Reaction: Sony Continues to Fumble the State of Play Format

Kyouko best girl!

I always go into these saying as long as one thing appeals to me it's an okay showing so I'm happy. Was it a slam dunk? Goodness no but we got Capcom continuing to impress and while Suicide Squad is looking rough I at least appreciate the deep dive on how the game works even if I'm not feeling everything it offered.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. Not being a big Marvel fan, for the first time in a looong time I have literally nothing I'm looking forward to from Sony. Would love to see what Team Asobi are working on.. but I'm kind of terrified it's a live service game. There's been a trend of some of my favorite and super talented teams being put on co-op/loot/service type games. Hopefully June has something.

I didn't watch it. PlayStation is not good at this stuff at all. But hey, at least we have news on Resident Evil 4!

As for the new Suicide Squad, I didn't look into it and I'm honestly not interested. Suicide Squad itself is enough to keep me away - seriously, they would sell better a random new IP than this.

I expected nothing to interest me so I didn't bother watching. I checked the aftermath list of showings with zero surprise.

Sony needs to go back to a big show this year. Bringing back the likes of the Playstation Experience like they had for a couple years would be incredibly welcome as they already confirmed E3 will be a no show for them.

For the contrary, I believe they know exactly what to do with this format, the problem is that people always has unrealistic expectations that will never be met, they think every SOP must be a mini E3 with big announcements and that's not the intention, they want to promote smaller games and one or another inhouse or third party AAA, the two previous SOP were pretty decent, but every SOP can't necessarily be like that.

It wasnt good but when you have rights on games those games need to be showed to.
State of plays before this one has been good so dont know why writer are so negative, but then I remember that sometimes pushsquare hates Sony for some reason.

@Shepard93n7 If Sony doesn't want that expectation for SoP, maybe they should actually have a large show to display a difference. They haven't had a large showing since... when? 🤔

@AdamNovice This is pretty much my view as well.

I was mildly interested in suicide squad but after today that interest plummeted to 0. Not gonna get it, not even gonna pay attention to further coverage. Pass

I've seen some absolute dogs on the Nintendo Direct. Not sure what's you're on about that they ALWAYS produce something.

@Shepard93n7 There's a difference between having unrealistic expectations and Sony just delivering an absolute turd. It doesn't matter what expectations you had unless you expected an absolute turd because that is exactly what Sony delivered. That shouldn't be the expectations either way though.

Why have these if they aren't going to even remotely come close to the last one (Final Fantasy 16 trailer, Resident Evil 4 reveal, Stellar Blade, etc.)? No, not every one of these has to be at that level, but Sony should at least use these for more than this. There should at least be one or two things out of each SoP to get excited about. There was nothing in this one, and again, people shouldn't automatically go into each of these expecting nothing.

@AdamNovice But it is clear that Sony still doesn't know how to use the format on a consistent basis. No, not every one of these are going to be as good as the last two, but when so many of them aren't very good (with this one being amongst the worst), it's almost like they get lucky when one of them is any good.

There should at least be something to get excited about in each SoP. There was absolutely nothing in this one, as the best stuff were just more trailers for things that people are already excited about (Resident Evil 4 and Street Fighter 6). There's no point in having these at all if they are just going to be indie titles that make up a lot of the Game Pass library, which is what a lot of these were. This was one of the worst State of Plays I can remember in a long time.

If people go into most of the SoP expecting them to be bad, then it's clear Sony is doing something wrong with these.

I didn't think the State of Play was bad. It was exactly what was promised. The cool VR games were the highlight for me, but I acknowledge that segment holds little value for those who have no interest in VR.

The State of Play format is fine. It's just several game preview videos batched together into a mini online event. This crowd seems so angry over preview videos. They are fun. Watch and move along.

You're being just a tad bit too harsh but just a tad bit. It was a bad show but they set that expectation perfectly before they aired it. That said, a bad show is still a bad show. Set expectations or not lmao. I think my biggest wonder here is why they keep doing these type of SoPs. Like cool, they want to showcase these indies and vr games but is it really a good thing to be remembered as those indies in the latest awful SoP? I just don't think it's the kind of negative spotlight that they need or should be wanting

Also you give the directs too much credit. The latest one was filled with an insane number of ports, dlc, and games we already knew about. It was hard carried by a company who was on the verge of not even existing anymore outside of Japan

Feels like an eternity since the last time Sammy trashed Sony just because lol.

Just a reminder that the previous State of Play was FANTASTIC so ... they have contracts, they make partnerships, they need to do theses things and show games that maybe people won't give a damn about but that's just how the business works
.
I prefer them to do a State of Play showing the exact same about RE4 or Justice League than Sony not having a good relationship with Capcom and Warner. The same goes for the indies, Sony now more than ever needs good relationships with all kind of devs.

