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It's almost absurd to think Sony hasn't had a major showcase in over a year

How do you prefer Sony communicating with fans and their showcase plans?

  • I'm happy with the current set up. The odd State of Play, Blog Posts and developer/publisher events.

    Votes: 34 15.6%
  • I preferred it when Sony attended more trade shows such as E3, GamesCom, Paris Games Week etc.

    Votes: 109 50.0%
  • I would prefer a bit of both, trade shows as well as State of Play videos

    Votes: 77 35.3%
  • I'm not happy with the current communication but don't feel like these suggestions are the solutions

    Votes: 23 10.6%

  • Total voters
    218

CamHostage

Member
Sony has lost its sense of showmanship. The State of Plays are great for small announcements, but there really needs to be a yearly event for Sony fans to celebrate.

Except that you need the games to have a yearly event to celebrate, and for whatever reason (hopefully reasons that will clear up as the gen matures,) nobody has the games right now.

Microsoft tried to do that ol' razzle-dazzle when Xbox Series X/S was launching, throwing itself the same huge parties shouting, "Look at all the exciting games coming some day to your Xbox!!" Now it's 2022 and we're still getting old waiting for Everwild and Hellblade 2 and Forza and Avowed and State of Decay 3 and Fable and STALKER 2... and Starfield and Redfall and Elder Scrolls and Outer Worlds 2 and Indiana Jones... and, sort of, Halo Infinite...

Sony could have done an E3-type show the way MS did of just the next 12 months, that would have been TLoU Remake, GoW Ragnarok, and the PSVR2 and PC stuff, but would that have been the "Future of PlayStation" showcase we all wanted? Showmanship, yes, but let's not put the kart before the horse; publishers don't make games to host showcases, they make showcases because they have games.

(I am nervous though that their PSVR2 promotional effort is a sign that the showmanship really is gone. They have major new hardware coming out early next year, and their promotion seems to be, "Oh, did you see that thing on our Youtube page yet?)
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Weird thread. A bunch of guys that talk all day everyday about video games trying to say they don’t care and never cared about games showcases, these same people that spend dozens of posts daily talking about the most inane details of the industry, suddenly don’t care if games are being announced or shown, because they are only interested in playing games.


Something isn’t adding up.
lol yep.
 

tommib

Member
Weird thread. A bunch of guys that talk all day everyday about video games trying to say they don’t care and never cared about games showcases, these same people that spend dozens of posts daily talking about the most inane details of the industry, suddenly don’t care if games are being announced or shown, because they are only interested in playing games.


Something isn’t adding up.
Because we all know we won’t have any showcases until Microsoft signs the deal with Activision/Blizzard. Silent Hill 2 Remake and PSVR2 were enough for a showcase.

Sony went stealth.

Stealth Sneaking GIF by Nickelodeon
 
Yeah I'm thinking Sony are just wanting to keep any evidence that they have alot of exclusive content that won't be available on xbox out of the CMAs view.
 

bitbydeath

Member
I think it was evident that they’re holding back when the PSVR2 launch announcement was a blog post and the only first party game listed was one they had already announced a year or so ago.
 
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yurinka

Member
Sony had many important releases this year, like the fastest selling Gran Turismo, God of War or Guerrilla games ever, the new PS Plus, a remake of TLOU and the PC ports of Uncharted 4, God of War and the two Spider-Mans plus more games and 3rd party exclusives and so on. They also had many short term announcements like acquisitions (Bungie, Haven, etc.), many Asian 2nd party games, PSVR2 stuff, new PS Plus etc.

I mean, in terms of marketing they had to focus on short term stuff because they had a lot to show or announce that released or will release soon. Also, without consoles in the stores doesn't make sense to raise the hype a lot.

And well, instead of making many a lot of announcements on a single day and then to be like a year without announcing anything, they prefered to spread the announcements around the whole year.

Weird thread. A bunch of guys that talk all day everyday about video games trying to say they don’t care and never cared about games showcases, these same people that spend dozens of posts daily talking about the most inane details of the industry, suddenly don’t care if games are being announced or shown, because they are only interested in playing games.

Something isn’t adding up.
Not in a showcase, but Sony announced, shown or released a lot of exclusives (counting 1st, 2nd and 3rd) this year in addition to a reworked game sub, a new VR headset, some acquisitions including Bungie, a mobile gaming division, PC ports of some of their biggest games and more.

But some act as if they didn't announced or shown anything.

I always get hate for saying this, but Sony has at least 13 game development studios and only one of them has announced games (Spiderman 2 and Wolverine). Jim Ryan is cancelling game announcements and holding things back in an attempt to draw sympathy from regulators in Europe regarding approval of the Activision / Microsoft deal. An attempt, mind you, that anyone with a brain can see right through, it's just pathetic and childish. Just have a real state of play and show us what these studios are working on already.
Maybe it's because the the teams who released in the last year or two Sackboy, Demon's Souls, Returnal, Ratchet, Death Stranding Director's Cut, Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, GT7, Horizon FW, GoWR, TLOU1 remake, MLB plus like half a dozen PC ports have their next game on a too early stage and you are being too impatient and lying acting as if they wouldn't also have announced Horizon Call of the Mountain, TLOU Online, Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, Lost Soul Aside, the next Sony London game, that Bend is working on a new IP, etc.

