The 10 Can't-Miss Announcements From PlayStation's State Of Play Livestream
From DLC unveilings for the 2024 platformer 'Astro Bot' to new game announcements for the 2025 action-adventure sequel 'Ghost of Yotei,' these are some of the biggest announcements from Sony's recent broadcast.
On September 24, Sony livestreamed its fourth State of Play presentation of the year. This most recent broadcast ran about 50 minutes long and included a little bit of everything for just about every gamer—some nostalgic remasters, some DLC reveals, some new games, and some updates on the upcoming, expensive-as-hell PS5 Pro.
But what were the highlights? And if it ran almost an hour, what did you miss? We stayed up, burning that midnight oil, to bring you the 10 must-see State of Play announcements—in case you couldn't catch the show.
10.Playstation Plus For October 2024
Sony announced next month's free monthly games for all Playstation Plus subscribers. They will be available beginning October 1.
WWE 2K24: The most recent WWE 2K game features over 200 wrestlers and a Showcase mode that pulls from 40 years of Wrestlemania matches. It's like the ultimate wrestling package.
Dead Space: You play as Isaac Clarke, a ship engineer fighting for his life against the parasitic Necromorphs who turn whatever humans they infect into undead monsters. This is a remake of the 2008 original title.
Doki Doki Literature Club: A subversive horror game, Doki Doki Literature Club may appear to be an anime dating sim at first. While saying anything more would ruin the story's twists and turns, know that the game itself is actually disturbing as all hell. You've been warned.
9.New DLC Content
Available now are two new playable characters for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge—Mona Lisa and Mondo Gecko, two mutants who've appeared in various TMNT media over the years.
Astro Bot, starring the little droid from the PlayStation 5 launch game Astro's Playroom, has gotten rave reviews since its 2024 release, and it will be receiving five new speedrun levels as well as 10 new robots to rescue. The DLC will arrive at an unspecified date later this fall.
Also this fall, hack-and-slash epic Stellar Blade will receive a photo mode and crossover DLC content featuring Nier: Automata, the 2017 RPG that inspired Stellar Blade's visual aesthetic. Whether this consists of graphic overlays or new story content remains to be seen, though.
We nearly made Alan Wake 2 our Game of the Year in 2023. And we're stoked about the upcoming Lake House DLC, which will allow you to explore a secret military research lab where the experiments there have gone horribly, horribly wrong. Of course. Expect it to drop this October.
8.Remastered Classics
Sony showed off remasters of three franchises.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 bundles the two iconic dark fantasy action-adventure games starring vampire/wraith Raziel into one beautifully higher-res package. That drops on December 10.
The Lunar Remastered Collection polishes two beloved RPGs: Lunar Silver Star Story and Lunar 2 Eternal Blue. That arrives in Spring 2025.
And lastly, 2017's open-world action-adventure game Horizon Zero Dawn will receive a graphically overhaul, as well as re-recorded voiceover work and compatible save data. That's slated for October 31.
7.Playstation VR2 Releases
Sony's virtual reality headset is getting three major titles.
First is The Midnight Walk, a claymation horror game with a childish yet creepy aesthetic—think The Nightmare Before Christmas mixed with Coraline. It will launch on both PS5 and PSVR2 in Spring 2025.
Metro Awakening, a dystopian horror prequel to the 2010 game Metro 2033, dropped a new trailer and a release date—November 7.
Hitman: World of Assassination brings the entire Hitman reboot trilogy to PSVR2, putting you directly in Agent 47's shoes as you kill targets in Paris, Sapienza, Hokkaido, and more. It will arrive in December 2024.
6.PS5 Pro News And Updates
The PS5 Pro comes with a massive $700 price tag, and it's gotten a ton of blowback from gamers on social media. While that's a negative, the State of Play presentation focused squarely on the positives—the upscaled 4K resolution, the 60-plus FPS, the ray tracing, and the AI machine learning that will allow some of this to take place automatically.
The list of games that will directly take advantage of these visual upgrades right now stands at 20: Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, The Crew: Motorfest, Demon’s Souls, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Dragon’s Dogma II, F1 24, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, The First Descendant, Gran Turismo 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, The Last of Us Part II: Remastered, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Village, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Stellar Blade.
5.Monster Hunter Wilds
The latest entry in Capcom's storied fantasy-themed action-RPG series has everything you want: massive fantastical creatures, a litany of weapons and tools, huge open-world ecosystems, and a co-op experience that will ensure neither you nor your friends get any sleep. It'll launch on PS5 (and PC and Xbox Series X/S) on February 28, 2025.
4.Dynasty Warriors Origins
Dynasty Warriors Origins is the next installment in the long-running, 1 vs. 1000, hack-and-slash franchise. It takes us back to ancient China, circa the romanticized Three Kingdoms era, and incorporates more tactical strategy than before. You can lead the fight, charge alongside your fellow soldiers, and explore the surrounding areas between battles. It hits PS5 (and PC and Xbox Series X/S) on January 17, 2025.
3.Hell is Us
"I don't remember when it happened. But I remember how it felt. Father told us to hide when they came to our house."
So begins the most disturbing trailer from the State of Play livestream about an apocalyptic world that's been overrun by faceless monsters. We're not quite sure what's going on, and we're likely not supposed to.
But damn, do we want to see more from Hell is Us next year.
2.Sonic X Shadow Generations
This standalone adventure starring Shadow the Hedgehog will be sold as a package with a remaster of the 2011 platformer Sonic Generations. During the State of Play presentation, Sony announced the movie tie-in DLC pack, featuring new platforming content inspired by the film and voiceover work by Keanu Reeves, which releases on December 12. The new film, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, runs into theaters on December 20.
1.Ghost of Yōtei
They saved the best for last.
Back in 2020, we named the open-world samurai game Ghost of Tsushima one of the best games of the year. With its methodical sword gameplay, stirring story, and achingly gorgeous visuals, Ghost of Tsushima was the game equivalent of a Kurosawa film—it even had a black-and-white mode to capture the cinematics of the famed director.
Now, we have a sequel in Ghost of Yōtei, a PS5 exclusive arriving in 2025. Starring new protagonist Atsu, Yōtei takes place in 1603, 300 years after Tsushima and centuries since the first Ghost became legend.
We see tantalizing hints of what's to come, such as a ferocious wolf who may function as an animal companion and updated technology befitting the setting. That includes traditional firearms, which were brought to Japan by the Portuguese in 1543. Time for more samurai-ing.
