Topic: Next Playstation Showcase/SOP

Realized there is no dedicated thread to PlayStation presentations in general, akin to something like the Direct thread on NintendoLife, so I took the liberty to try our hand with one here as opposed to a separate thread for each show. This can be a catch-all for any rumour/leak/confirmation of an upcoming show Even if we were told there isn't a show coming yet, this forum topic could keep us chatting and sharing (hopefully) nice thoughts of what we'd like to see.

The Lunatic Ignis post on X/Twitter has some people beginning to go over what's happening in September, so the rumours have begun to rumble for the next show. I'm convinced something's coming given we know about the PS5 Pro from various sources except Sony themselves (who have never denied it). I can't see the hardware being unveiled at Gamescom or Tokyo Game Show, but at a dedicated show alongside some strong first and third party titles. So, given Sony's record, next month does seem feasible for a major show to bring up the next part of their roadmap. I know... we've heard this before... but again, PS5 Pro. This ties things together in my view.

What does everyone else think? Hopefully the muttering picks up into a good leak (without leaking games) and then a confirmation of a show. In spite of the strange and opaque approach Sony's been taking for such a while, I'm still excited for the next few years because so many studios I love have been cooking for years and it's getting close to when we should be seeing them.

For the record, here’s a link covering some of the conversation.

https://techtroduce.com/playstation-september-showcase-more-n...

We’re to be expecting more on this at the end of the month. I listened a bit to Nate the hate with shinobi on this too out of curiosity and the show seems likely.

Interesting, but we’ll see.

@Enriesto at this point I'm thinking Tokyo Game show, combined with their own SIE YouTube Showcase around the same week, perhaps.

And by now I'm ready to sell at least one PS5 and replace it with something more powerful, as im a bit jaded with the generation overall, and for ease that'd be a Pro because of my current game library and plug and play. From the other side of the tracks, those from the Xbox community think that MS and Xbox will combine to release a PC/Console hybrid. But I'm not exactly sure how that works, as MS doesn't really make PC's anyway. So an Xbox that forces you to use a Windows OS seems the only option from that side.

I'd rather Sony came up with some magical mega console though, tbh

@Ravix How much would it cost to get a high end gaming PC? I’ll have to admit the thought has crossed my mind.

@Th3solution I mean, it really varies depending on what you're looking for out of your games. I was looking at stuff a while back around £2000/3000+ for a custom machine that could ray trace the s*** out of games, but built by people who know what they are doing, not by myself, which obviously bumps the cost up from labour etc.

But you can top PS5 performance easily for probably £1000.

My main sticking point is that I'm just a console gamer, always have been, and I have a hate/hate/hate relationship with Windows OS. And I've just not had the experience with PC gaming to trust I won't f*** it up somehow 😅

And I'm way more likely to spend that money on a few different consoles instead, like an idiot 😁 I'm just very much ready to move on from this generation, as I said though.

So here's hoping someone announces something slightly better this year to waste our money on instead, I say 🍻

(Side note, I'm a little drunk so I'm going to try really hard to not randomly order a £4000 gaming rig right now because of this conversation haha)

@Yousef- yeah, it is bonkers to go that far for gaming unless it suits and fits every need perfectly, but thankfully a gaming pc still conflicts with the logical side of my brain and my available set up space, as I game on TV's and can't be bothered to reorganise everything just to take a gaming PC into the fold too. There's more negatives than positives so that is keeping me at bay 😅

But if the showcase does come, and they show some shiny PS5 pros, I can definitely justify selling and upgrading the 3/4 year old PS5. And if MS does do something crazy with a gaming PC/Console, then I'd really be hoping Sony just copied it, so I could stay mostly on the Sony platform with my game library.

