State of Play has returned for another iteration with the focus today being on third-party partners and PlayStation VR2 titles. The event kicked off at 3 PM PT/6 PM ET and featured half an hour of reveals and updates.
Let’s dive in and recap everything shown today.
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Capcom was on hand to reveal the heavily rumoured remake of Resident Evil 4. We got a brief glimpse of Leon and Ashley Graham. On the PlayStation Blog, Edvin Edsö
First, it is a remake of the 2005 original that is aiming for a release next year, “preserving the essence of the original game.” The goal is to make it feel familiar for fans but also refresh things like reimagining the storyline of the game while “keeping the essence of its direction.”
Resident Evil 4 is scheduled to release on March 24, 2023.
Resident Evil Village
Last year’s Resident Evil Village is coming to PlayStation VR 2. Tsuyoshi Kanda
Resident Evil Village will provide a deeper, immersive experience by taking advantage of the graphics the new PSVR2 headsets offer — 4K HDR, eye tracking, and 3D audio.
“In addition to the PS VR2 headset, you’ll use the PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers to represent each hand in the world. Try guarding using both of your arms and Ethan will guard in the same way; hold up a gun and Ethan will hold up his. You are also now able to execute dynamic actions such as firing your gun while holding a knife with the other hand, or holding a handgun with one hand and a shotgun with the other. These advanced controllers increase the player’s immersion with the game.”
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Retribution
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Chapter 2: Retribution is heading to both PSVR and PSVR2.
“In the years since its launch, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners has become a much-beloved title on PSVR, with its immersive, survival-focused story campaign, its action-packed wave-based Trial mode, and its end game story expansion Aftershocks,” says Alexander Eden, Marketing Specialist at Skydance Interactive. “Now, two years after its original release, we’re happy to announce the next chapter in the story of the Tourist; The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution, which is coming to both PS VR and PS VR2.”
This means a new campaign is coming, new maps, new weapons and tools and challenges are heading your way. Retribution will include physics-based combat with a wide variety of weapons and will provide unique methods of combat not previously available.
No Man’s Sky
Hello Games continues to commit to No Man’s Sky in some incredible ways. Three years ago, the Beyond update added VR support on PlayStation and made it one of the biggest VR titles to date. Since then we’ve seen dozens of updates that continue to make No Man’s Sky a game worth your time.
Sean Murray spoke about the now in development port for PlayStation VR2 will feature more in the coming months.
Horizon Call of the Mountain
Ben McCaw, Narrative Director at Guerrilla joined via the PlayStation Blog to talk a bit about Horizon Call of the Mountain.
Horizon Call of the Mountain introduces a new protagonist — Ryas —a former Shadow Carja Warrior who is now looking to turn a new path and redeem himself. One day he begins by investigating a threat to the Sundom and you will use his skills as an archer to climb and survive. This means scaling mountains and hunting machines like the Thunderjaw.
Along the way, you’ll discover tools and weapons to master and lots of materials to craft gear. While you adventure out into the wild, familiar faces including Aloy will appear.
There will be a River Ride experience to immerse yourself in. This allows you to experience the world of Horizon at a leisurely pace without worrying about being attacked.
Today’s reveal confirms the game is being co-developed with Firesprite.
That’s not all we heard today as Horizon Forbidden West gets a major update today. This includes the highly-requested New Game+ feature, a new Ultra Hard mode, quality of life improvements including transmog, respect and new trophies for New Game+ and Ultra Hard mode.
Marvel’s Spider-Man/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Ryan Schneider
Schneider revealed that the Spider-Man series has sold more than 33 million copies around the globe as of May 15, 2022.
Regarding the ports, Nixxes Software is handling both games and optimizing them for PC. Working with Insomniac, the two studios have been working and committing themselves to deliver quality ports.
“I am extremely pleased with our collaboration with Insomniac on Marvel’s Spider-Man series, the shared support provided between our teams and their dedication to quality above all is inspiring,” said Jurjen Katsman, Nixxes’ Founder and Senior Director of Development It allows our team to leverage our technical expertise and focus on creating the best possible PC experience that takes advantage of all the exciting possibilities the PC platform has to offer.
