texas. He has years of experience in tech writing, and his gaming specialties include FPS and VR games on the PC.

More From Roger Fingas