The next State of Play has been officially announced for June 4, 2025, beginning at 2 p.m. PT (10 p.m. UK time). According to the PlayStation Blog's announcement, fans can expect more than 40 minutes of new gameplay footage focusing on upcoming PlayStation 5 titles. This broadcast follows up on the initial tease shared in PlayStation's tweet and confirms that Sony is doubling down on exclusive content and first-party studio showcases. If you're in the UK, mark your calendar for June 4 at 10 p.m., and make sure to head to PlayStation's official YouTube or Twitch channels to catch every reveal as it happens.
What can you hope to see from State of Play? According to VGC's coverage, previous episodes have highlighted major PS5 exclusives, indie gems, and updates on fan-favorite franchises. This time around, rumors suggest new gameplay teasers for titles like Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC and potential glimpses of God of War: Ragnarok post-launch support. If you're tuning in, have your headset ready for in-depth commentary, and keep an eye on social media hashtags like #StateOfPlay for real-time reactions and developer Q and As.
The Unreal Engine 5.6 update is now available, bringing a host of optimizations to improve performance by 20-90%, especially for foliage rendering. Epic Games released a detailed overview in the Unreal Engine 5.6 Feature Highlights video, showcasing how the engine now hits 60 fps even on current hardware such as the PlayStation 5. To download this update, open your Epic Games Launcher, navigate to the Library tab under Unreal Engine, and click the "Update" button next to version 5.6. Depending on your internet speed, the patch download should take between 20 and 45 minutes.
Developers will appreciate the enhanced Nanite optimizations that allow for vastly improved detail in virtual environments, while foliage now benefits from new culling strategies that maintain high frame rates even in dense forests. For modders and indie studios, the improved Lumen global illumination means dynamic lighting will feel more realistic without sacrificing performance. This update also paves the way for next-gen VR experiences, as the engine's efficiency gains reduce latency and jitter. If you're an aspiring developer, now's a great time to experiment by creating a simple project, enabling the new foliage optimizations, and seeing firsthand how much smoother your scenes run.
The Witcher 4 gameplay tech demo has just been revealed, running on Unreal Engine 5.6 and shown on a standard PlayStation 5, optimized to run at 60 fps with ray tracing enabled. The tech demo, detailed in the IGN article "Stunning The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo Shows Open-World Running on Base PS5 at 60fps — With Ray Tracing", highlights enhanced horse mechanics with more fluid movement, intricate foliage rendering that reacts to Geralt's presence, and support for 200-300 NPCs simultaneously on-screen. The official thewitcher tweet also hints at a more dynamic weather system and a revamped crowd AI that makes village life feel more alive. Although this is a technical demo and not indicative of the final product, it sets a high bar for what we can expect from Geralt's next adventure.
As a technical showcase, the demo emphasizes performance headroom: constant 60 fps at 4K with all settings maxed, including real-time ray tracing and volumetric fog. The demo's enhanced horse gallop animations show off advanced inverse kinematics, while detailed character models benefit from improved mesh streaming. Fans will notice more realistic shadows and reflections on armor surfaces, something the IGN video "The Witcher 4 - UE 5.6 Tech Demo | State of Unreal 2025" highlights in close-up shots. It's important to remember that CD Projekt Red describes this as a "proof of technology", meaning gameplay features, story elements, and release timelines are still up in the air. Once we learn more—such as an official release date—platform compatibility, and pre-order options, I'll cover those details in a future Gaming News update.
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