Each new generation of consoles and PC hardware brings with it a new set of hopes and expectations for many fans. For others, the first couple of years into a cycle don't feel truly next-gen. PlayStation's recent State of Play presentation did a bit of confirming that players are still in that window for this newly dawned generation. The first big update from PlayStation for 2021 was full of info on upcoming retro-style and indie games coming to the next-gen platform, but without some big names making an appearance, the showcase didn't feel quite like a full view of the future of PlayStation.
The recent State of Play presentation aired this past Thursday online after having been announced as a welcome surprise to many fans who had been anticipating more information about the future of PlayStation. The presentation highlighted ten games including Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, Knockout City, Returnal, and the PS5 upgrade for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade. While seeing indie titles like Knockout City and Solar Ash get new updates and their deserved time in the spotlight, the presentation was noticeably missing some of the most anticipated titles for the PS5 like God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West.
State of Play and the Future of PlayStation
The next-gen of consoles always brings anticipation about how developers will make use of the increased graphical power, new immersion features, and ultimately new styles of storytelling in games. The recent State of Play did little to showcase any titles that live up to the expectations of a new generation, though. Titles like Knockout Kings look to be exciting new entries, but entries into spaces that are already fairly crowded. Innovating on popular gaming conventions like online multiplayer in Knockout Kings, mixing rogue-like elements with shooter mechanics and horror like Returnal, and intensive and skill-based melee like in Sifu is important to expanding the medium as a whole. But overall doesn't feel like truly next-gen experiences the way that in-house blockbuster games like Horizon likely will.
The new features of the DualSense controller feels somewhat gimmicky when being implemented into the PS5 upgrade of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, but it is good to see developers taking the time to try and implement the features at all. Games like Oddworld: Soulstorm are certainly exciting entries in the space for its dedicated fanbase, but are another example of retro-style gameplay injected with some modern concepts and RPG elements like training the freed workers. It's also exciting for those fans to know that Oddworld: Soulstorm will be a free PS Plus game, but many fans were expecting some bigger releases at the first full State of Play in almost a year.
The biggest news of the presentation for many were the details about just how expansive of an upgrade FF7 Remake Intergrade really is. Again, that's great news for fans of the series but speaks to the point about not feeling like a next-gen presentation when one of its biggest surprises involved a port of game released last-gen. Overall, the presentation was an exciting roundup of projects coming to the PS5 and PS4, but left many fans wondering about what the next generation of PlayStation games will truly look like.