State of Play Confirmed for This Week, Will Focus on PS4 and PSVR Games Along with Some PS5 Game Updates

And the waiting continues!

Yeah, that's very disappointing....

The only reason for this I can think of is that Sony has marketing deals with some third party publishers and it needs to showcase the games. The next Call of Duty, for example.

Still, terrible timing when everyone is waiting for PS5 news. How much longer is this gonna take?

@ShogunRok @get2sammyb do you think there's a chance they stealth drop a 5 minute gameplay of let's say Spider-Man Miles Morales?

Sony waiting on microsoft to announce their price and this fills the gap perhaps?

Wouldnt be surprised if there is another state of play in the next couple of weeks.

Also wouldn't be surprised of resident evil village features prominently here.

I was thinking maybe they might sneak in some surprise PS5 info but read the blog post and saw this

'And just to be super clear — there will be no PlayStation Studios updates in Thursday’s episode. There won’t be any updates around hardware, business, preorders, or dates either.'

Oh well, maybe next week.

I won’t be jumping into PS5 for at least a year or 2, so for me it’s quite a relief to see the PS4 still has a bit of life left in it!

@ShogunRok
Agreed, plus to bring attention to the fact that PlayStation is the only console that does have VR support, to all the players that havn't decided yet which console to buy.

By the way, the PlayStation blog made a post today saying the following:

"The PlayStation Camera will work with PS5 for playing supported PS VR games. It will require a PlayStation Camera adaptor that will be provided at no additional cost to PS VR users. More details on how to get the adaptor will be announced at a later date."

Maybe the State of Play is still PS5 related news in disguise and focussed on PS4/PSVR backwards compatibility with the PS5?

Source: https://blog.playstation.com/2020/08/03/playstation-5-answering-your-questions-on-compatible-ps4-peripherals-accessories/

@ShogunRok There's another reason, which I've suspected for a while now, and that is... that some of the finer points of software/features are still being finalised, possibly due to the pandemic, so they aren't yet ready to make a final reveal.

Makes sense. There's tens of millions of ps4 owners who aren't going to be changing console anytime soon. They want to know what's coming for them.

So why ignore your current core audience? It's not all about PS5 you know.

Makes sense. The PS4 has a huge install base, so they're still going to cater to the PS4 players.

@General_Spiller of couse not. It's all about Bugsnax.

Well, they weren't going to show the console in the last Direct, so you never know!

So far, Crash 4 has been confirmed to be featured. Personally, I'm hoping RE Village and Kena: Bridge of Spirits are there.

This just makes it seem more and more that the PS5 will release in December or maybe even in 2021

August and still no info on PS5 price and release date, you'd think they would want to start racking up the pre-orders.

My prediction, its going to have a big chunk of COD.

And Avengers as the PS4 pre-order beta starts day after.

Maybe Sony wants to have this State of Play for revealing some stuff for the PS4 before having another stream showing more info on the PS5.

@Athrum They’ve been manufacturing PS5’s for about a month now. So it should be arriving this year. They just haven’t decided how much it’s going to cost yet. They are probably waiting for the competition to announce their prices first.

If they haven’t changed the subject of this state of play recently, for sue now we know that leaker spreaders get to know only half of the facts.

Anyway, I’m not concerned about no news on PS5. Apple does the best marketing for a tech company and they do not bombard with news and updates about new hardware until few weeks before the launch. So does Nintendo BTW. iPhone 12 is due way before PS5 and you didn’t get a single official info from Apple. Meanwhile we all should still remember the fiasco of the first foldable smartphone from Samsung.

More facts, less PR spin BS.

Im guessing we'll be getting a State of Play next month that will hopefully be about PS5 release date / price.

Dont care about Crash or COD, hopefully a nice chunk of RE 8 will be shown though

"Bafflingly"
That's some Gamestation 256 claptrap right there.

@thefirst - Oh, I have no doubt an event focusing on PS5 would be far more exciting! 🙂

I’m pretty freaked off If I’m honest... they could have done the SOP solely on PS5 info considering most people are ready to pre-order!! Silly business decision and very poor for consumers!

