It would be an understatement to say that Sony and their PlayStation 5 Future of Gaming event had high levels of expectations. Up until now Sony has been fairly quiet when it comes to talking about their next gen system and their plans. So far, we have one wired article, one Mark Cerny talk, intended for GDC and one PlayStation blog post revealing the Dual Sense. 

Microsoft on the other hand, seemed to be giving gamers a near perfect drip feed of reveals and information. From the game awards, to the Xbox Wire to Digital Foundry and more, it seemed like Microsoft was making all the right decisions and had many people asking why Sony was being so quiet about the PS5. That is until the May edition of Inside Xbox which got over hyped and ultimately disappointed many fans. What this did was leave the door open for Sony to capture attention with a well executed event. Would Sony be able seize this opportunity?

Future of Gaming

I am curious how much of this event was created based on the negative response that Microsoft received on their May edition of Inside Xbox, that was supposed to feature lots of games for the Series X. Unfortunately the games that were shown were fairly unheard of and most didn’t even show actual gameplay. Clearly PlayStation was planning something but I wonder if it was altered to add more games, more exclusives, reveal the system etc.

How did Sony respond ? Immediate thoughts on the event was that Sony was able to deliver a near flawless and polished event that corrected problems that many people had with the Microsofts May event. For starters, on the most basic level, there was over double the gaming reveals as we saw 13 during the Inside Xbox episode with arguably the biggest gameplay reveal being Assassins Creed Valhalla with not much actual gameplay. If you count GTAV, a game that was released in 2013, then we saw 27 games during the PlayStation event, which is over double what we saw during Inside Xbox and I don’t think that is a coincidence.

In Microsoft’s defence they did state that their broadcast was only going to focus on third party titles, which didn’t sound like a bad idea at the time but in hindsight clearly wasn’t enough to satiate fans and their appetite for next-gen games. Microsoft is expected to do a first party centric episode of Inside Xbox for the month of July and it will be interesting to see how they respond but their also supposed to have an event for June that we have heard nothing about as of yet and we are almost half way through the month.

I wonder how much of the June Xbox event is affected by what happened this week at the PS5 event which brings us back, but where to begin. Clocking in at almost an hour and half there was a lot of information to digest. There was a lot of first party reveals, third party reveals, and plenty of indie titles on the software side of things. On the hardware side of things, the design of PS5 was revealed, in actually two formats, one with an optical drive, one fully digital and then there was also first party accessories shown which bodes well for this generation.

PS Studios

One of the reasons that the PlayStation 4, and basically every PlayStation is such a huge success is the console exclusives, even dating back to the original PlayStation. Just a few months ago on the PlayStation Blog, it was revealed that all of the first party studios would be releasing games under the PlayStation Studios brand and its impact was felt immediately. Having every first party PlayStation game led in by this logo instantly lets you know the caliber of game that you are about to see. Xbox does a similar thing with Xbox Game Studios but I wasn’t expecting to feel an impact from this recent change so quickly.

While we are talking about PS Studios, we saw nine games from Sony first party developers. If there was one prediction I would have made for games that we would see at this event, I would have said whatever HouseMarque has been working on since 2017 when it shipped Nex Machina and Matterfall before deciding that it was done with arcade style games as they weren’t profitable due to the lack of demand. Housemarque is not a first party studio but falling under the umbrella means that this game has been managed by Sony which means that will likely be console exclusive. The good news for people that loved games from Housemarque is that Returnal, looks to still have a lot of arcade character to it, even though it looks to have a much bigger scope. Returnal is a third person, rogue like, that features a tom cruise edge of tomorrow vibe.

Insomniac seems to have been very busy revealing two games at the event. The first is coming holiday 2020 and that is SpiderMan: Miles Morales which looks to be in the exact same formula that Insomniac used with Infamous Second Son and the fast follow up Infamous First Light. Not much gameplay was shown but based on how Sony has been talking about how much better SpiderMan runs on the PS5 with the SSD and Ray-Tracing this game should be another great adventure in New York City.

The other game that was shown from Insomniac was Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart which sees you take full advantage of what an SSD is capable of and seamlessly jump from one dimension to the next. Ratchet and Clank games have always been at the forefront of delivering next gen visuals and gameplay dating all the way back to the lombax’s first foray on PlayStation back in 2002. At the time it felt like you were playing a Pixar movie, although I’m sure looking back on that footage know it looks nothing like that but Rift Apart looks truly amazing and the team at Insomniac is always extremely clever when it comes to gameplay features in the series with its variety of traversal and weaponry. These two Insomniac reveals are great news but it also means that Resistance will have to wait a little longer.

