The thing with State of Plays, and E3 very specific demographic: the noisy, overly engaged enthusiasts. You can never please everyone , of course – we all have different tastes – but it’s felt like PlayStation has been trying to hit as many demographics as possible for quite some time.
This livestream, though, was laser focused: it targeted hardcore gamers and it hit them with staggering precision. From start to finish, this was an absolute barnstormer, showing exciting releases across a variety of genres and scales. Crucially, a large number of the games had launch dates, with the second half of 2025 getting fleshed out in particular.
But before we glaze too hard, let’s get into the obvious criticism: there was very little in the way of first-party.
Sony made the somewhat awkward decision to tease Ghost of Yotei , announcing a future State of Play focused entirely on the sequel for July. While this does admittedly seem odd, these single game livestreams are often excellent – even the recent Borderlands 4 broadcast was well worth watching and helped sell the game. So, we’re looking forward to that.
Outside of that, the only other first-party announcement was Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls from PS XDev and Arc System Works. If you’re not a fan of fighting games, then it’s perhaps hard to illustrate just how important this announcement is, but you’ll no doubt have started to see some of the reactions filter through online.
There are two things we’d like to underline about this reveal: no one expected it and it looks absolutely incredible. While it’s felt like Sony has been building towards its own fighting game for quite some time – as was perhaps teased by the announcement of an official fight stick earlier in its presentation – no one could have predicted it’d assign the Guilty Gear makers to a console exclusive superhero brawler.
Furthermore, the art style on this is out of this world. Marvel Rivals has recently breathed life back into a tired collection of comic book character designs, and Fighting Souls looks set to continue that trend; the Gundam detailing on Iron Man’s helmet and the cutesy anime style of Kamala Khan are just chef’s kiss. With ArcSys’ pedigree, this is going to be a generational game.
Of course, we do concede fighting games aren’t for everyone, so we accept this may have been a disappointing closer for some. The reality is, though, Sony isn’t sitting on its hands: Saros , Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet , Marvel’s Wolverine , and Ghost of Yotei are all still very much on the way – heck, we’re getting Death Stranding 2: On the Beach later this month.
So we’re not sure we fully understand the criticism about the lack of first-party, because Sony has proven all generation long that it’ll pretty much only show games once they’re ready to go; Insomniac Games’ slasher is taking longer than expected, yes, but the developer has also been incredibly industrious during the PS5 generation, and looking at other Marvel properties, there seems to be a trend of announcing these projects too early. (Remember Marvel’s Blade , for example.)
But the purpose of State of Play is to get you excited about the future of gaming on your PS5, and there was so much great stuff packed into this presentation: Silent Hill F’s art looks extraordinary, Lumines Arise is a dream project from Enhance, Astro Bot is getting more free levels, Nioh 3 is going to be another killer entry in a supremely popular series, and even Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection is being handled better than we could have ever imagined.
It’s staggering that we’ve written over 600 words and still not even mentioned 007 First Light , the latest globe-trotting adventure from Hitman maker IO Interactive, and the fact that Pragmata is back in the public eye. Oh, and special mention must go to the remaster of one of the greatest PS1 games ever made, Final Fantasy Tactics .
Sprinkle in some madness from Suda51 in the form of Romeo Is a Dead Man , a delicious dark fantasy follow-up in the form of Bloodstained: The Scarlet , and, heck, even some awesome PS1 titles on PS Plus Premium , like the original Resident Evil 2 and Twisted Metal 3 .
This was a State of Play that utterly understood its assignment: it knew who was watching and what those people wanted to see. There’ll be other opportunities to promote more mainstream PS5 titles, but this was a showcase aimed at the hardcore gamers.
And to be honest, we doubt Sony’s done this week: the company almost always saves something for Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Fest God of War side-scroller. We know for sure Hideo Kojima will be presenting some new Death Stranding 2: On the Beach info over the coming days, too.
But if you can’t find one game you like from the latest State of Play, then perhaps you’re in the wrong hobby. Different strokes for different folks, we get it – but this was excellent. A truly brilliant snapshot of what the next year or so holds for the PS5.
What did you think of the State of Play? Are you feeling similarly enthusiastic about it, or do you think Sony actually missed the mark? Let us know in the comments section below.
How would you rate Sony's latest State of Play livestream for June 2025? (4,722 votes)
Excellent 14 %Very good 25 %Good 20 %Okay 16 %Poor 12 %Very poor 9 %I didn't watch 4 %
