If you’ve followed E3 closely in the past, you’ll know there’s a different mood about the PlayStation camp this year. Historically, the Japanese giant drags the show out, using the days and weeks prior to any press conferences to release trailers, announce release dates, and sometimes even reveal entirely new games. It’s a strategy that has, in the past, baffled the forum faithfuls: “Why is Sony spoiling its media briefing?” they invariably ask.
But it’s actually something that I’ve argued in favour of – and if my Google-fu was better I’d link up long-forgotten articles I remember penning on the matter at the time. I always felt that, with E3 being such a busy period of the year for all platforms, the condensed news cycle can be a bad thing, as titles and trailers get overlooked. And I’ve always said that it’s in the platform holder’s best interests to get out ahead of that, and indulge the heightened industry interest over a couple of weeks.
This year, though: radio silence.
Well, it’s not quite been radio silence: we’ve had a spate of good interviews with bigwigs Shawn Layden and Jim Ryan to sink our teeth into – the latter’s comments on backwards compatibility keeping opinion editors in work the world over these past few days. The conversations primarily centred on business: the boring bits that have traditionally bogged down briefings until companies realised that average people don’t like looking at pie charts – unless they’re key lime flavoured.
And that’s it really. There have been a couple of indie games on the PlayStation Blog, though much less than you’d expect on an average week. And we’ve gotten details about its Days of Play promotion that got underway today. But other than that Sony’s been really quiet for weeks now; the firm’s old strategy of spreading out its reveals has seemingly been left behind. So what does that mean? Well, I think we all know what it means.
Layden’s already admitted that we’ll barely see him during the Japanese giant’s press conference next week, hinting that it’s going to rekindle last year’s format of wall-to-wall trailers, demos, and reveals. But given how quiet it’s been – and considering how much content we know the company has to talk about – we get the distinct impression that it’s going to go for the jugular this year and just show every single title it possibly can.
Here’s the thing: there’s no PlayStation hardware on the horizon. Sony refreshed its product line last year with PlayStation VR, the PS4 Pro, and – lest we forget – the PS4 Slim. So it’s not going to be spending any time talking about them. And it’s already admitted in various interviews that this year is all about PS4 software. So I reckon you’re just going to see game after game after game after game – the library should do the talking all by itself.
The first few months of this year have seen the PS4 receive more hits more frequently than I think I can ever imagine. And after a slow start where many questioned the console’s library, it feels like the PS4 has finally assembled an impressive catalogue of games – both exclusive and multiformat. So while its competitors chat new consoles and fresh initiatives, I think Sony’s going to steal the show by simply proving that it has more quality software than everyone else combined.
Are you surprised Sony hasn't spread out its trailers and announcements a bit like in previous years? Are you expecting it to go for the jugular this time – or do you think this all just a symptom of it not having much ready for prime time? Go big or go home in the comments section below.
Comments 29
I want more Days Gone. Give me that game now.
I'm definitely looking forward to the conference. It sounds like it will just be game after game.
Sony is gonna pound it good...
The closer we get, the harder the wait! The anticipation really is similar to Christmas! I'm just glad we haven't had any huge spoilers/leaks yet. knocks on wood
I can't see myself disappointed. Too much good stuff going on.
I'm surprised they've been able to keep the unknowns...unknown.
I think Sony may have been quiet because it doesn't have a lot to reveal - not in terms of hardware or features. I know they have a plethora of games in the works we have been seeing the benefits of all that investment into software.
From a software perspective, they could of shown off a trailer or two from some of the games that won't get much of a look. If Sony do follow the same format, an hour long show with a decent amount of time allocated to each, then even with the games we know of, they couldn't fit all in let alone throw us something 'new'
MS may well have new hardware but they have also got the specs out of the way. All that's missing is release date, aesthetics and price. They could spend time discussing Xbox Pass - although already launched and could spend time discussing 'old' software that have been improved by 'Scorpio'. Even with the games we know about and expecting to be revealed (Forza 7), it does seem MS don't have a lot to fill their 90mins though.
We all know Sony have a much larger number of Studio's and bought up virtually all the 3rd Party deals too - so it seems. They have enough 'big' games to fill this and probably next years E3 and still keep Sony's fanbase happy. The fact that many will go 'mad' over a bit of new, never before seen gameplay or even the odd release date from games like Days Gone, God of War, Last of Us, Spider-Man, Detroit, Wild, Dreams, etc Any snippet of information about Shenmue, Kingdom Hearts 3, FFvii etc as well as 'exclusive' looks at CoD, RDR2, SW:BF2, Destiny 2, Fifa means they could literally reveal 'nothing new' and still have a great E3 - or just have one big new reveal and cause the fanboys to lose it...
Both MS and Nintendo appear to have little long term and both need to show what they have in store - not just before the next E3, but beyond. Neither appear to have much to offer beyond November-ish.
I just hope that These have a lot of big new surprises. At least that will keep Sony from getting complacent...
Surprises are good. It's much more fun for me to watch the conference with no idea what's going to happen.
@BAMozzy you are right on the money that Microsoft needs to have great games to keep Sony on its A game. Sony needs to be longer than 1 hour and show significant gameplay of Spider-Man, GOW4, Detroit become human, wild, dreams, UC lost legacy and days gone. But Sony also needs to show significantly new games and improvements to its UI and new features of PS and not just stability updates.
@Octane funny that game got a release date in Dec 2016 of January and no one seems to remember... even though it's obviously been delayed since then.
@wittypixel Days Gone never got a release date.
I don't doubt Sammy and his infinite Sony wisdom so if he says it's gonna be back to back games, that's cool with me!
It will be Games, Games and Games Unlike Microsoft's Show where it will be Talk, Talk and Talk
Good luck with E3, I'm gonna book a holiday weekend for it next year to watch it all super jealous.
@Ewflex I don't think we need to see any UI updates during the E3 press conference. Especially not when the current UI works absolutely fine.
I guarantee you if they started showing menus during this presser, people would freak out — and not in a good way.
@get2sammyb I sort of agree with you but they should at least mention some major update to the PS system. Also the conference must be longer to indicate not just trailers will be shown.
oh yeah games.give me sly Cooper 5
If Nintendo follows the same format as the last Direct (and, with a presentation that's only 25 minutes long, they had better), at least two of the three big presentations this year ought to be snappy and devoid of the usual filler where a bunch of corporate suits clamber onto the stage and spit out buzzwords and empty platitudes in-between demos, trailers, and reveals.
How much do you want to bet 9/10 of Microsoft's conference is them talking about how many teraflops their new Xbox has?
The spiderman game will be so NEAT!
Can't wait for this year's E3! START EA CONFERENCE COME ON
@Ralizah they're going to have to do a little more talking for sure, but I imagine they'll have got the memo.
Can you hear the thunder?
@Ralizah I doubt we will here 6tflops that often - after all DF already did the spec reveal. What I am willing to bet on though, is that True or Native 4k will get mentioned a lot by MS...
I really don't see Sony 'needing' to do anything. They don't 'need' to speak about anything and could just let the games do the talking. They don't even need to mention any price drops or 'features' coming soon to the hardware - just keep it all games, games, games.
Fingers crossed for resident evil 2 remake
Just a friendly reminder, be cautiously optimistic to avoid the potential pain of crushing disappointment
@wittypixel Give me your source oh wait there is no source because they never gave a releasedate.
I've got the Manics in my head now.
I would love it if Sony brought up news regarding deals with R* and Take2 on GTA6 or Agent ...
Im leaving work early today for this I know I wont be disappointed.
@Flaming_Kaiser relax with the pettyness troll... saw release date on a few sites... that is all. so that's what I shared.
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