Recently, we got to ask a couple of questions to Pragmata producer Naoto Oyama, and he shared how they came up with the game’s unique combat, along with the reason why they didn’t include co-op.
At gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show 2025, we attended a media roundtable interview with Pragmata developers, including Oyama. One of the things that intrigued us about the game is its unique blend of hacking and shooting. While hacking mini-games are not new in sci-fi games, the fact that you have to do it in real-time against enemies gives the game its own identity.
Given this, we asked the developers how this concept came to be. In response, Oyama said:
“When we looked at science fiction games—open-world, third-person shooters, first-person shooters—the sort of standard things we’ve seen before, what we wanted to provide was something different. Something that had a strategic element to the game itself.
We have scenarios where players would have to consider each enemy that they are facing, and then add the strategic element to the game that you see today. That’s something new that people haven’t really seen before. Not just defeating creatures as if they were monsters, but considering them as if they were AI. That’s really the base concept of the gameplay you see now.”
As Oyama said, the developers said that the combination of hacking and shooting was brought about by the fact that they wanted something new in the sci-fi action game space. They also wanted each encounter to have a more strategic element, while also making enemies feel like actual AI-powered mechs, and not just bullet sponges. This should also tie into the story better, as Pragmata is about the spacefarer Hugh and android Diana, who must face a hostile AI.
In the game, Hugh handles movement and shooting, while Diana is in charge of hacking enemies. Given that these two aspects of the game happen in real-time, Pragmata seems to be the perfect game for a co-op mode. That is not the case though, as this game will not feature a two-player mode.
When asked why, Oyama explained:
“One of the unique points of Pragmata is that one player controls two characters. That’s the core, the base concept of the game, and what you see today.
I’ve seen comments online where people say, ‘Oh, this could have been a co-op game instead, like some of your past work.’ And yes, we thought about that. But when you look at the concept of Pragmata, if you split it into a co-op experience, you end up with a game that doesn’t really work the same way. Pragmata was built from the ground up as a single-player game where you control both characters yourself, using one controller. The controls are designed specifically around that idea.
If we split it up, one player would end up with very little to do—just controlling one character while the other carried most of the weight. That’s not the experience we wanted. Instead, we focused on the core concept: one player, two characters, full control. That’s what makes the game unique, and that’s where the enjoyment comes from.”
What’s interesting from the explanation is that, aside from the fact that this was built as a single-player experience from the get-go, the fact that hacking is the first step in any combat encounter makes a co-op mode an imbalanced experience. This does make sense, considering that if a co-op mode were added, the player controlling Hugh would essentially have nothing to do while the player controlling Diana is hacking an enemy. Of course, there are potential tweaks to this, but that would turn Pragmata into something quite different from the team’s vision.
Pragmata will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC sometime in 2026.