Sony has given a sneak peek at some of the games that will be sucking us in when the next generation PlayStation 5 console goes on sale, which is due to be later this year.
The prerecorded stream went live at 6am on Friday morning, after an event originally scheduled for Thursday last week was postponed to give space to the BlackLivesMatter protests.
The event began with a montage of past games to show the history of the platform, news.com.au reports.
Particular attention was paid to reflecting on Grand Theft Auto 5, which some have estimated is the most financially successful piece of media of all time, that sold over 120 million copies since launching in 2013.
It was then announced GTA Online will be free for PS5 owners at launch in 2021 and PS4 players will get $1 million in-game money every month until it does.
It's understood that launch date is in reference to GTA Online and not the console.
Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan finally confirmed "we're launching later this year" at the end of the video.
Sony also showed what the console is going to look like.
"It was great to kick today off with a look back at just some of the seminal moments of the last 25 years, and what better way to bridge our past and our future than with a game that's graced every PlayStation console: Grand Theft Auto. It's been a privilege partnering with Rockstar games for many years now, and we're thrilled to open today with the news that partnership will continue with PlayStation 5," Ryan said.
"It's now just over a year since we began sharing technical details of PlayStation 5, but today's the day we've been looking forward to for years, where we get to show you just some of the games that demonstrate our belief that PlayStation 5 marks the biggest generational transition our industry has yet seen.
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"Enough from me, we're going to have our games do the talking."
The game footage shown off was all captured from a PlayStation 5, Sony claimed, not rendered to wow crowds as has been the case in some previous gaming unveils.
Grand Theft Auto won't be the only iconic franchise to return on PlayStation 5.
A long-awaited new game in the Ratchet & Clank franchise, as well as a new Gran Turismo game, were also announced during the event.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales led the game showcase, showing off an upcoming game featuring the reimagined Spider-Man from 2018's Into the Spider-Verse movie.
A look at Gran Turismo's next instalment followed, bringing with it the same iconic race tracks and cars we've come to expect from the franchise. It will probably have to wait until launch to see how the game leverages the new console.
Ratchet & Clank will make a proper return on PlayStation 5 as well.
The iconic franchise landed one game on the PS4: a re-imagining of the original game to tie in with a movie based on the franchise.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Return promises to bring a new story and some sizeable changes, with one sure to raise the ire of the gaming community.
It appears a female Ratchet will appear in the next video game.
It's hard to get the full details from the brief preview shown during the launch event, but the game appears to centre around Clank falling into an alternate reality or timeline ala Rick and Morty, where he is teamed up with a female character who looks suspiciously like Ratchet, but claims to not even know who he is.
Reuniting Ratchet and Clank will likely involve playing as both characters, but the story may also be somewhat ancillary to the gameplay.
Square Enix showed off a look at Project Athia, which will be a PlayStation 5 exclusive.
That game appears to be a bit of a mish mash in gameplay of the Tomb Raider series with some more supernatural elements, though details are still pretty scant.
Project Athia was followed up by a first look at Stray, which appears to place gamers in the paws of a stray cat in some sort of tech dystopia future.
The game looks like an edgy cyberpunk reimagining of the PlayStation 2's Dog's Life, where you played as a dog.
Details on the game were similarly scant but gave an opportunity to show off some pretty impressive hair effects (keep in mind this is a screenshot of a video so doesn't do justice to how it will actually look on console).
Next up was Returnal, a third-person adventure shooter. Gamers play as a space craft pilot who crashes on an alien planet, only to find she is continually reborn into a slightly different version of the planet every time she dies.
But it's not all doom, gloom and fighting aliens on the new console.
As a much-needed palate cleanser after the intensity of the Returnal preview, Sony offered a look at Sackboy: A Big Adventure.
The game is a continuation of the Little Big Planet puzzle platformer series first seen on PlayStation 3.
This was followed by Destruction Allstars, a demolition derby involving vehicular and hand-to-hand combat in an arena, similar to Rocket League but with a focus on fighting rather than football.
The action-adventure game Kena: Bridge Of Spirits showed off its environment and world though details on the game are still fairly cryptic.
As if you needed further proof that video games have come along way from your standard military shooter, sports games and platformers, next up was Goodbye Volcano High, which looks closer to a teen angst coming of age movie than a video game.
It's hard to tell right now what you'll actually do in this game but it's art style and furry-esque character design could appeal to many.
Things continue getting weird with the preview of Oddworld Soulstorm, and while the gameplay looks like a simple platformer it seems like there's a fair bit going on under the surface.
Ghostwire Tokyo hands over Japan's biggest city to gamers for this supernatural open world game, with the magically-endowed going up against faceless monsters and other creepy characters.
Jett: The Far Shore comes from the developers behind wildly successful 2011 indie game Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP and takes on the mystery and complexities of space exploration.
Having a big sword and fighting monsters is a familiar video game staple and despite its trailer's soundtrack claiming "we are not the same", Godfall will probably have to back that up with its gameplay and story (if there is one) in order to be successful.
This was followed by a similarly brief and mysterious look at Solar Ash, from the team behind 2016's Hyper Light Drifter.
The "dramatic conclusion" of the Hitman series is also promised for next year with Hitman 3 giving Agent 47 his "most intimate mission yet".
Fans of the franchise will probably already know what to expect in regards to that, but the things that made the Hitman franchise great look to be returning.
Early gameplay shows 47 pulling a Tom Cruise and climbing what appears to be Dubai's Burj Khalifa as part of a mission. Similar set pieces are to be expected but if it's anything like past games you should have plenty of freedom in how you want to tackle each mission.
Brief looks at Astro's Playroom and Little Devil Inside followed, before NBA's heir incumbent Zion Williamson appeared to provide a first look at the NBA 2k21.
With the Covid-19 pandemic halting the league for months, as well as forcing developers to send staff to work from home, some had wondered whether there would in fact be a new NBA 2k game this year.
The incredibly brief preview didn't do much to dispel those doubts either, showing about 45 seconds of pre-alpha footage of an animated Zion Williamson shooting around in a gym, alone.
Williamson's animated avatar actually looked more lifelike than his introductory video, which he appears to have shot on his phone and sent in, but given everything that's going on we'll forgive them that.
While 4K, 60 frames per second (fps) gaming is the target for next-gen consoles, the stream was presented at 1080p, 30fps to make it easier to produce during work-from-home changes stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier this week, a leaked Amazon UK listing suggested a price of A$1090 in Australia for the console, but it could be slightly cheaper as UK shoppers tend to pay more for electronics, if that price is even accurate.
An earlier version of this article suggested the console might not be available until 2021. Sony has promised release later this year but no firm date is currently set for launch.
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