This Week's Top Gaming News Stories

After the back to back bombshells of Concord’s delisting and the ridiculous price reveal of the PS5 Pro, Sony was in desperate need of a win. While PlayStation’s recent State of Play might not have been as earth shattering as many fans might have been hoping, there was still plenty to get excited about for PlayStation’s coming months and into next year.

Sony kicked off the show with Astro Bot introducing new bots that need rescuing such as Stellar Blade’s Eve, the Helldivers as well as others, a myriad of new levels and speedrun challenges with leaderboards coming in this fall for the low, low price of free!

Tim Burton fans will have a lot to get excited about with The Midnight Walk, the new title from the developer’s of the equally Burton-esque Lost in Random. The Midnight Walk has been created entirely from stop-motion animation, from the world to its creatures all being crafted lovingly by hand. The Midnight Walk will be released in Spring 2025, which gives you plenty of time to check out Lost in Random which you should absolutely do!

We got a much deeper look at Rogue Factor’s upcoming title Hell is Us, a third person action game with Dark Souls-inspired combat and absolutely no HUD to guide the player. The devs explain this choice was deliberate to fully immerse the player in their war torn world by letting them explore without the game holding their hand. Instead the world and NPCs will guide the player to their next destination as long as they pay close attention to what is being explained to them. Armed with only a drone and sword the players must navigate not only a civil war but also supernatural entities that have invaded the world. Hell is Us is currently scheduled for release in the increasingly busy 2025.

We also got some release updates on some big name titles. First up Capcom revealed the release date for their highly anticipated Monster Hunter World followup Wildlands which will let players start hunting on February 28th, 2025. We also got a street date for the latest in the ridiculously long running Dynasty Warriors series which is taking things back to the beginning with Origins which will let players battle hundreds of enemies at once on January 17th, 2025. Pocketpair’s surprise hit Palworld also got a surprise shadow drop after formerly only being exclusive to Xbox and PC. And finally Lego Horizon Adventures, the brick and click retelling of Horizon Zero Dawn will release on November 14 of this year with pre-orders starting on October 3rd. The recently leaked Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster also proved to be real and will update not only the visuals and character models to Forbidden West level but also update the once static conversation cinematics. Thankfully the upgrade is only $10 for those interested.

Alongside the reveal of new colors for the DualSense and PS5 plates (the teal is a personal favorite), Mark Cerny once again took to our screens to plead the case for the PS5 Pro’s exorbitant price tag by once again showcasing games featuring barely noticeable upgrades.

Retro fans had quite a lot to get excited about during this State of Play as well. Not only was the long rumored and often leaked Soul Reaver Remaster fully revealed and releasing this December 10th just in time for the series’ 25th anniversary, but 90s RPG fan will get to relive 2 of the best classic of the genre as Lunar Silver Star Story and its follow-up Lunar 2 Eternal Blue are also receiving remasters and will release in spring 2025. The once mobile exclusive Fantasian Neo Dimension from the original creators of the Final Fantasy franchise will be coming to consoles on December 5th. And lastly, while updating fans on the upcoming PSPlus titles for October, PlayStation just casually announced the long demanded Dino Crisis will be coming to PS4/5 via PSPlus Extra. We know it’s not a remake or remaster but we’ll take whatever we can get at this point.

A couple games got some DLC updates as Keanu Reeves will be reprising his role as Shadow from the upcoming movie Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as part of a DLC pack releasing on December 12th, a week before the film hits theaters on December 20th. Alan Wake’s nightmare isn’t over yet and he’s pulling the Bureau of Control in deeper than ever before with the new expansion for Alan Wake II, The Lake House just in time for spooky season this October.