Please don't call the multiplayer portion that was supposed to be included from day one, a new game. Its just multiplayer, this aint Warzone levels of popular or like an arena shooter.
According to Naughty Dog it's going to be the largest game they ever did and will also feature their traditional narrative. This isn't 'just the multiplayer portion'. It started as the MP portion but grew too much and had a lot of ideas for it so they decided to move it to keep them and move it to a whole standalone game and highly expand on it going wild instead of dropping most ideas to keep it as only as a MP mode.
 
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They literally mentioned this has evolved a lot since then snd that’s the reason why it wasn’t included.

If you’re expecting the same type of online experience as the first game had then forget it. It’s a lot more ambitious.
Oh they said it evolved....ok. Well that makes everything clear then lol. Im glad you know how ambitious it is without even hearing any details about it. At the end of the day its MP, they won't be reinventing the wheel. Maybe add something like COD DMZ where you have a goal with your teammates. Still, its multiplayer not a brand new game lets get that clear. When I think of a coming up showcase game from SONY, MP portion of an existing game doesn't spring to mind. Its not going to be AAA production nor will it have AAA numbers.
 
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Not in a showcase, but Sony announced, shown or released a lot of exclusives (counting 1st, 2nd and 3rd) this year in addition to a reworked game sub, a new VR headset, some acquisitions including Bungie, a mobile gaming division, PC ports of some of their biggest games and more.

But some act as if they didn't announced or shown anything.
Not really an indictment on Sony but more so poking fun at the mental gymnastics being displayed ITT by some. Humans are weird like that.
 

hyperbertha

Member
Weird thread. A bunch of guys that talk all day everyday about video games trying to say they don’t care and never cared about games showcases, these same people that spend dozens of posts daily talking about the most inane details of the industry, suddenly don’t care if games are being announced or shown, because they are only interested in playing games.


Something isn’t adding up.
disgusting really. But look at the SALES bro. I swear some of these idiots are sony executives masquerading as GAF users. As if anybody cares how normies buy stuff.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
They delivered god of war and gran turismo in 2022. Two great games. Props.

Let's hope they have something for 2023....

Or maybe they don't?

I imagine they don't have anything first party for the first 6 months or they would have been announced?

Would be nice to have something to be excited and talked about....but it looks like the Sony fans on here don't feel that way.
 
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As far as I'm concerned they are delivering where it matters, so while it would be nice to get more frequent updates on what's upcoming if they continue to consistently release high quality games then I can't complain. The only reason to be concerned is if the game releases suddenly dried up and there were no showcases.

Most people are in this to play games, not act as hypemen. So to that end, games over showcases please.
Hit the nail on the head here. They are releasing games which is what matters.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Because we all know we won’t have any showcases until Microsoft signs the deal with Activision/Blizzard. Silent Hill 2 Remake and PSVR2 were enough for a showcase.

Sony went stealth.

Stealth Sneaking GIF by Nickelodeon
Hahahah, that's Jim sliding into the CMA office with the list of "Suggestions" rolled up and a cheque inside.
 
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I would have been pissed about it but the state of plays were massively improved this year. As long as the content is good, I dont mind too much about how exactly they show it.
 

John Wick

Member
They did have a major showcase. It was for their gaming phone though not the PlayStation.

It's probably just that they don't have games ready to show yet until next year.
The whole point of the showcase is to show upcoming games. They initial reveal is usually an early build to wet the whistle. So no that's not the reason Eddie.
 

anothertech

Member
It’s not just absurd. Its pathetic. They built or rather rebuilt their name on first party games setting standards and all they have released this year are last gen games and all they have next year are third party moneyhats. I guess Spider-Man 2 is literally the only game they have for their next year but seeing as how we didn’t see it this year i highly doubt its coming out next year. Im sure they will blame it on covid or the Twitter layoffs or something equally outrageous.

For a year now on this board i was told Sony would never skip a showcase this year. I was called chicken little. Now i see that the goalposts have shifted. Until Sony receives actual pushback from their fanbase they will continue to phone in year after year. They are selling out ps5s, last gen games sell 5 mil in a week, Last gen games like tlou are passed off s as next Gen games. With zero pushback from their fanbase. Why would they change anything?

Expect more of the same next year. Ssm, gg, pd and nd have just shipped a game each. Took them 4-5 years aside from tlou which took 2 years for a last gen graphics touch up. Expect to wait 4-5 years for their next games which means no new conferences until 2024 at best.
Surely hope you are joking. Cause that's a shit take spoken like a true fanboi
 

Mowcno

Member
I'd rather they skip a year and have a better showing next time. But at the end of the day it's just an event to be advertised to. They're still releasing great games to enjoy.
 

