Sony has announced their first State of Play for 2024 will take place on January 31st at 2 pm PT / 5 pm ET / 10 pm GMT. It will be available to be watched on YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok. This announcement comes after several weeks of speculation that a State of Play would occur in the last week of January or the First Week of February.
According to Sony’s blog, the event will cover 15+ games and will run roughly forty minutes, which is around the usual runtime audiences might expect. They are the second major studio to hold an event this year, with Xbox having previously held their Developer Direct earlier this month. There is speculation that Nintendo also plans to hold one soon, as they usually do, but as of yet nothing has been announced.
Of the many titles that will be showcased only 2 were dropped by name, Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin. Rise is slated to be released on March 22nd and is an open-world title set in Edo period Japan from the developer of Wo Long and Nioh. Stellar Blade is the debut title of developer ShiftUp slated for 2024 with no official date. Both titles are console exclusives for the PlayStation 5.
Additionally, there have been several rumored titles that will make an appearance there. One of these is the Until Dawn remaster which is expected to see the exclusive from SuperMassive release on PlayStation 5 and PC. Another is a VR title in the Metro universe, which might fit given they made a point to say VR would be an important part of the showcase.
Both Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin are games I am very excited about, going further I would say they are my top two most anticipated games of 2024. That being said, all the hype behind them indicates they might be the killer apps Sony or I am excited for. The biggest title Sony has announced is Marvel’s Wolverine, and with the success of Spider-Man 2 last year, this might be the best time to finally showcase it as Sony needs a big name visually present right now more than ever given Microsoft’s exclusive Indiana Jones game finally being revealed.
This is also a crossroads for VR, especially for the expensive PSVR 2, which also needs a console purchase on top of its price tag. First Contact Entertainment announced they would be closing shortly after the release of PlayStation VR 2/ PlayStation 5 exclusive Firewall Ultra. As part of this announcement, they cited a lack of support for VR as a major cause. While it is great to highlight these games as part of State of Play events, Sony needs to showcase a bigger commitment to their headset, as great as it is already.
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