Well, Sony's February 2026 State of Play was slammed. Before talking about the announcements that hit home for me, we must focus on the biggest news—my PlayStation 2026 predictions remain intact.

"Saros from Housemarque, Marvel's Wolverine from Insomniac, Marathon from Bungie, and MLB The Show are the only first-party PlayStation Studios developed games released in 2026."

I won't lie, that Horizon Hunters Gathering announcement last week had me nervous.1 No commitment there though makes me feel slightly better. I wonder if and when Sony decided to cut the reveal from the State of Play.

The opening slate of reveals were decent, a strong start for a wider audience with the likes of a Kena sequel, Ghost of Yōtei Legends, and maybe 4:Loop, but I locked in for yet another Resident Evil Requiem trailer. Capcom is on the verge of spoiling too much before launch in two weeks, but man does that game look incredible.

Some more strong, diverse titles filled the next chunk. It's both unbelievable and believable that Dead or Alive 6 Last Round has jiggle physics in photo mode.

Control Resonant looks weird and wild. The Inception-style walls and being able to walk on buildings seems like a super daunting mechanic to create. Feels like a mind bender for sure. I need to hurry up and play Quantum Break...

Even more stuff that appeals to people other than me. It is strange to see Game Freak make a super stylized 3D action game, but go them. That Shinobi Ops game has a unique camera perspective, but that's about it as far as I can tell. I want nothing to do with that chicken man game. Star Wars: Galactic Racer looks neat. It's cool to see them go back to racing in a very Motorstorm / Burnout sort of way. 007 First Light looks more and more polished. I hope IOI sticks the landing.

Then, out of seemingly nowhere, Konami comes in and takes this State of Play to a whole new plane of hype starting off with the confirmation that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is finally, finally free from the prison of the PS3 and its Cell Processor. I replayed the game six years ago (gosh how has it been that long already?) during that COVID-furloughed spring. Skimming through that article, I do wonder how the iconic loading/installation screen will be handled or if we will have lost it in the aged of SSDs. Peace Walker is here too, but even more exciting is the inclusion of Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel. I do wish there was one more game in here, especially considering how packed Vol. 1 is—something like Rising Revengence or even just round it out with Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain. The Acid titles would have been neat.

Be still my heart because Konami revealed the first new Castlevania game in 12 years, and it is 2D from the folks behind Rogue Prince of Persia and Dead Cells. Belmont's Curse looks slick as all get out and, once again, procrastination pays off for Chapter Select.

Silent Hill: Townfall looks spooky. I get Alien Isolation vibes from the little handheld CRT. The fog looks good bathed in red light. The Silent Hill franchise is a huge blindspot for me. I own a copy of the Silent Hill 2 remake, but that's it and still in the shrink wrap. Konami is in the midst of a renaissance with Silent Hill it seems and I don't hear anyone asking them to stop.

Saber Interactive has the rights to a John Wick game. I liked the trailer and hope the game takes heavy inspiration from Sifu, which has always screamed John Wick to me.

Marathon's launch trailer and "server slam" announcement are pure hype.

I missed this bit in the stream due to issues, but Panic and House House's Big Walk played their original gameplay trailer from 8 months ago. I guess the announcement was that the game is coming to PlayStation? While a bit disappointing, I think the game itself is interesting. Reminds me of The Witness but for friends. I don't think this is a surprising take, but proximity chat is having quite the moment in the gaming space lately. I am curious about the mechanic and suppose my first exposure will be Marathon here at the end of the month.

Marvel Tōkon Fighters gave us sweet, sweet X-Men footage and a date. Too many fighting games are out that seem super cool to a guy who never plays them outside of a Mortal Kombat game with his wife every few years.

The whole State of Play wrapped up with a pair of God of War announcements and, upon reflection, I'm not sure they were the slam dunk most people felt they were. Sony Santa Monica revealed that they have begun development on a God of War remake of the original trilogy. That's cool and all, but with not even a lick of footage or concept art, all we are left with is speculation. Is it going to adopt the camera and combat of the PS4/5 games or stick with the top down camera? Is TC Carson, who was in charge of this whole closer, re-recording the lines? What's going to be the approach to Kratos' attitude and violence? In all seriousness, will the sex mini-games and flagrant scenes be redone or axed? The industry has shifted so far from that type of presentation that I actually think it would feel out of place these days.

Sure, in the Valhalla DLC, SSM got to play with Greek architecture and enemies. I loved the look and music. The franchise is one of my all time favorites—and you don't have to go far to hear why. I find it difficult to get excited without knowing and seeing more.

More concerning is, why is Sony Santa Monica announcing that this trilogy is entering development now? Where is Cory Barlog's new game? What about the assumed new God of War game because surely there is more given how well the last game sold and that the studio has not stopped making these games for 20 years? I feel like they got the order of the announcements wrong. I want more than a logo.

That wasn't all though. A brand new 2D, metroidvania God of War prequel was shadow dropped called God of War: Sons of Sparta, which I seem to always want to type as "Songs of Sparta." It's made by Mega Cat Studios, who I want to call "Mad Cat Studios." The game's story was written by the team behind God of War (2018) and Ragnarök. I don't dig the art style, at least up close. I booted the game up last night and it looked better from my couch. The game feels a bit odd to me, like something that would have come out in the PS3 era. The last time Kratos was in 2D was in Shovel Knight and before that was a mobile Java game–God of War Betrayal–which is canon. I am reminded of when Metroid Fusion and Metroid Prime came out at the same time, except the classic title in this scenario is just a JPEG and probably 4-5 years away.

The State of Play was good stuff with the proper ups and downs of an E3 press conference. It was much bigger than I think anyone anticipated, certainly myself. Somehow, 2026 is poppin' off more and I am here for it. My biggest takeaways are Marathon looking like absolute fire, a brand new 2D Castlevania game from a studio that seems to understand the genre, and that God of War finds itself stuck in the Asphodel Meadows.

Footnotes

  1. I should have made a blog post about that reveal, but this footnote will do. I'm not huge on the "Fortnite-ifcation" of its art style. The bigger hangup is the cartoonish approach to combat. We got Hunters dashing like Naruto and an old guy with a Mad Max-style motor hammer spitting flames. It doesn't feel related to the world of Horizon to me. I think the core concept of a team of hunters taking down giant robot dinosaurs is very appealing. I do understand the desire to shake it up, branch out, try new things. I can't fault Guerrilla for that. ↩