Sony has been pushing eSports particularly hard these past couple of years, and while it’s a story that’s largely been overlooked by gaming media, a quick glance at the company’s YouTube channel reveals just how much of a focus this has been for the firm. There’s a dedicated page on PlayStation’s official website which tracks schedules, competitions, and prizes. The platform holder also, of course, purchased the EVO fighting game tournament.
It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that the company wants to integrate all of these initiatives into its newest console. And boss Jim Ryan touched upon this during the firm’s keynote presentation at CES 2022 overnight. Talking about firmware updates to the PS5, he revealed: “This year we are planning to introduce a new tournaments feature.”
He stopped short of sharing any specifics, but it’s perhaps safe to assume that this will be an application built into the operating system that will easily enable you to enter and watch competitions taking place within the PlayStation Tournaments framework. eSports is big business these days, and it’s something that Sony has clearly identified as a major growth opportunity. With Discord also confirmed for the console, it feels like the PS5 could be adding a lot of social functionality this year.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 18
I like the idea of making the PlayStation experience more social overall. I think features like this and Discord will go a long way towards making you feel like you're part of an active community when you turn the console on.
Obviously it's important this is handled in a way where it's not intrusive (sometimes you just want to escape and play alone) and that'll be the fine balance Sony needs to find.
I did enjoy loading up the PS4 and seeing what Trophies my friends had earned, etc, though, so hopefully we can get some of that back on PS5 in the right way.
I never used this feature on PS4 but I understand that it makes getting into competitive gaming somewhat easier and that can't be a bad thing - even if most will never use it.
I'm still waiting for an acquisition of a fighting game studio because of Sonys direction into E-Sports.
They have Polyphony taking care of the Racing side of things, Guerrilla Games might develop a FPS for that but one big fighting game, made by Sony is, missing.
PS, set-up a Pro Evo 2021 tournament so I can punish you all! Then set-up a Just Dance 2022 tournament so you can punish me.
@JAMes-BroWWWn That's a tough one because I feel like it's kinda hard to launch a successful new fighting game these days unless it's a) exceptionally good or b) based on something popular - preferably both.
If a game is just ok, players will quickly go back to an older one that they can play for years.
And half of the games are made by ArcSys anyway
Edit: I think the best they can do is to work with developers to make sure PS versions of the games are as good as they can be.
@JAMes-BroWWWn I'm expecting Street Fighter 6 to be a PS5 and PC console exclusive. We'll see, though.
@JAMes-BroWWWn Very much this, I love fighting games (even if I'm no good at them) it would be odd that Sony have Evo but not their own game they can push.
@get2sammyb Yeah, definitely coming to PC. A lot of FG players moved to PC for now because PS5 are still too hard to get and PS4 are kinda old now so those versions aren't necessarily the best. I expect to see the community moving back to PS5 in a few years though. Consoles will always be better for events.
I was hoping it would be a tournament for regular folk to take part in and get a placing. One week you're playing Fortnite, next week it's Apex Legends, then Street Fighter so you get a mix of people at the top for a final in Rocket League. I rarely play multiplayer but this sort of slapdash selection of games tournament would pull me in. Watching someone else play games on my PS5 is not what I bought one for. I can do that on any number of devices in my house.
@Enigk PlayStation Tournaments is a platform allowing players to enter tournaments easily by finding them on the console and the PlayStation Open Series is exactly what you described. Some of them are streamed on Twitch and YouTube but the PS Tournaments integration is about entering them from the console.
edit: maybe not exactly what you described, it's not one tournament for multiple games
@Voltan Thanks for that. Didn't know that was a thing.
The reason I don't play online generally is I don't want to play just one game to get good enough to enjoy playing and not to annoy possible team mates but if it was a tournament across many types or games then someone who's good at one may be terrible at another so it levels the playing field a bit more. In my head it does anyway. I'm thinking they could call it Jim Ryan's Decathlon.
Please for the love of God don't plaster it on the UI or put it somewhere where its always in your face when I turn on the ps5 or operate the menus
Just put it as an app like the PlayStation plus collection so it gets pushed off the UI the more games I play
@Rural-Bandit
Agreed. Is a Sony rival to Halo too much to ask?
Just bring back PlayStation Home.
Yeah I remember that about Killzone. Solid series, especially the 2nd game but not on Halo's level.
This is my current issue with Sony, I'd like to see them filling the gaps. As you say give us some FPS titles, develop some titles in the vein of the lost Bethesda series. There's still time of course and plenty of games we don't even know are in development but the PS needs these sort of titles to remain competitive.
I wish they’d sort out VRR already
@Rural-Bandit
Fingers crossed on the development front for us both then.
I've personally never had an issue with the Sony controllers though what little experience I've had with Xbox, I did find their controller to have certain advantages on certain games.
Ah I'm sure you can buy such immersive and well made hunting and fishing titles for console to bring your outdoor hobbies indoors 😜.
I have nowhere near that amount to sink into a TV. I need to buy home insulation before I freeze but I'll check out the January PS sale refresh first.
I just want a firmware update that will allow me to save my PS5 game saves to USB Will that basic feature ever come??? Why the PS5 can't do that is a mystery really??? The PS3/4 you could and if I didn't have that feature on my PS3/4 then I would of lost ALL my game saves(YLoD PS3's and PS4's hard drive dying) :-/
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