PlayStation is airing a one-hour State of Play this Thursday

Sony has confirmed that its next State of Play broadcast will air on Thursday, February 12 at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern. According to the announcement on the PlayStation Blog, the show will run for more than 60 minutes and feature a mix of titles from PlayStation Studios, third-party publishers, and indie developers.

The broadcast will be available to watch on the official PlayStation YouTube and Twitch channels. For those in other time zones, that translates to 11pm CEST on Thursday, or 7am JST on Friday morning.

A longer runtime than usual

The confirmed runtime of "60+ minutes" is the most notable detail here. Historically, the State of Play format has been Sony's vehicle for smaller, more focused updates, often clocking in around 20 to 30 minutes. The longer "Showcase" branding is usually reserved for their E3-adjacent events or major hardware reveals.

Seeing a standard State of Play stretch over the hour mark suggests a significant volume of content. The blog post explicitly mentions updates from "game studios across the globe," which is the standard corporate shorthand for "don't expect everything to be a first-party blockbuster." However, the inclusion of PlayStation Studios in the lineup indicates we will see at least some first-party movement, which has been a point of contention for fans feeling a dry spell in the release calendar.

For context, the format launched back in 2019 as Sony's answer to the Nintendo Direct. It has had a somewhat uneven rhythm since then. Some episodes have focused entirely on single games (like Ghost of Tsushima or Gran Turismo 7), while others have been grab-bags of indie ports and VR titles. A one-hour general showcase is a hefty commitment of time, implying Sony has a backlog of marketing agreements to clear or a substantial roadmap to lay out for the coming year.

The copyright headache

Sony included a specific warning for co-streamers and content creators regarding copyrighted music. While the company welcomes co-streaming, they note that "licensing agreements outside our control could interfere with co-streams or VOD archives of this broadcast."

This is a recurring friction point in modern game preservation and coverage. The reliance on licensed music in game trailers means that the official archival footage of these events often gets mutilated by copyright strikes or muted audio segments shortly after airing. Sony advises creators to omit copyrighted music if they plan to save VODs, which effectively asks streamers to talk over or mute the most expensive parts of the trailers.

It is a reminder that even the marketing material for these games is often legally ephemeral. If you want the unedited experience with the intended audio, watching live is unfortunately still the safest bet.

What to expect

While the announcement stays vague on specific titles, the "third-party and indie" categorization usually casts a wide net. In previous years, this has been where we see updates on ongoing service games, announcements from partners like Square Enix or Capcom, and the occasional indie breakout. Given the PS5 is now deep into its lifecycle, we are likely past the cross-gen era where every announcement comes with a PS4 disclaimer.

The broadcast will be streamed in English, though Japanese subtitles will be available. We will have coverage of any retro-relevant announcements, collections, or remakes that surface during the hour.