PlayStation State of Play: January 31st 2024

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PlayStation steps up early to get us excited for the year that follows. 

It’s been a hell of a few months for PlayStation. Between the departure of SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan, an apparent u-turn in their push towards live service games and a flurry of leaks impacting Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac Games they’ve had a lot going on. 

Having said all that numbers look good for Sony’s home console with a reported 50 million consoles sold. This puts the PlayStation 5 just a little behind its predecessor the PS4 which didn’t have to deal with global pandemics and manufacturing restraints. All this sets the plate for Sony and PlayStation. I sat down for the first State of Play of the year to find out how the PlayStation lines up for 2024. Here’s what happened…

Helldivers II

Kicking off the show was Helldivers II. With the release coming up on February 8th it makes total sense to remind everyone it’s coming. It looks like a great time! Starship Troopers with your friends looks like a blast to me and the shift to a 3rd person over-the-shoulder view is a welcome update to modernise the top-down perspective of the first entry. 

Stellar Blade

Stellar Blade was second from Shift Up. There’s an anime post-apocalyptic style which lets certain elements of the game pop against an otherwise pretty drab wasteland filled with cyberpunk-esque characters. There are options to set up camps in the wasteland when you’re not fighting corrupted machines, human hostiles or monstrous creatures. This feels like it could be an interesting new IP for PlayStation. It looks to me like it sits in between something like Bayonetta and the Final Fantasy series. It launches on April 26th. 

Shadow x Sonic Generations

Sonic is up next!! Those who read our own Gary Carter’s review of Sonic Superstars will know he was impressed. Add Shadow the Hedgehog and some suspicious, almost adventurous, snippets of gameplay into the mix and the blue blur could be onto another winner. This game looks to essentially be a remake of Sonic Generations from back in 2011 with some added Shadow, extra polish and most importantly a release in Autumn of 2024 ahead of Shadow’s big screen debut in December. 

Zenless Zone Zero

Hoyoverse showed off Zenless Zone Zero for the PS5. It looks very pretty, almost persona-esque, and I prefer the poppy, cartoony look for this over the slightly mortared washed-out Stellar Blade palette. 

Foamstars

Foamstars is on its way to PlayStation Plus so it makes sense they get their moment in this state of play. One of many hopeful live service games on PlayStations. The jury is still out here. I’m not sure if see it catching on but decide for yourself on February 6th. 

Dave the Diver

Dave the Diver was one of the breakout indies of last year. I use the term indie lightly considering the massive publisher behind it. What can’t be argued is that it made some real waves in 2023 and is a no-brainer for PS5. It’s coming this April… and it’s bringing GODZILLA?!

V Rising

Stunlock Studios follows up the King of the Monsters with a Monster of their own. V Rising is a Survival action RPG that feels like the one child of Castlevania and Diablo. Looks good! I’m not super familiar but it’s built a strong facade following its launch into early access on PC. I’ll be taking a look when it lands on PS5 this year. 

Silent Hill?!

It’s a big one!! Konami and PlayStation talk about what’s next for the Silent Hill franchise. Silent Hill: The Short Message is a free-to-play silent hill entry available today! It looks like it wants to reintroduce players to the franchise with a playable trailer… smart. A good way to get players on our side before they hit us with a huge announcement Silent Hill 2 is in development for the PlayStation 5. What was shown wasn’t quite up to the standards of the recent Resident Evil remakes but hey, it’s early days!

Judas

Ken Levine gave us a taste of what’s coming next to the PS5 a while back and we got a little more in this State of Play. It looks bizarre, surrealist, and very Bioshock, without the name of course. Judas is available on the wishlist, but there’s no window for release yet. 

Metro Awakening VR

PlayStation finally has a crack at convincing players to invest in the PSVR2 with Metro Awakening VR which is coming this year and is being developed in collaboration with Dmitry Glukhovsky and Deep Silver. 

Legendary Tales

Sticking to VR we’ll be able to step into a new fantasy world that gave me some real Elder Scrolls vibes. It suffered following Metro which looked fantastic visually. Still, Legendary Tales looks pretty consistent with most VR games and could be some good fun when it launches later this year.

Dragons Dogma II

Capcom has been hitting and hitting as of late finding success with Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter and more. Dragons Dogma II looks to follow that trend in March and is looking pretty impressive.

 

Rise of Ronin

Rise of Ronin from Team Ninja. The hack-and-slash combat looks intense and the game stands to benefit from its setting. Ghost of Tsushima is inevitably going to be held alongside this game as a massive hit for PlayStation but with a release coming up in March it’ll be scratching that samurai itch for many. 

Until Dawn

Yet Another rumour coming into this state of play was an update to Until Dawn and that’s what we got. Built from the ground up for the PS5, Until Dawn is back. I don’t know what to say here. If you haven’t played Until Dawn this should be what prompts you to jump in. It’s a brilliant horror experience and this will inevitably be the best way to experience it. That or hang around until the rumoured Film/TV series rears its head….

The next one is why I’m here. 

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Hideo Kojima has spent most of his career thus far producing the smash-hit Metal Gear Solid series for every PlayStation console. Death Stranding was the first entry from Kojima Productions following a messy departure from Konami and while many loved it, myself included, it still seems to divide opinions. DS2, the inevitable sequel, was announced a while back and will use the Decima engine developed by Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West creators Guerilla games as in the first game. I’m not even going to attempt to explain the content of this trailer. They showed more than I expected, including the fruits of Yoji Shinkawa’s labour with mechs, robot samurai, and the return of Troy Baker as Higgs. It looks bizarre and wonderful. The weirdness of Death Stranding is turned up to 11 in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach which is coming in 2025. 

But wait….there’s more…

Herman Hulst then introduces Hideo Kojima to announce another project from Kojima Productions. An untitled action-espionage game that will enter production following Death Stranding 2. This announcement is followed by a nifty little drone pan that shows the duo on a sound stage in Columbia Pictures. I’m sure there’s a reason for this that isn’t clear but Kojima does state, as he often does, that the game will be a movie, as well as an interactive experience using actors, fashion etc. To me that puts this project in line with OD the project Kojima Production is currently developing with Xbox. Most importantly, it will allow Hideo Kojima the opportunity to put a close to his relationship with the steal, action, and espionage genre on his terms. 

Conclusion

This very much closed out the show but PlayStation did make the smart move of announcing another state of Play on February 6th covering Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. 

This felt pretty solid to me. It sets up the next few months for PlayStation, a couple of nice indies, the return of Silent Hill to PlayStation, The spiritual successor to Bioshock and some good old-fashioned lunacy from Hideo Kojima. Finally, Fantasy VII would have felt like a miss if they didn’t explicitly tell us it was getting the stage to itself at the start of next month. 

Still, no updates on Spider-Man 2, a much-loved game that left very little for players after completion, is a shame. There are also a lot of big players over at PlayStation that continue to be radio silent. Hopefully, we’ll hear more from these studios throughout the year.

Rapid Reviews Rating

4 out of 5

4

You can read more about PlayStations announcements over at the Playstation.blog