Our team has always been big fans of the work from Insomniac and partnering with them to bring Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales to PC in the best way we can is something we are incredibly excited about.”
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered will launch on PC on August 12, 2022, while Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales will launch on PC in Fall 2022.
The Callisto Protocol
Glen Schofield, CEO of Striking Distance hit up the PlayStation Blog today to reveal The Callisto Protocol. Schofield is the creator of Dead Space so it’s so exciting to see him return to what he clearly enjoys making — horror sci-fi games!
Set in 2320 on the dead moon Callisto, the game stars Jacob Lee (Josh Duhamel) an inmate at Black Iron Prison who is stuck fighting for his life after an outbreak turns the moon into a fight to survive.
Prison guards, inmates, and everything else is turning into mutants called Biophage. Jacob must use everything he has available to him to survive Black Iron and learn the truth behind the United Jupiter Company.
Schofield mentions on PlayStation 5, The Callisto Protocol will use 3D audio to immerse players alongside with ray tracing to fully bring this world to life.
“We also obsess over building and releasing tension. You can’t have jump scares around every corner. Sometimes we space scares out to give players time to catch their breath, and sometimes we hit them with two or three scares in a row. We want your heart to race with every tick of the PS5’s awesome haptics. From the satisfying swing of Jacob’s stun baton to the heavy footsteps of a massive enemy, the PS5 helps us make players feel every moment of the pulse-pounding tension.”
The Callisto Protocol launches on December 2, 2022.
Stray
Swann Martin-Raget,
We received a release date of July 19, 2022, and the team also confirmed that Stray will be available for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members.
One of the biggest hurdles in developing Stray was learning to control a cat. “From the very beginning, we knew that the controls and animations of our star character needed to be absolutely spot-on in order to properly convey this exhilarating feeling of skills and movement,” says Martin-Raget. “So Miko, our cat animator, took the challenge to heart and spent considerable time looking for images and video references. The good and somewhat surprising thing we found is this: It really seems that the whole internet was basically invented for the sole purpose of hosting loads of cute cat pictures and videos! So we ended up having a lot of very good material to work with for references.”
With over 80 percent of the studio having cats as pets, this allowed the team to see some interesting interactions — often leading to some great ideas to be added to Stray.
Rollerdrome
Head over to the PlayStation Blog for tons of tips.
Rollerdrome launches August 16, 2022.
Eternights
Jae Yoo, the Founder of Studio Sai introduced Eternights on the PlayStation Blog. The small indie studio is fully remote with developers from around the work joining together over the last two years to deliver their debut game.
Eternights is a dating-action game set in the apocalypse. Your goal is to scout, and scavenge for supplies while exploring dungeons. Oh, and you can go on dates.
Humans have become monsters and if you encounter them it means it’s you or them, so fighting them is the best option. Also, you can date when you’re not exploring dungeons and you can choose how you spend your time as you learn more about the five main characters.
Like Persona games, you have to manage your calendar and you have deadlines to meet and beat dungeons. “Will you grow closer to your confidant in order to deepen your relationship and unlock new skills? Will you scavenge the wasteland for supplies? Will you grow stronger by training with your companions? Or will you ignore all of that and go to the dungeon the first chance you get? It’s up to you, but remember, the clock is ticking.”
Eternights will launch on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 early next year.
Street Fighter 6
Andy Wong,
Wong says when Street Fighter 6 launches in 2023, it’ll come with stylish new mechanics, vibrant characters, new modes and more. Fans can expect Arcade Mode, online matches, Training Mode, local versus battles, and more (all found within the Fighting Ground). The new modes coming are World Tour and Battle Hub.
Street Fighter 6 uses RE Engine this time and is a more hyper-realistic take on the iconic characters. So far we’ve seen Chun-Li, Ryu, and Luke with new designs. New character Jaime joins and uses a drunken boxing style that incorporates breakdancing.
