With Tokyo Game Show on the Horizon, Sony decided to give a little taste of things to come for their platform, slightly on the heels of the frankly bonkers price announcement for the PS5 Pro. There really were no huge surprises here, but the State of Play show tends to focus on things coming sooner than later, and that held true today.
It feels like gaming announcement shows lately just can’t catch a break. While one could argue that’s the fault of the industry, it is hard to muster a lot of excitement for these shows as they continually appear, announce mostly things that we just heard about a few weeks ago, and then vanish again. The better versions of these shows are the ones that announce things coming in the next few months to even right now, in the classic Nintendo Direct fashion, and Sony’s State of Play shows seem to have tried to work in that field of late, showing upcoming releases, sprinkled with teasers for further away projects.
Sony’s had kind of an awkward month, though, with the colossal failure of Concord and the flat landing of the PS5 Pro price point did not position this show with a great amount of hype, and frankly, the showings did very little to alleviate that feeling that this was just yet another show. Still, there were a few interesting surprises, so let’s get into the reveals.
Astro Bot DLC
Developer: Sony
Release Date: This Fall
Platforms: PS5
Marcy: Sony’s somewhat surprising platformer success Astro Bot did far more than cash in on nostalgia for Playstation history and platforming games of yore, finding a very receptive audience with solid gameplay and fun, bright visuals. As a reward, there’ll be some free DLC coming that updates the game with more levels, and new costumes for Astro: One for Shift Up’s Stellar Blade, and the other for Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2, 2 of the biggest Sony games of the past year.
Horizon Zero Down: Remastered
Developer: Guerilla Games
Release Date: Oct. 31st 2024
Platform: PS5
Marcy: There were a lot of jokes ahead of the State of Play that the show would be just a constant string of announcements for Horizon spin-offs and remakes, and, well, that wasn’t exactly wrong. Still, it was nice to get an official release date for the Remaster: October 31st. Happy Halloween! If you owned the original PS4 version of the game, you can even upgrade it to the PS5 Remaster for 9.99, which is a very generous offer in a day of full priced remakes.
Jonathan: Between this and The Last Of Us Part Yearly Installment, Sony’s getting into quite a groove when it comes to finding ways to lean on its studios to give them multiple bites at the apple with their “remakes” and remasters. PC owners will be paying the $9.99 to upgrade their editions of the game as well.
Lego Horizon Adventures
Developer: Studio Gobo/Guerilla Games
Release Date: Nov. 14th
Platforms: PS5, Switch, PC
Marcy: Well, here it is! The release date of Lego Horizon Adventures. There isn’t much else to say that the other trailers didn’t reveal, but we did get to see a bit more variety in what the game is going to offer and how the co-op mode will function. Although this is a Sony title, this is also coming for Switch and PC, so if you’re dying to play Horizon but Lego, but not on your PS5, well, you’re in luck. I guess.
Monster Hunter Wilds
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: Feb. 28, 2025
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
Marcy: There’s been a fairly continuous drip stream of trailers for Monster Hunter Wilds, and this one came with the thing everyone desperately wanted: a release date. Monster Hunter Wilds will hit the gaming world in February 2025, and I for one can’t wait. I’m stoked to get into a new open world rendition of the classic franchise. There really wasn’t much else new shown here, so all you really need to know is the date, but the trailer is pretty hype.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins
Developer: Koei Tecmo
Release Date: January 17, 2025
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X, Windows
Marcy: The wildest thing about this trailer, or at least, the overall title, is that this is the first mainline Dynasty Warriors game since… 2018? That feels like it can’t be right, but it is! Anyway, this new trailer showed off some cinematic shots, but also the gameplay that was shown looked exactly how you would likely expect Dynasty Warriors to look in 2024, which is… the same as it always looked, but nicer. I’m not exactly expecting revolutionary gameplay here, so I’m satisfied, but if you never liked Dynasty Warriors before, this probably won’t change your mind much.
Jonathan: Being able to jump off a bridge with hundreds of guys on it down three hundred feet into valley with three hundred additional guys on it is the only kind of technological upgrade this kind of game needs, and it delivered.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remaster
Developer: Crystal Dynamics and Aspyr
Release: December 2024
Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Steam, Switch
Marcy: To be honest, I’ve always been kind of shocked at how long it took for these games to get remasters. I assume it must have something to do with licensing and ownership, because I remember when the Legacy of Kain series was a Big Deal title that then just fell into complete obscurity. Although the trailer didn’t reveal it, this is coming to practically every platform under the sun, so don’t worry: you don’t need a PS5 Pro to play a game from 25 years ago (that hurt to type so bad).
