The surprise theme of today’s Nintendo Direct was classic PlayStation franchises getting a comeback without Sony’s involvement

With the release of Astro Bot last year, the world got a reminder of just how many beloved first-party franchises PlayStation was responsible for in its glory days – and how few of them are still alive today. While Sony itself seems interested in pursuing little beyond a handful of mega-franchises from its biggest studios, it’s apparently increasingly willing to license out those series to other publishers: notably Bandai Namco, which announced new Patapon and Everybody’s Gold games during the Nintendo Direct for March 2025.

First we saw Patapon 1+2 Replay, a remastered collection of Sony’s two beloved PSP rhythm strategy games. Patapon helped form the peak of Japan Studio’s reputation for delightfully offbeat games, and it was among the more popular parts of that lineage, spawning not just one, but two sequels. There’s little else like it to this day – aside, of course, from designer Hiroyuki Kotani’s spiritual successor, Ratatan, which is due to launch in 2025.