It’s about that time of year where publishers and developers spew all their in-progress projects at gamers, and today was no exception. With rumors the day prior stating there would be a State of Play event today hosted by PlayStation, we end today off with roughly 30 minutes of new footage and trailers of upcoming releases for the PS5, whether it be a regular game, a PSVR2 title, or in the case of a select few other titles, PC releases. For those interested in watching the presentation and seeing the trailers, you can do so here.
PlayStation’s new little robotic mascot Astro Bot is getting a full length title this fall, launching on September 6th. For those that remember, the PS5 came with a little tech demo of sorts really showcasing what the new DualSense controller did that featured what was basically a nice bite-sized platformer taking advantage of the gyro, the new vibration features, etc. If you enjoyed that, you can be happy knowing you’re getting a full size adventure this fall!
We got a lengthy trailer going over Firewalk’s 5v5 hero shooter Concord set to release on August 23rd for both PS5 and PC. We got a very Guardians of the Galaxy-esque cinematic trailer followed by a solid gameplay piece thrown at the end. Firewalk says they want each and every character, known as a “Freegunner” (not a Freerunner? Y’know, like Mirror’s Edge?) to be as unique as possible, including their kits and personalities. The developers have stated they have taken inspiration from their favorite fighting and strategy games as stated on the official PlayStation Blog post about the reveal.
Exciting news for PC players (or not depending on how you view information tied to these announcements) as Sony announced two more exclusives coming to PC. I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody but Sony Santa Monica’s God of War: Ragnarok is coming to Steam this fall on September 19th, 2024. However, buyers beware given the recent issues with Helldivers and Ghost of Tsushima’s PC port, all owners of Ragnarok on Steam will be required to have a PlayStation Network account to play. Yes, the single player game necessitates it. No, nobody knows why. That’s just Sony now I guess.
In addition to God of War: Ragnarok coming to PC this fall (our story here), we were shown a gameplay trailer showcasing the PS5 and PC port of everyone’s favorite narrative horror game Until Dawn. The trailer appears to have been rebuilt and revamped for PS5 and PC, sporting higher fidelity visuals and much more detail that was noticeable even in the trailer. For anybody who somehow hasn’t played it or seen one of the million playthroughs from popular creators on YouTube, it will be launching on PS5 and PC sometime this fall. No definitive date was given.
Two new PS VR2 games were shown off at today’s event, those two being Skydance’s Behemoth, by acclaimed VR developers Skydance Games, who you may know for being the ones behind The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners games. Fans of their other games can expect excellent hand-to-hand combat but with this new title’s focus on larger-than-life boss battles.
Additionally, we were shown gameplay of Alien: Rogue Incursion. Brought to us by Survios, this new addition to the Alien lineup is slated to release as an action-horror VR game this Holiday 2024 for the PS VR2.
Fans of Diablo-like games and the first Path of Exile game can get excited that Path of Exile 2 launches on PS5 completely free-to-play later this year in Early Access, including a brand new couch co-op mode for you and your friends. Also, the game will be cross platform, so you can play with all of your friends from all of the available platforms for Path of Exile 2.
Some of the other titles we were given looks at were an announcement of a Closed Beta Test (we’re not abbreviating that) for PS5 this July, an announcement trailer for a new title in Omega Force’s hit series Dynasty Warriors being dubbed as Dynasty Warriors: Origins, a new free-to-play fantasy action-RPG by developers TipsWorks Studio, who are a sub-studio of Infoldgames, called Ballad of Antara (slated to release in 2025), a title called Infinity Nikki (not to be confused with gacha game Goddess of Victory: Nikke, I had that same thought at first) coming to PS5 at some point with a beta test due later this year, and a new open-world action-adventure game set in ancient China called Where Winds Meet, featuring exciting bosses and fast martial art combat. It’s worth mentioning that unless a date was explicitly mentioned here, no known release period was mentioned.
The final two things to mention, and arguably two of the largest announcements/trailers here, were for the Silent Hill 2 remake being developed by Bloober Team and a new trailer showcasing some new gameplay for Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds. We have not gotten a lot of new details for either, but both Capcom and Konami (and Bloober) have showcased new gameplay elements for each game.
Monster Hunter Wilds shows the hunters riding a new mount similar to the dogs in Monster Hunter Rise, as well as some new moves/mechanics for classic weapon types.
Silent Hill 2’s new trailer showed off some opening bits of James Sutherland arriving just outside of Silent Hill as well as some over the shoulder combat ala the newer Resident Evil games.
There were no mind-blowing new announcements in today’s event, but there are rumors circulating about new Sony first party games being revealed at Summer Games Fest this year, so keep an eye out for those announcements as well. I think today’s showing had a good bit for anybody, showing off more from 3rd party studios this time than the expected first party blowout.
You can watch the State of Play in its entirety here:
