Original link: https://markonreview.com/2023/05/25/playstation-showcase-20230525/
In the early morning of May 25th, Beijing time, Sony held the PlayStation Showcase 2023 launch event online. During the mid-year period when the game industry is accustomed to intensive announcements, a wave of rallying calls was sounded. The press conference lasted over an hour. Except for SIE CEO Jim Ryan’s appearance and hosting for a few minutes, the rest were all uninterrupted broadcasts, covering a total of more than 30 works, and also introduced new members of the PlayStation hardware family. More than half of the content is published for the first time (although not all are so amazing).
In order to facilitate readers to understand the content structure of this conference, we can first share a few statistical data:
- Among all 34 works, 18 are clearly released in 2023, 5 are tentatively scheduled to be released in 2024, and the remaining 11 have no clear release window;
- There are 6 VR works;
- There are 11 new IP works, and the rest are sequels, remakes, reboots, etc.;
- Including PS VR2 games, there are a total of 11 works exclusive to PS4/PS5 host platforms;
- There are still 9 works that support PS4. If you exclude those exclusive to the PS host platform (considering that some works do more special optimization for PS series hosts, and the full platform games may focus less), then the remaining 5 works, and then exclude “Fate” 2″ and “Street Fighter VI” there are only 3 models left.
Below, the author will sort out the released game and equipment information in chronological order, and finally add some personal comments.
Briefing of conference information
“Fairgame$”
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
- Landing platform: PS5, PC
A PvP shooting game, the first production of Haven Studios, which was acquired by Sony. The studio was developed by former Ubisoft star producer Jade Raymond, who led the development of “Assassin’s Creed” and “Watch_Dogs” series Take the lead in setting up.
After the release of the promotional video, Mathieu Leduc, the creative director of Haven Studios, published a blog post on PlayStation.Blog , explaining the background of the birth of this work in more detail. Mathieu said that the establishment of Haven Studios was based on the team’s desire to create a new IP multiplayer competition. Everyone hoped to create a PvP game that included sandbox gameplay. Finally, by injecting the fantasy theme of “modern Robin Hood”, “Fairgame$” came into being Now, players will be allowed to “travel into restricted areas around the world, stuffing their pockets like kids passing by a candy store while exposing billionaires’ nefarious plans”.
“Jedi Divers 2” (HELLDIVERS 2)
- Estimated release date: Later in 2023
- Landing platform: PS5, PC
Accompanied by a slightly joking “Conscription Propaganda” broadcast, we are presented with a brand new sequel to “HELLDIVERS” released at the end of 2015, and the developer is still Arrowhead Game Studios.
Different from the dual-stick shooting from the top view of the previous game, the second generation changes the camera to a third-person over-the-shoulder perspective, giving players a sense of immersion beyond the previous game. The promotional video reveals rich terrains and environments such as dust, blizzards, green hills, etc., coupled with the alien swarms that still hit like a tide and have a more realistic sense of oppression, the audio-visual tension of the game has been significantly improved. “Fangoria magazine even called it “the Starship Troopers game of their dreams”.
Immortals of Aveum
- Estimated release date: July 20, 2023
- Landing platform: PS5, XS X|S, PC
The new title under the EA Originals publishing brand is being developed by Ascendant Studios, a development team led by former Dead Space, Call of Duty creative director Bret Robbins. The main gameplay of this work is first-person magic shooting, and it is keen to promote its gorgeous magic bombing special effects. It was once classified by EA executives as a representative game for the transformation and upgrading of the EA Originals brand and the release of 3A-level works.
Ghostrunner 2
- Estimated release time: within 2023
- Landing platform: PS5, XS X|S, PC
The sequel to the first-person hack and slash game developed by One More Level, which combines cyberpunk, parkour, action decryption and other elements. As far as the author’s hands-on experience is concerned, “Ghost Walker” plays a bit like the first-person 3D version of the horizontal 2D game “Samurai Zero”. Difficulty issues), so players need to plan their action path, like a professional “Overwatch” (Overwatch) Genji player, sprinting while cutting people, crossing terrain obstacles, is difficult and exciting.
Judging from the official publicity, it seems that “Ghost Walker 2” has not made any major gameplay changes. It is still based on the expansion of the content of the previous game. The development team paid attention to boss battles, plots, motorcycle racing levels, and skill improvements. optimization.
Phantom Blade 0
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
- Landing platform: PS5, PC
The atmosphere of the promotional video is reminiscent of the action game produced by Team Ninja, from the Chinese development team S-Game. “Shadow Blade” is the original IP of Lingyoufang (born out of the team’s earlier IP “Rain Blood”). It has previously launched a series of mobile platform games; Lingyoufang published an open letter in September 2021, revealing its Accepted hundreds of millions of investment from Tencent, holding 25% of the shares. At the same time, it also disclosed that the development of “Shadow Blade Zero” using Unreal Engine 5 is in full swing.
“Sword of the Sea”
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
- Landing platform: PS5
At first glance, it looks like the work of “Journey”. Behind it is Giant Squid, founded by several former “Journey” producers. Since its establishment in 2013, the studio has successively launched “ABZÛ “” and “The Pathless” are two works that are also very thoughtful in audio-visual style.
The Talos Principle 2
- Estimated release time: within 2023
- Landing platform: PS5, XS X|S, PC
The sequel of the well-known puzzle game “The Law of Talos” after 9 years will carry forward the unique art style of this series, continue the story of the previous game, and present more complex, tricky and interesting stories and puzzles for players.
The official said that the core personnel of the previous work will return in large numbers, including the original screenwriters Jonas Kyratzes, Tom Jubert and composer Damjan Mravunac. “(Risk of Rain) series composer Chris Christodoulou.
“Neva”
- Estimated release date: 2024
- Landing platform: PS5, XS X|S, NS, PC
Released by Devolver Digital and the new action-adventure work of Nomada Studio, the developer of “GRIS”, it will tell the story of a girl and a wolf cub who build mutual bond and trust under the oppression of the external environment.
Cat Quest: Pirates of the Purribean
- Estimated release date: 2024
- Landing platform: PS4, PS5, X1, XS X|S, PC
The new “Cat Quest” series brought by the Singapore team The Gentlebros is different from the past two medieval “Swords and Sorcery” themes. You should be able to see the “pirate” variant terrier, and enjoy the adventure of the open world from the top view.
“Foamstars”
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
- Landing platform: PS4, PS5
A 4v4 third-person shooter game from Square Enix. The main gameplay is to use foam as bullets in the venue. I think there must be many players like me who think of Nintendo’s “Splatoon” series within 5 seconds after seeing this promotional video, because “Foamstars” has a 4v4 game setting, trendy cultural atmosphere, It is easy to see the imitation of “Spratun”, but the information revealed in the promotional video alone, the micro-innovation in the gameplay of this game is to give the bubble volume , can be piled up to change the terrain, instead of just sticking to the surface that can adhere to ink like “Spratun”.
The Plucky Squire
- Estimated release time: within 2023
- Landing platform: PS5, XS X|S, NS, PC
Published by Devolver Digital and developed by All Possible Futures, this is a 2D and 3D hybrid adventure game. The characters in a storybook find that they can travel inside and outside the pages of the book. Therefore, it constitutes a combination of 2D top view and 3D platform jumping, supplemented by various The unique and exquisite art design makes the whole work full of childishness and freshness.
Before opening this independent studio, the two founders of All Possible Futures, the developer of this game, had been deeply involved in the production of some well-known games. One of them, James Turner, directed “Pokémon Sword/Shield” (Pokémon Sword & Shield), and another Jonathan Biddle independently completed the development of the ARPG work “The Swords of Ditto”.
Teardown
- Estimated release date: Later in 2023 (released on PC in April 2022)
- Landing platform: PS5, XS X|S, PC
The voxel-style simulation game launched by the independent studio Tuxedo Labs has simple and clear goals for players: disassemble as you want, dismantle the style, and dismantle the level. According to the content shared by the development team on PlayStation.Blog , this time the game lands on PS5, it will use the high-precision vibration function of DualSense to restore the tactile sensation of different building materials and different tool feedback to players.
Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
- Landing platform: PS5, XS X|S, PC
The rumored remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (“MGS3” for short) has finally come to light. At the end of a promotional video that just started a little confusing, the image of the big boss Snake emerges from the swamp revealed, confirming the identity of the game without “A Hideo Kojima Game”. Note that the “Δ” in the title of this work is read as “Delta” as confirmed by The Verge to Konami. This character is used because it feels that the meaning is commensurate with this work.
