Grumblevolcano

The way things are going it feels like the State of Play will be something like:

• Start the event with Fairgame$
• Have those 2 PS5/PC remasters (HZD, Days Gone) in the mix
• Release date for Lego Horizon Adventures
• PC port for TLoU 2 Remastered, Demon's Souls, GT7 or Spider-Man 2
• A bunch of 3rd party announcements
• Something about PS+ and PS5 Pro
• End with Death Stranding 2

It's currently September 2016, Sony has just revealed the highly anticipated PS4 Pro and are using gameplay from the upcoming brand new IP games Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone to show off the new hardware.

@Rob_230 Imagine if Sony took the PS5 Pro remake remaster memes seriously like they did with Morbius and we ended up with a PS5 Pro remaster of the 2022 PS5 TLoU remake.

I think it's God of War 2018 or Days Gone, those 2 and HZD are the 3 PS Studios PS4 games that don't have a PS5 version but are already on PC.

Considering Ragnarok releases on PC tomorrow and Sony killed off Days Gone 2, I'm leaning towards Days Gone being the remaster.

Considering even Tomb Raider 2013 failed to reach Square Enix's expectations, I'm pretty sure the real problem is Square Enix's expectations. Multiplatform will probably lead to more sales but Square Enix's expectations would also be higher which cancels out the gains from multiplatform.

I also think Jim Ryan is to blame. Naturally the actions of a platform holder affects 3rd party exclusives and Jim Ryan did a lot of damage to the Playstation brand.

@WizzNL The game already released on PC in 2020 so it's not like the previous remasters/remakes that came to PS5/PC.

The existence of this remaster is concerning.

No console except the original $599 PS3 has full backwards compatibility for more than 1 previous generation (Xbox's backwards compatibility approach for original Xbox and Xbox 360 games on XB1/Series X|S are only partial with lots of games lost in the process). Is this remaster perhaps an indication that while PS6 will be able to play PS5 games, it won't be able to play PS4 games? Push Square did report about PS6 decisions happening in 2022 which is when rumours of the remaster started appearing.

@Judal27 SE seem to be removing games 2 years after added. There was a big FF batch added at the Asia launch of the service in May 2022 and that was removed from all regions in May 2024. The big DQ batch was added in October 2022 and now being removed in October 2024.

The KH batch was added in November 2022 so it's a safe guess it'll be removed in November 2024.

Is this maybe about the Game Awards? 10th anniversary is a big milestone and Sony supports Geoff a lot. Considering GotY will probably be Rebirth or Astro Bot, I could see Sony wanting to take advantage of that with some PS Studios single player announcements.

Kind of like how Nintendo made a bunch of announcements at Game Awards 2017 when they knew it was likely that either BotW or Mario Odyssey was going to win.

@NEStalgia Multiplatform does seem to be the more immediate thing, I mean look at the Gamescom saga. They chose to make Indiana Jones on PS5 be the "one more thing" announcement and then warn people that change is coming.

To me that sounds like a future where you can play PS exclusives on Xbox because Xbox hardware has become Xbox branded PCs (and hence has stores like Steam) meanwhile Xbox has an aggressive PS/Nintendo porting strategy.

The Nintendo side of things is the big unknown. I don't see Nintendo porting to other systems unless Switch 2 went the way of Wii U. Also it's hard to tell whether Sony seeing Lego Horizon Adventures on Switch (a decision seemingly forced by Lego) being a success would tempt an aggressive porting PS exclusives to Switch 2 strategy.

@NEStalgia I think Xbox's next move will be to put Halo/Gears/Forza (leaning towards FH5) in the Switch 2 reveal to kickstart the next batch of multiplatform ports.

I saw on Smyths that the disc drive is out of stock but that there's no new stock incoming "Out of Stock. Expected in stock: No Longer Available" so it looks like Sony are discontinuing the current disc drive.

