Well, I'm not that old, but I have been neglecting a segment of the gaming culture for far too long. I have been an ardent game fan for most of my life and have seen a lot of types of games. One type of game that I have completely ignored is the online multiplayer genre. Being a fan of consoles and not owning a computer, I really didn't get to experience the whole fragfest scene, and really had no interest in it. I thought that the best games where the single player adventures with great stories and character development. I really didn't consider the stories I read about with MMOs and the like to be of interest. I thought they were a little shallow.
Recently, I came to a revelation: Games don't have to have a great story to be fun. Games didn't use to have a story at all to be huge hits, look at Pacman and the like. What story is there? Why are the ghosts trying to get him? Why are there ghost running around in the first place? We didn't know and didn't care, it was simply fun. The recent consoles have brought the point home even further for me. With Live and PSN multiplayer has definitely been opened up for all of us that thought it wasn't worth their time before. This is definitely a trend that needs to continue. We need multiplayer in our games. Why? Because it's just plain fun to join either a team or individual multiplayer map and just shoot or slice stuff up, be it a monster of indescribable hideousness or a soldier from that faction we hate.
The image of the lonely gamer in the basement, leveling up his black mage in the latest version of a Japanese RPG, while surrounded all the accoutrements of geekdom is slowly going away, and definitely for the better. Now we see a more social experience that bridges the console and PC crowd. There are some diehards that will always say, "First person shooter suck on consoles", or "Platforming blows on a PC". Well, they are both wrong. Games belong to the gamers, not the system that they play them on. I know people will disagree and that is fine. As long as you are happy when you play and happy with what you play on, you win.
Get ready to watch over an hour of game news and updates from developers across the globe.
I can't remember when the last stay of play was over an hour long. Hoping for more time dedicated to Sony first party studio updates.
Longer running is not a guarantee of quality! The June 2025 State of Play was 55 minutes - but the reaction was mixed. Some good games were shown but no megatonnes.
Hopefully, some gameplay will be shown of Intergalactic and possibly the Starfield 2.0 reveal and the PS5 Pro PSSR upgrade. But you never know, maybe Sony will show us a thirty minute deep dive of multiplayer game Fairgame$! 🤣
Oh God, I forgot Fairgame$ is still alive. I wonder when they'll announce it is canceled.
I hope they don't waste too much time on Marathon. Maybe a deep dive of sort towards the end of the month dedicated to Marathon. But no more than 5 minutes during this stay of play.
I do expect to see more details on Wolverine with a deep dive coming sometime in summer.
I am hoping for some news on Intergalactic as well.
I really want them to drop the demo of Phantom Blade Zero during the show.
Maybe we get a confirmation of FF7 Part 3's actual name with a short teaser.
RE9 will be in the show as well.
Yeah, you might be right about Starfield getting announced for PS5.
Like I do with every show, I am going to keep my expectations in check.
Edit - oh yeah the newly announced Horizon game will be there.
Dang, over an hour?? Hoping for some cool announcements! Looking forward to that 2.5D GOW game they apparently have cooking!
Nice, I had a wayward thought though. Remember when Xbox one X came out. It was always “This is the most powerful console on the market!” And “This is where you get the definitive experience!”
Anyone notice how those levels of propaganda just don’t exist with the PS5 Pro? Like console wise it’s literally the top experience and no crazy post on it or how “Series X was a mistake” type posts.
After finding out Estein was involved with so much in gaming from Microtransactions to 4chan. It really makes me wonder how many of us were arguing with these bots for so long wasting our time on rage bait topics.
We are long overdue for some good announcements I don't want to get my hopes, up but I really want there to be something cool this time. like how long has it been since any presentation really wowed the masses?
A PlayStation Store listing in Latin America suggests Marvel’s Wolverine may launch in Q3 2026, earlier than its stated Fall release window.
Thats interesting. I think a September release is very believable. Phantom Blade Zero is September 8th so I would guess Wolverine is end of September. BlazBlue Entropy Effect X is this week. Soros is April. Crimson Dessert/Marathon is March. Halo is apparently summer. That leaves you know who in November and hopefully Tokom by December. For the down months I will be catching up on the Legend of Heros games. A truly stacked year for games.
Honestly, as much space they can put between themselves and GTAVI will maximize their results.
After GTAVI releases, the following few months will be pretty tough for any release. That game is basically Thanos
Gaming existed before GTA and gaming shall remain after GTA. It’s not like the industry and the world will stop because a popular game dropped in November . The world will keep spinning . I can understand giving space for the more popular game but once that game is out and on the shelves it’s out and on the shelves . Call of duty nba and sports games always but that don’t keep other companies from releasing games lol
The third mainline Horizon is expected to be a long ways off, as a majority of Guerrilla Games is working on Hunters Gathering.
What a waste of their time, it would be a lot different if it was a small team of theirs helping an external studio or something but to have this be one of the teams main games is just overall sad to hear.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think we need Horizon 3 right now as I don't think there's much they could really do to make it stand out from Horizon II but I wanted to see a new IP from them to give the Horizon franchise some breathing space so when we did get Horizon 3 it would feel more fresh. Horizon II was a good game but you could tell when playing that it was just a sequel which felt like the main appeal was just being a more super refined version with a lot of quality of life improvements compared to the first game, even then it felt it was struggling at times to really stand out, maybe it was because it was a PS4/PS5 cross play title and didn't get to take advantage of the PS5 new tech who knows.
If this game flops, it's just going to give people more of an excuse online to hate on the franchise even more and might end up hurting the anticipation for Horizon 3. They were better off doing a new IP or a reboot of Killzone
Exactly. Sony seems to be getting things exactly wrong with Horizon. It's the type of IP that needs to disappear for a few years and then come back with a third game that really feels like an evolution from 2, rather than just an iterative sequel, like 2 was from 1. It isn't the type of franchise that is going to support a ton of spinoffs.
After watching that trailer...the chances of it flopping are pretty high. That trailer did not look good. Disappointing because I actually enjoy the Horizon series, but Hunters Gathering looks like it will miss the mark.
Honestly, I can't say I mind this. Forbidden West was a good game but it didn't exactly leave me desperate for it's successor.
Well I loved the first game, and while i acknowledge how much of a step up the second game, was it's insane! I absolutely did not like the second game from a gameplay standpoint. It seemed woefully unbalanced and a shocking amount of glitches that I'm surprised review sites did not report on.
But this series is a rare case of "just because it sells gangbusters, doesn't mean it's popular" like yes the mainline series sells a ton, but you wouldn't know looking at how it has failed to enter pop culture like God of War has. So trying to sell things by throwing it's name around just isn't going to work, the flop that was the lego game was proof enough of that, and this may be exhibit B for the same case.
I hope im wrong, i mean who doesn't want more fun games, but i just don't see it, and i hope their next game is a new IP cause otherwise it's gotta be so good it cleanses my pallet of the bad taste forbidden west left in my mouth