People don't need to like the content but bitching about it is just boring.

Doesn’t sound very promising. Glad I missed it. I’m concerned that we don’t have a firm grasp of what is coming out soon. Spider-man (Insomniac was such a bargain!) and Factions, but what else?

Besides the Plus games announcement it was terrible.

@lacerz Sonys gotten comfortable . The ps4 and COD is their money train . there’s not a single ps5-only game that is a game changer or killer app

Well, I think it's already clear that they will no longer be showing the same game for 3 years in a row, as happened with Ghost Of Tsushima and The Last Of Us 2 and they don't have enough studios to reveal multiple first party games per year.

SIE is still five or six studios (or a publisher) away from being able to have a annual pipeline of announcements. With the studios that Sony has now, it's going to be the way it is now. Some years will be full of announcements, others not so much.

They announced days before the event that they were going to show off a hand full of PSVR games, show some indies and 3rd party games and end it with a long Suicide Squad demo - even put a blog post up. They showed exactly what they said they were going to show- not sure why people were expecting more

Sony has been horrific at communicating this generation from the botched pre order launch, absolutely zero major shows in 2022, and the lack of presence at E3 seems to suggest that Sony has zero care about their customers. Seems very arrogant to me.

"In the end, this State of Play felt like a box-checking exercise: contractual obligations and exposure for a handful of titles that wouldn’t normally get this kind of spotlight."

Sony isn't failing to understand the format. They are using the format exactly as they intend to. The community still hasn't adjusted to understanding that this is what State of Plays are. The community wants this to be something else but for Sony's purposes it works just fine.

I also agree with Sammy on the PSVR issues. I actually cancelled my PSVR2 preorder. It reminds me far too much of my Vita. Good but relatively expensive hardware and weak Sony support suggests that this could be collecting dust soon. I am going to wait and see what happens.

@Zombie9ers in fairness; if they showed off really good VR games (from Sony publishers) I think the mood would have been better. Also, Sony hasn’t exactly been predictable or forthcoming so it’s not like we really know what they are doing (besides fighting the Activision Blizzard deal). I feel like Crying Jim Ryan would rather focus on that then PS5 right now.

Whoever said Pushsquare doesn't talk bad about sony. Here ya go.

Sony should send this state of play to the regulators and they block the deal.

@GodofCapcom that is funny. I needed a laugh.

@get2sammyb @Sequel This is a problem I was kind of hoping wouldn't happen: Sony came out swinging, but now that the majority of "heavy hitters" are out of the way, things are looking a little scarce on the home front. What's worse, we haven't seen many true PS5 exclusives from Sony. Almost everything has been cross-gen.

Insomniac seems to be the only developer "carrying the torch" on the first-party front in the foreseeable future with Spider-Man and Wolverine.

If PSVR2 becomes a huge focus, it will be even more constrained (at least for me since I am not interested in VR).

I think State of Plays should be scrapped almost entirely for live presentations like PS Experience. Those create hype and had me ready to pre-order games. They bring announcements with emotion, much more than announcements today bring I think.

What a waste of time, especially after last year's lack of showcase. Suicide squad looks truly awful and the vr games looked pretty meh. No Alyx or anything that looks even half decent. Looks like the next Vita already and it's only just came out.

Sony don’t have much to worry about, their main competitor is ducking things up so much I’m surprised Microsoft bother with the Xbox department.
They already 150 thousand less series consoles sold in 2023 compared to 2022.

@nomither6
I'm not complaining about Sony's output so far...and the lack of strictly PS5 games in today's environment is more akin to PC games having multiple settings. I mean, it's not like Sony went Microsoft and released next to nothing. Sony has done well this gen, when Microsoft has just sucked like it did last gen. I just don't know what's next.

@Sequel very much how I'm feeling. I do enjoy Marvel but have zero interest in yet another Spider-Man game. Wolverine feels a really long way off.

The only thing really keeping me interested is Tchia which looks superb, and the announcement that it will be on PS Plus is great

People hype these things up to much.
And when it doesnt deliver they say it sucks.
Is that on sony or themselves?
I never expect anything from these things and thus never disappointed.

There's just so little worthwhile with Sony anymore. Just give me Silent Hill 2 and a new Uncharted or TLOU 3.

These things will never impress. Mainly because the rumors and fake leaks are like wet dreams. And if there is something great it got leaked before the showcase.

I didn’t bother watching it after they released the list of what was going to be shown a day or two ago.

I do wonder what they’re thinking at Sony head office and also where are Sony’s games? They used to do e3, gamescom and PSX all in the same year with new first party content!

