Talking Point: Sony, Don't Re-Reveal Fairgames at the Next State of Play

If Sony throws this steaming pile into the state of play, they deserve every single bit of the mockery they will receive for doing so.

I mean, it's got to show up at some point right? BUT if they end the show on fairgames that would be an awful choice, like I said in the other article all they need to do show good games like the previous SoP everyone will be happy.

Now PlayStation will do it just to spite you, Sammy.

I feel like the wolverine game is going to hog most of the show , but i do want to see dq12 or ff7 part 3, a witcher 4 date confirmation would be cool, the new god of war game has angry gamers written all over it so probably better off to avoid that.

@AdamNovice There's a big difference between "not every game is for everyone" and "eye-rolling waste of time that will actively piss off your core audience". Fairgames (Break In, now, maybe, I guess) is clearly in the latter category.

Ship has already sailed, its a sunk cost fallacy at this stage and they have to reveal it at some point. Better get this over with sooner than later so they can finally see that people don't care about these dumb games.

@Ultrasmiles Ain't no way we are seeing Witcher 4 at a SoP, would love to be wrong but that would be at TGA or SGF if anything.

It will the "Just one more thing..." moment of the show. 😉

@AdamNovice exactly everybody just don’t play or want single player games. the best thing about the ps3 gen it had little bit of everything.

@AdamNovice It worked for Concord! Except this time Sony can actually save time by not charging and refunding everyone a week after it crashes and burns.

I'd like to see them do it - rip off the Band-Aid so to speak. Make it quick, highlight the things that people might want to see out of a game, and move on to something else. No HUGE CINEMATIC REVEAL with DEV INTERVIEWS and OMG THE VA'S ARE HERE!!1! sort of fanfare. Test the waters and see where people are at.

@TrollOfWar I don't think this is going to be the one more thing of the show. That's going to Santa Monica's game 100%. Even Sony aren't that stupid and out of touch with their audience...I hope

@ChikaBambus @TrollOfWar I think the "one more thing" will be Intergalactic

"the culture of gaming discourse and the Internet at large is a big fat bummer"

Getting vibes of Jay from the inbetweeners slightly grown up, there.

@ChikaBambus I really hope they aren't that dumb.

@get2sammyb Do you really think there's any way for Sony to re-reveal Fairgames and not have a completely unhinged reaction from PlayStation fans? I honestly don't think so.

People these days find genuine joy in watching studios and games fail and I don't know how you overcome that once the audience decides the game "needs" to fail.

“But Sammy,” I hear you scream, “everyone hates Horizon Hunters Gathering, and that wasn’t in a State of Play.”

Who says that?!? Do you have their addresses?! How dare they slander my "obese lunch lady fights the rogue kitchen equipment" simulator?!!!

@AdamNovice Hard disagree. Killing Concord was the most self-aware thing Sony had done since…well, green-lighting Concord.

Rewriting history by saying they didn’t give it time to get a player base is interesting. It COMPLETELY BOMBED at launch to the point that it was barely possible to get a match going. It got a MAXIMUM of 697 people playing on Steam.

It made Highguard look like a roaring success. The only game Concord has outperformed is Dustborn.

Sony did a mercy kill on Concord.

@Oram77 There are news that Sony is sending out invitations to media outlets to attend, so this event might just be big enough for Intergalatic to show up, I hope you're right. Just seems to me that Santa Monica's game would be earlier, since Nate also mentioned something about it being in the June State of Play.

Sony will showcase horizon hunter gatherers, fairgame$, and hyenas. To remind us that they are still chasing the live service golden goose. And they're this close 🤏 to achieving greatness for the players.

I remember it like it was yesterday when that one dev from Firewalk said "Concord is a 5v5 hero shooter" everyone knew that game was never going to pan out.

@AdamNovice Female characters have been a part of gaming since gaming was invented and they were almost always liked. Problem isn't with male or female characters, it's with making said characters snark and insufferable, at least in my humble opinion. You are right about gamers being generally more negative in recent times though.

The casuals who like this sort of game don't stay up late to watch some state of play for games that are years out so I get what Sammy is saying here. Best to show the AAA single player stuff and use Twitter and all the places casuals who are their target audience are to promote the live service stuff.

