Ghost of Tsushima’s successor marks the return of PlayStation exclusives

After the PS5 Pro unveiling which – in terms of new games demonstrating its power – left a lot to be desired, many gamers were expecting Sony to make up for that during the September State of Play presentation. Those gamers will have to wait a bit longer, it seems: there was a new supercut featuring a number of PS5 Pro Enhanced titles, some of them new to this ever-growing list, but prospective PS5 Pro owners are still in need of specific, clear, exciting examples showing off what it can really do for their favorite and future games. There’s more information coming about the software support this more powerful PS5 will be getting – obviously planned to appear before its November launch – but in the meantime Sony does offer a lengthy post about the subject over at the official PlayStation blog.

This State of Play was not about that, though. It was about giving PS5 owners a good idea of the games available to them over the next 6 months or so, as well as a glimpse of how Sony plans to offer the new PlayStation exclusives fans are asking for, starting with the successor of acclaimed action adventure Ghost of Tsushima. By that measure, this State of Play was a decent enough showing (even if a few surprises wouldn’t hurt).

A wide range of PS5 games for Q4 and beyond

First things first, here’s the Q4 2024 stuff worth everyone’s attention: Palworld, the “Pokemon with guns” sensation that took the world by storm earlier this year is out now for the PS5. Horizon Zero Dawn is getting a remaster (everything upgraded and updated to Horizon Forbidden West standards) and a PC version (whether we’re in for something similar with Days Gone remains to be seen). Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 &2 is also getting a remaster as part of its 25th-year anniversary.

The excellent Astro Bot is getting its first free DLC at some point before Christmas (something having to do with the launch of the PS5 Pro maybe?), Alan Wake 2 is getting its DLC expansion The Lake House in October and Stellar Blade is getting a generous DLC pack featuring NieR: Automata content soon.

Νotable new PS5 games to be released this year: retro-horror Fear the Spotlight launches on October 22nd, impressive RPG Fantasian Neo Dimension (from Final Fantasy‘s creator Hironobu Sakaguchi) is out on December 5th, while Sony’s own LEGO Horizon Adventures, out on November 14th, is looking great and may just be the Thanksgiving sleeper hit few are expecting to stand out among all the end-of-year blockbuster releases.

These games, along with titles such as Neva, Marvel Rivals or Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, as well as new versions of AAA behemoths such as Dragon Age, Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty – all coming to the PS5 in the next three months – should keep PlayStation gamers only interested in the new stuff happy until January.

Then, it’s Q1 2025 time: Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors Origins launches on January 17th and Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds will be out on February 28th, both being developed for the PS5 – not the PS4 – and looking promising as a result. Other 2025 titles, such as Hell Is Us, The Midnight Walk, ArcheAge Chronicles and the Lunar Remastered Collection are not attached to specific release dates yet, but they should all be out during the first half of the year if the gameplay footage shown for each one is any indication.

Will Sucker Punch’s latest lead a true next-gen charge?

The star of this particular State of Play presentation, though, was none other than the successor of Ghost of Tsushima, named Ghost of Yotei. This is Sucker Punch studio’s first true PS5 title, featuring a different main character (a woman named Atsu), a different setting (the Japanese area today known as Hokkaido) and even a different timeframe (it takes place around 300 years after the events of the first game).

Gameplay-wise it looks similar to Ghost of Tsushima in some ways, but Sucker Punch has introduced a number of new mechanics, moves and weapons (mode details about everything are obviously coming later). Most importantly: this really does look like a next-gen title featuring graphics of astonishing detail, expansive vistas and impressive special effects. It will be out at some point in 2025, although most probably not before Sony’s next fiscal year (starting on April 1st).

All in all a good enough show, then, as one would expect the current market leader in videogaming to deliver just before the year’s most important quarter. If anything, though, this State of Play presentation also mirrored what is more or less the state of the gaming industry’s output at this specific point in time: just a handful of bold, experimental titles, a lot of derivative ones, a lot of remasters and remakes, plenty of predictable DLC, a clear development and marketing focus on already established brands or series.

This situation is far from ideal, as it’s not exactly helping video games as an entertainment medium evolve. At the very least, though, it seems that publishers are finally starting to leave the PS4 behind in order to focus on the PS5/PS5 Pro generation, so our chances of actually playing new games that we simply could not have in the previous generation are greatly improved. Here’s hope that, come 2025, we’ll get to enjoy at least a few of those.