Today’s PlayStation Showcase included updates from PlayStation Studios and some of the industry’s most imaginative developers, for games releasing this holiday and beyond. 

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Alongside a pair of big surprises from our friends at Insomniac Games, there was a lot to digest. So without further ado, here’s everything else announced during the show,  including additional insight from the developers of the games featured.

PlayStation Showcase: All the announcements

• The City Where Play Has No Limits
• Gran Turismo 7 arrives on PS5 and PS4 March 4
• First look at God of War Ragnarök
• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection coming to PS5 and PC
• Tchia: Creating a game inspired by New Caledonia
• Down the rabbit hole in Deathloop’s story trailer
• Bloodhunt comes to PlayStation 5 in 2021
• Breaking down the story trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
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First off, I want to thank all of you for your passion and support for PlayStation and the entire video game medium. Following today’s PlayStation Showcase, I hope you can see that we’re devoted to this art form as well — its power to move us is singular. 

And we’re just getting started. Pushing against limits and resetting our ideas of what is possible is in PlayStation’s DNA. And today, we are bringing this vision to life through a new global brand spot. 

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We believe it’s powerful to challenge expectations and present bold new possibilities. This new spot takes the viewer on a reimagined journey through one of history’s oldest and most revered games. In a fantastical city as the backdrop, play is governed by rules and limitations — and we see what happens when one player defies conventions and stands triumphant, proving that play has no limits. 

As you watch the spot, keep your eyes peeled: we pay tribute to some of our favorite games. Can you spot them all?

I still clearly remember the inexplicable eagerness and excitement of that day when we introduced the first Gran Turismo game to the world for the first time on the original PS1 console. 

With that same inexplicable sense of excitement, I’m happy to report that Gran Turismo 7 will be available on March 4, 2022, simultaneously on both the PS5 and the PS4 consoles.  

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The cultural environment surrounding cars has changed greatly in the past 25 years. Those of us who were born in the rich car culture of the times created the first Gran Turismo game, so it may be difficult for the current generation of automotive purists to be in the same type of cultural environment as ourselves back then. 

The objective for GT7 in current culture today, is to design a game to convey everything from the last 150 years of car and racing culture, whether you are a lifelong fan or discovering cars for the first time. 

GT7 is both the culmination of the series which answers the expectations of GT fans throughout the years, and at the same time it is a title that marks a beginning of a difficult mission to contain the full breadth of car culture from the past into a single video game.  

Best of Gran Turismo Experiences  

The name “Gran Turismo” means “Grand Touring” in Italian. Back to the 17^th Century, people would go on long trips across the European continent, learning and growing at their travel destinations. The name is derived from these journeys.  

In the same spirit, the GT Campaign mode is also a place where individual players will take their own unique journeys and gain life learning experiences.   

We’re aware that long-time fans of the Gran Turismo series strongly desired the return of the GT Campaign mode*, and now, having seen the trailer, hopefully everyone will be able to get a feel fo

We couldn’t be more excited here at Santa Monica Studio to finally share our first real look at God of War Ragnarök with all the fans who have been very patiently waiting for an update!   

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As you can see in the trailer, we’re picking up a few years after the events of God of War (2018). The freezing winds of Fimbulwinter have come to Midgard, making survival for Kratos, Atreus, and Mimir in the Norse wilds even more challenging than before.  

While the last game built an enormous amount of trust and understanding between father and son, there is still a great deal of complexity in their interactions – especially after the revelation of Atreus’ Giant heritage and the hidden prophecy only Kratos saw.  

Atreus is desperately curious. Like most young people, he wants to understand who he is more than anything. In this case, he wants to understand who he could be. The mystery of Loki’s role in the upcoming conflict is something that Atreus cannot let go of. He wants to keep his family safe, but Atreus also doesn’t want to stand by and do nothing while conflict consumes the Nine Realms.  