@ChikaBambus That sounds promising! Also remember a couple a weeks ago Naughty Dog were on Crunch to get out a internal Demo to show to Sony.... Maybe they liked what they saw

Unfortunately, it very much appears that the PS4’s incredible series of single player narrative games has resulted in the ecosystem cultivating an ongoing audience that consists almost entirely of angry man-babies with no friends.

Now we’re at the point where people will vehemently hate a game they’ve never seen a single second of in-game footage for. Apathy, sure, but this kind of dedicated hate? It’s pretty unreal, and embarrassing for anyone who partakes in it honestly.

@AdamNovice Unfortunately, it's not that they can't find joy. It's that they've decided they get the most joy out of schadenfreude and pretend it's some sort of "revelation" that we haven't caught on to yet. If everything is a zero-sum game, then every game that they don't like is an opportunity cost, taking away a fictional game that they do like.

@Oram77 You're right, I forgot about the Internal demo. After so much negative news, I think that they will try to turn the ship around and give some bright news for once, and man, do I hope they succeed.

Lol, i’m a Playstation fan, and dont care for most of these live service titles as well.

But the moment you see me whine about them showing a trailer for a game i dont care about, pls just close my account all together because i’m done at that point 😂

If it's good, Sony should do 'closed' betas, with more and more people, Valve style. Let people think they've stumbled on a secret. Let them whisper it on the web "Break In is actually fun".

If it's not good, no amount of marketing will help

@AdamNovice I'm not sure about that, although a lot of gamers have become a negative bunch, that's for certain.

@get2sammyb I think sometimes it’s ok to be “that” guy lol

If that does happen, it will continue the trend of generational record of awful decisions by sony lately

@Shepherd_Tallon FMV coronation street please no 😂

They definitely need to close out the show with Fair Games. The amount of enjoyment I'd get out of that would be astronomical.

@get2sammyb While things could go horribly wrong by putting Fairgames in the SoP, especially if they end with it, the problem is if they exclude it, everyone is going to be watching the entire showing thinking about Fairgames and crossing their fingers it isn't the last thing they show.

Are you familiar with the thought experiment - don't think about a pink elephant.

Best they can probably do is start the show with something big like Wolverine or Intergalactic, show Fairgames next whole everyone is busy on social media talking about the first game, then move on quick.

I think Sony has spent too much money on it not to be in there, but it can't open or close, just get it over with quick. If they don't get it over with quick all of our fingers are going to go numb from keeping them crossed for an hour hoping it doesn't show up. They just need to make the rest of the show so good that 1 hiccup doesn't matter.🤞

I've forgotten that fairgames is still hanging on. I thought it went the way of beyond good and evil 2 as in an eternal unfulfilled promise

I'm a reasonable man. If they paid me to play it, I'd give it a chance.

Say, £10 of store credit for 10 minutes of my time.

Sony should stop the coddling of games. Instead they promote what the want. People eat it up by loving or loathing something. Heck at least between Xbox, pc, and steam allow all rating of games.

Agreed. But part of me wants them to do it in a "just want to see the world burn" kind of way. Sort of come in at the end and light a cigar on the raging inferno that followed. But yes, it's a really bad idea.

It’s called Fairgame$ Sammy, get it right!

I don't think it would be a good idea to show a 10-minute gameplay at an event like this, but a quick 2min trailer? I have no problems with it.

Not only do I think they should have it at the State of Play but Geoff Keighley should present it.

@get2sammyb "I genuinely don’t want to seed negativity." But you're doing a good job at it. 2 articles today already mentioning fairgames and you've not said anything that suggest a positive attitude towards it. People do actually respect your opinion and will form their opinions based on your comments so maybe it's time to think about how you present your articles because all I'm taking is that you're rubbing your hands just waiting for the fires of negativity to erupt..well done squire.

After hearing about how Break in is going to be the rebranded Fairgames, you know they're going to reveal it at the State of Play, and it'll likely have a deep dive trailer attached too that lasts way too long.

The game exist, it is what it is but that doesn't mean you send it to die an even quicker death than anticipated. Like Sammy says it should be shown separately from the State of Play.

