Last night’s PlayStation State of Play carried real weight for Sony. We’re still processing the platform holder’s March message that the PS5, PS5 Pro, and Portal would see major price hikes because of “ongoing pressures in the global economic environment.” On top of that, there’s the latest increase to PS Plus pricing. There are also fresh claims that Sony plans to stop adapting its single-player PS5 games for PC, even as the company appears to be moving into a phase with fewer first-party releases on the way.
Something clearly needs to shift, and I suspect last night may have marked the start of a fresh chapter for PlayStation. After Sony’s failed attempt to lean into live-service titles under ex-chief Jim Ryan—an approach the company has spent the past few years walking back—wasn’t it telling that the only multiplayer-focused games in a 90-minute showcase were the genuinely intriguing Kemuri (a co-op action game), Marvel Tokon (a fighting game), and a quick look at Season 2 of Marathon? Even the Dune: Awakening PS5 reveal took pains to stress that there’s a meaningful single-player component there, and that it isn’t only about PvP clashes.
The era of PlayStation insisting, almost relentlessly, that what we really want is live-service multiplayer is well behind us. For years, these events served up trailers for projects that looked doomed—Destruction All-Stars, Concord, or Deathverse: Let it Die among them—and that only covers Sony’s first-party efforts. Remedy’s FBC: Firebreak and Amazon Game’s King of Meat also took up substantial time in earlier showcases, and neither managed to hang around for a full year. Sony seems to have noticed and absorbed the lessons from those expensive missteps; there just isn’t enough room for this many “forever games” all at once. You can’t keep stacking fresh options onto a plate already loaded with Fortnite, Helldivers 2, GTA Online, Roblox, Minecraft, and the many other long-term time drains and revenue engines that show no intention of giving up their slice of the market.
Still, this turn away from live-service titles didn’t appear to be the original goal. Over the last few years, Sony reportedly canceled a number of additional live-service projects—often before we even saw what they might have become. London Studio’s co-op game was shelved, and the studio was shut down in 2024. In 2023, Naughty Dog stopped development on a standalone multiplayer entry set in The Last of Us universe. A live-service Twisted Metal effort at Firesprite also ended in 2024. And not long ago, footage for a canceled cooperative live-service Spider-Man project from Insomniac—titled Spider-Man: The Great Web—turned up online, alongside talk that it was quietly killed off before it ever reached the public. At this point, Sony seems so resistant to live-service, multiplayer-first releases that it apparently didn’t even want to bring up Horizon: Hunters Gathering.
Instead, last night focused on a strong lineup of premium single-player games—kicking off with Logan in his five-foot-three, hairy glory, launching into a whirlwind of gore and adamantium. Powered by the technical know-how Insomniac has been building through its distinctive, internally developed engine, Wolverine looks like exactly the kind of experience players have been craving lately: a lively, uninhibited romp through a grimy, over-the-top comic-book world. It brings to mind those confident “Xbox 360” vibes, and I mean that as a compliment. This is the sort of single-player offering that was common during that era (or perhaps too common, depending on how you see it).
What an evening for single-player games!
Next on the slate is God of War Laufey. It feels like a vibrant, playful breath of fresh air within the often heavier atmosphere of PlayStation’s first-party catalog. It even carries some of that Whedon-esque “Millennial writing” energy that seems to show up in games more and more these days, and I’m sure louder corners of the internet will take issue with stepping into the shoes of a female character—but to me, it looks brilliant. It somehow manages to blend older and newer God of War elements into one slightly unreal package. And putting Deborah Ann Woll front and center as Laufey is an excellent decision. She’ll bring that role to life with ease.
After that comes Until Dawn 2, a genuinely surprising treat that practically asks, “what if we placed a horror game in Love Island?” Beyond Sony’s first-party slate, there’s also a strong-looking Dave the Diver prequel called Bancho the Chef, the upcoming Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis (even if it’s tangled up with genAI concerns), the not-Jurassic Park survival game The Lost Wild, Phantom Blade Zero, Onimusha, Silent Hill: Townfall, Ace Combat 8, Stuntman, and Control Resonant. Last night truly felt like a feast of single-player games—and, if I can be frank, it also reflects Sony’s commitment to an audience that has been speaking out against “live service clutter” for at least a year now.
That said, is it enough? Can a showcase like this truly slow the slide and bring in more players to the ecosystem? And can Sony, now running a system that costs more than it did at launch, get people to keep engaging with PlayStation as both games, technology, and the related services get pricier? I’m not entirely convinced. Still, seeing investment in big, memorable, standout single-player experiences like Laufey, Until Dawn 2, and Wolverine gives me reason to feel optimistic—because those are the kinds of games Sony has historically excelled at. Or maybe it’s the PC delay for GTA 6 that will end up doing the real rescue work for console gaming. At least, in the short term.