Kratos, still bearing the knowledge of his past mistakes, wants to spare Atreus the bloody lessons he learned from his conflict with gods. He wants to keep his son safe, above all, and their confrontation with Baldur has vindicated the belief that only tragedy will come from further entanglements with the Aesir.  

Together, Kratos and Atreus will have to make a choice about which path they will take. Whatever they choose will define the fate of all those living in the Nine Realms as Ragnarök approaches.

Agony and Vengeance  

We show a brief look at two of the main antagonists you’ll face in God of War Ragnarök: Freya and Thor. 

Because of Kratos’ actions at the end of the previous game, the once-

In my nearly 18 years of working at Insomniac Games (wow—has it really been that long?!), one of the things I’ve always appreciated about the studio is how it truly values and fosters collaboration. When we work together, and more importantly, when we listen to each other, the end result is always better. 

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That approach even applies when we work with those outside our studio, as it’s been such a pleasure to collaborate with Marvel Games. Learning from and sharing with these true believers as we created games such as Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales has been a career highlight for many of us. And what’s so exciting is that our collaboration isn’t ending anytime soon, as today we revealed not one—but TWO—new Marvel titles coming from Insomniac Games: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Marvel’s Wolverine.

Let’s start with the one most of you probably could’ve guessed: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. We’re so thrilled to continue the journey of both Peter Parker and Miles Morales in their most epic single-player adventure yet, coming exclusively to PlayStation 5 consoles in 2023.

While pushing the capabilities of the console will be very exciting, we’re equally pumped to craft all-new stories for Peter and Miles in this sequel. Just as in our previous Spider-Man games, we not only want to tell a great Super Hero story, but also deliver a compelling human story, one full of heart and humor that dives deep into the people behind the mask. 

Much of the development team that brought you Marvel’s Spider-Man is returning to produce Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, including Bryan Intihar (creative director) and Ryan Smith (game director). Today’s game footage trailer is merely just a glimpse at what’s in store in terms of the new abilities our heroes will acquire, suits they will wear (more on that some other time), and the villains that will try to hunt them down. And speaking of villains, did you catch that final line at the end of the trailer? We’re so happy to announce that Tony Todd (of Candyman fame) will be voicing the symbiote-fueled Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. We’re also delighted to welcome back Yuri Lowenthal and Nadji Jeter, who will reprise their roles as Peter and Miles respectively. We’ve been fortunate to work with so many incredibly talented actors in our Spider-Man games, and Tony has been such a wonderful addition to the cast.

We’re excited to announce that we’re bringing Uncharted to the PlayStation 5 console and PC with the release of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection.

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This brand-new remastered bundle includes Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, featuring Nathan Drake as he hunts for Captain Avery’s long-lost treasure, setting off for one final far flung adventure across the jungles of Madagascar to long lost pirate colony of Libertalia. It also includes Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which chronicles Chloe Frazer’s breakout exploits as she moves from frenemy to hero. Enlisting the assistance of renowned mercenary Nadine Ross, Chloe ventures to India’s Western Ghats to locate the Golden Tusk of Ganesh.

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection will be available in early 2022 for PS5. The PC version is in development by our partners at Iron Galaxy and will release shortly after the PS5 version. As these dates approach, we’ll discuss more details. 

Needless to say, we’re pretty excited that more players will get the chance to meet (and fall in love with) Nathan, Chloe, Nadine, and the rest of the cast in the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection.

Get ready to (re-)seek your fortune. Or, you know, discover it for the first time — we recommend bringing a grappling hook!

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After a number of years closely collaborating on several games together, including The Playroom (PS4) and The Playroom VR (PS VR), I couldn’t be more delighted to welcome Firesprite to the PlayStation Studios family as our 14^th studio! Quite a few members of Firesprite come from SIE’s Studio Liverpool and we’re thrilled to welcome them back.  

Firesprite is a creative and ambitious studio that is exceptional at building incredible experiences that truly showcase the potential of our hardware. The team’s technical and creative capabilities will be paramount to growing our stellar catalogue of exclusive games, and I think you’ll be excited for what’s to come. 