Yesterday I received my PSVR2, and I‘m LOVING it! But where are the PSVR2 updates for older PS titles by SIE? Sackboy A Big Adventure? Journey? Astro Bot? Astro’s Playroom? Man, even Killzone Shadow Fall and LittleBigPlanet 3 would deserve it! And SIE has certainly got the source code of The Last Guardian laying around. Please, PushSquare, start this discussion, after this SoP it’s the perfect time! A big part of the Switch‘s success are the many Wii U ports. So a big part of the PSVR2‘s success could be PS4 VR remasters.

I was hoping to see some of Project Wingman for PSVR2. Hopefully we will get some news on it soon. We really need a flight combat game.

See you're doing what everyone has always done with E3 - you're confusing the show with what was shown. The format is great and to the point, but the games were average looking.

@4RunnerX Sony has not been at e3 in yrs that means nothing and also they having a big showcase probably before or after e3. People always think they going to announce something big.

It’s not Sony’s fault that Suicide Squad is a bundle of red flags but, yikes, what a game to hitch your presentation on.

@DiggleDog what makes it red flags it a live service game with a battle pass just with just outfits and emotes.

That Suicide Squad trailer looked outdated and it just didn't look good..

I was hyped for it before and this new trailer just got me out of it.

I think since the days of E3, Sony hasn't really had or done something where you come away thinking "wow I really need a PS5" but then Xbox generally is the same. We know games are coming, but there hasn't yet to be anything shown for the games that makes you want to invest. I think they need to look back and take some inspiration from past performances and look to try and capture those feelings that you want people to have. It's really important that those PS4 players are shifting over to PS5 and not joining gamepass, but they actually need games (first and third) to encourage them. Look at Nintendo. Their last direct was fantastic, people were hyped for Metroid and Zelda.

one nearly has the impression that there was some kind of pandemic for 2 years which delayed titles. Or that there was a beloved humble trillion dollar company which by bringing games to more people buys up the entire gaming industry, which somehow, surprisingly leads to less announcements on certain platforms.

The developers then giving us a run down ruined the flow as well.

People just want games, game trailers, gameplay and a bit of game on the side.

@AdamNovice I'm thinking that yes, the last two shows we're good, but why? I always come to the same conclusion which is Sony's reliance on Japanese (&Chinese& Korean) Studios. That's why the previous SoPs were so promising and in this one only Capcom made some waves. I find Sony should completely lean into that together with western first party Studios which are also top notch. Most other western studios just follow short lived trends which are old by the time the long Dev process is done (suicide squad).

I know most people like to slam events like E3 and the game awards, but those events are stellar in comparison to SoP. Only Nintendo have it mostly figured out and that comes down to Japanese reliance as well.

Still waiting on Sony to announce something that excites me.

I thought this site didn't do negative playstation articles?

I would say it was a solid show, nothing ground breaking, though. But there cannot be something ground breaking in every show.

• synapse: the n-dreams title looked certainly cool, though it might be a bit shallow
• foundation: this looks very interesting, though it is difficult to judge from the trailer
• the ninja storm title looked pretty good, although presumably not a game for me.
  And then we have new trailers for already announced titles but still:
• Re4: Maybe people are not interested anymore in a Re4 remake. But, if there is Re8 like VR support ...
• tchia: looks very charming
• before your eyes: maybe not a title with mouth watering graphics, but certainly something very unique.
• humanity: also seems pretty unique, but it is hard to judge how it plays.
• green hell: to be seen how good it will look on psvr2, and maybe survival games are not everybody's taste

I don't quite understand why everybody things psvr2 is a failure if half life alyx is not coming to this platform. Although there are rumours that it will come, but anyway it is a valve exclusive title, so Valve may not have a huge interest to bring that to psvr2.

The reason the ‘Direct’ formula has worked so well for Nintendo is that they hardly do any talking. It’s just games, games and more games. Sony , and Xbox to some degree as well, get far too involved in trying to massage presenter egos rather than focusing on what gamers want to see and that is games.
As for PSVR 2, it’s going to go the same way as PSVR 1 - not enough games, the install rate will be low and it will just slowly fade away until we get PS6 and then PSVR 3.

Sony could do to get back to basic right now because they just seem to be lurching from one place to another with little sense of any direction.

This article is harsh and click baity imo.

We were told what to expect and got it.
Rock Steadies long awaited game should be a great pull, its not Sonys fault we are looking at it and thinking 'Avengers'. That was what this sop was about and it could still prove to be a great title.
I think the selection of psvr titles was not great. Its impossable to show the impact of a vr game in 2d, so thats always going to be an issue but the first titles looked like typical vr jank and and more focussed selection with some detail would have been better.
The 3rd parties were what this was promised to be, and they were fine.
The fact that the article bleats on about Sony first party titles says more about the journalist than Sony, who was very clear we wouldnt see any.
It was only ok mind you, but it didn't excite anyone . I thought it was 5/10 showing myself.