''State of Play Confirmed for This Week'' -
''Will Focus on PS4 and PSVR Games'' -
''Along with Some PS5 Game Updates'' -

CoD seems like the safest bet possible but 40+ minutes is quite a lengthy show, can't think what other big games haven't been shown yet.
Maybe a teaser for Batman to generate more excitement for the DC thing in a few weeks.

It's good but I want to know more about ps5 titles rather than ps4

I was wondering where certain titles like Away: Survival Series and Humanity were... So this makes sense for those.
I don't think we'll actually get a big state of play for PS5 now before launch... The last showcase in June showed enough that all we're waiting for is the price. So to dedicate a whole show to a price reveal (which could backfire depending on competition) is risky. I reckon the price and final update news will be done just as an announcement.

I'm just hoping for Humanity to shadow drop this week now. I absolutely love enhance games.

So COD and the ps5 stuff being Bugsnax

This kinda makes sense although the messaging is confusing.

These PS4 and PSVR games will be on PS5 too, so I would expect some third party PS5 reveals as they will be on both consoles.

Would love to see more on Resident Evil Village for example. The rumoured third party exclusives may also appear on both consoles.

40mins is a pretty hefty length! (better than the 8min Nintendo Direct Mini lately )
Alway happy to see PSVR still being represented and showcased.

Very doubtful, but I wonder if they will mention how PSVR titles work through PS5.
My PSVR catalogue is 99% digital, so would love to know if they carry over nice and easy.

It might just be me but I'm thinking both Sony and Microsoft are holding out incase COVID causes delays and will only roll once they've got enough hardware made and ready to ship and then do a launch like they do with mobile devices.

Ok cool.definetly watching it.to see whats been announced.word up son

Ermmm....what PS4 games? XD

HALF LIFE ALYX. I can dream right?

Kind of surprising that they'll have a conference with PS4 games, considering there is less than half a year of PS4 left.

Kinda disappointed about no big PS5 announcements in the blog post. When should we expect the next PS5 event that confirms its release date, pre-order date, and how much it will cost? The wait is starting to become stale at this point.

I'm sorry, but this is effing ridiculous. There is still so much about the PS5 we don't know, and it's getting ludicrous with how close we're supposedly approaching its release date.

For reference, by this time in 2013, we knew the PS4's price, its release date, and its launch lineup. We still don't know ANY OF THE ABOVE for the PS5.

@Micwg
I mean, PS4 is well over 110 mil consoles sold and Sony has always done a good job supporting the previous console into the new gen so I wouldn't have expected anything less.

The "one last thing" moment will turn out that the PS5 was steath launched last week, Sega Saturn style.

Beating Nintendo at its own game now. They've completely given up on 2020.

I'm not done with my PS4 yet so I'm happy with this!

I feel that no new PS5 announcements for now is ok if they go more in-depth with some games that were shown at the last event. It's nice to see PS4 and PSVR is not forgotten despite the PS5 release soon.

I appreciate the fact that at least they are setting expectations appropriately and not over-hyping and under-delivering like their competition.

There will be more than one event in August for Sony by most insider accounts, for those who are disappointed.

Edit: The new Crash Bandicoot will be one of the games shown here, confirmed by the Sony Japan blog.

Surely we will know everything by the end of this month, right, RIGHT?!

I guess Sony really is giving Microsoft the finger and saying, you go first.

Sony has no reason to go first as they have dominated this gen and don’t need to move on.

Honestly? This cat and mouse BS between Sony and Microsoft is getting ridiculous now. One of them will have to bite the bullet and give us a release date and price. Hell, one of them will have to show their respective consoles UI soon as well. I get that Covid-19 has thrown a bit of a spanner into proceedings this year, but come on guys. Sony are really behind on actually showing us their hand. It seems utterly mental that this close to a next gen launch Sony would choose an official press event to focus on PS4 and PSVR. At this point I just feel like Sony are trolling everyone.