Sony can make a PlayStation blog post dedicated to the game AFTER the state of play! Otherwise It will suffer the same fate as Highguard but worse.

I think if they surround a re-reveal of FAIRGAME$ with the good, single player titles people want to see then it wouldn't be too bad. They can show it at the state of play, but it has to be strategic. It CAN NOT be the show ender. It should be in the middle of highly anticipated, single player titles. Show intergalactic, then fairgames, then wolverine and then GOW. People would be wrapped up with the awesome reveals and Fairgames would be safe from complete crucification lmao

Give it its own SoP or some sort of re-reveal showcase to show it off in the best light possible. Then all the inevitable negativity won't taint this broader SoP.

Kick off the show with Fairgames. If it looks good, then great. If people are digging it, even better. If not, there's a whole show full of game reveals to move onto

@AdamNovice I've enjoyed some of the female lead games from Sony, especially Horizon. But which franchise still has a male lead outside of Marvel games ? Even God of war is going female lead now it seems.

The fact that there are still people pretending that the game and studio have a future is wild to me. Cancel it now and save yourself all the money you'd be spending over the next several months. It's called the sunk cost fallacy, not the sunk cost axiom.

I mean, if I was in Sony's position right now I would avoid showing anything Fairgame$, Horizon Hunter Something and Marathon related until things are a little more in my favor.

And boy wouldn't that take quite a while given Sony is taking every opportunity possible to piss off their consumer base.

@get2sammyb
Someone has probably said it already, but very nice opinion piece - I don't think I disagree with anything here.

I'm not sure Sony will listen - I haven't been impressed with their marketing for the last few years (except the advertising part) - but not showing this, or any other LS game, would definitely be 'addition by subtraction' .

Like it or not, this is what Sony is now. They should go all-in.

Hulst and Co should enter the stage breakdancing whilst in Fairgame$ cosplay to the soundtrack of LL Cool J. Viewers will be so confused they will forget to hate on the game. It's the only way.

The problem isn't live service or that people only want single player. It's that Sony and others keep firing off uninspired , unoriginal games into a saturated market hoping they have something that can print money like a GTA online or Fortnite. The vast majority of gamers are just outright rejecting these games.

Imagine if Fairgames is now a single player game called Break In.....

you can guarantee sony will show it . they have a lot of time to fill at this state of play..

@spcspc I put it out there a couple of times that push Square should run an article where they ask the community what we think about them ie are they doing a good job etc,etc,etc but they won't because they know they won't fare too well and to be honest I don't think they care either way. The fact they won't ask the community what we think already tells me they know the answer.

Dont know how this game (and studio) survived so many years...

Sony has screwed their harcore customers for many times, sacrificed almost whole PS5 era committing crimes against player's community. If they put ANY GaaS or MP games onto State of Play it will be peak of arrogance and proof they absolutely don't care loyal customers anymore.

i think the hardcore crowd is so up its own ass at this point it won’t matter what sony does they will still be upset.

@AdamNovice Separate issues. PS5 hasn't lived up to what it owes console buyers re: first-party games over the last two years. Because of that, they need to step lightly, and the advice in this article is wise.

Second, Sony needs to show backbone when it comes to cynical hate campaigns against games that feature female or non-white characters. Most of that stuff is coordinated, inauthentic, and designed to build audiences for YouTube and other social media accounts. A great example of what not to do is Marvel firing James Gunn in 2018 as an overreaction to social media flim-flam.

It's really not that serious lol.

I get what you're saying but the kind of people who get upset at a video game existing will find anything to spew their negativity on no matter what.

What I'm trying to say is, Gamers were a mistake

I have zero interest in Fair games and am not interested in seeing it at State of Play. However in the scheme of making business, annoying people by showing them something they wouldn't be interested anyway isn't really gonna have an adverse sales wise. If 10 people are furious for seeing where it shouldn't have been shown, but 1 person learns about it, likes it and decides to buy, then it makes Sony money. Annoying people isn't a bad thing if it makes them money. And State of Plays is the perfect way to advertise first party games, single player or not.

FFS its just games. If you dont like it just move on. Imagine if Walkers released a new flavour of crisps that people didn't like so they formed a mob, got the pitchforks out and burnt down the crisp factory. Its just bloody stupid.

