PlayStation State of Play (Thursday 30th May 2024 @ 23:00 BST)

[Julius]

Finally!

Quote

Tune in live for updates on PS5 and PS VR2 titles, plus a look at PlayStation Studios games arriving later this year.

The 30+ minute show features 14 titles, and begins May 30 at 3pm PT / 6pm ET | May 31 12am CEST / 7am JST on YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok. See you then!

 

Edited May 29 by Julius

[drahkon]

Me when either a new Astro game is announced but it's PSVR2 exclusive/hybrid or when no new Astro game is announced:

I'm gonna expect nothing so I won't be disappointed

Edit: PSVR2 games...BLERGH. I mean...good for peeps who bought it

Edited May 29 by drahkon

[Dcubed]

Ooh, early this year.  Nice.

Can't imagine that there's gonna be much coming from first party this year outside of the new Astro Bot though... probably the last couple of PSVR2 games that were in production before everything got shut down with London Studio.

I'd imagine that this'll be predominantly focused on games due to arrive in 2025 (Monster Hunter Wilds, Wolverine, maybe Media Molecule's, Housemarque and Sucker Punch's next titles etc), but perhaps we'll see release dates for Silent Hill 2 Remake and MGS3 Delta? They'll surely be coming out this year at least.

Bend Studio putting out something this year isn't impossible, but considering that we've heard nothing in the way of rumblings, rumours and leaks? I doubt it.  More likely their next title will be coming in 2025.

Edited May 29 by Dcubed

[Hero-of-Time]

6 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Ooh, early this year.  Nice.

Can't imagine that there's gonna be much coming from first party this year outside of the new Astro Bot though... probably the last couple of PSVR2 games that were in production before everything got shut down with London Studio.

I'd imagine that this'll be predominantly focused on games due to arrive in 2025 (Monster Hunter Wilds, Wolverine, maybe Media Molecule's, Housemarque and Sucker Punch's next titles etc), but perhaps we'll see release dates for Silent Hill 2 Remake and MGS3 Delta? They'll surely be coming out this year at least.

Bend Studio putting out something this year isn't impossible, but considering that we've heard nothing in the way of rumblings, rumours and leaks? I doubt it.  More likely their next title will be coming in 2025.

That's rumoured to be getting its showing at the Xbox event.

Probably won't watch this live. It's well past my bed time. Sony still treating us UK/Euro peeps like its E3. I suppose it is better than a 2am showing.

I'll be happy enough with a new Astro game being announced. I can't see anything else being shown that would interest me. 

[Dcubed]

Ooh! What if we're getting the rumoured Greek God of War Remake/Remaster trilogy announcement here?  Certainly has been long enough since Bluepoint's last release in 2021, and... well... you know... they made the original GOW HD remasters on PS3 to begin with...

I'd be down for that!

[Julius]

7 hours ago, drahkon said:

Me when either a new Astro game is announced but it's PSVR2 exclusive/hybrid or when no new Astro game is announced:

I'm gonna expect nothing so I won't be disappointed

Ah don't worry, it could be worse they could always pull the "we're proud to announce that we're closing Asobi and that we're done with Japan, thank you and good night" 

I have to imagine it'll be a PS5-focused title, but I think it may come with the potential for some sort of VR2 mode or exclusive levels, which will set them up to work on a VR2 exclusive title down the road quite nicely. 

7 hours ago, drahkon said:

PSVR2 games...BLERGH. I mean...good for peeps who bought it

Aye, their handling of VR2 has been the only thing worse than their first party output this gen imo (obviously I mean this relative to their crazy output last gen, which was consistently high in both quality and quantity). 

"Let's release a £500+ peripheral, barely support it with high-end first-party offerings, but support it just enough that it takes up 20% - 30% of each State of Play and Showcase". That PC adapter is probably the best thing that's going to happen for VR2 until Asobi put something out on it (if they put something out on it). 

3 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Ooh, early this year.  Nice.

