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| Tides of Annihilation, one of many great new announcements |
Like many of you, I went into 2025's first State of Play with no expectations. After all, these presentations have sucked for at least this entire generation. Well, my disappointment was negligible and my day was made. I guess it's true that you're less likely to be disappointed if you lower your expectations. But is that really true? Did I enjoy the showcase so much simply because I wasn't expecting much? Looking at the actual contents of the presentation, I don't think so. This legitimately was the best one I've seen, outside of Nintendo, for many years. It comes down to three things: announcements, dates, and gameplay.
I think we've finally, finally reached a point where we've come back around to "new" being in. Growing up, this was the norm and it continued to be the norm until last generation. Big publishers used to churn out new IPs all the time. After all, experimenting with new things is how every big franchise is born. We'd never have the likes of Assassin's Creed, Uncharted, or Gears of War if somebody didn't take a chance on a new idea. At this point, though, we've been repeating the same franchises since they debuted on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Do we really need another Assassin's Creed? Did we have to alternate between Uncharted and The Last of Us for a decade? Did Forza ever need to become an annual franchise? Many industry veterans who worked on these huge, never ending series finally had enough and left for greener pastures. They set up their own independent studios and sought out alternative funding to make the games they wanted to make. In 2025 we are finally seeing the fruits of their labors. The last few years has seen a trickle of such releases, but this year the floodgates have been opened. Fresh ideas were on full display here at this State of Play. It was so refreshing to see such a large percentage of the presentation dedicated to new franchises. Even if they were previously announced games like Hell is Us, we got to see new gameplay and release dates.
Release dates! It really takes the wind out of my sails when I see a cool new game get announced along with a vague window or, even worse, no timeframe at all. I can't get hyped for something so far away. In fact, I'm likely to forget about a game with no release date because that means it's unlikely to be shown again in the near future. But this show? Dates everywhere! Most of them were even for this year! Previously announced games like Borderlands 4, The Midnight Walk, and Hell is Us were dated, but even more excitingly we got dates for newly announced games like that cool looking FPS Metal Eden which is out in May. And then there was Mindseye, revealed for the first time with a cinematic trailer and a gameplay trailer and a release window of this summer. This summer! That's months away! Nintendo frequently does this nowadays, but nobody else does. It brought me back to the good old days of E3 when you'd see big new games announced out of the blue with release dates that same year. It's been a long time and I loved seeing it.
I've already mentioned factor number three, but it was fantastic to see these newly announced games revealed with gameplay rather than just cinematics. Action game Tides of Annihilation was a show stealer for me, and while it didn't have a date attached it did, at least, show plenty of gameplay. I don't know if developers and publishers are catching on, but I simply can no longer get hyped about a game announcement that's just a cinematic which may or may not be indicative of how the game actually plays. Unfortunately, they chose to end the show with one of those by announcing Saros from Housemarque. "We can't wait to share gameplay with you later this year!" I can't either, so just show it to me now! I really don't understand what PlayStation thinks the advantage is of not showing gameplay, especially after it backfired horribly with Concord. I do trust Housemarque, but why would they not just wait to announce until the gameplay is ready to show? If they're able, then just show it now. I may have been impressed by cinematic trailers as a teenager, but these days I have no patience for it. If you want to grab my attention for your game, then show me the damn game! Thankfully, most everyone else seems to have gotten the memo.
To be completely honest, I feel like someone would come away from this showcase disappointed only if they expected 40 minutes of games from PlayStation Studios, which is not something they've done since the last time they attended E3 in 2018. If you want first party bombshells, you'll only get those from a Nintendo Direct. Sony and Microsoft just don't have the output that Nintendo has, although they should also not be announcing games five or more years ahead of release as soon as they start working on them. This is also a lesson I think Nintendo has learned through the Switch era. Isn't it much better to have a game announced close to completion and released within a matter of months? On that front, there was a lot to look forward to. 2025 seems absolutely stacked, and I think will probably go down as one of gaming's greatest years yet regardless of whether PlayStation Studios contributed.
In conclusion, 0/10 no Silksong
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