Oof, that pricing is ridiculous and also probably means next gen will be $799 minimum with no disc drive.

@themightyant Sounds to me like they're completely splitting the two up. Tomorrow is solely about the hardware and then later on in the month there'll be a State of Play which is solely about the software.

Live service means microtransactions (mostly appears in the form of some sort of cosmetics store, loot boxes or battle passes) and there's none in this game.

It's definitely a celebration but it is also sad seeing that so much Sony IP is going unused. Hopefully Sony use appearances in Astro Bot as an opportunity to bring back dormant IP.

Maybe PS5 Pro is releasing in December then? December 6th would be the closest Friday to the 30th anniversary.

Really happy to see it being received so well.

Nice to see them use Astro Bot's launch as the start of PS 30th anniversary celebrations. Would be really cool if a PS event during the celebrations brought back dormant IP.

@get2sammyb At least there's been the classics line but you have situations like the only remasters/remakes greenlighted by Jim Ryan being 2013 games onwards and the only new games for legacy IP being from franchises that got PS4 entries.

Hopefully Astro Bot does well enough to convince Hiroki Totoki and Hermen Hulst that Sony has a gold mine of IP to pick from.

@Rob_230 The impression I'm getting is that ever since Jim Ryan took over, Sony considered 2013 to be the beginning of Playstation rather than 1994.

@AdamNovice Nintendo have some franchises that showcase well that just because there's been a long gap between entries doesn't mean there isn't an opportunity for a comeback to work out.

A good example of this is Pikmin which has had franchise gaps as long as 10 years yet the franchise has grown such that the newest entry (2023's Pikmin 4) turned out to be the best selling game in the franchise.

Remasters/remakes would be a good way to bring pre-PS4 franchises into the spotlight.

I desperately hope that Astro Bot succeeds and at the same time shows Sony that live service isn't the answer.

I hope they give Astro Bot some room before announcing PS5 Pro. It's concerning that it already feels like news about the game is getting buried under endless articles about Concord's failure.

I desperately want to see Astro Bot succeed.

So close, only got the DoA question wrong.

I think the fate of consoles lies solely in the hands of Nintendo at this point. If Switch 2 is reasonably priced, has a strong exclusives lineup and backwards compatibility then I think consoles will be very safe. Xbox just won't be a part of it.

But if Nintendo started releasing their 1st party exclusives on PC like Sony did in 2020, I think consoles would die out as the message sent would be that PC is the place to own everything.

Sounds like PS5 Pro and the rumoured State of Play are 2 separate announcements. I hope this means PS5 Pro is part of a bigger event rather than it just being a blogpost announcement.

In any case, no disc drive is concerning. All digital future is extremely bad.

Would be very surprising if a State of Play rather than a showcase, surely they'd want the console to be announced alongside strong 1st party software lineup. State of Play gives the impression they're repeating May where Fairgame$ takes the role of Concord.

Considering the game was announced in the last Playstation Showcase, perhaps the release date would be given in the next Playstation Showcase.

I think they'll use other platform holder events to announce legacy ports meanwhile their own events and Geoff's events to announce ports for upcoming releases. So like Starfield being announced at the PS5 Pro reveal (maybe due to the power of PS5 Pro the game can run at 4K 60fps), FH5 announced at the Switch 2 reveal, Avowed announced at the Game Awards (the game releases on Xbox in February), etc.

@NEStalgia XB1 had a Wii U situation in a different way, it took too long for the system sellers to arrive. For example with Wii U you had Skyward Sword release on Wii the year before meanwhile with XB1 you had Halo 4 release on 360 the year before which meant it took longer for the new systems to get entries.

Granted, Halo 4 being a XB1 launch title and Gears being a Fall/Holiday 2014 release wouldn't have helped much given how much damage Don Mattrick caused with the console reveal.

Wasn't there talk a few years ago that ditching last gen may result in current gen framerates returning to 30fps?