Can't imagine that there's gonna be much coming from first party this year outside of the new Astro Bot though... probably the last couple of PSVR2 games that were in production before everything got shut down with London Studio.

I'd imagine that this'll be predominantly focused on games due to arrive in 2025 (Monster Hunter Wilds, Wolverine, maybe Media Molecule's, Housemarque and Sucker Punch's next titles etc), but perhaps we'll see release dates for Silent Hill 2 Remake and MGS3 Delta? They'll surely be coming out this year at least.

Bend Studio putting out something this year isn't impossible, but considering that we've heard nothing in the way of rumblings, rumours and leaks? I doubt it.  More likely their next title will be coming in 2025.

Yeah, I think it's smart to get out ahead of Not-E3 if they've not got any megatons to drop. It's kind of crazy how expectations have kind of slumped for these things as the gen has gone on, but there's always a chance for some third-party Japanese wildcard to grab all the headlines with these things. 

The Silent Hill Transmission is actually taking place at the same time as this, so we're getting Silent Hill 2 Remake news either way I imagine...but I'm going to die of laughter if we don't get it in either 

Bend feels like an outside shout, I also think it's worth them throwing a tease for something big in there from one of the big dogs like Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, etc., just seems to be part of Sony's MO a lot of the time these days. Right now, multiplayer offerings aside - which I selfishly want to bomb to send a message to their board, but also want to succeed for the sake of their studios existing and no-one losing their jobs, y'know? - I'm really getting 2020 vibes from PlayStation, when we were going into that summer with no word on what was coming up besides The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima, and they feel set up to announce a couple of things here, even if only teases, which we might not see until the end of the gen (from the above big boys).

Anyways, not saying it will happen for sure, and think it would be much more likely at a Showcase proper, but if we get a tease for *something* here, I think it could be the Ghost of Tsushima sequel. That game did gangbusters, samurai are "in" this year between Rise of Ronin and the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Shadows, and I have to imagine that there'll be a bunch of asset reuse, even if there's probably plenty of scope creep with a much larger map, more ways to get around and styles of play, etc. 2026? 

Let's not forget a noticeable chunk of this presentation is very likely (unfortunately) going to be their upcoming first party multiplayer stuff 

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Probably won't watch this live. It's well past my bed time. Sony still treating us UK/Euro peeps like its E3. I suppose it is better than a 2am showing.

And now I'm missing E3 all over again 

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'll be happy enough with a new Astro game being announced. I can't see anything else being shown that would interest me. 

This is honestly pretty much where I'm at going into this too: expecting and hoping for the next Astro game, and then...potential snooze fest between VR2 and multiplayer stuff. 

Prove me wrong, PlayStation!

(please)

2 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Ooh! What if we're getting the rumoured Greek God of War Remake/Remaster trilogy announcement here?  Certainly has been long enough since Bluepoint's last release in 2021, and... well... you know... they made the original GOW HD remasters on PS3 to begin with...

I'd be down for that!

Maybe? It feels like we're long overdue on anything from Bluepoint, this is the joint longest I think they've gone without releasing a game themselves (and that was crossing the threshold from one gen to the next, even with a focus on remasters); going to have to um, actually you here though and point out that Demon's Souls was 2020, though they did support on Ragnarök back in 2022, which, combined with the leaked concept art of theirs included in the Insomniac leaks, certainly does suggest they're working on something GoW. 

Now, whether that's remake/remaster stuff for the original trilogy, I'm not too sure – I think they'd be better served just getting non-streaming versions of those games on PS+, and the leaked art from what I remember if it seemed to suggest more of a spin-off, with no Kratos and Egypt..? Though obviously it's concept art and could be from forever ago, so who knows what their plans are these days  though I guess a basic remaster akin to the HD collections back on PS3 could help support a release like that. 

What they should really be doing, though, is remastering/remaking a game like Omega Boost 

[Julius]

The link is already up:

This video will run for 35 minutes and 32 seconds. 

[Hero-of-Time]

6 hours ago, Julius said:

What they should really be doing, though, is remastering/remaking a game like Omega Boost 

I will buy and play that one of these days.

