Grumblevolcano

So the PS4 Pro setup was:

• Codename announcement in June
• Reveal at Playstation Meeting in September (the event was announced a month in advance)
• Released in November

Considering nowadays E3 is dead and it's perfectly normal for Sony to remain on the quieter side, it does feel realistic that even though there was no codename announcement there ends up being a Playstation Showcase in September to reveal the PS5 Pro with TGS being the first place where the public can try it out for themselves.

@Americansamurai1 I think they're saving it for 2025. 2023 was a rather quiet year for PS Studios so by the approximate 2+ year rule (Ragnarok was a bit under 2 years), 2025 would be a quiet year for newly eligible PC releases. Hence they'd fill in the gaps with older stuff, I think 2025 for PC would look like:

• TLoU 2
• Demon's Souls
• GT7
• Spider-Man 2
• 2 live service games that release on PS5 in 2025

If Sony were to go all digital, they'd probably need to add other stores on their systems due to EU regulations which would mean the Microsoft Store (with Game Pass included) is forced on there much like how Epic Games Store (and soon Microsoft Store) was forced onto iOS devices despite Apple not wanting it. That is a very strong reason for Sony to want to still support physical media as a result.

I think the fate of physical for Sony/Nintendo very much lies in the hands of retailers at this point. If retailers are willing to sell physical games then Sony/Nintendo will continue to make physical games. Can't say I'm optimistic considering how quickly retailers have been wanting to kill off DVD/Blu-ray recently though.

They'll likely do their usual annual State of Play/Showcase in September.

It was ok but the best part of event season hasn't happened yet. I have no doubts that the Nintendo Direct will be the best showcase of the bunch.

@get2sammyb I think it's all about timing. The 2 year gap between PS and PC release for new PS Studios single player games would mean that 2025/2026 is quieter on that front for PC so to fill in the lineup there's older stuff mixed in. So perhaps Bloodborne remake is a PS5 Pro launch title and then comes to PC in 2025.

Given Sony's big push for Horizon, I could see the Switch version of this be Aloy's gateway into the next Smash game.

@Sleepwalking I think the title should've been something like "Rumour: Playstation Studios PS5 game revealed at Summer Game Fest tomorrow" with the image being the Playstation Studios logo.

Sony already said no new major IP releases for April 2024 - March 2025. Horizon is a major IP so wouldn't that mean the earliest it can arrive is April 2025?

@HonestHick A year seems optimistic considering the RDR1 situation. I could honestly see Rockstar release a Switch 2 port of GTA6 before PC.

@NEStalgia @HonestHick I think Sony's current PC strategy is centralized around GTA6. Rockstar are infamous for treating PC as an afterthought so Sony's logic is probably that PC players will buy PS5 for GTA6 and then as they have the system anyway, they may as well play PS Studios games on PS5 instead of waiting.

Not sure it'll play out like that though, could end up being that PC players buy PS5 for GTA6 and then use it just as a GTA6 machine with PS Studios games still bought on PC.

Hermen Hulst said their single player PC strategy is to convince people to buy sequels on PS. So if they timed the PC release of TLoU 2 with season 2 of the TV show, that would suggest TLoU 3 is the next Naughty Dog game for PS5.

Not hyped, I figure it'll be like the recent State of Play but if Astro Bot was replaced with Fairgame$.

@Americansamurai1 I think Until Dawn will get a release date, that's what happened last year (Spider-Man 2 had a Fall 2023 release window and then got an October 20th release date at Summer Game Fest).

Square Enix wasn't on the partner list for Summer Game Fest so this isn't a surprise. Which leaves the Xbox showcase out of the current event season as the remaining possibility if any (won't be at the Nintendo Direct because the rest of the franchise is cloud versions for the current Switch and there's no news on the successor).

The State of Play was ok, had some absolutely fantastic reveals like Astro Bot and more MH Wilds news meanwhile also had rough parts like the decision to spend a third of the show on Concord.

Playstation is a partner for Summer Game Fest so we know that there's more announcements to come. Regarding the big PS Studios heavy showcase people are hoping for, I feel that will happen whenever Sony chooses to reveal the PS5 Pro.

