Yesterday, after a roughly 24 hour heads up, Sony live-streamed the latest of their State of Play presentations¹, in what would’ve been the standard E3 presentation week.

In case you missed it, you can stream the whole thing here.

I’ve watched a lot of these presentations over the years — I’m very susceptible to hype — and I have to say, this may have been one of the most confident, complete and downright thrilling presentations by any of the big three video game companies in quite some time.

From the jump, with the reveal of the latest installment of the Lumines puzzle franchise, a relaunch in the vein of the enchanting Tetris Effect games, I was surprised and delighted by the breadth of games shared over the hour. Different genres, unique art styles, genuine risks in storytelling and audience focus — basically, intentionally or not, it seemed to be a direct shot at recent op-ed’s lamenting the end of the gaming industry, with its focus on only massive, cash grabbing hits and the heartbreaking increase of layoffs.

Are those still a problem? Yes, absolutely. But there was something in the air of yesterday’s presentation that told me that the world of creative games is not going out without a fight.

Among my personal highlights, which link out to their individual trailers:

• The aforementioned reveal of Lumines Arise, a trailer which — as a fan of Tetris Effect — gave me goosebumps.
• The bug nutty first look at Romeo is a Dead Man, a new action title from gonzo game director Suda51.
• The return of Giant Squid, creators of Journey, Abzu and The Pathless with Sword of the Sea, which looks gorgeous.²
• The reveal of 007 First Light, the biggest James Bond game in decades, as produced by Hitman devs IOI.
• And last, but not least…the reveal of the PlayStation Studios/Arc Systems collaboration, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a 4 vs. 4 tag fighting game which looks absolutely incredible. It’s not Marvel vs. Capcom 4, sure, but it looks like it could be the next best thing.

In a year where my interest in gaming has been minimal, with me having only played the PS5 port of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle³, and anxiously awaiting my Switch 2 pre-order along with Mario Kart World, this was a shot in the arm for me. These are games made the way I like my games. And I hope they can all live up to their promise. I’ll be crossing my fingers as they release.