Yesterday afternoon, Sony gave its latest “State of Play” presentation showcasing new and upcoming games for its platforms and from its studios. While the response to Sony’s show has ranged from enthusiastic glee to outright outrage, we’re going to sidestep all of that and just show you the stuff that was presented during the presentation—some of which we think is downright cool, and a surprising amount of which is also coming to PC.
First up was a long cinematic trailer for Sony’s new in-house 5v5 hero shooter Concord. The style and tone of the game seems to heavily ape recent Marvel films, particularly those in the Guardians of the Galaxy series. A key note about this title is that Sony was very proud to proclaim that it includes a highly-diverse roster of characters. There will be a beta soon, but the global launch for both PC and PS5 is set for August 23rd.
Speaking of Marvel, there was actually a Marvel game shown at the State of Play as well. Marvel Rivals is a 5v5 hero shooter with MOBA elements featuring characters from the Marvel universe. It’s developed by Chinese mega-studio Netease, and has a distinctive comic-book-like art style. This is coming to PC and premium consoles later this year; the trailer announced a closed beta for PS5 in July.
One of the more curious segments of the presentation was the announcement of God of War: Ragnarok for PC. This game came out for PS5 in November of 2022 and continues the story of “Dad of War” presented in 2018’s God of War. The PC version is being handled by Jetpack Interactive (the same group that ported the previous game), and as a result it promises support for basically every PC game tech feature you could hope. That hits September 19th.
The contents of the stream were largely leaked beforehand, and one of the most hotly-anticipated trailers was for Capcom’s next entry in the mega-hit Monster Hunter series, Monster Hunter Wilds. This upcoming game brings a fresh style to the Monster Hunter series and numerous new features were revealed in the trailer, including what seems like a cannon attached to the player’s mount as well as new techniques for greatswords. This one isn’t coming until 2025, but it’ll be on premium consoles and PCs, and it’s one to keep your eye on.
A breakout title that garnered huge interest from certain segments of the market, Infinity Nikki wasn’t actually announced at the State of Play (it was announced last year), but this is probably its widest exposure. Nikki is a series of Chinese mobile games where you very literally play dress-up with a paper doll, but Infinity Nikki looks to take the series into the full-3D action-RPG domain. The Nikki series has absurdly deep lore for what the games are, so it’s nice to see that hard work apparently coming to fruition. This one’s due for a beta test later this year.
Ballad of Antara was another surprise announcement at the show. It’s a free-to-play fantasy-themed action RPG with what looks like quite frenetic combat and some top-tier Unreal Engine 5 visuals. There are multiple playable characters, but the goal is to restore the natural environments of the game with the help of a small child you carry on your back. This one’s coming to PS5, PC, and mobile, and curiously, it’s going to be single-player.
It’s been a while since the last Dynasty Warriors game; developer Omega Force has been busy with various spin-off titles including Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Fate/Samurai Remnant, not to mention the woefully underrated Wild Hearts. Dynasty Warriors Origins was unveiled at the State of Play, and it reveals a new protagonist for the series as well as what Omega Force says are the “largest battles ever seen”. This one’s coming next year, and will probably find its way to PC eventually.
Another hotly-anticipated title, the remake of Silent Hill 2 got a new trailer showing 13 minutes of gameplay footage. The editing is fast and frenetic at times, so it’s hard to get much of a sense for how the game plays, but the community is divided over this title more than perhaps any other. Silent Hill 2 is one of the most beloved video games of all time, and neither developer Bloober nor publisher Konami have exactly been swinging for the fences lately, so we’re eager to see how this one plays out when it launches on October 8th.
There were more titles revealed at the State of Play, including Path of Exile 2 for PS5 and a wuxia adventure called Where Winds Meet, but surprisingly, the game that seems to have gotten the biggest positive response from gamers is actually the sequel to PS5 pack-in tech demo Astro’s Playroom. The new game is simply titled Astro Bot, and it seems strongly reminiscent of recent Mario titles besides being packed with references to beloved PlayStation games both new and old. This one promises to be a technical tour de force when it hits on September 6th.