So far, Konami has not disclosed too much detailed information about this work. The author believes that the information that can be used to speculate on its quality is: Konami In its media announcement, this remake is labeled as “faithful to the original” (otherwise? ), the official also released some screenshots of the game scene in development. After comparing with my personal memory, I am more inclined to this is a higher quality “high-definition” rather than “Resident Evil 4” (Resident Evil 4) The standard “complete remake”, not to mention the gameplay design of the original “MGS3” is relatively modern and perfect, and there is no need for reform.
Konami also announced the launch of the “Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection” series, the first volume of which will be released on the PS5 platform in the fall of 2023, including the PS1 “Metal Gear Solid” (Metal Gear Solid) , HD collection version “Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty” (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty), PS2 “Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater”. Konami expressed the hope that fans of the series can experience the “MGS” series on the latest host platform, so according to this statement and the way of sub-volumes, we are finally expected to easily play “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots” on PS5 (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots).
“Towers of Aghasba”
- Estimated release date: 2024
- Landing platform: PS5, PC
The open world construction simulation game developed by Dreamlit, an independent studio established in 2020, is not a traditional realistic urban theme, but a natural theme with strong fantasy flavor and starting from soil reclamation. What’s more distinctive is that players are not only responsible for planning land, watching There is no intangible “God”, but you can set foot on the ground, improve the land yourself, and even go to the sky and enter the earth, and travel the vibrant sea, land, and air fields.
Final Fantasy XVI
- Estimated release date: June 22, 2023
- Landing platform: PS5
“Final Fantasy XVI” (referred to as “FF16”), which has been in the limelight for two days, also released a promotional video through today’s event, revealing a new plot that is too long and a battle demonstration. After “FF15”, which made the community feel uncomfortable in various senses, Square Enix helped Naoki Yoshida, who had turned the tide for “FF14”, into the position of “FF16”. Yoshida also brought a large number of “FF14” go-getters . The recently released “FF16”-related interviews show that the production team hopes that this game will focus more on the protagonist’s complex and heavy life circumstances, provide an excellent story with a strong sense of immersion, and discard some of the gameplay elements that make the game appear childish.
Alan Wake 2
- Estimated release date: November 17, 2023
- Landing platform: PS5, XS X|S, PC
Alan Wake 2, Remedy Entertainment’s new franchise, has finally confirmed its release date, and players will be able to play it later this year. This work continues the depressive and thrilling style of the previous work. FBI agent Saga Anderson will work with the protagonist of the previous work and nightmare writer Alan Wake to try to solve the religious-themed murders in the small town. In the process, they will encounter supernatural forces threaten. The trailer released today shows that players will play as Wake and Anderson on specific occasions, and have the opportunity to observe the same event from different perspectives of the two.
Of course, don’t forget that for the time being, don’t think that the protagonist can get new and more cool enemy-killing equipment. According to the official description, light is still “the ultimate weapon against darkness”, so friends, get ready to raise your flashlight.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
- Estimated release date: October 12, 2023
- Landing platform: PS4, PS5, XS X|S, PC
The 13th official work of the “Assassin’s Creed” series, which is mainly developed by Ubisoft Bordeaux and Ubisoft Montréal, coincides with the 15th anniversary of the birth of IP. Ubisoft is determined to bring the series back to the original point (what a pity, Origin has already been used), so in the trailer of “Assassin’s Creed: Vision”, we saw the protagonist Basim introduced in “Assassin’s Creed: Hall of Spirits” (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla) galloping in 9 The streets of Baghdad in the century, skillfully and elegantly assassinate the target, also read in Ubisoft’s statement, this work may pay attention to presenting a linear plot and “real” assassination.
“Revenant Hill”
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
- Landing platform: PS4, PS5
Revenant Hill is being developed by Glory Society, a partnership between the game’s creators, including scriptwriting and narrative design from the team behind 2017’s Night in the Woods . The story of Revenant Hill takes place in 1919, and players need to play a cat named Twigs to survive in a turbulent environment. The style of “Revenant Hill” is very similar to “Night in the Woods”. The big difference between the two is that the former contains a large number of human characters, while the characters in the latter are all anthropomorphic animals.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink (Granblue Fantasy: Relink)
- Estimated release date: Winter 2023
- Landing platform: PS4, PS5
“Granblue Fantasy Relink” is developed by Cygames. It is an ARPG belonging to the “Grandblue Fantasy” series. It has single-player and cooperative modes. In single-player mode, players will fight with three NPCs. In cooperative mode, players can accommodate up to four people together play. Sixteen characters from the Granblue Fantasy series are currently available in the game, including two that were announced in today’s trailer – Zeta and Vaseraga.
