On July 6th, 2021, Sony Senior Director Sid Shuman released an announcement about their much-anticipated State of Play event. Many fans of PlayStation were expecting to receive updates about some of Sony’s own upcoming game releases. However, as the announcement made clear, this time the State of Play event will be shining the spotlight on indie and third-party games and developers and showcasing their work instead.
The State of Play broadcast is a recurring live event hosted by Sony in order to showcase new game releases and updates to help keep fans informed and excited. This year, the State of Play event will feature a deep dive into Bethesda’s Deathloop. Taking up almost one-third of the event time, Deathloop seems to be the centerpiece of this State of Play, with players getting an ‘extended gameplay sequence’ to help hype up the title.
We’ve seen Colt’s head-spinning powers in action before, but this Thursday we’ll get a nine-minute look at Deathloop’s time-twisted world as part of a new State of Play.
Other than featuring Bethesda’s upcoming adventure game, the State of Play event will be focusing on exclusively indie and third-party games and developers. This step away from publicizing Sony’s own titles is a change in pace for the State of Play event, which previously focused on near exclusively Sony titles. As of now, Sony has not announced what indie games or developers the event will be highlighting.
Shuman even made it explicitly clear in his announcement that highly anticipated Sony titles, such as God of War or Horizon Forbidden West, will not be seen at all.
This showcase will not include updates on the next God of War, Horizon Forbidden West or the next generation of PlayStation VR. Stay tuned throughout the summer though, as we’ll have more updates soon.
While some fans might be let down by the lack of mainstream content, players can still look forward to getting the chance to branch out and try some new games and support smaller developers. Even if Sony missed the mark on announcing bigger projects, the State of Play event still leaves much for fans to be excited about.
The State of Play broadcast will be happening on July 8th, 2021 at 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET / 11:00 pm CEST.