How do you find PC gaming as a handheld by the way? I thought handheld gaming would really lure me back when I tried the switch, but I just played Tears of the Kingdom a bunch and now it jusy sits on a shelf 😅

@Yousef- I liked TotK, but I didn't ever finish it as it just went on and on and my joy and wonder faded away. I can't imagine PC gaming on a handheld either though, tbh. I can't even imagine PC gaming on a monitor, as I'm such a big screen entertainment wh*** 😅 even if gaming doesn't actually suit bigger screens, as the HUDs vanish from your vision and you haven't got a clue how much ammo/hp/abilities or whatever you currently have without moving your eyes around, which is just a chore not worth the hassle 😅

I've very much lost my train of though now anyway. Showcases, yeeeeah! Announce some epic hardware and make consoles cool again 😁 and some God damn gaaaaaames, as far as Sony is concerned.

@Enriesto I think it does come down to PS5 Pro and that it's such a poorly kept secret. Hardware needs a strong upcoming software lineup to support it so I'd be surprised if there's no 2025/2026 roadmap.

@Ravix I spend a lot of my work time on a PC and so when I come home I really don’t want to get back on a PC. That said, there’s so much more potential power in a PC, and I was thinking in terms of a dedicated PC machine just for gaming and set it up sort of like a console and see if that would work. 😅 I don’t want to be getting notifications of work emails on it or be reminded of excel spreadsheets popping up that I should probably be working on while I’m trying to slay dragons or shoot zombies. I want to forget the annoying real life tasks. It’s the same reason I change clothes when I get home as a symbolic shedding of the world outside and to get into leisure mode. 😄

But the other issue is like you say, I have so much investment into the PlayStation ecosystem, I really don’t want to also have to build a steam library from scratch, when I have so many PS5 and PS4 games.

@Yousef- $1000 seems reasonable; I reckon the PS5 Pro will be $600 or so. I’ll have to wait and see what the Pro brings to the table.

Preach bro. 🙏

I could never leave PC gaming behind, but, tbh, I might not have upgraded my computer if the Steam Deck had existed at the time. I use the Deck for almost everything except old shooters like DOOM (which only feel right on M&K), since its perfect for almost everything non-AAA. And even most AAA stuff. Still amazed Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart apparently runs pretty well on it.

I guess I'll still need my rig for stuff like Horizon Forbidden West and Returnal, though. And probably Silent Hill 2.

I'm hoping FF7 Rebirth runs okay on the Deck. Remake Integrade runs beautifully on it.

@Yousef- I have a bunch of emulators loaded up on my Deck, but haven't really bothered with em yet.

Honestly, I had such a large Steam library, and I'm finally digging into it now that it's playable in convenient handheld form. I get into moods where I'll play a home console game obsessively for a while, but the vast majority of my gaming times is spent on handhelds. They're just more comfortable for me.

Well we can but dream...

http://youtube.com/post/UgkxSRkmDZyxIst6RtsKrubYOWSNS6vNVqAY?...

Sony was completely absent from Gamescom Opening Night Live which increases the chance of a showcase.

@Yousef-
'High end'... For £1000, not a chance.
You'd be talking more like £2K at least

Grubb's given his initial remarks, maintaining it's a SOP and not a showcase. I definitely think he's right there will be something, but he did say last time in the summer he was leaning towards a showcase and it ended up being a SOP. Might be wrong about this one too?

I'm generally pretty positive about just waiting for reveals and letting folks show what they have when they're ready, but if it's a state of play... what is going on? Sony knows fans have been aware of PS5 Pro for many months, and are expecting something to accompany its announcement that can keep them interested. They also know we're less excited about these presentations against the major showcases. I don't want to leap into any conclusions, other than I don't think I have any clue what's going on anymore XD

Not to mention Xbox had a killer show that's still left a mark and Nintendo seems to be ramping up their impending Switch Successor announcement (after also having a strong show of their own in the summer). Ah Sony, why you do dis.

I'm gonna bump this thread as AstroBot is out on Friday, and Sony often likes to announce on a Tues/Weds that they have a show on a Thursday. So, just incase 😅

It'd be cool if they did one last bit of hype for the good wee bot, and then slapped a tease for something, anything on to the end of it.

