PlayStation State of Play July 2021: How to watch and what to expect

By DeAngelo Epps Published July 6, 2021

Sony announced a new State of Play presentation for Thursday, July 8. The headlining game this month is thenew Bethesda title, Deathloop, which will get nine minutes of new gameplay footage. The short showcase will also show off a few updates for indie and third-party games. Here’s how to watch the stream and what to realistically expect from it.

When is the State of Play?

PlayStation’s July State of Play starts at 2 p.m. PT on Thursday, June 8. It’s also confirmed to have a runtime of 30 minutes, with nine minutes being completely devoted to Deathloop.

Recommended Videos

Where to watch the State of Play?

Like every PlayStation stream, the State of Play will be available to watch on both PlayStation’s official Twitch and YouTube channels. Viewers can either watch it live or catch the full video after it airs.

What will be shown at the State of Play?

Shooting gameplay in Deathloop. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The star of this month’s State of Play is Bethesda’s upcoming Deathloop. The nine-minute gameplay showcase will feature some of the game’s abilities, possible combat tactics, and options available on the island the game takes place on, Blackreef.

There will also be updates of indie and third-party game, though Sony didn’t specify what games we may see beyond Deathloop.

What won’t be shown at the State of Play?

While many Sony fans have a lot to look forward to, it’s ill-advised to go into the show expecting any surprises. In an official blog post, Sony confirmed that the show won’t feature the kind of first-party heavy hitters fans usually hope to see at Sony’s shows.

It named God of War, Horizon Forbidden West, and the next generation of PlayStation VR as three specific things that won’t make appearances. These will show up throughout the summer via more updates according to the PlayStation blog.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

De'Angelo Epps is a gaming writer passionate about the culture, communities, and industry surrounding gaming. His work ranges…

Topics

Computing

Exclusive: Microsoft explains why RTX Spark’s Prism emulation is about more than higher FPS

Because an erratic 80 FPS will always feel worse than a silky-smooth 60.

ARC Raiders with Anti-Cheat Support running on NVIDIA RTX Spark Laptop

NVIDIA’s RTX Spark may pack a powerful Blackwell GPU, but its ability to run the massive library of existing PC games on Arm depends on a quieter piece of technology: Microsoft’s Prism emulator. Prism allows x64 Windows games and applications to run on RTX Spark’s Arm-based CPU without requiring developers to immediately rewrite them for ARM64.

During an exclusive conversation at NVIDIA’s private IFA 2026 demo, Microsoft’s Peter Dawoud explained that the latest Prism work isn't just about pushing emulated workloads to higher FPS. Microsoft is also focused on performance consistency, particularly in GPU-heavy games where the CPU still has to coordinate frames, physics, and rendering. Because a higher average FPS doesn't always mean a smoother experience, that could prove to be one of Prism’s most important improvements yet.

Gaming

I played Star Wars: Galactic Racer at Gamescom, and this is way more chaotic than I expected

Four very different vehicles, dangerous shortcuts and enough mid-race chaos to make even a podracer veteran sweat.

Star Wars Galactic Racer Official Image

The first few minutes with Star Wars: Galactic Racer at Gamescom had me thinking I was playing a very pretty, very modern take on Wipeout. Then the race properly kicked off, and the Burnout DNA came roaring through.

That makes perfect sense, considering Fuse Games was founded by former Criterion developers. But knowing that on paper and actually feeling it while racing are two very different things. This is an arcade racer that really doesn't want you to sit back and admire the scenery. You're boosting, dodging, ramming rivals, dealing with power-ups and trying to pick the right racing line, all while the track throws hazards and shortcuts at you. It's loud, chaotic and, occasionally, wonderfully messy.

Gaming

NVIDIA G-SYNC Pulsar is proof that gaming monitors don’t just need more Hz

NVIDIA G-SYNC Pulsar Comparison Image

There is something slightly ridiculous about the gaming-monitor arms race. We now have displays pushing 500Hz, 560Hz, and even 720Hz, with esports gamers understandably chasing every last millisecond. The problem? The faster you go, the more you're often asked to compromise on resolution.

NVIDIA G-SYNC Pulsar takes a very different approach. I got to see it in action at Gamescom, and after watching NVIDIA switch the technology on and off in front of me, I came away thinking that perhaps the industry has been asking the wrong question.