[drahkon]

Just noticed that the broadcast is at midnight tonight.
I slept zero hours last night so this is gonna be fun...

Kinda wanna see a good fps from Sony. CoD doesn't cut it anymore but it's still the most fun out there for my mate and me.

[Hero-of-Time]

I see a leaked list of what is being shown is doing the rounds. If true, I'm definitely happy I wasn't staying up for the show. 

 

[Julius]

8 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I see a leaked list of what is being shown is doing the rounds. If true, I'm definitely happy I wasn't staying up for the show. 

I thought you were a fan of Bloodborne, though?

[Julius]

Started off with a countdown going into another countdown. New animations though, so...okay? 

If that doesn't just sum up the state of PlayStation right now 

[Julius]

First up is Concord. 

Cool looking CGI character vignette but...eh, hard to feel too invested in CGI trailers for games these days (especially seeing as they don't seem to go as big and epic as they can?). 

Is a first-person hero shooter. 

And I'm out.

Third-person camera pullbacks for dodges and special animations are cool and seem to be in vogue, though, between this and Indiana Jones. 

Pre-launch beta in July before August launch. Bleh. Maybe I'll give it a bit of time with some friends. 

Edited May 30 by Julius

[Julius]

And now Ragnarök on PC...

Cool for PC players 

These PC trailers will never be as epic as the pre-launch ones for initial launch though, with how much "GOTY/includes DLC!" and "minimum graphics card requirement" flashing across the screen 

[Julius]

We've hit the international games and VR2 section of the show

woo

[Julius]

10 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I see a leaked list of what is being shown is doing the rounds. If true, I'm definitely happy I wasn't staying up for the show. 

Looking like the list was right 

[Julius]

Starting to get the feeling they might be ending on Astro unless there's a mega surprise tease here

As much as I love Astro, imagine shuttering Japan Studio and then making the fleshed out version of the packed-in demo a State of Play stinger

[Julius]

There he is 

Edited May 30 by Julius

[CrowingJoe79]

Silent Hill 2 = 08/10/2024

[Julius]

I'll flesh out my thoughts a bit later but for now, first impressions...

Y I K E S

I hate to say it, but PlayStation have put themselves in a bit of a corner here I think. It's starting to feel like there is an unfair and unbelievable amount riding on the next Showcase, whenever it is (September maybe?). 

Astro aside, this turned out to be a total nothingburger of a show

[CrowingJoe79]

Yeah. The event wasn't worth a toss. But revealing the release date of SH2 was a great confirmation.

[Julius]

Alright, so for some more fleshed out thoughts...

I don't understand the marketing for Concord at all. We had a CGI teaser of the inside of a ship before, they start things off here with an interesting enough CGI vignette focused on exhibiting these characters...and then it's a first-person hero shooter, with the occasional look at third-person? As if this wasn't weak enough, later on in the show, there's another hero shooter which to the average person is going to be infinitely more interesting than this simply because of the characters involved, and that's Marvel Rivals. 2 hero shooters in 14 games is two too many as it is, but to position yourself against an already successful IP sounds downright stupid. Crazy that of all the games shown, Concord is the first one making it out of the gate for its full launch. 

Ragnarök on PC is neat. 1 game of 14 in a State of Play level neat, though, considering how we know PlayStation first-party offerings aren't having sales completely correlate on PC? Very bizarre, could've been a blog post and a tweet. 

Dynasty Warriors Origins was far too vague to warrant 'Origins' being in the title, and didn't show anything at all to make it stand out from previous DW titles. Pass. 

Infinity Nikki (with very Mario Odyssey-like music) and Ballad of Antara are both Infold titles, a recently announced brand from PlayStation focused on publishing international titles. They look like they take themselves a little too seriously at points for my liking, though Infinity Nikki probably gets the edge for me because it's a magical girl platformer with a cat and you can take photos, vs...well, here's yet another take on Anime Souls™!