Can we have how ps4 games look on ps5?? Like this is bloodborne running and looking great and all games that are pro compatible will run at Pro, not base ps4 performance!

Please for the love of god just give me some Elden Ring news!

@stu123 judging by the response on social media you aren't wrong. Jeez, I thought it was a dumb move, but the vitriol over this makes the Halo Infinite response seem tame. It's an utterly bizarre move, the only people interested in things like State of Play are hardcore gamers, and they're not exactly interested in PS4 right now. Sony it seems doesn't have a clue who their audience is for these State of Play events, much like Nintendo.

I have no gripe with showing ps4 content,but given the recent Blog post about accessories I do wish we start getting a breakdown on ps5 features such as the backwards compatibility mode. Last we heard they were testing the back catalog,but as games like Overcooked remastered demonstrated,Team 17 wouldn't give a simple answer on if the ps4 versions would run on ps5!

Not focused on PS5? Great to hear, no need to watch it then.

@Rob_230 was about to write this.

40minutes?
It cant be for nothing like Ellie would say, right?

They really do seem to be following how Nintendo handle their directs...

This doesn't mean we won't get the info you want, it just means we won't get it in the state of play. They could announce the date preorders open at the end of the video and then announce the price and other info right before in a blogpost. They probably don't want to have the price in a video, especially if it's expensive.

@Mckilmer look, if the thing is going to be expensive they need to pull that plaster off as soon as possible, because if it is going to hurt they need to give consumers time to adjust to the prospect of a higher priced piece of kit. Right now I think Sony are starting to veer into the realms of mishandling their PS5 launch. What have we had? One weird Cerny presentation, a Tweet about a Joypad and an admittedly very slick presentation. However, in terms of concrete info we've had nothing. We know way more about Microsoft's strategy, and they've yet to show us the UI, price and launch date either. Both are monumentally messing this up right now if ask me.

I feel PS5 needs another heavy hitter game announcement. Indie stuff is... well, indie stuff. Representation and mental elf and yada yada... I'm sure there'll be some gems but ... gimme that crunch timed violent Triple A filth in my mouth and out my nostrils you dirty senpais.

@SirAngry you're right. I don't agree with how they are doing it, but i think they want to keep the hype on the games in the video and reveal the price in something like a blogpost. We should have had the price for both systems already.

Sony taking a cue out of Kojima's playbook, it seems xD Trolling at its finest. I'm fine with that, honestly. I'm in no rush to buy a PS5.

@Ryall waiting for Xbox price announcement makes Sony look weak. Are they not the market leader?

@Mckilmer I just don't think they can drop the price and launch date in a simple blog post. I just don't. This sort of info is normally delivered at an E3 press event or equivalent. To simply just put it out there as a press release just doesn't make sense, unless their executive management team is to embarrassed to tell us in person and go down as a Kaz Harai meme. Sony have been poor, and we need to acknowledge that and stop shilling for a multi-billion dollar corporation. Microsoft haven't been much better, but they absolutely have been better and more open. This August 6th State of Play has gone over like a lead balloon.

@OmegaStriver then they should not be scared of Xbox and announce the price asap.

@Ryall The AMD chipsets haven't been delivered yet. You should't be too surprised if both consoles are pushed back into 2021, especially with the global pandemic continuing.

@SirAngry Social media is an echo chamber. I am interested in PS5 and this PS4 State of Play. We are getting ever closer to a delay into 2021.

They have to still show that PS4 is getting some support and what will happen with PSVR support on PS4 and PS5. They can still another State of Play by the end of the month. So this isn't a bad thing.

As a late PS5 adopted I am totally fine with this.

@Darylb88 you're wrong about chipsets. They've definitely been delivered, we had that update from Sony in late May early June internally, and we started to get finalised Dev kits on mass late June early July. That tells me mass production was in full swing, I've witnessed enough console launches from inside a studio to know when the consoles final specs have be nailed and mass production has started. Granted this year has not been normal, but we know yields for the PS5 and XSX APUs are actually historically high for this point in the manufacturing cycle. I don't expect hardware to delay any launches, software maybe, but we've hit our milestones OK so far, and are back on the development schedule set in late 2019.