However, Sony wasn’t finished yet and decided to close out the show with just one more thing…

This was arguably the biggest reveal of PlayStation’s State of Play and it did not disappoint. Long rumored and anticipated, Sucker Punch gave players their first look at their new title Ghost of Yotei, their long awaited follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima which was released back in 2020. However, instead of continuing Jin Sakai’s story, Ghost of Yotei introduces players to a new Ghost taking up the mask, Atsu, whose story will take place 300 years after the events of Tsushima. Sorry Jin fans, this means there’s almost no possibility of a cameo by the original Ghost. Instead, Sucker Punch is taking a more anthology route with the series, mentioning in a PlayStation blog post that Yotei is just the start of additional spin-offs in the series, noting their love of origin stories as a basis for the new setting and heroine. The new game will center around the titular Yotei, a mountain in what is known as Hokkaido today. The team traveled to this region to explore the area and were inspired by the new hazardous terrain as well as the unpredictable and dangerous wildlife. Sucker Punch promises Ghost of Yotei will continue to build on the aspects of the original fans loved while offering new experiences, mechanics, gameplay improvements as weapons. While not much else is known about Ghost of Yotei at the moment, with the impending 2025 release date, Sucker Punch promises we’ll learn more very soon. Sucker Punch has big plans to continue and expand the legend of the Ghost with future entries and adaptations including the currently in-development film adaptation of the original Ghost of Tsushima from John Wick director Chad Stahalski.

It’s not all good news for PlayStation following the success of their recent State of Play however, as the more we learn about Concord, the worse it gets. The “live service” game that launched DOA reportedly was even more of a financial failure than previous reports could have imagined. According to sources close to the project, the full development cost wasn’t the purported $200 million as previously reported but actually closer to $400 million. While this number is completely unconfirmed and we’ll likely never know the true cost of development, Sony’s push for a major “live service” title failed so spectacularly, Sony decided to delist the game only two weeks after launch with only roughly 25,000 copies sold worldwide. Sony reportedly had incredibly high hopes for Concord claiming it to be “the future of PlayStation” and a franchise on the level of Star Wars marketability. However, further insight into the game’s creation points to a culture of “toxic positivity” which resulted in many concerns about the game being shot down or ignored due to their negative nature. Concord’s game director Ryan Ellis also recently stepped down leading to further speculation that Concord is truly dead and won’t see any kind of relaunch as a “free-to-play” hero shooter as many suspected and the studio itself could be shut down entirely.

Netflix has become quite the juggernaut when it comes to animated video game adaptations with the likes of Castlevania, Arcane and Cyberpunk Edgerunners proving not only critical darlings but also a major hit with the usually finicky fanbase. Netflix hopes to keep that momentum going after giving viewers their first looks at some of their latest upcoming adaptations. Picking up where the games left off, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft will have fans joining Lara on her next adventure, this time voiced by the very appropriately cast Hayley Atwell and looks to connect the reboot trilogy with the original games in the timeline and will be available on October 10th.

Given the runaway success of Cyberpunk Edgerunners which not only managed to be a standout story told in Night City on its own, but also managed to boost the game’s popularity even further, Netflix announced there would be more Cyberpunk animation coming in the future but that’s all we know so far.

We might not be able to get a new entry in the video game franchise but at least we’re getting a new Sam Fisher adventure via the upcoming Splinter Cell: Deathwatch series. However, much like the games, we don’t yet know when this adaptation starring Liev Schreiber as Sam Fisher will sneak its way onto our screens.

Finally an adaptation that makes a lot of sense and has already had its fair share of anime outings, Devil May Cry fans will get their Dante fix when the new adaptation from Adi Shankar, creator of the Castlevania series, releases next April. Featuring lots of gunplay and Dante’s usual wisecracking attitude, this looks like yet another solid entry for Dante as he slays every monster in his path searching for the one who killed his mother.

It would seem that Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows needs a bit more polish before its release as Ubisoft announced the game would be delayed from its original November 12 release date to February 14th 2025. Following cancellations of their scheduled appearances at the Tokyo Game Show as well as many other press junkets speculation was widespread the game could end up being delayed. Ubisoft has had a tumultuous few years to say the least with many of their big AAA titles falling well short of sales expectations including their most recent release Star Wars Outlaws. Many have pointed to the game’s lackluster showing which include numerous bugs and glitches even in their promotional trailers. Ubisoft’s recent track record of buggy launches is rivaled only by Bethesda and but the delay of their flagship 2024 title could point to the studio learning from their past mistakes and giving the game the time it needs to be a truly polished experience. This delay does however potentially put Ubisoft’s samurai Assassin’s Creed game in direct competition with Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yotei in addition to all the other major releases planned for February 2025.