Welcome to PlayStation Studios, Firesprite! 

Today is an incredibly exciting day for Firesprite as we join PlayStation Studios with the backing of Hermen and the entire PlayStation Family. We are very much looking forward to the next part of our journey!

Firesprite, headquartered in Liverpool in the North-West of the UK, was founded in 2012 with the vision of creating games that bring new innovations to any experience we develop. The North-West is steeped in gaming history, producing many iconic developers, publishers and games such as WipEout. Many of our ‘Sprites developed and shaped titles from this era and we are very proud of those roots!

We’ve had the pleasure of working with many talented developers and publishers across the industry and PlayStation in particular has been a friend and co-development partner for the best part of a decade, collaborating together on many exciting projects including The PlayRoom, Run Sackboy! Run and The PlayRoom VR.

PlayStation also gave us the opportunity to create our own IP, The Persistence, and we were given the creative freedom to explore, innovate, and release a survival horror game we are immensely proud of. Now, as a first party studio, we know we have the full support of PlayStation in furthering our heritage of combining creativity and technical innovation to offer some truly unique experiences for PlayStation fans.

I firstly want to thank PlayStation and their community for the warm welcome into a family of incredible creators. I’d also like to thank all of our ‘Sprites, past and present, who have helped shape the Firesprite we see today. I’m proud of the talent we have at Firesprite and you’ll continue to hear and see more from us all very soon!

We can’t wait to show you what we have been working on……we’re just getting started 😊!

– Graeme Ankers, MD of Firesprite

Hello, PlayStation fans!

The Riftbreaker launches October 14 on PlayStation 5. It’s been an incredible pleasure bringing our latest game to life on the next-gen hardware, and we hope you will have a lot of fun discovering all of its secrets next month! The Riftbreaker is a base-building strategy game with elements of survival, exploration, and action-RPG. As Captain Ashley S. Nowak your job is to jump through a one-way portal to Galatea 37, a distant planet in the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy. Once you’re there you must singlehandedly prepare the planet for further colonization.

Luckily, thanks to the power of PS5 we could fully realize our vision and expand on it with unique features that will immerse you in the world of The Riftbreaker even further. The DualSense controller gave us entirely new avenues of communicating with the player. For instance, the Adaptive Triggers become harder to push when the player runs out of ammunition, giving them instant feedback. The Triggers also start pulsating every time the weapon is ready to release a powerful, charged-up shot, increasing player effectiveness during combat.

Thanks to DualSense’s haptics, players can feel a tangible connection with the world of Galatea 37. While exploring the vast jungle, players will feel raindrops hitting the controller, as well as different types of terrain beneath their feet. The feeling of the controller changes between biomes – you will feel the shifting sands in the desert dunes, the rubble of rocks in the volcanic zone, as well as many others. But haptics aren’t limited to nature. While using tech gadgets, such as the Geoscanner or Geiger Counter, the DualSense controller will vibrate in correlation to the strength of the readings from those sensors.

However, The Riftbreaker on PlayStation 5 offers much more than that. When we started working on this project back in 2018 we already knew that we wanted to deliver a truly next-gen experience for our players. We enhanced our custom game engine, The Schmetterling 2.0, with cutting-edge features and technologies that allow us to fully take advantage of the next-gen hardware. 

First of all, you will be able to play The Riftbreaker on PS5 with ray traced shadows. Thanks to the use of RT shadows we can ensure that every scene in the game will feature beautiful, dynamic soft shadows that are entirely accurate in every frame. This technology also allows to include additional shadow casting lights like for example a comet flying above the player’s head or a burning fire golem that illuminates its surroundings with precise shadows being cast by every blade of grass. 

None of that would matter if we had to compromise the game’s performance. Luckily, thanks to the power of PlayStation 5

Greetings Mercs! This is Daeron Katz, Senior Community Manager for MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. I’ve been a huge fan of the BattleTech franchise and MechWarrior games since the 1984 BattleDroids tabletop game. Despite the wealth of board games, novels, and MechWarrior games that bring the world of BattleTech to life, PlayStation fans haven’t had a proper MechWarrior experience since the time-tested classic, MechWarrior 2: 31^st Century Combat, released for the original PlayStation in 1995.