While this isn't a big PS5 event, it's still very refreshing compared to the complete radio silence Nintendo is doing.

A quick peek at Chameleon Games shows they're planning to release their Rare style game "Tamarin" this month after its delays.
I'm sure that will turn up this Thursday with a confirmed release date.

What a waste of time. This cat and mouse game Sony and MS are playing is getting annoying. They both need to stop being p***y's and just announce the price.

Yeah this is terrible. Talk about fumbling the bag.

@SirAngry

I haven't heard anything about the chipsets being available for mass assembly production. If you could link me to a source that would be helpful.

I guess time will tell how many units can be produced before November. I'm hopeful that PS5 will come out in November.

@Jarobusa Business wise, they don’t need to announce anything. The PS4 is dominating and there is no reason to move on to the PS5. They don’t need to go first.

Haha, they're just trolling us now!

To paraphrase...

"Ah, now eventually you do plan to release the PS5 on your...on your PS5 schedule, right?"

@OmegaStriver no need to move on the PS5? Cool, the delay it until next year. Oh wait, Ghost Of Tsushima was the last AAA game.

Ahh ok, it does not bother me at all, i still want to see PS4 news.
But isn't 40min a bit to much for no-new-PS5 announcements?

I find it hilarious I randomly said August 5th would be the next date for PS5 news. One day off. 😋

@Darylb88 I’m repeating a comment I heard a lifestream last night. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mw4-_PAwfU&t=2577s
Yes I know the video is two hours long and the comment isn’t in the part thats timestamp as PS5 so I might be misremembering.

@Darylb88 well you've clearly not been paying attention. lol. Here you go, from this very website even:

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/07/ps5_release_in_late_2020_still_on_track_as_amds_chips_ship_on_time

There's more in-depth reporting on the statement at tech sites, but suffice to say it won't be hardware problems. We've even had Sony contractors letting slip they've upped production.

Hmm, I would of preferred all PS5 info Not just the games but PS5 UI and a in-depth look at the Console. Glad I know anyway PSVR stuff just bores me to death really and the PS4 is so last Gen now (ONLY JOKING about the AMAZING(still) PS4) Oh well.

It's fairly vague on the specifics but I will take it for now. Here's to hoping for all the projected hardware units Sony needs at launch!

sony won't botch this..i expect at least one huge announcement..

@Darylb88 I've said all along, it's software that is likely to hold any console launches back, but Sony have been far better at getting SDKs to developers, and in updating their APIs, Microsoft haven't been as good, despite them going public with their specs first. At this point I believe the rumours that they are slightly behind on development, 343i are constantly posting short term temp work up and I know plenty of people even here in Sweden who have been contacted by recruitment agencies offering crappy fixed-term contracts. I get the feeling things aren't going as smoothly for team green as they'd like. Having said that though, apart from a half game in Miles Morales has Sony confirmed any launch software at all?

Bit disappointing but Sony can be full of surprises so fingers crossed! But it feels disappointing to me because this is technically the last chance to sell the ps5 before the launch! They could proper nail it with all info on the console ,a few cheeky gameplay in depths and U.I. The ps4 and these psvr games can be shown at any given time...

It does feel like a 'Well we're not going to release price and date yet...' to Microsoft.
If Apple can announce and then drop a new iPhone shortly after there's no reason preorders for the PS5 really need to happen that far in advance.

@SirAngry In my dreams it's Persona 6, It reality we could speculate that GT7 or Ratchet and Clank may fall in that time. The most likley scenario is mostly optimised current gen third party titles form Ubisoft / EA/ CD Project Red etc..

