Sony is not known for conferences that stand out in terms of pace or quality, except for honorable exceptions. Unfortunately, this PlayStation Direct has not been one of those exceptions. While there was a big surprise at the end and a good start, the conference got lost among half-baked announcements and dedicating too much time to things that didn’t need it. But that won’t stop us from summarizing everything that has happened so that you know all that they have announced. And even more importantly, so that you can assess everything properly.
The PlayStation Direct began with Baby Steps, and it was quite an intense way to start. Developed by Maxi Boch, Gabe Cuzzillo, and Bennett Foddy, the latter two have previously worked together on APE OUT, and Bennett Foddy is especially known for the successful game among streamers, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. Here, they continue with their same sense of humor, combining player frustration with pushing the boundaries of game design to find what makes an experience memorable. However, we’ll have to wait until summer 2024 for its release.
Next came a small VR segment. They showed a Ghostbusters game titled Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghostlord, set to be released on October 26, and the VR mode for Resident Evil 4 Remake, scheduled for winter. They also announced the Resident Evil 4 Separate’s Ways DLC, which allows us to experience the adventure from Ada’s perspective and will be released on September 21, along with an update to the Mercenaries mode.
Outside of this block, there have been three games that have stood out especially. The arrival of Roblox on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on October 10, the release of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora on December 7 and some technical aspects of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which will be released on October 20. Three advertisements that we already knew and that, despite having shown more about the games, have not shown much more that we did not know.
In addition to those, they have shown a quick preview of another game series. They have shown Ghostrunner II, an interesting platform hack’n’slash that will be released on October 26 and has a demo now available. They have shown Helldivers II, which will be released for both Steam and PlayStation 5, and have dated its release for February 8, 2024. They have announced a DLC for Tales of Arise, called Beyond the Dawn, for next November 9, without giving more information. They have tiptoed around the launch of Honkai: Star Rail on PlayStation 5 on October 11. And they have spent more time than the two previous announcements combined talking about Foamstars, a Splatoon clone that will have an open beta between September 29 and October 1.
Nevertheless, the big highlight came at the end. That’s when they announced that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be released on February 29, 2024. This closed a conference that lacked much excitement and could have been more interesting with a bit more effort from Sony.