Mephisto40

Member
I grew up in a time when these conferences didn't exist and games actually had to be good on release to sell well via word of mouth

I feel so old
 

BbMajor7th

Member
The amount of 3rd party games they monopolistically block from competitor systems is pretty high in 2023.
Funny that people think Sony just stroll into in partner offices and say 'you will release your games on our platform only' and publishers just doff their cap like 'Yessir, Mr PlayStation, you can count on us. We didn't want no truck with that Microsoft fella anyhow'.
 
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Haggard

Banned
They are either waiting for a big stage, like the game awards, or they simply don`t have anything ready that they`re confident enough to show, yet.
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Probably not Sony's fault, but with today's "no rule" for streaming events, things are kinda weird for the consumers

Remember, there's a time when E3 and other big events were just for the press and very much technical on it. Started to change only with the PS360 era, with a lot of adaptation. We are in a new era and we need to adapt again
 

Spyxos

Gold Member
Yeah, not a fan of those State of Play things. Usually i find them very boring and a waste of my time. I would prefer 1-2 big conferences where they can show everything.
 

sachos

Member
I definitely miss the big shows. Sony E3 showcases were amazing, every once in a while i end up watching those E3 2016 reveals, hearing the crowd go wild is pretty cool. It doesnt have to be at E3, but i would love for a yearly Playstation Showcase. There was something weird going on this year, not even a big showcase focused on PSVR2, pretty much everything was revealed through blog posts or random videos like with TLoU 1 Remake.
 
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Shifty1897

Member
Maybe it's because the the teams who released in the last year or two Sackboy, Demon's Souls, Returnal, Ratchet, Death Stranding Director's Cut, Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, GT7, Horizon FW, GoWR, TLOU1 remake, MLB plus like half a dozen PC ports have their next game on a too early stage and you are being too impatient and lying acting as if they wouldn't also have announced Horizon Call of the Mountain, TLOU Online, Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, Lost Soul Aside, the next Sony London game, that Bend is working on a new IP, etc.
I'll give you Call of the Mountain, even though it's releasing on a $550 add-on for PS5 that is frankly dead on arrival unless they reveal more games for it, but TLOU Online has not had any kind of trailer or video announcement. We don't even know the official name of the game, let alone a release date. Same with Sony London and Bend. They're working on something, great, they haven't told us what it is. The rest of the games you mentioned are second party games, and do not qualify as my post specifically mentions first party development studios that Sony owns. You go back to any point in the last 10 years, and we've had video trailers for more than one upcoming Sony first party console game... Except for right now.

Here are the facts:
  • Sony has been very vocal about how "They can't make a game that competes against Call of Duty."
  • Sony complained to Brazilian regulators to try and stop the Activision deal.
  • Jim Ryan flew to Brussels to speak with European regulators to try and stop the Activision deal.
  • Sony has released a "PlayStation Showcase" every September for the last several years.
  • Many industry insiders spoke confidently about knowing of a September showcase.
  • Several games that were rumored to be in this showcase were making cryptic posts to drum up announcement hype before the PlayStation Showcase (example: Helldivers 2).
Here's the speculation:
  • Jim Ryan cancelled the September PlayStation Showcase at the last minute so as not to contradict his claims to regulators that Sony's business would be irreparably harmed by the Activision deal.
It's very plausible, some (myself included) would say it's painfully obvious. The games are still being made, but we won't hear about them until the Activision deal is mostly finalized and the heat from it has dissipated.
 
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nial

Gold Member
Heh, I thought the June and September SOPs were MUCH better than the big Xbox and Nintendo showcases that preceeded them.
I miss old Playstation.

I wish instead of PSVR we had some portable console like the Vita or something.
With portables there is no need for big budgets or focus on photorealism, so smaller games can thrive as well.
Ironically, PSVR was once again home to those smaller titles (Here They Lie, Déraciné, NHA, etc.), but like the PSP and Vita, it was largely ignored during its heyday.
 

Flutta

Banned
If the rumors to be believed they’re scared of losing the fighting chance for COD.

Whatever the case may be, we won’t be getting the usuall E3 type shows, so it’s whatever. I don’t like their SoP type showings anyways.
 

CamHostage

Member
Here's the speculation:
  • Jim Ryan cancelled the September PlayStation Showcase at the last minute so as not to contradict his claims to regulators that Sony's business would be irreparably harmed by the Activision deal.

Maybe, but then, why no State of Play Deep Dive to give a spotlight for The Last of Us Part 1 remake or GoW Ragnarok?

These games sold just fine without a show, obviously, but those events for other Sony games have been part of their showmanship and have energized PS fans for what's to come as well as sometimes offering the developers a chance to speak directly to the audience in celebration of finishing their project. They were doing per-game State of Plays right up to GT7, so why'd they stop?
 
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SlimeGooGoo

Banned
Ironically, PSVR was once again home to those smaller titles (Here They Lie, Déraciné, NHA, etc.), but like the PSP and Vita, it was largely ignored during its heyday.
The main issue is that the PSVR feels like an addon to the PS5, an optional (and expensive) accessory.

The PSP did surprisingly well though, especially because it had some exclusive titles that everyone wanted to play.
Most games designed for VR are pretty boring once the novelty wears off.
 
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