@Darylb88 I think a console needs to launch with at least one first party exclusive. I can confirm we'll be seeing cross gen mostly games from third parties possibly up until Christmas / holiday 2021. However, I sort of expect Spiderman Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank, Demon's Souls and maybe GT7 to be launch titles. Spiderman MM is obviously announced and most likely the easiest of the above games to get ready for launch. Spiderman was used as examples of PS5 data transfer speeds up to 18 months ago, so clearly Insomniac was doing work on their engine way before then, and many of the assets in the game already had high resolution models. Demon's Souls has been the worst kept secret in development for the past 3 years. I heard about it so long ago I'd assumed it was a PS4 title, but I guess it was always a PS5 title. R&C to started development years and years ago, so I wouldn't be shocked to see it at or near launch. GT7 could be a launch game, or we could see it at the launch of the PS6 in 2026 knowing how rubbish Polyphony are at doing anything in a timely fashion. I'm amazed Sony hadn't lost patience with them.

Crash 4 info? I’m in.

Rather strange, but with 40 minutes it can’t all be Call of Duty 28?

I don't find this news as bizzare or strange as others seem to. When it comes to a console launch, most people have made up their minds before price or features are announced if they want it or not. We're also in the midst of a pandemic where like 1/3 of americans are losing work and money, so I can understand trying to figure that out or maybe changing pricing on the fly to accommodate for people struggling financially. I'm getting a PS5 a year or so after launch regardless of price so it's nbd for me. That being said, i AM excited to get more PSVR news, & if anything i just wana know what/how my ps4 accessories and games will be able to be used on the PS5. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Oh and they're obviously not going to announce a price until Microsoft does lol Because they'll undercut it like last gen

@AdamNovice well I think differently, I think you need first party games to sell a system. Third party games aren't going to sell a PS5, and I disagree that at launch people are going to "buy what they know" on the contrary, the sorts of people who are early adopters are actually less likely to be swayed by the big third party games, and are more likely to be interested in first party / unique games because they are, and I'm not sure I've ever liked this term, hardcore gamers.

Looking forward to it. As someone who will not be upgrading to next generation hardware any time soon, I am looking to see if I have anything to look forward to for the future of PS4.

If not it at least gives me time to look at my backlog and try to get as many finished before I eventually move on to the next generation.

@solocapers This, definitely. It's the only way to explain their approach. When you look at things from the point of view that Sony still isn't sure PS5 will launch this year, it all makes sense

So I guess this will be just like the Xbox event, where most games will run cross gen. And would come with some PS5 resolution and frame rate bump.
Still exciting if you ask me, because this time we got the backwards compatibility. PS4 games don’t look bad.

And we all know how good “third party exclusives” can look as well.

I believe we might see another update to Kena, which is a cross gen title. I would love to see more about that one.

To be fair there will be significantly more PS4 gamers at the end of this year than PS5 gamers so it makes sense to still give that some focus. Also as a PSVR owner I'm excited to see what else I'll be getting my hands on, hopefully we'll see more of the Star Wars games

This is a badly worded article, most likely on purpose to not show Sony in a bad light as they deserve. They stated that their will be no new significant PS5 information including price or pre order information. That’s just sad really, are they going to wait till November??..

Not sure why people are so weirded out by this. The PS4 has the largest player base of the big three modern gen consoles atm, and it's not like Sony's going to just abandon that massive market on a whim because their shiny new toy is on the cusp of release.

Chill, people. A PS4 State of Play doesn't preclude a separate PS5 event.

Sony does realize that no matter how explicit they say it, people will watch the State of Play expecting PS5 news, right? At this point, ignoring that is a poor business decision, IMO.

But then, what do I know? ¯\__(ツ)__/¯

@Ichiban : haha!! I remember cracking up at some of the stuff you posted over at Nintendo Life.

Sony and MS must realize a shrinking global economy and tight finances might mean a soft launch late in the year instead. And maybe focus on a current gen bundle. Like PS4 with the Last of Us 1 and 2 at $299 or Xbox with 1 year free Game Pass and all 5 Gears games at $299 or Switch bundle with Ocarina of Time or something for $250. I might be totally wrong and Sony and MS announce $599 consoles with $100 controllers.

