To close out the month of March, Nintendo recently held a new Direct dedicated entirely to games planned for the current Switch. The event only lasted for about 30 minutes, but it still featured some noteworthy announcements from first- and third-party developers. A new Tomodachi Life game was revealed, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was shown off for the third time, and Pokemon Legends: Z-A was given a late 2025 release window. It was even announced that Nintendo‘s long-dormant Rhythm Heaven franchise was making a return with a new entry called Rhythm Heaven Groove.
As exciting as these game announcements were, two of the more surprising reveals from this week’s Nintendo Direct did not come from Nintendo itself, but instead from Sony, of all companies. During the presentation, Sony confirmed that the Patapon and Everybody’s Golf franchises would be making their debuts on the Nintendo Switch. The first two Patapon games will be bundled together and remastered as part of the Patapon 1+2 Replay collection, and the Everybody’s Golf series will get a new mainline installment named Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots. Both Patapon 1+2 Replay and Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots are going to be launched on the Nintendo Switch, in addition to PS5 and PC, later this year.
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Rumor: Gravity Rush 2 Could Be Making a Comeback
Rumors suggest that beloved Sony Japan Studio classic Gravity Rush 2 may appear once more, prompting anticipation from series fans.
Patapon and Everybody’s Golf on Switch Could Lead to Other Sony IPs Going Multiplatform
Sony Games Being Released on a Nintendo Console is a Big Deal
Patapon and Everybody’s Golf may not be household names, but the fact that they’re being released on a Nintendo platform is a momentous occasion. For decades, Sony has actively prevented its IPs, no matter how big or small, from being launched on non-PlayStation consoles. The confirmation of Patapon 1+2 Replay and Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots for the Switch, however, indicates that the Japanese conglomerate is starting to have a change of heart about multiplatform releases. Even though these new Patapon and Everybody’s Golf games have been licensed to Bandai Namco instead of being published by Sony itself, it appears that the prospect of classic PlayStation IPs coming to Nintendo consoles is no longer a pipe dream.
Japan Studio, the Developer That Worked on Patapon and Everybody’s Golf, Also Made Gravity Rush
Intriguingly, almost all the Sony games that have made their way to the Nintendo Switch so far are Japan Studio titles. The now-defunct Sony subsidiary made many AA games exclusively for PlayStation platforms, including Patapon and Everybody’s Golf. One of the projects that it was best known for, however, was the cult classic Gravity Rush franchise. Conceived by Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, this action-adventure series only has two installments, the first of which debuted on the PS Vita in 2012. The Gravity Rush games put players in the shoes of an amnesiac girl named Kat, who has the ability to control gravity and use it to attack enemies and travel from place to place.
Clap Hanz co-developed most of the Everybody’s Golf games alongside Japan Studio, while Pyramid worked on Patapon.
The original Gravity Rush was remastered for the PS4 in 2015, and it received a sequel a few years later, titled Gravity Rush 2. Unfortunately, though, due to the commercial failure of Gravity Rush 2 and the closure of Japan Studio, the franchise is almost entirely dormant these days. Sony is not actively working on any new Gravity Rush video games, but it is producing a live-action Gravity Rush movie based on the series, which it showed a brief snippet of during CES 2024.
Gravity Rush Would Be a Perfect Fit for the Nintendo Switch
Since Sony is seemingly okay with licensing its IPs out to other publishers and letting its legacy games come to Nintendo platforms, it could potentially release a remastered compilation of Gravity Rush 1 and 2 for the Nintendo Switch and/or Switch 2 in the future. Although they’re relatively old games, these titles would likely perform quite well on Nintendo’s platform, perhaps even more so than Everybody’s Golf and Patapon. Because of this, it’d be a smart move for Sony to time the release of a possible Gravity Rush remastered collection in conjunction with the upcoming Gravity Rush film. Getting the games in front of a larger audience prior to the release of the movie could generate a lot more profit for both Sony and its PlayStation division.
Gain a new perspective as Kat, a strong-willed girl trying to protect her future in a world that’s crumbling to pieces. With incredible gravity-altering abilities, Kat is the only one who can salvage the floating city of Hekseville – if only she could remember who she is…
- Released
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June 12, 2012
- ESRB
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T For Teen due to Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Computer Entertainment
