On 3 December 2024, it’ll officially be five years since Leonardo Dicaprio put down the PlayStation controller, and officially switched over to the Xbox. In other words, PlayStation turns 30 in three months’ time, and it’s celebrating the occasion with gifts, ‘My First GT‘, unreleased soundtracks and whatever “Shapes of Play” is.
Sony’s still running on fumes after the legendary debut of Astro Bot, which secured Game of the Year status from reviewers everywhere yesterday – including our review of the little guy’s journey throughout the cosmos. It’s a celebration of PlayStation’s storied past while also serving as a glimpse into Sony’s promising future.
Baby’s first GT(R)
Sony kicked off its anniversary announcement with My First GT, a new type of free trial that involves luring customers into the Gran Turismo experience (not you) and hopefully convincing them to drop some dough on Gran Turismo 7. This “upcoming release” involves some of the “favourite cars, tracks, and race events that evoke the nostalgia and excitement of the very first GT experience.” That’ll be out this holiday for all PS4 and PS5 players.
For the first time, you’ll be able to listen to the God of War: Ghost of Sparta soundtrack over on Spotify, among a whole bunch of others. Those include God of War, God of War 2, Twisted Metal, Starwhawk, and Unit 13. Sony will trickle one down a month to Spotify from October until January. Not a Spotify subscriber and can’t deal with the ads? You can purchase those soundtracks from Amazon Music, and Apple Music at the same time.
Arguably the coolest bit of the promotion, “Shapes of Play”, will unfortunately miss South Africa’s shores. Not that we’re surprised. Shapes of Play is a collection of physical products launching in December, such as a board game, a bunch of magnets, and what appears to be a box of PlayStation-shaped stress balls… Cool, we guess?
South Africa will, however, take advantage of the free online multiplayer weekend Sony has planned for 21-22 September, eliminating the need to have a PS Plus subscription at your back before taking to Concord. Oh, wait. Free-to-enter esports tournaments covering ground in NBA 2K24, NBA 2K25, Madden NFL 24, MLB The Show 24, EA UFC 5, Tekken 8, and Guilty Gear Strive will occur on the same weekend.
Taking part in any tournament will reward you with two PlayStation avatars celebrating the company’s 30th anniversary, plus in-game rewards if you manage to beat out the competition using our lovely South African ping.
The PS5 Pro is on the way
As people are pointing out, PS5 Pro design may have been revealed through the PlayStation 30th Anniversary image
PS5 Pro on the left, PS5 on the right https://t.co/oyfSZgs92R pic.twitter.com/kC09hTcmp6
— Wario64 (@Wario64) September 5, 2024
And finally, for those of you who like to overthink things to the max, many are pointing out – Wario64 among them – that Sony may have teased the PS5 Pro for the first time in the background of its 30th anniversary image at the top of this page. It certainly matches the sketch offered by Dealabs’ Billibi-kun a little over a week ago. Make of that what you will.