BluePoint games also confirmed what has been rumoured for a long time now and that is that their follow up to their excellent remaster of Shadow of the Colussus from 2018 will be the remaster of Demons Souls from 2009. FROMSOFTWARE has caught fire and gained mainstream success with recent releases including BloodBorne and Sekiro. This remaster should help entertain fans who are hungry for their next game Elden Ring.

I am not sure if it is a little too late but it appears the Sackboy from Little Big Planet will be getting his own adventure in an effort to make him a more recognizable digital star. Sackboy: A Big Adventure is developed by Sumo Digital while Media Molecule has been busy creating Dreams. Sumo is also the developers behind LBP3 and LBP VITA, which means that this game is more than in the right hands. The trailer has a very strong Super Mario 3D World feel going for it which is a great thing and it also looks to feature 1-4 co-op, hopefully local.

One of the most anticipated games for PlayStation was revealed and that was Horizon: Forbidden West, the sequel from Guerrilla. I expect the next adventure of Aloy to be a launch title for the PS5 but there was no time shown at the end of the trailer. I still have a strong feeling that this will be available on day one to give fans extra incentive to purchase the console at launch. The trailer looked stunning as the team at Guerrilla is clearly learning and pushing limits of the Decima Engine with its new color palette. It also showed aloy climbing cliff side and swimming similar to link in breath of the wild. One of the main issues I had with playing Horizon was how there were invisible walls especially when compared to Breath of the Wild, which comparisons to that game were inevitable as they were released mere weeks apart and they were both open world, exploration, hand combat games.

There were also plenty of indie titles shown off as well including a few interesting looking titles from Anna Purna including Stray which is about a cat in a Cyberpunk style world where there are only robots remaining., which I guess would just make it a Cyber world. One game that caught my attention the most was Little Devil Inside. This game has apparently been in development for quite some time now and was even kickstarted in 2015. Its animation style gives it a unique feel and from the trailer it looks to combine elements of Zelda with Uncharted to create this open world adventure. I am vey excited to hear more about that game, and it is most definitely on my radar now.

All of the games shown gave a stark contrast to the gaming reveals of the Xbox series X. Not only did PlayStation deliver the goods with some great first party reveals but they also had a great assortment of third party titles. Not just any third party titles but some highly anticipated games including Capcom’s Resident Evil 8: Village, Arkanes Deathloop and IO’s Hitman 3, which is coming early 2021 and looks next-gen. These third party games are ones that people want and although some were exclusive, it just important to show as many amazing games as possible. One things to note is that none of the games said launch at the end of the trailer, which leads me to believe that scheduling is still being worked out by PlayStation.

How much will PS5 cost?

The biggest questions heading into the event was will Sony show the PS5 and will we get a price. While we didn’t see a price on the system just yet, Sony did however show us not one but two versions of the PS5. Before discussing the two different models, there is the futuristic design of the PS5. For starters this is a very divisive design choice. Easily the most futuristic design they have had to date. If you look at their history of console designs, PlayStation has played it relatively safe going with some form of rectangle essentially. This is a clear departure from the norm and shows how committed PlayStation is to their messaging that this generation is making great strides. One way to get the message across how committed you are to the future of gaming is to have a radical design change. At the very least it will get people taking about whether they like the look of the system and more word of mouth is free advertising.

Regarding the two variations of the PS5, the option to make one without an optical drive is very interesting. There are plenty of theories as to why they would make this decision including keeping the cost down and competing with the rumoured Xbox Project Lockhart, which has been said to be everything from disc-lss to just being a USB stick that lets you access Xbox Live and GamePass. Around a month ago, Bloomberg reported that with the pandemic the manufacturing cost of the PS5 was around 450 just on silicon alone, not including everything else such as marketing, packing, shipping and any other cost incurred from getting the PS5 from a factory to your hands.

Sony also showed off a a few first party accessories, which bodes well for the upcoming generation by showing that they want to have a little more control on the accessory market rather than watching third parties make all of the money. They showed off a camera, a charging dock, headphones, and a remote controller. All of these items look like they belong alongside the newly established design. Not only will they look great but having these accessories designed by Sony leads to a more streamlined and compatible experience. While discussing first party accessories, I wonder if there is room for a pro version of the Dual Sense as one of the most requested items I wanted this generation was a “pro” version of the Dual Shock.

Overall, in my mind, the PS5 Future of Gaming event was a success, especially considering that it was put together during a pandemic yet had a very professional feel and tone. I am excited to see how Xbox can respond to this event now that Sony has set the tone for first party exclusives and accessories.