All that changes today.

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I feel honored to be able to formally announce that both MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries and the Heroes of the Inner Sphere DLC will be heading to PS4 and PS5 on September 23.  In terms of differences, the PlayStation 5 version supports adaptive triggers and advanced haptics with the DualSense controller. This will also be the first time MechWarrior will be on a PlayStation console in over 20 years!

For strangers to the world of MechWarrior, here’s the TLDR: The year is 3015 and humanity has colonized thousands of systems across space. The battlefields of the future are dominated by MechWarriors (that’s you!), elite mercenaries for hire who pilot gigantic engines of war known as BattleMechs. As the leader of a growing mercenary company, it’ll be up to you to take on assignments from various factions across the universe — and expand your team of MechWarriors and BattleMechs over the course of the game.

Whether you’re more of a solo player and want to focus on building up your mercenary squad of AI-controlled MechWarrior mercenaries in the single-player PvE campaign or are looking for more teamwork focused Instant Action with 4-player co-op, there’s lots to enjoy and discover as you level cities and lay waste to rivals on your own or with friends.

The dev team at Piranha Games is already super excited about how MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is shaping up for its PlayStation debut. The base game benefits from over a year’s worth of additional development work and comes stacked with tons of gameplay, systems, and quality of life improvements – many of which are based directly on fan feedback.

One of the more noteworthy features PlayStation players can look forward to is the ability for players to switch between any of the AI Lance BattleMechs during a mission. For the initial release, manual control was limited to the player’s main BattleMech. This seemingly small update makes a huge impact, allowing players to instantly bounc

In Call of Duty: Vanguard’s gripping Campaign, PlayStation players will witness the birth of Special Forces. In Multiplayer, you are the Special Forces. Prepare for tactical combat with a focus on a global cast of Operators, all deeply integrated for a new era of Multiplayer.  We’re excited to give you a view of the massive offering that Call of Duty: Vanguard is bringing to Multiplayer on November 5.  You won’t want to miss it, and fortunately PlayStation players won’t have to wait long to squad up and dive in.

Call of Duty: Vanguard Multiplayer is ready to rise on every front. Here’s your first look at the action ahead:

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Call of Duty: Vanguard Beta dates

Before the game launches on November 5, you’ll have the chance to play Multiplayer through the Call of Duty: Vanguard Beta, and for PlayStation players that chance is right around the corner. 

The Beta takes places over two weekends:

Weekend 1 – PlayStation Early Access

Available to those who pre-order Call of Duty: Vanguard  for PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 4, this first weekend takes place from Friday, September 10 at 10 AM PT / 6 PM BST to Monday, September 13 at 10 AM PT / 6PM BST.* That’s this weekend, so to make sure you’re ready you can head to the PlayStation Store to pre-load now.

There’s a robust MP experience waiting in weekend one: play the new Champion Hill tournament mode or go classic with Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Kill Confirmed. Also try Patrol, a new Multiplayer mode featuring an objective that’s constantly on the move. Weekend 1 features three Multiplayer maps: Hotel Royal, Red Star, and Gavutu, which span three different fronts of WWII and three distinctly different environments.  

Weekend 2 – PlayStation Open Beta

Then, keep the action going during Vanguard’s second Beta weekend, which is completely Open for PlayStation players**.  This second weekend lasts from Thursday, September 16 at 10 AM PT / 6 PM BST to Monday, September 20 at 10 AM PT / 6 PM BST. Stay tuned to the Call of Duty social channels for more info as we get closer to those dates.

In addition to being among the first to try out the core Call of Duty: Vanguard MP experience, those who participate in the Multiplayer Beta (either in the Early Access weekend and/or the Open Beta weekend) and who reach a Level of 20 will rec