Thing is, Sony barely need to show anything to sell most of what they can ship and they are dominating sales right now and hadnt had a show in 6 months. These shows, and to be honest, this audience, mean almost nothing in terms of Sonys global buisness. Doom sayers look embarrassingly isolated from reality.

Not sure if it’s the state of play making Sony look bad, or that Sony and the rest of the triple A creators are making an almighty hash of this generation with few games, and most of what we get not what we want gameplay wise.

More money, more problems.

Ok this state of play was bad but some of the comments plus the title are doing a little to much. The last two state of plays before this one were damn good.

The issue isn't Sony, the issue is y'all expectations are unreasonably high even when Sony tells you what's going to be taken place.

I think the problem for me is Sony have been terrible about there first party line up for 18 months now so you get a state of play like this and you just come away with a feeling of " is that it?" I don't know if it is because Sony have nothing at the moment apart from Spiderman 2 which they haven't bigged up themselves or there playing silly games because of the Activision deal. It just seems Sony first party output is struggling especially when there are rumours of 10 live service games as well! I loved my PSVR 1 and have over 40 games for it but they have done nothing to convince me to buy the PSVR 2. It would just need a 10 second snippet of Astro bot or blood and truth 2 show that there is something cool coming.

@TheCollector316 actually I was hoping the VR section would give me a reason to drop 600 on one. But I agree with push square, it's standard vr games they were all samey to the point you could say they all are the same game. And maybe it was my tv and Internet but those games looked very shaky and stuttery.

What I loved from psvr was the immersion of being somewhere I hadn't been. I mean Rocksteady made my most favourite vr game ive ever played. Batman VR which made me feel I was in their world and I was Batman. It was incredible.
Horizon seems like it maybe like that but those games were just arcade shooters.

As for Suicide Squad, awful. I've watched that segment now 3 times. All the things wrong with it in my opinion.
Live service game, no thanks
Cartonish overlay, im not here for that from rocksteady I have fortnite.
Every character seems to have triple jump fly mechanics.
This game is basically suicide squad fortnite edition.
I mean they came out and said, this is based 5 years after arkham Knight yet its based in metropolis and so im ment to care after 5 years, with nothing to do with the arkham games apart from batman is in it as a villain.

The one what takes the biscuit os the well done cut scenes to stitch together the gameplay.
Seems gritty in a sense and more serious tone yet the gameplay is fortniteesque and colourful basic shooter.

Its such a shame.

On a positive note. That humanity game looks like a modern take on lemmings, im looking forward to it

i think the state of play format is good, it's mostly an issue with the content and that's not really sony's fault if it's 3rd party focused, like they said it would be

I just wasn't interested in many of the games they showed that's all. Nothing against the format or presentation.

Who are those 2% die hard fans that selected the excellent option? 😆😆😆😆

@Shepard93n7 Standard Operating Procedure

@KidBoruto Hey my friend, I like you're always simply positive about everything 👍

Yeah it wasn't a particularly exciting state of play, but it wasn't too bad. Looking forward to Resi 4 and the Extra games, It's a shame that Suicide Squad is Live service though, that genuinely turns me off the game. Rocksteady are the ones who've fumbled in my opinion. Also thought the last Nintendo direct sucked. Waves and waves of DLC to the point of parody, more JRPG ports, then they ended with Zelda for the 2nd direct running.

So like, are Sony going to make some exclusives for the PS5 or...

@RainbowGazelle When you are asking this in a thread about a show which was clearly about 3rd parties, you appear to be pretty ignorant of the show or what it promised to deliver.

As a question it might have some relevance in the correct thread...

@MayaMousavi it's not that we were expecting something else. What we are saying is that what was shown predominantly showed poorly.

It's a shame too because the very second State of Play ever in 2019 saw the re-reveal of FFVII Remake which was an atomic bomb of an announcement.

But yeah Suicide Squad.... I simply feel sorry for you if you actually thought a forced 4 player co-op game was EVER going to be good. Gotham Knights AND Suicide Squad are doa to me since there reveals in 2020.

@JohnnyShoulder
I don't expect anything smart from that camp.

@JayJ
I thought you hated pushsquare. Hopefully this article doesn't fade in your head, like it did with the others.

@Titntin

We don't care we get what they told we would get. We haven't had a good showcase since more than a year and this is how people are feeling.

@2here2there Standard Operating Procedure

YES, I found the builder or trade worker among us. 😁

Article shouldn’t have gone further than this:

“It’s perhaps worth underlining that the platform holder did, admittedly, deliver exactly what it said it would”

They delivered exactly as promised. And the format has been the same every time.

