State of Play | September 13, 2022

Helping to kick of this week of gaming news, PlayStation held a new State of Play this week. Interesting that they held this on the same day as Nintendo’s Direct, but definitely a different feel. While not as long as the Direct, they didn’t hold back with their 20 minutes showcase. In fact, I’d say they hit the ground running with their first reveal and then closed it strong.

If you happened to have missed it, click here to jump to the video. Below the video, I listed out each announcement with shortcut links to those parts. Let’s go over what were my highlights.

First things first, that reveal at the beginning. This is a good year for fighter fans. Earlier this year, we find out about Street Fighter 6. Now, we get the official reveal of Tekken 8 to kick off this State of Play. Included in-game video of a fight mixed with some scripted scenes. No tentative date, but more than enough for fans of the series.

Then to tie everything up, more gameplay from God of War Ragnarök with sound bites to help hint more of the story. This game looks amazing, and the previous game really helped set the stage for what this next one can be. Really curious to see what’s in store for Kratos and Atreus (aka, Boy). Granted, I feel like PlayStation trolled us a bit by starting of the God of War coverage with that limited edition controller reveal the way they did. I know I’m not the only who saw that and was wondering “WTF, where’s the new gameplay”. Sneaky.

These were both my major highlights if I’m being honest, but there were definitely other titles that definitely grabbed my attention. Lika a Dragon: Ishin! is finally getting a western release with remastered graphics. Stellar Blade (aka Project Eve) looks amazing and kind of game a bit of a Neir: Automata vibes, but that isn’t exactly bad. Social media around this title is definitely focusing on the main characters assets, which didn’t go unnoticed. They kind of made that hard to miss. And then there is Rise of the Ronin, set at the very end of the Edo Period in Japan where East meets West. Feeling like Ghost of Tsushima kicked off a new trend of games. Not going to complain though as this game really grabbed my attention.

I do want to mention the PlayStation Stars promotion they gave during the showcase. Could have gone without that if I’m being honest; but I’m also exceedingly skeptical about this whole program. Doesn’t help their CEO has been pushing the importance of needing to incorporate NFTs, but those digital awards give me pause. If PlayStation starts incorporating NFTs, this seems like the perfect place to, and I can’t say I like it. Didn’t find much to confirm these suspicions, I just can’t break it.

Outside of the Stars promo, I think PlayStation had a fairly good State of Play. Always feel like they could do more as there are more titles I would love to know more about. However, there is something to be said about a shorter showcase. Looking forward to their next one.