Onto VR2 titles, then, of which there were as many here as we had hero shooters: 2. Skydance's Behemoth actually looks neat and I'd check it out if I had VR2, that Alien: Rogue Incursion tease did absolutely nothing for it. What a waste of time in this show. 

Where Winds Meet was a game we first - and last? - saw at the TGAs back in 2022 if I'm remembering right, and, bleh, very Soulsy anime game which admittedly looks better than Ballad of Antara, but AGAIN – out of 14 games, 2 of very similar look and feel? Shocking. 

Until Dawn feels like a waste of a remaster/remake effort still; Path of Exile 2 actually looks great but was already announced for PS5 before, with the only new news here being about the Early Access window if I'm remembering right; Silent Hill 2 Remake actually got its best trailer to date! But I don't feel that's saying much at all, and I think the previous trailers have already inflicted enough damage there, nice for it to get a release date though, happy Halloween I guess! Monster Hunter Wilds got its first gameplay trailer which had a bunch of strange cuts and still gives us the massive window of being nebulously placed somewhere in '2025' where it's hard to care too much – remember when World had about 6 months between announcement and launch? Some neat moments in this trailer but I can't see it having moved the needle for anyone who wasn't already in. 

Astro Bot is the obvious headliner here, and the first time in a minute where I'm pumped for a brand new offering from PlayStation. Thank goodness we won't be waiting too long for it! 

To go back to the show quality for a sec, I think it's simply the case of really poor curation, with several overlaps in genre/look/feel in far too small a show to allow for it, and of these 14 games, only 4 got release dates: Concord (23rd Aug), Astro Bot (6th Sept), Ragnarök on PC (19th Sept), and Silent Hill 2 (8th Oct). 3 of these games are listed for 2025, and everything else has a vague window or is some form of beta test or early access. It's a really poor showing and again places emphasis on how weak the first-party offering from PlayStation has become as this gen has gone on. 

For the first time in my memory, this is the first time PlayStation have had a true swing and a miss in this May/June period we would have referred to as the E3 window of all. They've now set up a fumbling and bumbling Xbox to outdo them without too much trouble, and I find it hard to imagine that Nintendo do anything but annihilate any memory of what was shown tonight besides Astro. 

I said it before, but I really do feel like there's now too much pressure on the next PlayStation Showcase, assuming that we get one in the next 12 months, probably September? It's getting to the point where it feels like we need a Venom spin-off announcement for next year coupled with one of the Ghost of Tsushima sequel, Santa Monica Studio's new IP or Naughty Dog's new IP to tide us over up to the end of the gen when they'll shuffle out the last few games – but seriously, what a disappointment it is to even just find myself typing that.

The PS5 might be doing well in terms of console sales, but even taking COVID having an impact into consideration at this point, compare the first 3½ years - the first half of a typical 7-year gen! - to that of any other PlayStation home console, and it's hard to not be disappointed. The change in direction to lean into MTX-focused multiplayer offerings seems to have disrupted so much over at PlayStation, like with a studio as talented as Naughty Dog spending years on end on a Last of Us online game for it to just go...nowhere. I imagine they'd have at least one game out this gen otherwise; instead, they've become immortalised at the TLOU studio between the show and two pretty unnecessary remasters/remakes of the earlier games. 

Anyways, I'm giving this showing a 3.5/10. 

1 whole point of that is down to my buddy Astro, but from memory, I think that's the lowest score I've ever given PlayStation. Let's hope for their sake that I don't find myself saying that again 

Edited June 3 by Julius

[Dcubed]

Astro Bot looks legit.  If it comes to PC, I might give it a go

[Hero-of-Time]

7 hours ago, Julius said:

Looking like the list was right 

Yeah, looks to be a bit of a bust. As expected, there's only Astro Bot that appealed to me. There's also Monster Hunter but it's still ages away and the fact that it's gone full OW means I'm pretty meh about it anyway.

 

[drahkon]

The SoP had lots of stuff I'm interested in.

A shame, though, that I probably won't play most of it if my current gaming situation doesn't change