They will 100% show it and it will be rebranded. It's going to be a ***** show

The pathetic hate for multiplayer games is so dumb

We have way too few good multiplayer games.
One actually. Arc Raiders, the first good one in the last 10 years. How about one more good one?

From PushSquare to PushFear. Do all the writers have a KPI of one negative article pee day?

100% agree. Even if by some miracle it looks like it'll be amazing now, give it it's own reveal outside of the SoP. Anything else is just going to drag the show down, regardless of quality...

Hell, I fully expect the haters to be out in force over any new footage for Intergalactic too. For whatever reason a sub set of gamers have already decided that it's "woke" and the hate the main character design (even though she's literally an actress being scanned and mo capped to play that role for the game).

As much as this makes sense. Sony is so disengaged from the fanbase that I could see them showing this at the SOP and then being shocked at the reaction.

Just imagine if it was a hero shooter starring the full cast of TMNT. People would go crazy for that! PlayStation just needs to remember what their fans really want

Just imagine if it was a hero shooter starring the full cast of TMNT. People would go crazy for that! PlayStation just needs to remember what their fans really want

It's fine to dislike - or even hate - a game, or a genre of games. But this is the same site that was complaining that people thought Mixtape was too much of a visual novel and not enough of a game. It's okay for fans to be fans, to like what they like and dislike what they don't. That, by itself, is not a problem.

But as @AdamNovice said way up at the top, people have to be okay with liking some announcements and not others - and Sony needs to be okay with it, PushSquare needs to be okay with it, we ALL need to be okay with it. We're not all the same gamer - it's okay to like different things, and even to actively DISLIKE certain things, and no game is going to appeal to everyone.

What a weird but very negative opinion article.

Why would Sony let themself dictate by some negative online voices?

But I guess Sony shouldn't show Intergalactic since "PS fans" or more like the anti-woke brigade already hated it since the 1st trailer 🤷‍♂️

The same can be said for TloU. I guess Sony shouldn't reveal TloU 3 at SoP just because some people hated TloU 2 or TloU in general because they see it as woke games.

Sony can't reveal Horizon 3 either since some people hated Aloy, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Hunters Gathering.

Oh yeah, don't reveal Spiderman 3 too since some people hated Spiderman 2 and had enough of Marvel / superheroes games.

People really need to learn that not every games is for them. If you don't like Fairgames, Marathon, or live service / multiplayer games in general then move the Fvck on and go find / play single player games that fits with your taste instead of wasting your time and energy to hate. It's that simple.

I didn't even know about this game, Wikipedia, Google AI doesn't even know. I'm rather tired of the superhero games, I've still not played any Spiderman.

I think not only are they going to show it but release it in beta that day.

"Sony’s created a culture where only single player games are accepted"

I don't think that's true. Sony has a long history of multiplayer or multiplayer-centric games that were relatively well-received. Even the recent Helldivers 2 went over incredibly well.

If Sony wants to make more live service games, it should do so with an eye to originality and excellence, not copy-paste hero shooters and extraction shooters that almost any AAA team could've puked out.

Granted, I do think, as we continue to see the damage this push wrought on the brand, people are digging in their heels more and more, but the core issue was always that these games never looked very good in the first place.

I'm a singleplayer type but even I look at many multiplayer games and go why? I don't like Sony's 8th/9th gen strategy but if it works some of those games, I'd say if they are good games at what they set out to do why not. I've gone to Switch for my interests (still have PS4/Xbox One). I still browse the news for all platforms encase something does interest me. I say I hate something but still go yeah it fits an audience or has potential.

Plenty of PS1 to PS4 have co-op/traditional multiplayer by Sony studios or 3rd parties over the years. I know the PS3 era of co-op, PS store/PSN, PS+, online passes, Siaxis, 3D TV, multi monitor, simulview, PSP support and more. Some of us lived it or remember or still play games from that era. XD

PushSquare staff (as if Yotei article wasn't enough of us readers seeing plans of the game/dev's capabilities) have or haven't seen my thoughts on Foamstars, or any other individual's thoughts on other games/potentials.

So if that's the take away then sure, many of us hate live service but we also see the business side, the weak dev ideas, the cheap excuses, etc.