This work has gone through many years of development and bounced tickets. It was first announced at the Tokyo Game Show in 2016. The original plan was to be jointly developed by Cygames and Platinum Studios, but in 2019, Platinum Studios withdrew from the project.
Street Fighter 6
- Estimated release date: June 2, 2023
- Landing platform: PS4, PS5, XS X|S, PC
Capcom’s long-awaited “Street Fighter 6” released a new trailer this morning, highlighting the career mode of this customizable character.
“Ultros”
- Estimated release date: 2024
- Landing platform: PS4, PS5, PC
Developed by Hadoque, Ultros is a sci-fi side-scrolling adventure game, the first from the Swedish indie developer. Mårten, the game design director, mentioned that the game has built a certain time loop mechanism, allowing players to reveal the plot and unlock new skills in the process of repeating the process. The game’s visual style is very impressive, with bright colors and a unique style, described by the developers as “surreal and psychedelic”.
Tower of Fantasy
- Estimated release date: Summer 2023
- Landing platform: PS4, PS5
The cyberpunk open world RPG released by Perfect World and developed by its subsidiary Hotta Studio will be available on mobile platforms as early as December 2021, and then on PC in October 2022. In addition to single-player play, the game also has a light social multiplayer experience.
Dragon’s Dogma 2
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
- Landing platform: PS5, XS X|S, PC
The sequel to “Dragon’s Dogma” that fans have been waiting for for more than ten years is finally coming. It was officially confirmed for the first time in the 10th anniversary live broadcast of the series that it is in development (it was revealed by Capcom’s information leak before the official announcement), using Capcom’s own developed RE engine. Although the first generation of the series did not become one of the best big IPs under Capcom, it has a specific fan base because of its setting of swords and magic and the many opportunities to “dance with dragons”. The performance of the work is blunt and the quality is average (for example, IGN commented that it was “very weird” (A strange game), and it is still called for a sequel by the community all the year round.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2
- Estimated release date: Later in 2023
- Landing platform: PS VR2
A VR horror game, the sequel to 2019’s Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Requested. In the previous game, the player needs to act as an employee of Fazbear Entertainment to resist the attack of robots while completing various mini-games. The atmosphere of the sequel will remain similar to that of the previous game, but new mini-games, scenes, plots and characters will be added.
Resident Evil 4 VR Mode
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
- Landing platform: PS VR2
Like Capcom’s old routine in the last few “Resident Evil” works, “Resident Evil 4” will also usher in a VR mode. There is nothing to say. Friends who like to go to the IP of “Resident Evil” to feel this kind of excitement Don’t miss it.
Arizona Sunshine 2
- Estimated release date: 2023
- Landing platform: PS VR2, PC
The sequel to the 2016 VR game Arizona Sunshine, the story of the game takes place in a western-style post-apocalyptic world. The protagonist needs to fight zombies and survive with the dog Buddy.
Crossfire: Sierra Squad
- Estimated release date: Summer 2023
- Landing platform: PS VR2
The VR works of the “Cross Fire” series developed by Smilegate Entertainment include single-player and multiplayer modes. There are 13 single-player missions in the single-player mode, and 50 team missions in the two-player cooperative mode; Horde Mode is available in the four-player mode (Should refer to “strange sea”). The development team patted their chests in the introduction blog post of PlayStation.Blog and said that although the single-player campaign is already very good, the real essence of this work lies in multiplayer cooperation. It will be interesting to coordinate tactics with friends in the battle situation.
“Synapse”
- Estimated release date: July 4, 2023
- Landing platform: PS VR2
A VR action game developed by nDreams featuring 1:1 motion control and Eye-tracking enhanced aiming.
“Beat Saber”
- Estimated release date: May 25, 2023 (today)
- Landing platform: PS VR2 (PC, PS VR platform has been released for a long time)
Along with the Queen’s classic “Don’t Stop Me Now” music and the game screen of “Beat Saber”, Sony officially announced that the game will land on PS VR2 today, and simultaneously also launched the Queen song pack, priced at $14, including 11 songs Queen’s song. If you have purchased the game on PS VR before, you can upgrade it on PS VR2 for free, and the previously purchased song packs will also be transferred to PS VR2.