Jonathan: Expected HD Raziel to look extremely goofy, and he does not disappoint.
Lunar Remastered Collection
Developer: GungHo
Release Date: Spring 2025
Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Steam, Switch
Marcy: I honestly was sort of speechless when I saw this announcement. Lunar was a foundational game for me: I rented a Sega CD at Blockbuster to play it, and it was the second RPG I ever played after Final Fantasy 3 (6) at the time. Lunar has been gone for a while, so I’m deeply curious how this remaster came about after the series languished into retro obscurity. I’m excited to give the games another play, though, and relive some of my nostalgia; I’ll have to get my Ghaleon Punching Puppet out from the initial PSOne rerelease to celebrate in style.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Developer: BioWare
Release Date: Oct. 31st
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Windows
Marcy: Not really sure why Halloween became a big release date for this year, but one of the more anticipated RPGs of the year is finally on its way. There’s been a lot of preview material for Dragon Age out there lately, including a fairly… awkward character creator that has caused both tiring and stupid discourse and actually insightful commentary about how the game kind of looks a little hideous. Still, it’ll be nice to see if BioWare can restore some faith in franchise with the release when it hits in a little over a month.
Jonathan: The Grey Wardens having a field maneuver order for “Second Dragon” tells you all you need to know about how beleaguered those guys have been by the constant stakes-raising in this franchise since the good ol’ Teutonic blood-and-mud days of Dragon Age Origins. Still, this is the most promising a game that’s been in development for 10 years and restarted four times has ever looked, I think.
Fear the Spotlight
Developer: Cozy Game Pals & Blumhouse Games
Release Date: October 2024
Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Steam
Marcy: During the Summer Game Fest, Blumhouse Games made a surprise announcement that they were a thing, using the vast money from horror movies to start funding development of horror games, and sure enough the first title of that partnership arrived with a really fun looking trailer. Fear the Spotlight is going for a retro PSOne horror vibe, and it really seems to nail it from the visuals and audio in what we were shown here. The game was initially released before, so if you feel like you’ve heard of it, you did–it was removed from Steam in 2023 so the developers could continue working on it, and it seemed that tied in well with Blumhouse willing to fork over some cash to help it out.
The Midnight Walk
Developer: Moon Hood Studios
Release Date: 2025
Platforms: PS5 and PSVR2
Marcy: One of the few Playstation VR2 titles shown, Midnight Walk is a dark fantasy game that has a sort of Dark Tim Burton-esque horror vibe that is, thankfully, also getting a non-VR release when it launches in 2025. I’m glad that there’s a non-VR version of this, because the game does look interesting, and frankly nothing kills my interest in a title than having it be VR. Maybe VR works for you, but not for me.
Ghost of Yotei
Developer: Sucker Punch
Release Date: 2025
Platforms: PS5, Possibly PC Later(?)
Marcy: The big surprise reveal of the show was the successor to Sucker Punch’s hit game Ghost of Tsushima, titled Ghost of Yotei. This time, Atsu (a female protagonist, so get ready for a lot of annoying bullshit discourse) takes the lead. This was a true teaser reveal, as no gameplay or details other than the new protagonist and setting (around Mount Yotei, thus the title) were shown, but if you liked Ghost of Tsushima, this will very likely be up your alley. I’ll be curious to check it out, and also hopeful for a PC release announcement, even if it comes a little later after the initial launch.
Jonathan: There’s a bit towards the end of the trailer where our hero manages to stare off a wolf into uneasy détente, which I’d be happy to see reflected in the gameplay. I don’t need to be killing so many wolves and wild dogs in my ronin game.
Wrap-Up
Marcy: There were a few other smaller announcements as well: Last of Us Part 1 is coming to PS Plus, Palworld launched on the PS5 at the time of this article, Hell is Us got a trailer, Alan Wake 2’s Lake House will be released in October, and Stellar Blade announced the least surprising DLC update of all time, partnering with Nier Automata. There was also a Hitman VR game for PSVR2, DLC for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge, Metro Awakening (VR), and Fantasian Neo Dimension will be coming to PS4 and PS5 in December. Finally… chromatic colored PS5s. I don’t know either, man.
Stay tuned for our coverage of Tokyo Game Show later this week, where we’ll hopefully see more great titles and some amazing updates on the horizon, or just a lot of teasers for games that won’t release for another year at worst. Until next time, dear reader!
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