PlayStation is getting back to what it’s good at

is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. PlayStation used its most recent State of Play showcase to make it clear where its focus is. After a series of costly live-service stumbles, it’s getting back to focusing on premium, narrative-driven, single-player games. That statement was made clear with how it started and ended the hourlong show. The showcase began with an extended look at gameplay from Marvel’s Wolverine, the new superhero title from Insomniac Games. Over seven minutes of bloody action, Logan sliced and diced his way through a bunch of baddies as he tried to rescue some captured mutants, briefly teaming up with Jean Grey for some help taking them down. Insomniac is well-known for its excellent single-player adventures, like Ratchet & Clank and the recent Spider-Man games, and Wolverine seems poised to keep up the tradition when it launches in September. The show ended with a major reveal: God of War Laufey, the next mainline, single-player entry in the God of War series from Santa Monica Studio. Laufey stars Faye, Kratos’ wife, and based on the extensive 23-minute trailer shown during the showcase, it looks to have all of the hallmarks of the recent God of War games: gripping combat, a magical world to explore, and charming, chatty companions. In this case, it’s a gelatinous cube voiced by Jack Quaid and sentient ribbons attached to Faye’s sword. What wasn’t present at State of Play was much in the way of live-service or multiplayer games. The main exception was a look at season 2 of Marathon, the struggling extraction shooter from Destiny developer Bungie. But there was nothing about Fairgames, Horizon’s co-op spinoff, or any brand-new, live-service title from Sony. Actually playing those games is a more expensive proposition than ever. But in stepping back from live-service games, Sony has a much clearer path to convincing people to do that: Make memorable, expansive single-player games that you can’t play anywhere else