Sony’s latest ‘State of Play’ event for June 2025 on Thursday early morning wasn’t just a mere showcase of its upcoming PlayStation titles; it was its foray into cross-platform peripherals with the new ‘Project Defiant’.
Project Defiant is the Japanese gaming giant’s new wireless arcade-style fight stick for PS5 and PC. This announcement signals Sony’s changing stance towards console exclusivity and a move to capture a slice of the lucrative high-end peripheral market. This was further enriched by some wonderful game launches.
As PlayStation announced its roadmap for the upcoming year and beyond, it featured an equal mix of nostalgic IPs from Final Fantasy and James Bond to Silent Hill and Metal Gear, and some fresh titles.
One of the most significant announcements was KONAMI offering a terrifying new look and a September release date for Silent Hill f, alongside a new gameplay trailer for the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.
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Of course, the announcement of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, a remaster of the beloved strategy RPG, hitting the PS5 in September added to the excitement.
Nioh 3 will also hit the console in early 2026, as Team Ninja showcased new gameplay battle mechanics with “Ninja style”, adding to the already existing “Samurai style’.
But this State of Play wasn’t solely a trip down memory lane. PlayStation and its partners also pulled the curtain back on a diverse slate of new games. IO Interactive unveiled 007 First Light, an origin story for the iconic spy James Bond.
In the first half of the event, Grasshopper Manufacture introduced its “ultra-violent science fiction” action of Romeo is a Dead Man.
Other new titles included the survival-climber game Cairn, the pirate RPG Sea of Remnants, and the oceanic multiplayer adventure Tides of Tomorrow.
But what really impressed gamers was the authentically Japanese arcade tag-team buttonmasher of a game from Arc System Works, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, featuring the superheroes from the Marvel universe, each with their unique anime-mech upgrades!
MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls will also come to PC, in line with Sony’s evolving multiplatform approach to move away from console exclusives and bring titles to all gamers. Moreover, Project Defiant is set to get more takers with such fighting games.
The entire legacy Mortal Kombat collection—from arcade to handheld, and classic PC titles—will also hit PlayStation later in the year, adding more to the genre.
Refreshing older IPs, introducing new ones, and foraying into specialised low-latency performance hardware for gamers could open up new revenue streams and strengthen ecosystem loyalty, something that Sony needs after the lacklustre launch of the PlayStation 5 Pro.
