Sony recently hosted a CES presentation that featured a sizzle reel trailer packed with release details in an end-video release date drop for several third-party PlayStation 5 games; now, the company has removed all mention of said games from the video's fine print. Notably, the original trailer confirmed that Ghostwire: Tokyo and Stray are set for October. Even titles that aren't on track for 2021 received mentions, such as Square Enix's Project Athia (January 2022) and Capcom's mysterious Pragmata (2023).
The Sony CES opener naturally sparked lots of buzz and answered myriad questions about those third-party games, but it remained pretty vague about Sony's first-party releases. As an example, the trailer only confirmed what's already known about Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - it's due out this year. That leaves the game's vague PS5 launch window release as still very unclear. The sizzle reel's release dates additionally reiterated that Horizon: Forbidden West also remains on track for a nebulous 2021 roll out.
Gematsu spotted the release date removals and shared a side-by-side screenshot on Twitter. The updated text featured at the end of the CES trailer is considerably shorter, as all of the aforementioned third-party titles are now absent. Only projects from Sony's first-party studios remain. Interestingly, even third-party games with previously confirmed release dates, such as the very imminent Hitman 3, were excised from the footnote.
The stealth removal of dates and names indicates a third-party publisher may have requested their game's deletion. After all, Project Athia is a working title, meaning Square Enix may not yet want launch details being circulated by other sources. The deletion of Hitman 3's previously announced and impending release date is rather peculiar, though. That particular omission makes it seem as though Sony did away with all third-party titles in the footnote as to avoid further confusion or speculation. If that's true, the console manufacturer is unlikely to confirm as much.
Should all the launch details featured in the original trailer prove accurate, this year will be jam-packed with big experiences on the PS5. Barring inevitable releases, such as the next Call of Duty entry, it appears Ghostwire: Tokyo is the first confirmed AAA title for this fall. An action game from The Evil Within studio Tango Gameworks, Ghostwire: Tokyo first launches as a PlayStation console exclusive, courtesy of a deal with Sony made prior to Microsoft's acquisition negotiations with ZeniMax Media. That very same console exclusivity deal also applies to Arkane's Deathloop, time-bending adventure due to release in May.
Source: Gematsu