I've said before that Nintendo is the only one of these companies that knows how to consistently put on a good show. That doesn't mean I think every single Direct is amazing, but they ALWAYS have a plethora of announcements during a general Direct, including something biggish to close it out.

Hell, even the bad Nintendo Direct Minis have at least one or two good trailers for stuff you were unaware of.

tbh I'm not sure the State of Play format works for Sony, since their first-party output is way more restrained than it is for Nintendo. They should do like Nintendo does and work with third-party companies to reveal new titles in their broadcasts as well.

@Titntin not harsh imo. Sony got it wrong.

nothing wrong with showing 3rd parties and indies. But at least show good ones.SF6/RE4 shown before. but outside of that the rest looked boring. Honestly cant remember names/what most are about.

then wasted 15mins showing SS that put more people off. SoP/Amount shown were fine. drop a surprise like MS did, the one coming to extra.... why wait?

instead of a buzz, it went flatter than a day old pint.

We got naruto amd resident evil I'm good with this episode

"While it’s undoubtedly early days, we are beginning to worry about Sony’s lack of commitment to PSVR2 software."

It's been out 2 days...

@GodofCapcom
"We don't care we get what they told we would get. We haven't had a good showcase since more than a year and this is how people are feeling."
This is how some people are feeling and you are welcome to state it of course you are. But unless you are selectivly reading, you will see that many of us got what we thought we were going to get and are not unduly concerned and pessimistic as a result.

Im happy to acknowledge your right to be dissapointed. But you must surely acknowledge the rights of those of us who do not share that appraisal, and I can see tgat is several other people posting here too. These sections would be a waste of space if it were only an echo chamber of despair.
Sorry you were so dissapointed and I hope we get a first party showing soon that we can all enjoy.

Could it be due to the ATVI fight that Sony don’t want to look strong? Maybe they will wait until the deal is blocked.

@Ralizah I feel that PS5 Future of Gaming/Playstation Showcase is Sony's equivalent to general Directs meanwhile State of Play is Sony's equivalent to the other Directs like Direct Mini, Partner Showcase and game specific Directs.

It doesn't help that Playstation Showcase seems to be going the way of F-Zero.

Yeah agre with those who argue that you cant expect to much from these shows besides some trailers. It feels like we should be glad with those games that are available today. Dont reaily have to much expectations on games to come at this point in time. Also bescuse I reailly did not had high expectations on this show I was not disappointed either.

@grubsteak
please elaborate.
What put you off?
It had the opposite affect on me. I had no interest and the trailer got me interested in at least keeping an eye out for more info. One to possibly buy pending post-release reviews and videos.
solo story and co-op are my preferences and the game ticked those boxes.

@Sequel Was there a Marvel game there? I missed it.

@Titntin

The majoriry didn't like it (looking at twitter and neogaff too). I'm just explaining why.

Having a direct the day AFTER PSVR 2 launched did seem odd timing, but once it was happening I honestly did expect a surprise banger of an announcement, either Alyx or GTA 5 VR, which in my opinion would have instantly sold alot of people on the device, GTA especially for the more casual folks on the fence about it. I know business isn't so simple but sometimes you think come on Sony just get Valve and Rockstar on board, give them a tasty cheque, and let's see what happens. I for one would absolutely pay full whack for both of them. I'll keep dreaming.

While I don’t think this was a good state of play, I definitely don’t agree that Nintendo directs are so above and beyond in terms of consistency.

Some directs are real mehs in my opinion

The state of play is awkward. Part of it is Sony. They have no vision for it, they don't seem to want to do first party showcases....at all...I mean they ended E3, then they ended their own PSX, then they introduced SoP then kind of ended their own involvement in that. It's like they don't want to tell anyone they make games at all, they just want to hide on twitter and quietly drop games, hoping the TV show will market it, and sadly it does.

OTOH the "Direct" format everyone praises is part of the problem. All the Directs suck. Sony's, Nintendos, now MS is moving that way and it's also flat. The ORIGINAL Satoru Iwata made Nintendo Direct was exciting. It had sketches, it had quirky upper management introducing concepts it had fun, real time with leaders that loved the brand not just were enthused to talk product announcement. Nintendo Direct wasn't just a marketing sizzle real of upcoming release calendars, it was an event that celebrated customers being part of the company's culture. You watched a Direct and celebrated the silly fun feeling of being part of Nintendo's world.