@SirAngry Im not a big Ninty fan but their Nintendo directs are quite great people should know by now not every reveal means a new blockbuster.

@Darylb88 Persona 5 Scramble releasedate would be cool too.

I’m betting it’ll be a “game X coming to PS4, and you’ll be able to carry your disc/digital purchase over to the PS5” thing.

Hey @Flaming_Kaiser, I'm more than aware that not every press event from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft can be earth shattering blockbuster news, I'm also more than aware that said press events can't always cater to my particular peccadilloes, that'd be narcissism in the extreme. Nope. The issue here is that Sony's communication around the PS5 has been pretty non-existant, and a rather large chunk of their PS4 owning fans have been waiting rather patiently for some concrete info on the system itself, and a tear down that Mark Cerny promised in March would be forthcoming. Nothing. We got a very slick PR livestream, and kudos to Sony for that, but we don't even know the official dimensions of the PS5. Or how it is cooled. Or the ports on the back of the thing. How the UI works. Look, they need to start communicating this stuff soon, because have you ever seen the announcement of any other major consumer electronic device which didn't give you this basic information? Genuinely, I've tried to think of one but can't. Sony need to start spilling the beans soon or the good will / momentum they have with fans from the June event will start to dissipate very, very rapidly. That's my opinion and I'm allowed to have it. The only good thing I will say is at least Sony have been exceedingly clear about what to expect from this State of Play... sadly that didn't work out so well for Nintendo and their last Direct did it?

@AdamNovice you mean the PS4 launch line up they were roundly criticised for? Sure, it didn't do any harm in the long run, but the flak the company took was pretty savage actually. I personally thought it was a tad excessive, but took it they did. Look, if some of those indie games they showed are launch titles, like Kena then Spiderman Miles Morales might be enough. Might. For me personally I'm more interested in Returnal (love Housemarque and they've never disappointed me), Ratchet and Clank (always been a big fan) and the big one for me personally, Demon's Souls Remake. I know they can't cater to my specific whims, but I think launching with an inFAMOUS First Light type half full game experience as the only Sony launch exclusive with Miles Morales might not go down too well. Just my opinion, so don't get bent out if shape. I think the ideal sort of line-up from Sony themselves would be Spiderman Miles Morales, Gran Turismo 7 and Returnal, then fill the rest up with those timed indie exclusives etc. Last time out Sony actually did a good job of maintaining a steady flow of games in early 2014 for the PS4 with things like inFAMOUS second Son, so maybe we'll see Ratchet and Clank and Demon's Souls fulfill those roles around spring Easter time, with maybe Horizon Forbidden West being their big summer blockbuster this time around, and then something for Christmas. I'd be more than OK with that actually.

Don't know why people are so pent up about PS5 news. It will come in due time, stop worrying yourself over it.

In the meantime, we can enjoy what PS4 games are lined up, along with some PSVR titles on the horizon.

Well, on one hand I'm glad we know what to expect, but like Sammy said, it's all a bit bizarre, isn't it? Don't really see why they'd need a State of Play for any current gen stuff. Oh well, I'll check it out anyway, I suppose we might get some DLC announcements for the recent bigger titles, maybe?

@Grindagger Because when the PS4 and Xbox One launches you knew everything at E3 in June, the prices launch dates launch games lineups and pre order info, and the full specs, hell Microsoft if I remember had even unboxed theirs by this point..
Currently with the PS5 you don’ t even know it’s physical dimensions... nothing really. We know all about the Series X bar it’s interface and price, launch games and release date.

It is 3 to 4 months from launch, people would probably like to know how much money they need to save no? What if they want to buy a new TV they need to k ow it it has to be HDMI 2.1 and if so what features it needs to support. Things like this.

@themightyant which is exactly why I said the other part of that sentence. Thanks for agreeing.

@S1ayeR74 I get that, I do. I mean, I'm really intrigued as well. But i'm equally gassed the PS5 is coming out soon.