I find many of these live services to be weak at doing anything gameplay engaging at all, even mobile games are just 'insert IP here' and barely use what the gameplay of the IP.

Ratchet mobile game is lacking gameplay potential but it does the same generic map designs for pacing to play. It has more it could do with weapons, level design, gadgets, etc. Even Ratchet 3 PS2 multiplayer did this years ago even with general modes with core features/characters better used. How is that social backlash?

Horizon looks ok but need better to it.

Highguard I remember/forget all the time till it's brought up.

Destruction Allstars, a game with vehicular combat arena design approaching a casual never played them audience is dumb, how target audience? Lucid/Sony clearly paid attention? Did Lucid forget Blur?

Again, I make examples, or see gameplay potential or I don't. Not oh social backlash or presentation.Just grouping us all in because they can't understand feedback structure (or see too many comments when many mixed in have differing opinions) from generally bashing something.

But apparently who cares. Who reads comments with feedback responses anyway?

Not saying us types that give feedback aren't also annoyed, but our words mean something of 'they need to try another direction but don't' and we sick and tired of it and saying it over and over. Seeing potential. Not acting on other angles and just inserting a formula all the time.

I can say everything is trash, but I still come up with ideas every now a& then, play shovelware & still see good or bad ideas in them.

If formula/flow of games are bad, they need to try again. They don't and the games turn out bad, it shows they need to try better in other ways to present them.

Why would we support them? They don't care they will try the same formula in a new skin.

I come up with ideas for ANY game in ANY genre. Why else am I playing FMV games a genre I've never played before and learning how they work?

I'm not narrow minded if I'm branching out to new genres every year and still coming up with ideas for other games randomly every few minutes in articles am I?

Clearly I and others who give ideas are anomalies or never get our comments read so we seem like were angry when we are giving ideas, but most people can't read the difference.

Most are gonna be miserable no matter what they do anyways. Thats how gamers want to be lately.

Sony’s created a culture where only single player games are accepted

I forgot to talk about this false claim in the article.

No. Sony 1st party has been making games with or focus on multiplayer / co-op mode since PS1 era and they're quite popular. From Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal, Jet Moto, Wipeout, Warhawk, Parappa the Rapper, MLB The Show, Buzz!, Singstar, Little Big Planet, Jak X, Crash Team Racing, SOCOM, MAG, Fat Princess, Soul Sacrifice, Freedom Wars etc etc.

Even single player like Uncharted, Killzone, Resistance, TloU, Ratchet, and Syphon Filter has multiplayer / co-op and a lot of people loving it.

So i don't know how or why exactly some people believes that Sony only allowed single player games. Heck, i never see one marketing trailer or statement from Sony who claim they only do single player games.

Cancel this garbage

If Sony still has plans for this game - which I assume they do, since it hasn't been canceled (yet?) - they should just put a short trailer early in the SOP with a deeper dive reserved for a dedicated stream. Nothing wrong with that, and if the rest of the SOP is filled with quality and people are still complaining, that says more about them than Sony.

@PuppetMaster I am not a massive MP gamer but back in the PS3 era, I loved the MP for Uncharted 3 and Killzone 2. Spent many hours on them

Edit: as I posted this, I remembered another one... Warhawk! So much fun!

@wildcat_kickz Excellent comment

@Shepherd_Tallon “have you seen your wife” 🤣🤣

Show it so we can all have a good old laugh. These games are being seen for what they are; publishers and execs asking us for all of the money, and I love watching them fail. The devs deserve better than being put on these things, so the more they fail the happier everyone is.

Except the worst people in the world of course.

Imagine paying for a ticket at those cinemas to see the State of Play and Sony decides to show this.

the best thing that can happen to Fairgame$ is to get cancelled if we are being honest about it. it is in sony's best interest financially and will benefit the brand in not having to look weak, misguided and foolish all over again with a premature end of service announcement like concord. all the negativity and chaos sony's live service push has generated is well deserved and necessary for the growth of playstation (i.e. to not repeat the same mistakes again in the future).

you gave it a decent shot, but live service just didn't work out. it was a complete failure. time to move on and do what you do best. a company that rejects its core strengths at the expense of greed and market trends does not deserve success and will destroy itself in the long run. sony, make the right choice and pivot while you still can. the ps5 era was a disgrace, but that doesn't mean the ps6 has to be

Come on now, this is absurd. Nothing is known about this game other than a poor trailer 3 years ago. No gameplay. You people all sound deranged and warped by internet outrage artists. Shout out to @AdamNovice for having a sane and rational outlook.