Fast forward after Iwata, the quirky management was gone, the sketches were gone, the sense of embracing being part of their culture was gone, and we get nothing but a slick, fast paced externall PR-agency produced infomercial, with a squeaky-narrator feigning fake enthusiasm for products they probably don't know anything about beyond the copy. We don't even see the leadership, know if they're still there, and their whole fun personality is hidden away in a faceless corporation.

It's THAT Direct Sony has copied. I mean, I can't stand Jim Ryan, but I'd be up for a quirky fun SoP where Jim Ryan sits there trying to figure out how to play Humans in VR. I might even learn to like the guy and enjoy being part of his world and company culture. I'd watch Herman be creeped on by a giant Sackboy while he tries to deliver a straight laced pitch on the future of narrative interactive entertainment. Just give me something FUN to watch other than a commercial that's nothing more than trailers I could have watched if they just posted a list of trailers on the front of the PS store. I don't blame Sony for the bland and excitement-killing PR-firm produced infomercial. Nintendo broke that. I blame them for not fixing what Nintendo broke though and picking up the superior original design of the format when Nintendo lost it.

Both Nintendo and Sony, now, the problem is there's not an actual REASON to watch these shows. There's nothing fun or enjoyable about them. It's just a a video version of the PS blog/Nintendo twitter.

Sony continues to fumble the PS5 in my opinion.. terrible output, terrible messaging, PSVR2 looks DOA. It's like they're content on just riding out the artificially inflated demand caused by the chip shortage by doing the absolute bare minimum required to stay in the game. They spend more time fighting MS's acquisitions than trying to do anything meaningful for their established base.

Baldur's Gate 3 announced for PS5 was the only saving grace

Tbh I've learned to not get hyped about State of Plays because it usually end in dissapointment.

Last year's SoP's were the best ever and the summer one was arguably the best showcase all year but yh, keep doom and glooming over every slightest "misstep". 🙄

@Gunnerzaurus I think some hold out hope that it can't possibly be as bad as it sounds like it will be. But then it really is. Pretty much like a Keighley show.

If the show itself added something that made watching it worthwhile I think perception might be different. Some of those WiiU era Nintendo Directs had nothing of value in them but the show itself was more fun than the content it advertised. These shows, especially from Nintendo and Sony add literally nothing at all of value to the trailers. It's just a playlist of trailers with a narrator for the title cards. Nothing at all is missed by simply not watching it and refreshing Push/NL. In fact the latter is more entertaining.

The SF6 trailers made the SoP good for me but I'm a big SF mark.

@nathanSF Not in this show. But two main sony games we know in the works are marvel games

@MayaMousavi yeah I hear that. If people expected anything along those lines. Just completely unrealistic expectations for sure, and borderline whining.

I want some cool VR superhero games. I doubt we will see Iron Man. Be cool. I live my PSVR2 headset. Very nice upgrade from the Rift s. Just hope it gets good game support now. The hardware is great.

If Sony did these maybe once a month or so, then expectations would be more in check, and we'd know that not every one of these can be jam-packed with stellar announcements.

But, when you go completely silent for months on end and finally decide it's time to get our attention then you need to show up with the goods.

@NEStalgia Those older Directs were honestly pretty dreadful. Drawn out developer interviews, cringy skits involving puppets, etc. Most people just wanted exciting announcements, not a variety show.

Which is why the Direct format is so popular now. It cut out all of that fluff.

@Ralizah You're talking about the E3 Directs. And the Variety show and presentation made it fun. Developer interviews made it interesting, etc. And that was all what was good about the smaller format ones too. It was a direct presentation from the company, not a freaking commercial. If we can't have E3 bombast of stage shows, and cant have fun sketches and interesting interviews, all we're left with is bland ads.

We can get commercials anywhere. We don't need scheduled times to watch them. There is no point if it's nothing but a commercial. The new Direct format isn't popular because of it's format, it's popular because it delivers news about games. If they instead said "at 8:00PM March 3'd we're dumping over 20 links to youtube trailers on our store page" that would be "popular", too. But it's no reason to have a scheduled presentation if you don't actually have a presentation, just a commercial. If this is all it's going to be, there's no reason to keep doing "Direct/SoP" at all. Just get a new community manager on their youtube page and keep it updated with the latest trailers, and call it a day. It's the same exact thing.

The current formats literally add nothing at all of value to the playlist of trailers. They don't need to exist.

I'd equate it to the "video reviews" Pure has (does Push and NL do it too? I haven't noticed.) The only reason to even consider clicking on one is the cringey skits Craig does with them. Otherwise there's no point. If you have eyes that work well enough to play video games and aren't too illiterate to play video games you don't need somebody to read you the review like a bedtime story. Just. Read. It.

We went from "fun presentations" to "oh who cares about fun I just want a list of commercials?" if you just want ads...you can try nintendo.com and playstation.com. No need for presentations at all. sigh this is what's wrong with gaming I shouldn't expect more from western media consumers that know how to consume only sadness and misery.

