Sony’s annual Spring Fever event guarantees variety and excellence to the games on tap. Last year’s outing gave Helldivers, Titan Souls, Axiom Verge, and Hotline Miami 2 the limelight, but 2016’s showcase has retired the old moniker. To celebrate the first- and third-party developers working on several high-profile PlayStation 4 games, Sony rebranded the experience.
The new event name: Launch Party.
The PlayStation Store Launch Party will follow a familiar pattern, releasing one digital PS4 title each week until the campaign runs its course. Setting an example for the rest of the lineup, Salt and Sanctuary ushers in the six-week spectacle next Tuesday.
Ska Studios remained adamant that Salt and Sanctuary would be ready when it’s ready. Fans waited 17 months (who’s counting?) since the game’s announcement, so what’s another couple days? Players should expect “deep combat and rich RPG elements, all set in a cursed realm of forgotten cities, blood-soaked dungeons, and desecrated monuments.” The analogies to Dark Souls and Bloodborne are no accident.
If 2D combat or masochism isn’t your specialty, the Launch Party delivers old-school aesthetics, stealth, and a smorgasbord of aliens to your console throughout the month. Double Fine revives another Lucasarts classic with adventure game Day of the Tentacle Remastered, and the ladies and gents at Housemarque continue the co-op movement, letting one to four players obliterate extra-terrestrials and the environments in the anticipated Alienation.
Enter the Gungeon, Stories: The Path of Destinies, and Invisible, Inc. – no less remarkable for their gameplay or stories – complete the event, but consumers that are low on cash should not dismay, either. “We’ll still have great weekly deals on games and movies from your favorite blockbuster franchises, but we really wanted to let the new games have the spotlight with their own event,” reported Andy Yen, digital commerce manager.
It gets better. Pre-ordering any Launch Party title saves you ten percent, and players that can’t wait one more minute to unlock, say, Salt and Sanctuary may pre-load their purchase(s). In the meantime, visit the PlayStation Blog for a full breakdown of the Launch Party games, release dates, prices, and more.