Dragon's Dogma 2 and MH Wilds are the first 2 RE Engine games to be skipping last gen.

The show was poor though there are some good things to come out of it like Indiana Jones PS5 release window, MH Wilds and Sony's complete absence increasing the chance of a Playstation Showcase happening.

Deciding to launch 2 days before the PC port of GoW Ragnarok sounds like a bad decision.

I hope this isn't a sign of Playstation Showcase being absent this year.

It would be neat if there's a Sonic X Shadow Generations trailer like there was at Summer Game Fest. Hopefully there's more 06 stages in the Shadow campaign, Kingdom Valley in June was a nice surprise.

The biggest thing that makes me question FH5 for PS5 happening at Gamescom is that it would overshadow the new Indiana Jones trailer already confirmed for Opening Night Live as Forza is one of the Xbox big 3 (Halo, Gears, Forza).

I think Indiana Jones and Starfield are most likely to be the PS5 port. Leaning towards Indiana Jones as it has the biggest chance to give the game more attention rather than just devolve into arguments over whether Xbox console is dead.

Could see any of Concord (reminder it exists), Astro Bot (final trailer kind of thing), Until Dawn remake (release date reveal) and Lego Horizon Adventures (release date reveal) appear from Sony but anything else I think they'd save for a September showcase.

Weird that Sony would be doing this. Are they perhaps creating a PC launcher that has crossbuy with purchases made on PS?

I think it's that PS5 never really had an equivalent to Holiday 2016 (161 weeks after PS4 released was December 30th 2016). Push Square reported on crazy sales during that time period and the stuff which happened back then was stuff like PS4 Pro, PSVR (both sold out fast during Holiday 2016), crazy discounts (e.g. PS4 + Uncharted 4 + FIFA 17 for £200), big multiplatform games ditching last gen (e.g. Infinite Warfare was the first CoD not to release on PS3/360 which released on PS4/XB1), etc.

@sanderson72 At this point in PS4's lifespan (November 2013 - June 2017), PS4 was at 63.3 million so the difference is 1.6 million.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2017/08/ps4_shipments_pass_63_3_million_as_sony_finds_itself_in_good_health

@NEStalgia I think Switch 2 could be a factor. With Switch 1 being a gigantic success, 3rd parties are probably wanting to support Switch 2 early on. As a result of optimizing for that system, they may come to the conclusion that it's still worthwhile trying to port to PS4.

@Americansamurai1 I think they'll treat the PS5 Pro reveal similarly to the PS5 Future of Gaming showcase in terms of software. Reveal the console, have a bunch of 3rd party games and most (if not all) of the 2025/2026 1st party lineup present.

After the events of February, this continuing to happen isn't surprising in the slightest.

This article did make me wonder whether PS5 Pro will require a new adapter for PSVR2 to function (like the one used for PC). For context, I'm reminded back to 2016/2017 when Microsoft released XB1 revisions (XB1S and XB1X) and you needed a special Kinect adapter to be able to use the device with those consoles.

By the way PS Direct says the PSVR2 sale ends on August 5th.

@breakneck @PuppetMaster Astro Bot being a success may be able to convince Sony that chasing live service is a bad idea and that taking a Nintendo-like path instead is much better.

@NEStalgia I think it's more about live service than anything else. For example because of GTA Online's gigantic success, Rockstar made it that a new GTA game is now a "once in a lifetime" event. Naturally Sony's going to release new hardware nearby.

I think it will still launch this year. Announce a week or 2 after Astro Bot launches (allowing Astro Bot to get some time in the spotlight) and then release alongside Lego Horizon Adventures.

I wonder if Sony will start doing big PS5 hardware discounts from late July again like they did last year.

I'm going to guess XCOM, the last thing that happened with the franchise was the Switch port in 2020 and the other big 2K IP that got Switch ports had something happen since then. Like we know there's an upcoming Bioshock game and Civilization VII releases next year.