The year’s not-E3-but-basically-E3 starts on Thursday with Sony’s big summer State of Play showcase. PlayStation has already had a beautiful banner year thanks to a number of exclusive (Horizon forbidden west, Gran Turismo 7, Ghostwire: Tokyo) and a forthcoming renewal of its subscription services. But there is much more in the tube.
Where to look
Sony will stream the event further Youtube and Rich. It starts at 18:00 ET and lasts for about half an hour. Fun facts: As of this writing, more than 100 people are already waiting for the YouTube event to start. Come on, guys, it’s two days away. Just reload the page on Thursday! Your Chrome browser is prompting you to do so.
What to expect
Recently, Sony has tended to showcase its first-party games at dedicated State of Play events, where key games of interest are telegraphed in advance, so don’t hold back on anything about God of War Ragnarök or DLC for Horizon forbidden west. Sony say this event will feature “exciting revelations from our third-party partners, plus a sneak peek at more games in development for PlayStation VR2.”
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The safest from Sony’s third party partners right now is Square Enix’s Forsagtwhich is currently scheduled for PS5 (and PC) on October 11th. In 2020, at that time the not yet final fantasy action game was still known as Project AthiaSquare Enix said it would remain “console-exclusive” for the PS5 for at least two years. It’s for sure we’ll get another trailer. After all, these are marketing events.
Also in Square Enix’s pipeline are PS5 exclusive Final Fantasy XVI, announced back in 2020 and delayed last year, a result of production problems due to the ongoing pandemic. Its manufacturer recently stated the game was pretty much done. Currently, Square Enix has not planned its own non-E3 press, so Sony’s event seems as good as anywhere else to reveal a release date. Less likely, but not entirely impossible, is an official revelation for the follow-up Final Fantasy VII Remake. In January one of the game’s creative leads said info was TBA once this year. It’s going to be really cool to play as Cloud Strife again in 2027!
Capcom also does not currently have its own press machine planned for the 2022 conference vacuum. The least known amount here is Pragmataa game about … I’m not sure. Pragmata was shown at Sony’s State of Play in the summer of 2020, and is among the harvest of big budget only next generation games on it. Initially, it aims for 2022, Capcom has recently delayed it for next year. Maybe we’ll finally learn what the heck it’s like at this year’s event. Or hey, what’s wrong with the long rumored Resident Evil 4 re-recording?
It is highly unlikely that Sony will drop any hardware details on PSVR2, as a release date or a price point, during a livestreamed showcase that shares focus with a bunch of third-party developers. According to a recent investor briefing, the thing will start with 20 games out of the gate. The most lively PSVR2 game in development right now is Horizon Call of the Mountain, a spin-off of Guerrilla’s dazzlingly colorful entry into the post-apocalyptic canon of the open world. Sony’s selection event seems like a great place to show off some gameplay.
What to hope for (but not hold your breath) for
Remember how, in god of war (2018), Kratos is all like: “Do not give up your hopes, boy, but be ready for something too”? Yes, I love conflicting advice too! And even though Sony’s descriptive text of the event seems to create expectations for a state that does not focus on first-party exclusives, hey, you never know.
The obvious is God of War Ragnarök. Not that it’s an iron-clad confirmation of anything at all, but the game was recently rated by a credit rating agency in South Korea. Typically, this step only happens when a game is far ahead in production. (By the way, it’s 18+.) Last fall, PlayStation’s first-party hero Insomniac revealed two superhero games on it: Marvel’s Wolverine and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. The study also did not show gameplay.
Then there’s the big one. Over the weekend, a joke tweet started a firestorm of enthusiasm about one Blood-borne remake for PS5 and PC, developed by Bluepoint, the creators of the 2020s luxuriously produced Demons’ souls re-recording. To be crystal clear, the message was 100 percent a spoof; there is no public confirmation of one Blood-borne re-recording or PC release. But people bought into the scam partly because of how credible the context around it was: FromSoftware, the developer of the original, is like having a momentand Bluepoint, now a first-party PlayStation studio, are increases employment but has not announced his next project. Plus, Sony has recently stated an intention to increase its footprint on the PC. As Kratos says, be ready for anything.