PlayStation State of Play (Thursday 14th September @ 22:00 BST)

[Julius]

Quote

Tomorrow's broadcast will focus on updates to previously announced games coming to PlayStation consoles. From indie and PS VR2 highlights, to major upcoming titles from our third-party partners, our latest show has something for everyone!

Aligned perfectly with TGS (coming up at the end of next week), so I think there's a pretty obviously high chance of Rebirth news. 

As for first party scheduled for the rest of 2023: Spider-Man 2 has previews scheduled to drop on Friday, Stellar Blade is published by PS Studios but developed by a third party (so maybe it's here?), and idk what the plan is for Helldivers II, that's starting to feel like it's getting bundled in with PS+ tbh. 

As for 2024, Rise of Ronin is another case of published by Sony but developed by a third party, so I guess there's a chance that turns up, too. 

Expectations are really low, but we do seem to be in a bit of a dip for first party at the moment, especially after the delay to Factions announced earlier this year, but thankfully third party releases have been rock solid this year. And here's to another event without an update on Little Devil Inside, I guess? 

Edited September 13, 2023 by Julius

[drahkon]

Monster Train for PS5 please.
Well, I guess  Monster Hunter: World 2 is more likely to show up.

Anyways, my evening plans for tomorrow are set.

[Dcubed]

Can’t help but feel that going Directly head to head against the ND isn’t the smartest of ideas here… but hey, you do you Sony.

The only thing I really want are standalone releases of Daytona 2 and Fighting Vipers 2, playable outside of LAD Gaiden; so gimme that!

[drahkon]

4 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Can’t help but feel that going Directly head to head against the ND isn’t the smartest of ideas here… but hey, you do you Sony.

Pretty sure they don't care.
If the event sucks, enthusiasts will be up in arms, yes. But their stuff keeps selling like crazy  

I'll look forward to both Direct and SoP. I have no expectations either way.
To be honest, I wish there were no gaming news for a while as I have so many games to play...if 2024 provided absolutely 0 new games my PS5 would still run hot

[Julius]

Well well well, time for some Helldivers 2 tonight then! 

Kind of hoping the Direct got the third party remasters/remakes out of the way...

You know, other than Battlefront II. Give it to me, Sony! 

[Julius]

Man, Sony really need to get their act together on when these things start. 

They typically start a few minutes late, and this one they told us starts at 22:00...but the countdown on the stream is until 22:05? 

Also, they've been a little sneaky and only just mentioned late this evening that the event will be a bit over 20 minutes long...

....which there's no mention of in the original blog post (which is even linked in this updated tweet?).

I'm getting some really weird vibes from this one. Here's to hoping I'm wrong. 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Julius

[Julius]

2 hours ago, Julius said:

I'm getting some really weird vibes from this one. Here's to hoping I'm wrong. 

Well, I was not wrong. That showing was middling and weird as hell. 

Spider-Man 2 (best showing for that game so far imo) and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth aside, that was a very middle of the road State of Play. Not the worst one we've had (I think that title still goes to the one with the Little Devil Inside preview...and that game is still nowhere to be seen, welp), but it just felt so by the numbers. 

I also thought that the Helldivers 2 showing was abysmal, and I think all of the trailers for that game have completely missed the mark. We don't need fake team chats in 2023. Do you remember the last AAA game to do that during a big show like this? Anthem immediately comes to mind for me. And how is Anthem doing?  as it is, unfortunately, I think Helldivers 2 is destined to be dead within two weeks. I don't think the game itself looks terrible - I do, however, think the trailers haven't done a good job of telling us what, exactly, the game's gameplay hook is supposed to be - but man, if this is a sign of how PlayStation plans to market their big multiplayer push, then I think they're in for a rude awakening over the next couple of years. 

New plates and DualSense controllers are neat too, think I'll be in for the silver one, as one of my launch controllers has ended up drifting pretty badly in the left stick. 

But, anyways, yeah. Not the worst State of Play showing, but far from the best, at least for me. It's crazy to me how PlayStation have successfully managed to create two tiers of expectations for their shows, with State of Plays - since the first Showcase - being fat and away the weaker of their two presentation types. 

Leaves us in an interesting spot, I think, because I'm struggling to see us getting another show from them before the end of year? Which means, as things stand, there isn't really much on the horizon announced from a first party perspective. That's fine, I think, but it's also rarely been the case over the last decade with PlayStation, so while third party is picking up the slack, it really, really feels like Insomniac is carrying PlayStation's first party and then some this generation.