Sony is running two broadcasts today, one straight after the other. A State of Play at 15:00 Italian time — 6:00am PT, 9:00am ET, 10:00pm JST — and then a State of Play Japan immediately afterwards, hosted by Yuki Kaji. Both on YouTube and Twitch.
This is a preview. At the time of writing the show has not aired, so nothing below is a report of what was in it.
Why it is split in two
Sony’s own announcement gives the first show the usual brief — updates from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners — and gives the second one a narrower one: deep dives into games from studios in Japan and Asia.
Splitting those is a decision about attention rather than about content. A single showcase has to keep everyone watching through segments that were never aimed at them, and the middle of a games showcase is where audiences leave. Two shows with two briefs means the Japanese and Asian slate gets its own opening, its own pacing and its own host, instead of six minutes somewhere in the second half of a broadcast built around a different audience.
Whether that reads as promotion or as relegation depends entirely on what is in the second show, which is a good reason to watch both rather than the highlights reel.
What closes the first one
The announcement says the State of Play ends with an extended look at the vast world of Final Fantasy VII Revelation. Square Enix has had the closing slot before and the phrase “extended look” usually means a long uncut section rather than a cut trailer.
That matters more than it sounds for this game in particular. When the last trailer showed a parachute, the thing worth noticing was what a parachute implies about the level: you cannot drop a player onto a roof unless the roof is real geometry with a walkable surface, a collision volume and a reason to be there. One traversal verb rewrites the brief for every environment artist on the project.
So the thing to watch in a long uncut section is the ground. Specifically:
- Where the camera does not go. A showcase edit hides the seams between authored space and filler; an extended look has fewer places to hide them.
- How the world loads. Long traversal shots are where streaming shows itself — pop-in on shadows first, then on foliage, then on the small props that dress a street.
- Whether the rooftops are the same rooftops. Instanced modular kits are correct engineering and they read as repetition from the air, which is the angle a parachute puts you at.
That is what the work looks like from the inside, and a long take is the rare occasion when you get to see it.
The rest is unannounced
Everything else is unannounced by design, and the number of leaks and rumours circulating this morning is not something I am going to relay as reporting. Sony has said “surprise announcements and updates” and nothing more specific, so anything more specific you read before 15:00 came from somewhere other than Sony.
Worth setting a reminder for. The show runs at an unusual hour for Europe — the middle of a working afternoon rather than late evening, which is where these have often landed — and the two broadcasts back to back mean the interesting half may well be the one that starts when the first one ends.
Times confirmed against Sony’s own announcement and the broadcast card: 6:00am PT / 9:00am ET / 3:00pm CEST / 10:00pm JST on 3 September 2026. This piece was written before the show; the analysis of what was actually shown comes after it.