@Ravix it’s probably too late for them to announce anything this week, I suspect it will be in another 2 weeks to give Astrobot his time in the sun.

I just saw the news about Concord, maybe they’ll start the next show with an apology 😂

Wasn’t sure where to put these thoughts, since our ‘Armchair CEO’ thread has locked, but I was wondering what reasonable people (as opposed to the overreactors and trolls on the internet at large) feel should be (or should have been) the strategic plan for Sony regarding the current state of things.

On one hand, Sony’s bulletproof position in the console sector seems to have suffered from a substantial flaw in its armor with the total dumpster fire named ‘Concord.’ Analysis of how a production company can be so wrong about a game is perplexing.

Something I’ve read and tend to agree with is that Concord could have been better received if there was a little more comfort from the core PlayStation audience about the other first party studios projects. There’s a narrative out there that Sony is only focusing on GaaS at the expense of its traditional strength — the narrative single player games. I think we all know that there’s probably a half dozen quality SP games in the oven, but the lack of any disclosure about many of the marquee PS studios’ projects is giving an impression that the only thing Sony have been working on are Comcord, Fairgames, Helldivers 2. We finally heard about Horizon LEGO and Astrobot, but it was fairly late and the court of public opinion had convicted Concord to the death penalty weeks before its launch.

So consider this — if Sony had teased a little information about Uncharted: Inheritance (or whatever it will be called) and/or Ghost of Okinawa (again, name unknown) and/or Bloodborne: The Hunter’s Nightmare Edition (also, ?), and then it also had “oh, by the way, there’s this little side project of a Sci-fi online FPS also coming out” then perhaps the general attitude toward Concord would have been less vitriolic and more of a “ok, maybe I’ll check this out to tide me over while I wait for Wolverine in 6 months and Sucker Punch’s Ghost game in 9 months.” Ironically, I think Astro Bot is set to benefit greatly from Concord’s failure, for these reasons.

Also, I wonder if having PC concurrent launch hurt Concord and perhaps it would have marketed better as a PS5 exclusive with PC launch to follow a few weeks or months later. I think the idea was get PC players involved from the start to get the player base maxed out for an online only game like this, but it definitely backfired when everyone saw the abysmal Steam numbers. The transparency of Steam stats probably drove many console players to avoid the game entirely. Just a guess. I’m not sure what the right answer there is, because positive buzz from Steam numbers definitely helped Helldivers 2, but it had a negative effect on Concord.

Also, the fact that Firewalk clearly had a kind of narrative emphasis on the game with little animated shorts and an obvious attempt at a storyline, makes me also wonder if you could have sold a lot more copies if you just packed in a 6 hour solo campaign. They could have easily kept some sales going even after shutting down servers if they had something like that. Again, I’m not sure if it would have made a huge difference but perhaps in conjunction with these other launch ideas then it could have at least made a little money back and sold more than 25,000 copies.

Also, there’s a fine line between holding back information on a game and releasing it early for beta testing and creating some buzz. Beta testing are glorified demos at this point and server stress tests, but I think earlier public access for new IP games will help either create hype if it’s good, or alert the team to problems if it’s bad. It didn’t help Suicide Squad when they went back after the poor reception and delayed the game tried to salvage it, but I think in retrospect earlier public access for Concord could have made a difference.

Overall, the length of development is another major issue at play. I’ve said it before, but when Concord started development, the Guardians of the Galaxy live service shooter idea was probably a good one. But 6 years later, not so much. Capturing a zeitgeisty idea requires that you get it out while it’s still trending. I think this is also why Star Wars Outlaws release and critical reception has been slightly muted. Timing is everything.

Haven and Fairgames is sure to benefit from Concord’s mistakes. It absolutely can’t have a worse outcome than Concord. And hopefully by the time it’s released, we’ll be safe in the knowledge that it is merely one supplemental game to augment a treasure trove of other content coming soon from PlayStation studios.

(Apologies for the long diatribe, but I had to get some of these thoughts out)