Meanwhile PS Japan had that crazy video for PSVR with the presenter freaking out while experiencing it which is everything that Directs and E3 used to have and no longer did. I swear I'm going to get all my gaming news ONLY from Japan from now on. They still remember how to have fun rather than srs bsns entertainment

@NEStalgia Agree to disagree. Directs are designed to showcase upcoming software for the platform, and the modern approach accomplishes that skillfully. Older Directs had this goal as well. They were just... awkward, and weirdly paced, and half the time you were listening to Satoru Iwata struggle to speak in English.

I guess it's possible some people watched stuff like E3 shows in order to see corporate types stand on stage and endlessly babble to the audience. I guess it's possible some also watched Nintendo Direct to watch people stand around for ten minutes at a time talking about a game when a simple gameplay trailer would have accomplished the same thing. But I think most people just want the announcements, accompanied via trailers that showcase gameplay, with as little fluff as possible.

Anyway, it's fun to have these events where the community collectively gathers to share hopes, concerns, expectations, etc. Trailers on a playlist wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Like most things involving Nintendo, Directs have only improved post-Iwata.

As for video reviews? Some people would rather watch a video on youtube that showcases gameplay than read words that accomplish the same thing. I prefer written reviews, but the video ones are hardly pointless.

@Ralizah I will never understand the mindset of watching a scheduled presentation just to gate quick takes rattled off rapid fire. That's what literally every single other format possible does. If you think of presentations, especially the ones with Bill Trinen doing a lot of the heavy lifting, The Xenoblade X direct, the Chibirobo mini direct, etc, the whole thing felt like a presentation still.

I don't think I'm alone in that, otherwise people wouldn't be complaining about them being bland. It's not a presentation if it's not actually presenting something it's just an automated quickfire tralier sequence.

"Trailers on a playlist wouldn't be nearly as fun."
But these Direct/SoP literally ARE trailers on a playlist, that's my point. It's the same thing with a title card reader that might as well be an AI voice. It's trailers on a playlist that you're told to watch at a specific time.

The new format seems perfect for the ADHD crowd though. More than 14 seconds per video and they'll lose their attention span and chase a squirrel and watch a Michael Bay movie.

@nathanSF What put me off was mainly the style of the game. I loved the timing/reactionary combat of the batman games, and really was wanting a successor more along the same lines from rocksteady. I don't like the 3rd person floaty shoot everything they showcased. Also them talking about gear level, the game being a live service game, battle pass etc, it all just turned me off of it.

@get2sammyb You can actually read the F-Bomb in the picture for this article no problem in the thumnail on the home page of the site. 🤣

It's not just the format as its the announcements. Nintendo always packs some surprises and has a mix of old and new.
State of play is just formulaic and i don't know how to explain it. It looks artificial.
I think they need a presenter to give it more character. Like the leader of PS studios giving us a peak at what is in store. Also, it does feel like Nintendo tries to please their fanbase more and holds it's back catalog in higher esteem while Sony seems almost ashamed of it.
They have classic titles that could be remade or remastered but they only seem to care about Uncharted and the last of us. 😑

Imagine they revealed a remake of Wild Arms HD2D, or a remaster of God of War Ghost of sparta for ps5.
So many things they can do but they are wasting resources on niche projects such as PSVR and doomed to failure in-development live services when they should be trying to delight the consumer.
I don't like where Sony is heading, is what i'm saying. Disaster is brewing on the first party studios. PS5 will be fine cause of 3rd parties though. But, it's annoying. It could be so much more.

@NEStalgia You need to give it up mate, that tired old record you keep playing is worn out and few of us want to hear it yet again.

Yes you miss silly presentations, dance shows and embarrassing developer chats inbetween the actual news and information we want. We've heard it all before, but very few people want this, its dead and theres no call from publishers or punters for its return.

Yes, directs are little more than a list of newly released trailers (though they add some occasional value), but all we want is info on the game, a peek at it, and a release date.
Ive discovered that getting old gracefully is about letting go of what you wish hadnt changed and accepting the world moves on, for better or poorer. Like it or loath it, games companies no longer need to provide a poor variety show to get their essential news to their customers, and its never going back.
If you genuinely miss that level of cheese maybe you can watch a cr@p saturday evening entertainment tv show inbetween watching a trailer video? That way you can get your 45 minutes extended to three hours or more and achieve the 25% useful information ratio you crave.
Or you can just write more posts on here about how much better it was in the old days and how little you understand kids. Its actually pretty poor to equate younger people with having a mh condition because they don't want to consume the irrelevent cr@p you do.