I understand peoples anticipation, it's the borderline obsession I don't get, and next level entitlement of "I want, I want" approach, as opposed to curious questioning, or enthusiastic rallying. To each their own I guess.

Sony are not going to pull the trigger on price and pre-orders until MS does. It's the most giant game of chicken ever.

@Flaming_Kaiser THIS! I need to know when P5Scramble is coming.

@AdamNovice you clearly aren't understanding that we have a difference of opinion, I know it might come as a shock to you my friend, but there are different perspectives to either yours or mine. I acknowledge that you think a poor line-up, or maybe "slim" line-up of exclusives won't hurt Sony or the PS5 in the long run, and I even agree with you, I said as much in my previous comment, which you somehow have failed to notice, so you are making the same point again, which I've already acknowledged, because I listened to what you said, and responded to it.

No, the angle and position I'm coming from is that I'm not a Sony Shareholder, and nor do I think Sony is some sportsball team that needs my undying and unwavering support to be successful. I'm fairly certain that one of the world's biggest, and most profitable corporations will do fine without me shilling for them on specialist gaming websites, social media and forums. No, where I'm coming from is that I am a consumer, and as a consumer I want them to give me, and people like me, gamers, a reason to have to have the PS5 at launch over the competition.

Part 2.

Now, sorry, but third party games don't do that for me, I have a pretty decent PC, that will be getting much better around the time Nvidia decide to release their next generation of graphics cards. I also have no aversion to buying an XSX, or indeed waiting to see. So to me, and indeed many others, third party games might keep us occupied until Sony give us a reason to actually buy a PS5, but that's not the same thing. My point about them needing a breadth of software in or around launch is that not all gamers like the same things, and it'd be nice if there was a better range of exclusive software this time around, not essential, but nice.

This might come as a shock to you, but I thought Spiderman was OK. Not great, not good even, but just OK. Nothing truly offensive, a well put together piece of software, but one that just didn't resonate with me personally like it did with others. So for me, a shorter version of OK at 4K ain't anything to get excited about. Good for you if it is, and I acknowledge that for you and many more it'll be enough, but if you're a petrol head then maybe GT7 at launch would be more your thing. If you're into sadomasochism maybe Demon's Souls would be the game you'd love to have and play while your in-laws invade your home during the holidays, and maybe if you have kids you'll need Ratchet & Clank to justify the purchase as "definitely being for the entire family". I'm pretty clear, give me Demon's Souls and Returnal around launch / before Christmas and I'm all aboard the hype train to PS5ville, if not maybe one will do for me with OK at 4K if I see the software I like is coming on the horizon.

Part 3.

You see, consumers aren't one homogeneous blob, thankfully Sony know that, and maybe if Microsoft did too they'd understand why many of their "pro-consumer" business moves are falling flat with core influencers within specific gaming market segmentations. Here's a free hint for you Phil, some consumers want to own their games and they can see that game pass is literally going to lead to them paying a subscription fee for what used to be live service free-to-pay shovelware, filled with Micro-transactions and in-game currency that will ultimately lead to game pass being a bad deal for consumers and kill off the sort of gaming experiences we like... and we're not buying it. Also, some of us actually want a next-gen experience not held back back by 7 year old consoles with 10 years out of date hardware.

Maybe my point of view isn't a commonly held one, I'm certainly more than willing to admit I could very much be in a very, very small minority. However, I am entitled to my view, it's a view I've honed over 35 years of gaming and over 20 years of working within gaming, and more importantly I'm entitled to it. I see your point of view, and it's valid too, but nothing you've said invalidates my perspective as a consumer or an individual. From a strategic point of view Sony going hard at this launch window could fundamentally change the entire narrative around this generation, of Microsoft being the consumer friendly most powerful console... Because if Sony give us consumers the games, isn't that consumer friendly? And what's the point having all that power if you don't have the games?

Just my thoughts, they're not right, but nor are they wrong either.

It may not focus, but that doesn't mean they can't flash a release card