The PlayStation 5 is approaching its second year on the market, and many new games are on the horizon. Horizon Forbidden West is coming up on its February release date, and Death Stranding: Director's Cut, the last of the currently announced major re-releases, will be out soon. The future looks bright and could include new and exciting titles such as Marvel's Spider-Man 2 or whatever project Astro's Playroom developer Team Asobi decides to work on next. PlayStation's various studios are no doubt gearing up for the next slate of PlayStation 5 games, even as the console itself continues to receive updates and polish.
This week looks to raise fan hype with a blowout of PlayStation news. Things have already been going strong with the release of anticipated multiplatform titles Tales of Arise and Sonic Colors: Ultimate, but those are far from the only games the PlayStation community will be talking about by the end of this week. On September 9, Sony will be streaming its PlayStation Showcase 2021, an informational stream on par with another company's E3 conference
While Sony skipped E3 again this year and had a smaller State of Play during the summer, it looks like it's been holding all of its big news for this show. Fans can expect to learn what the next year of PlayStation 5 releases look like, with PS4 and PS VR games confirmed to be taking a back seat. There are tons of announcements that fans are anticipating, and many of them probably will show up in this 40-minute stream.
The PlayStation Showcase's Showstoppers
Though they should be cautiously optimistic, fans have every reason to expect the PlayStation showcase will be huge with what's rumored to be showing up. The sequel to the 2018 God of War is expected to open or close this showcase. Its presence has been implied by a couple of trusted leakers, and with how long it has been since the game was initially teased, it seems like the perfect time for it to finally appear. If nothing else, everyone will hopefully be able to put to rest whether or not this game is actually called God of War: Ragnarok.
Aside from that, some rumors have been circulating involving the imminent announcement of a new Infamous game. Infamous developer Sucker Punch has been hard at work releasing and porting the critically acclaimed open-world samurai game Ghost of Tsushima, but it may have been preparing to return to its roots in the background. It certainly makes sense that another Infamous is on the way considering Second Son was released shortly after the PS4.
Of course, there are plenty of other announced titles that will probably show up. Horizon Forbidden West, Deathloop, and Death Stranding: Director's Cut all recently released trailers, but there's no reason why they couldn't show up again. Deathloop in particular could get a release trailer, as could fellow Bethesda PlayStation-exclusive Ghostwire Tokyo. In the same vein, Capcom's Pragmata and Square Enix's Forspoken both have solid chances of showing up. Gran Turismo 7 feels like a shoo-in for this show, and with its sudden reveal earlier in the week, Alan Wake Remastered could get a trailer. This could als be the time when The Last of Us Part 2's multiplayer is finally shown to the public.
Smaller Titles at the PlayStation Showcase
There is also plenty of room for indie titles to appear in between first-party, AAA ones. Ember Lab's Kena: Bridge of Spirits will probably show up with its last big trailer before its September 21 launch. Sloclap's Sifu is a little farther away, intended to release four days after Horizon Forbidden West on February 22, but while it just got a new trailer it seems especially welcome in PlayStation's streams. Heart Machine and Annapurna's Solar Ash is releasing on October 26, and now seems like a good time for a big trailer showing all it's got before launch.
A couple of other indie games shown at past PlayStation streams have yet to receive release dates, and could reveal them during the Showcase. BlueTwelve Studio's Stray, a game about a cat wandering through a world full of robots, is supposed to launch in early 2022, so the upcoming event would be the perfect time to reveal exactly when that is.
Neostream Interactive's Little Devil Inside could also potentially provide its release date. Although the game was announced to the wider public as part of Sony's PS5 reveal event in June 2020, it had actually been on Kickstarter in 2015, and was originally set for release in 2018. The game appears to be an intriguing mix of several genres and settings, so hopefully it will be a part of PlayStation's big show.
PlayStation Announcements Unlikely to Make the Showcase
There are a number of other major reveals that have been rumored to occur for a while, even if they seem less likely. Supposedly, Sony acquired Bluepoint Games, the studio behind the PS5's flagship Demon's Souls remake. This was promptly denied by Bluepoint, however it seems probable, and the deal may have gone through since then, so this show could be where it's announced. Such a reveal could also come with the announcement of their first project under new management, which could be anything from a Metal Gear Solid to a The Last of Us remake. It's unclear how the Bluepoint situation will turn out, but fans are definitely watching with bated breath.
Other unlikely announcements include the Grand Theft Auto 5 enhanced edition for next-gen consoles, which would be more likely at a Take-Two event; and Uncharted 4 PS5 and PC ports, which seem unlikely here due to its focus on PS5 alone. Of course, no discussion of Sony's future offerings can be complete without bringing up the often-rumored Bloodborne Hunter’s Edition.
This could be another Director's Cut similar to what Ghost of Tsushima and Death Stranding got, improving the performance on PS5 while also adding new content. FromSoftware fans desperately want this game to exist, but nothing concrete has manifested about it yet, so it may fall by the wayside as other big PS5 news takes precedent this week. Either way, fans will have to wait and see what PlayStation has in store.