Each new Street Fighter entry adds new mechanics and this time it isn’t any different. Meet the Drive System, a gauge that needs to be managed wisely and can be utilized to perform five different techniques to enhance your offence or defence.
“A Drive Impact is a powerful strike that can absorb an opponent’s incoming attack and can lead to a wall splat. Use Drive Parry to repel your opponent’s attack and refill your Drive Gauge. Cancel out of a Drive Parry or normal attack into a Drive Rush to quickly close in on your opponent,” says Wong. “Overdrive Arts are similar to EX Moves from past games that power up your Special Moves. Use Drive Reversal to perform a counterattack to get you out of tight situations. One gauge, five techniques, unlimited possibilities. Use your creativity to choose which technique to utilize and when. It’s all in your hands!”
Furthermore, to introduce newcomers to the series, Capcom is adding a modern control type for players who find the controls complicated. The classic control type includes inputs for six-button layouts. Street Fighter 6 adds the modern control type which allows for easier inputs where a special move can be performed by combining the “Special Move” button with one-directional input.
A neat new feature for the fight community to use and enjoy is the Real-Time Commentary Feature. Capcom is working with the FGC (Fight Game Community) commentators to incorporate their voices into the game. When you enter a match you’ll hear the commentary narrating your match like a real tournament. The commentators will even explain the movesets to you to help newcomers understand the mechanics better.
The new modes — World Tour and Battle Hub — are foundational modes. World Tour is a single-player story mode while Battle Hub adds an online venue for matches, adding unique forms of engagement and communications.
Street Fighter 6 launches in 2023.
Tunic
Adam Saltsman, the creative director at Finji joined over on the PlayStation Blog to speak about Tunic coming to PlayStation.
Tunic launches on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on September 27, 2022.
Season
Meg Hutchison,
Set in a remote village high in the mountain, it turns out no one has left the village in a generation. Then, Estelle, the protagonist decides to leave. Season is a “period of history, an era,” says Hutchinson.
Season’s gameplay focuses on exploring, recording, meeting people, and making sense of the world around you. You ride a bike and can hop on and off at any time. You can also equip tools from your bag, with each one capturing a different layer of “sounds and music, art and architecture, voices of old people, vanishing religious practices, the traces of seasons long past.” Your tools help peel back the layers to better grasp the culture and history of this world.
Using the camera allows you to capture everything you see and your microphone can capture and playback sounds you hear. By doing this you can prompt moments of reflection to better understand your surrounding and unlock the present to earn answers for the future.
This ties into meeting other people around the world. Some moments may be quiet with others, some may deal with a crisis or worse. You help the people you come across and remember them and their journey. The choices you make and the journey you on become tangible.
Season: A Letter to the Future launches on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 in Fall 2022.
Final Fantasy XVI
To end today’s State of Play, Naoki Yoshida joined via a pre-recorded video to confirm this is the trailer everyone has been waiting to see. And what a trailer it was.
“In our latest trailer, we’ve introduced several new Eikons, as well as provided a more detailed peek at our action-packed battle system and the freedom it gives players,” said Hiroshi Takai, Director, Final Fantasy XVI. “As for development progress, I’m happy to announce that the game is fully playable from start to finish; though, from optimization to brush-up, there is still a mountain of challenges to tackle as we head into our final push. Until then, please stay tuned. We’ll do our best to not keep you waiting too long before our next update!”
Final Fantasy XVI is heading towards the final stretch of development with the team now focusing on polishing the game.
We get a look at the Dominants of Titan and Garuda in the trailer. Hugo Kupka, a Permanent Economic Advisor was once a soldier in the Republican Army before his awakening of the Dominant of the Eikon Titan led him to a life of Dhalmekian politics. Now a powerful man within the republic he uses his influence over the army and policymakers.
Then we have the coldhearted and ruthless Benedikta Harman — the Dominant of the Eikon Garuda. Now she runs a squad of elite intelligencers and is on a mission to find the second Eikon of Fire.
The trailer above welcomes players to the world of Valisthea and re-introduces us to Clive Rosfield, the protagonist of Final Fantasy XVI.
Final Fantasy XVI will launch in Summer 2023.
