Annapurna Interactive held a digital showcase today, giving updates on its suite of upcoming indies. The presentation covered nine games in total and revealed spring release dates for To a T, Lushfoil Photography Sim, and Skin Deep.
Today’s showcase offers a lot of clarity for Annapurna, which went through a surprise restructure in September after its entire staff quit. The presentation confirms that the games it was working on are still progressing as normal, with some coming over the next few months. Notably, no new games were shown and we didn’t get a glimpse of the studio’s mysterious Blade Runner game either, which we haven’t gotten news on since it was revealed two years ago.
We did get plenty of updates for its 2025 slate, though. In addition to the three new release dates, we got fresh looks at titles like Wheel World and Morsels. We even got one proper surprise in a PS5 release of Sayonara Wild Hearts that brings a brand new mode to the cult hit. You can watch the full stream below, but here’s the full list of announcements.
Wheel World is coming this summer
The showcase kicked off with a fresh look at Wheel World, an upcoming open-world biking game from developer Messhof. The dev diary gave some insight into the origin of the project and how its freeform exploration works. While it didn’t reveal a firm release date, we at least know that it’s now scheduled to launch this summer for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Wanderstop has a Steam demo
On March 11, Ivy Road will release its debut game, Wanderstop. It’s a cozy tea shop management simulator created by a team of indie veterans, including The Stanley Parable’s Davey Wreden. We got a new trailer to hype up the release, which also reminded viewers that a free Steam demo for the game is available right now. If you don’t have time to play, you can read our hands-on impressions of Wanderstop.
Blendo’s Skin Deep lands on April
It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen Skin Deep, the latest project from Blendo, but it turns out that it’s right around the corner. The oddball shooter will launch on April 30. The presentation gave us a full look at the game, which stars a former bounty hunter turned pirate-slaying insurance commando. A developer in the clip describes it as “Die Hard, but with more comedy,” which makes sense based on the trailer. We see a lot of playful action, from deadly banana peel accidents to heads being flushed down urinals. It looks a bit like a mini-immersive sim with lots of ways to take down pirates on a spaceship.
Cocoon dev is working on a new game
The developers at Geometric Interactive showed up with two quick announcements. The first is that it is teaming up with Iam8bit to release a collector’s edition of its debut game, Cocoon, along with a vinyl soundtrack. The team also dropped the only new game announcement of the show: Geometric is working on its next game. We didn’t see it, but it’s at least a small confirmation that the team is onto its next project.
Lushfoil Photography Sim reveals release date, locations
Lusfoil Photography Sim, a hyper realistic photography game, finally has a release date. It’ll come just ahead of Skin Deep on April 15. Alongside that news, a new trailer confirmed nine of the game’s world-spanning locations. There’s a mysterious 10th one too, but it looks like that’s being kept secret for now. You can find out for yourself come April.
Faraway gets a brief dev diary
Puzzle game Faraway made a quick cameo during the show, as solo dev Steph Thirion explained a bit more about the project. He explains how Tetris inspired it while showing off a bit of gameplay. We didn’t get a release date, though, as it’s still just scheduled for a 2025 release on PC. In the meantime, you can read out hands-on preview of Faraway.
Katamari Damacy creator’s To a T launches in May
To a T, the long-awaited game from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, is coming this year. The showcased revealed a May 28 release date. That came at the tail end of a new trailer featuring an original song about a giraffe who likes to cook sandwiches (it’s a real earworm, I promise). We previewed To a T back in December and walked away charmed by the quirky narrative adventure, which is a coming of age story about a kid who is stuck in a perpetual T-pose.
Morsels gets a new spotlight
The presentation gave us a quick look at Morsels, an upcoming creature-collecting roguelite from Furcula. There wasn’t much new information in here. We mostly just got a description of how the game works and how the developer’s obsession with concrete led to the project’s creation. As a refresher, it’s a game about a mouse who transforms into other critters using cards and takes down cat bosses. It’s scheduled for a 2025 release.
Sayonara Wild Hearts gets a surprise PS5 release
For its grand finale, Annapurna revealed that 2019 hit Sayonara Wild Hearts is coming to PS5 today. The new version will support 4K and 120 frames per second. Those who have it on PS4 can upgrade for free. The double dip comes with one big surprise: a PS5-exclusive mode. It appears to be a high-score infinite run mode that features no loading between levels. You can try it out for yourself today.