@ZeD I played Starhawk, Warhawk spiritual successor, and it was a lot of fun both offline and online. Sadly the game didn't sold well.

And yeah, Uncharted 3 MP was really fun along with TloU Faction, Resistance 2 MP, Max Payne MP, Helldivers 1 co-op, Dragon's Crown co-op, and COD Blops 1 MP.

@Porco

you gave it a decent shot, but live service just didn't work out. it was a complete failure

It wasn't a complete failure considering Helldivers 2 sold 20 million copies and brought great revenue for Sony's financial. In the 3rd year, a lot of people are still playing the game too.

We'll see how Marvel Tokon, Horizon: Hunters Gathering & Steel Frontier, 4:Loop, and Fairgames will do. But i can see Marvel Tokon gonna do well.

Let's put this another way.

Let's say there are some stupidly exciting announcements. Pick whatever three things you're wishing for but sure they'll never announce (a combo Bloodborne remaster and sequel, for example), and all three show up in this event - alongside a huge promo for Fairgame$ that looks as awful and as money-grubby as you could possibly imagine.

Will that make the show be a failure? No, of course not. Will fans excited by the other stuff that's exactly what they want go ballistic over the thing that isn't? Of course they will.

The people who are going to hate on Fairgames (and if I cared enough I'd probably be one of them) will hate on it no matter how or when it's announced. The type of people who watch the State of Play will see the announcement whenever and wherever it's made.

If Sony thinks the game has an audience and a chance to be profitable, they have to brave that at some point no matter what, and arguing that this is a particularly bad time is not convincing.

I think revealing prior to the SoP would work best like what Sony did with Horizon Hunters Gathering and Nintendo did with Everybody 1-2-Switch prior to the June 2023 Nintendo Direct.

But I think Sony could work it that Fairgame$ is timed at such a point in the SoP that backlash about the SoP is minimal. Perfect example is how Marathon appeared in the February 2026 SoP then followed by the PS+ updates, Saros, Marvel Tokon and God of War. Despite Marathon being very divisive back then, people loved that SoP.

@AdamNovice it's sad, but also true. Literally everywhere you looked, whether it was about Concord, Fairgames, Marathon or anything live-service related, people would always reiterate that Sony should just stick to making single-player games. Thing is, you can tell that it's only a very specific type of single-player game that they actually want. Playstation fans got Astro Bot and Saros, but judging by the sales you can tell that they don't buy it anyways either cuz it looks too "kiddie" like with Astro Bot, or the gameplay doesn't look safe like with Saros. It really feels like Sony backed themselves into a corner where they have to appeal to this subset of "hardcore gamers" or else they'll face all sorts of scrutiny.

@PuppetMaster the success of helldivers is completely offset by ther failures though.... probably by 10X in revenue losses if i had to guess considering the scale of concord and last of us 2 online alone. so if we are judging the genre of live service on the whole, it is a failure. also worth noting that helldivers wasn't developed by sony so they technically don't have a single live service hit that was developed in-house which is even more concerning. as for the numerous cancelled projects, they were in development for years in many cases before being dropped which would be significant losses for sony. i believe that sony would need 2-3 additional hits to endure for YEARS before they turn a profit in the area of live service.

yup, we will have to wait and see how their latest projects pan out, but the optics are very bleak considering their track record.

Destruction All-Stars - Failed
Concord - Failed
Last of Us 2 Factions – Cancelled
Payback (from Bungie) – Cancelled
Spider-Man: The Great Web – Cancelled
Twisted Metal – Cancelled
New IP from Bend Studio - Cancelled
New IP from London Studio – Cancelled
New IP from Deviation Games – Cancelled
God of War from Bluepoint - Cancelled
Marathon - Remains to be seen

Well, they're re-revealing it, so I guess we'll see.