State of Play on 3 September: Every Announcement and Date, With One Fact per Game

On 3 September Sony ran not one showcase but two: the regular State of Play and a separate State of Play Japan straight after. Hence the volume: nearly thirty games, seven release dates and one demo you can download right now.

Everything that matters is below with dates, and each game comes with one fact the trailer will not tell you.

Ghost of Yotei: 1 October, and no multiplayer

A correction first, because plenty of people were expecting otherwise: there is no multiplayer. Most Wanted is a single player combat survival mode, essentially Sucker Punch's take on a roguelike. Four playable characters, bounties with escalating difficulty.

Alongside it comes the story expansion Echoes of Sekigahara: a new area of Ezo, new enemies and a new weapon. Both are part of the Complete Edition, all on 1 October.

The actual news from the show is elsewhere. Jin Sakai from Ghost of Tsushima becomes a playable character in Most Wanted, with all four of his stances, a starting kit of a sticky bomb and a hankyu, the Dance of Wrath ultimate and Ghost Stance as his kill streak.

The interesting bit. Ghost of Tsushima did have co-op, the Legends mode from 2020. Here Sucker Punch deliberately went the other way, into a single player roguelike. And the other thing: Tsushima is set in 1274, Yotei in 1603. Three hundred and thirty years apart, and the studio joined the two games with a game mode rather than a story. Jin Sakai cannot be in Ezo in 1603, and nothing explains how he is.

Metro 2039: 4 February 2027

The date is set, the platforms are PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. They showed the first console gameplay, running on a PS5 Pro: a mission inside a ruined house.

The interesting bit. 4A Games grew out of people who left GSC Game World, which is to say the people who made the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The studio later moved from Kyiv to Malta. The two defining post-Soviet shooters about radiation and tunnels came out of what was effectively the same room.

Maneater 2: 2027, and the setting is excellent

One of the show's genuine surprises. You are a bull shark again, this time trapped inside Neptune's Kingdom, an enormous theme park on a private island. No exact date, just 2027.

The interesting bit. The first Maneater, from 2020, called itself not an RPG but a ShaRkPG: you play as the shark and level it like a character, with progression trees and all. The whole thing was framed as a mockumentary nature show narrated by Chris Parnell, the voice of Jerry in Rick and Morty.

Crimson Desert: the Charting the Unknown expansion, 15 October

The expansion continues Kliff's story after the ending of the base game. The trailer shows underwater diving, sailing a ship and building a house on a beach. It costs 24.99 euros and pre-orders are already live on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam and the Epic Games Store. Crimson Desert Enhanced arrives at the same time.

The interesting bit. Crimson Desert started life as a prequel to the MMO Black Desert Online. Pearl Abyss changed their minds mid development and turned it into a single player game. It was announced in 2019 and delayed for years, which makes an expansion a few months after release look almost indecently quick by this studio's standards.

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Final Fantasy Resonance: 22 October, and the demo landed today

This one needs explaining, because the name gives nothing away.

What the game is. A classic Japanese role playing game in the HD-2D style: pixel characters inside three dimensional sets with real lighting. The setup is familiar to the point of comfort: protect the Crystals scattered across the world and stop Veritas of the Dark, who wants to destroy it. Chocobos, airships, turn based combat, a simplified job system.

What this entry means in the series. It is not a numbered game. Numbered Final Fantasies are enormous projects with budgets in the tens of millions, and the next one will carry its own number. Resonance is a side branch, a deliberate return to how the series looked in the nineties, assembled with modern tools.

The interesting bit, and it is the best one from the whole show. Resonance is built on the first story arc of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, a mobile gacha game that has since been shut down. Square Enix took a dead mobile game and turned its world into a full release on five platforms. On top of that, the show revealed that you can find and challenge Sephiroth in it, with a reward for winning.

A second one. Square Enix invented the HD-2D style for Octopath Traveler in 2018 and then used it for the Dragon Quest III remake. Resonance is the first new Final Fantasy in it: the Pixel Remaster was plain pixel art, without the depth and the lighting.

The demo is available from today and hands over the entire first chapter, with the save carrying into the full game. Release is 22 October on Switch 2, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Gundam Rogue Orbit: 5 March 2027

A high mobility action game in a new universe with no ties to the known series. You play an ace pilot called RE-X in the cockpit of Gundam Helix. Platforms are PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam, pre-orders are open. The show added gameplay, new characters and a mysterious black mobile suit.

The interesting bit. Gundam games have been coming out since 1984, starting on the MSX. It is one of the longest running franchises in the medium: older than Mario Kart, Street Fighter and Metal Gear.

Final Fantasy VII Revelation: 8 April 2027

The finale of the remake trilogy, pre-orders already open. The date is less interesting than how long the road to it has been.

From announcement to finale is very nearly twelve years, from the original game to the end of the remake it is thirty. And between the first part of the trilogy and the last there will be 2554 days. Exactly seven years would have been two days more. Coincidence or not, for a game numbered seven that lands close to the mark.

The interesting bit. The remake was meant to be one game. It was split into three because rebuilding FF7 honestly in a modern form turned out to be impossible: Midgar alone, roughly the first six hours of the original, expanded in Remake into a standalone thirty hour game.

What else was shown

The Japanese showcase ran separately and was denser in sheer count. From it: Fate/Extra Record on 28 January, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World on 3 December, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 in 2027, Rev.Noir in 2027, Where the Seeds Fall on 5 November, SlashZero in spring 2027, plus Crown of No Quarter and Daba: Land of Water Scar. Rhapsody in Scarlet, an adventure set in the jazz New York of the twenties, got no release window at all.

Rev.Noir is worth singling out: it is a role playing game from Konami about a boy called Ash trying to stop a lightfall. Konami barely makes new single player RPGs, so the fact of it is more notable than its contents.

Add the two shows together and the next month looks like this: the Ghost of Yotei content on 1 October, the Crimson Desert expansion on 15 October, Final Fantasy Resonance on 22 October. Then a pause until late January for Until Dawn 2 and Fate/Extra Record, with all the heavy artillery pushed into 2027.