@andrewsqual just a medical researcher 😊

@themightyant It's because of the long development cycle that I worry about Sony's first-party output going forward. The heavy hitters dropped so early.

It's kind of like Nintendo with the Switch.

The Switch had, in my opinion, a legendary first couple of years for Nintendo! Amazing new games were coming left and right.

Then things slowed down and there was a lot of Wii U rereleases (for good reason, though). As far as my gaming interests go, the Switch library dried up for a while because it takes a long time for new games to come.

Before Metroid Dread came out, my Switch was mostly unused for like a year and then nothing again until Bayonetta 3 came out (which I got for Christmas). 2023 has been looking great for Switch, but it's been years since Nintendo has really captured my interest to this capacity!

I am sure Sony is cooking up something that just hasn't been announced, but it seems like Sony is going to be relying on third-party exclusive titles as a main selling point for a while (Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy 16, etc.).

@NEStalgia I think the formats used worked best for their respective eras. The Switch era Direct format wouldn't have worked in the Wii U era given 3rd party support was rather poor and they chose to announce a huge number of their 1st party games way too early to try and satisfy investors (don't forget the infamous January 2013 Direct).

Meanwhile the Wii U era Direct format wouldn't have worked in the Switch era as there's so much to announce that the pacing would've been off.

@themightyant I don't really count third-party in this PS5 conversation because the Series X is my "everything else" machine. I just prefer the Xbox in terms of overall services and feature set (Free Cloud Saves, Game Pass, FPS Boost, Auto HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, etc.).

Switch and PlayStation are my exclusives-only machines.

2023 in general seems a bit empty for Sony. What have they got lined up for this year? Spider-Man 2, which will be good, but it will also be the third Spider-Man game in a relatively short amount of time, so it needs to be more than just the sequel. But other than that? Nothing so far.

Yes, they had Horizon for PSVR2, but that's not really an option for all PS5 users. No Astro Bot announcement for PSVR2 seems odd though.

TLOU Factions? What is Media Molecule working on? What about Bend? SP? Aren't Santa Monica and Guerilla Games supposedly working on two projects? If Insomniac was allowed to show off that Wolverine game I don't know how long ago, then I think it's perfectly fine having something else to look forward to. If SM and GG worked on those secondary projects in tandem to GOW2 and Forbidden West, then I cannot imagine they are still a long time away.

I'm absolutely preordering Suicide Squad. That and Baldurs Gate 3 were my two most anticipated games for 2023. This State of Play was absolutely huge for this fan.

@grubsteak. Yes. I went off and read the reviews and watched the yong yea guys video that went into the hate. Is it fair to compare it to thier Arkham games? It's a different thing, closer to Square's Avengers, that is a closer comparison. From a simply co-op point of view, if done right, then it might be a fair enough game to buy. As for the Live service and micro-transactions, it's looks more like a budget Destinyverse. They could have made more of Boomerangs Boomerangs, give them various powers, rather than copping out and giving him a shotgun. The same with the other characters, show a bit of imagination with their preferred powers/weapons. I'm going to wait a few months after release and see how it pans out.

@Sequel
Ah, yes. Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine. Plus there's Skydance's Captan America & Black Panther game somewhere down the line.

@LilyGoMEOW I didn't realise they'd even attempted to blank it out until I'd seen the bigger picture lol.

It was fine (only issues I have is cutting from VR to not VR and Sucide Squad getting 'we have this to we have this dev diary' like why did it need a cut it was jarring. Otherwise I am fine with a voice I don't need a person to be there I couldn't care less about that presentation aspect with the directors/producers/leads telling me the status of the game if they see a need sure but I'm not desperate for a human being telling me things.

Then again big expectations what were people looking forward to? Should Sony have a blog post about what people's expectations for games are this year/next year? Poll?

I get the Suicide Squad side GAAS and the internet connection for singleplayer I hate GT Sport/7 for that besides it's (terrible design structure of content it's why I won't buy it) and if people even care to play it in the first place and it wasn't the big game Sony clearly thinks people will talk of the town about it never was going to be which to me the lacking co-op elements is dumb. Fuse as bland as it was had more depth to the characters differences then being similar and skill trees and Lego games or the Trine series are full of co-op features that are more varied of 'actual' use cases for the characters not just everything can still play the same (which is boring because 'nothing' interesting happens) but minor differences between characters that doesn't change much of the game.

RE4 remake, SF6 in there, multiplayer game announcements pass. PSVR2 is fine they had a new headset it is for a niche audience most people aren't going to care about it I get that but it's the only thing I really cared about the VR segment, Foundation VR (never expected at all but really cool) and Baulder's Gate 3 were highlights to me and I'm not even going to play them but they still were interesting to see.