“Marathon”
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
- Landing platform: PS5, XS X|S, PC
Unbelievable IP resurrection, Bungie took out this IP that was born in 1994 from the freezer, and will launch a new shooting game with the same name, which is not a sequel to the original game, nor is it a replica of the original game. After careful consideration, adding new things and balancing the old legacy, it has been confirmed that “Marathon” will adopt the survival shooting (Extraction) gameplay framework, and players who do not have the foundation of the previous game can also get started directly. GameSpot pointed out that the distinctive cyberpunk art style of this work may be influenced by the art of the recent version of Destiny 2 (Destiny 2).
Destiny 2: The Final Shape
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
- Landing platform: PS4, PS5, X1, XS X|S, PC
Bungie’s second consecutive broadcast, the event revealed the information of the new DLC of “Destiny 2”. In the promotional film, Cayde-6 appeared unexpectedly and reasonably. More information about the DLC will have to wait until August It will be revealed on the Destiny Showcase on the 22nd.
“Concord”
- Estimated release date: 2024
- Landing platform: PS5, PC
Sony has released a one-minute concept video of “Concord”, a sci-fi PvP FPS game developed by Firewalk Studios, which will be launched on PS5 and PC platforms in 2024. Last month, Sony announced the acquisition of Firewalk Studios, a former ProbablyMonsters subsidiary founded in 2018 that worked on Call of Duty, Destiny, Apex Legends, Halo, and more. ) and other series of development.
Streaming device Project Q and true wireless earbuds
- Estimated release date: Undisclosed
The “Project Q” that had been leaked before finally appeared, and it was consistent with the information circulating in the market. This is a pure streaming device with an 8-inch screen, which needs to be used with PS5 in a network environment. into two halves, connected to the left and right ends of the screen. At the same time, an unnamed true wireless headset was announced. The prices of the above products were not disclosed.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Estimated release date: Fall 2023
- Landing platform: PS5
“Marvel Spider-Man 2” announced the 11-minute game process in one breath, showing the gameplay when the player controls Peter Parker and Miles Morales respectively. During the process, the player can seamlessly switch between the two protagonists. The blog post of Sony PlayStation.Blog made a more detailed introduction. The developer mentioned that in this game, the relationship between Peter and the Symbiote (Symbiote) will be told; thanks to the performance of PS5, the protagonists leap in the city The speed of movement will increase. Previously, Insomniac had confirmed on Twitter that the game would be a single-player game, with no multiplayer available.
epilogue
The above is all the games and hardware content involved in this conference. After sorting out, the author has the following insights for readers’ reference:
- Sony emphatically reflects its reliance on online service-oriented games. Several companies acquired by Sony in order to expand the online game territory—Bungie, Haven Studios, Firewalk Studios, etc.—all have come up with new results and expectations. The aftereffects are worth watching. expect.
- The first-party exclusivity and even console platform exclusivity that Sony shouted loudly, the volume of this release event was very small. In addition to the 6 PS VR2 games, only “Sword of the Sea”, “FF16” and “Revenant Hill” remained “Grand Blue Fantasy: Relink” and “Marvel Spider-Man 2” are exclusive to PS-based consoles, and several first-party multiplayer games in the previous paragraph did not implement an exclusive strategy; I don’t think this directly points to any problem. Because many of Sony’s major studios did not attend the event, but this phenomenon seems to express that the exclusive content advantages that Sony advertised to the outside world may not be as easy to implement as imagined, just like CMA believes that Microsoft does not dare to monopolize “Call of Duty” as a potential loss.
- In addition, the author is still confused about the handheld device Project Q released today. What kind of scenario does Sony plan to make users need to buy an additional screen bound to the PS5 handle (provided that the marginal cost of the screen can be Accepted by users), instead of considering using a mobile phone + adapter as a substitute, or using as many large screens as possible? More questions may have to wait until the Project Q technical specifications and selling price are lifted before further analysis.
- Finally, in the context of the continuous development of game industry technology, games that support PS4, X1 and other previous-generation consoles have gradually declined. On the one hand, it reflects the gradual increase in the penetration rate of this generation of consoles and the increasing interest of developers in compatibility with old hardware. On the other hand, it seems to imply that half-generation upgrade models (such as PS4 Pro) will be increasingly discussed. But the author would like to say one more thing separately. Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage” is the only non-multiplayer online 3A game that is still backward compatible, which makes people sweat for the performance or effect of the work.
Although there are “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic), “DS2” and other works that the author is very concerned about failed to appear in today’s event, but “Marathon”, “Towers of Aghasba”, “Revenant Hill” The appearance of new faces such as “is still surprising. I look forward to Sony and developers bringing us more information as soon as possible, and launching the game as scheduled.
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