Also, considering the big Xbox multiplatform strategy I think Sony knows what's being announced at the Xbox showcase. If stuff like Gears 6 are coming to PS5 day 1, that will create more big buzz about PS5.

@AverageGamer Sony's PC announcements in State of Play and PS Showcase are PS5/PC announcements the vast majority of the time. Those events having PC announcements of games that already have a PS5 version only happened twice:

• June 2022 - Spider-Man PC
• May 2024 - GoW Ragnarok PC

An ok State of Play. Astro Bot was a fantastic announcement and it was really cool seeing more MH Wilds (I honestly thought that would've been Summer Game Fest instead). Definitely the 2 highlights of the show.

Biggest negative was that 10 minutes on Concord disrupted pacing a lot.

@GamingFan4Lyf I think it's because of Halo Infinite. They did a gigantic marketing push including lots of physical marketing for that game and it backfired massively so they considered big marketing pushes a waste of money. A "If Halo can't do it, nothing Xbox can" kind of thing.

So theoretically we could use the PC port choices Sony make to get an idea for what's coming in the future on PS5.

@UltimateOtaku91 Agreed about Silent Hill 2, the State of Play is later in the day than usual such that it looks intentionally lined up to be very close to the Silent Hill Transmission event.

@Dragoon1994 I think SEGA's big push at Summer Game Fest will be Metaphor.

@Americansamurai1 I think Ghost 2 clashes with Assassin's Creed Shadows, considering Sony had the marketing for Assassin's Creed and Avatar last year it feels like Shadows is more likely to appear.

My predictions for the 14 games are:

• Astro Bot
• Concord
• Until Dawn remake
• GoW Ragnarok PC
• Assassin's Creed Shadows
• Resident Evil 9 (begins the SoP)
• Kingdom Hearts 4 (ends the SoP)
• Sonic X Shadow Generations
• Silent Hill 2 Remake (then reappears for a more in depth look at the Silent Hill Transmission event which starts around 30 minutes after SoP ends)
• MGS Delta
• Metro Awakening (PSVR2)
• 3 indie games (at least 1 of which is a PS+ Extra/Premium game)

Then Sony's presence at Summer Game Fest being all about Horizon.

Nice to see that a PS event is happening after all. Also this doesn't have the Summer Game Fest branding which means there'll be more announcements at Summer Game Fest considering Playstation is a partner.

@jFug That happened back with the first Silent Hill event. There was lots of rumours about an October 2022 Playstation Showcase but in the end we saw lots of standalone PS related announcements instead. Silent Hill got its own event with SH2 remake being PS exclusive, Resident Evil got its own event with State of Play branding, FFXVI got a big standalone trailer, etc.

@Haruki_NLI Maybe it was planned to be Switch successor instead of the current Switch but then the successor got delayed far enough into the future that they ported it to the current Switch instead?

Good to see that it's seemingly no longer Xbox exclusive.

@Enriesto Fridays tend to get saved for bad news though. I do think it's very bizarre that Geoff chose to have Summer Game Fest on a Friday when all the previous times were Thursdays.

I think time has run out for a showcase announcement in May, if something's happening next week it seems to be a State of Play being announced 1-2 days before instead.

Maybe they have a September showcase to mirror Playstation Meeting 2016 where they announced the PS4 Pro but on the other hand I could see them just using Geoff's events, blogposts and another State of Play instead to reveal PS news this year.

It's already past 3pm in the UK so it's looking very much like no showcase for next week. Possibly just a regular State of Play like in 2022.

@NEStalgia On the Playstation side of things, I'd guess it would be stuff like:

• Announcement of PS5 Pro
• What the aggressive PC strategy is (can be interpreted in different ways like does it mean day 1 on PC? PC launcher? forced PSN requirement for all PC releases?)
• More info on the mobile strategy
• More info about Playstation TV/movies and the connection to the gaming side of things
• Announcing that Aloy is the face of Playstation going forward much like Mario is for Nintendo

Pretty much just enough details such that a Playstation Showcase can be focused all in on the games rather than having to delve into ecosystem stuff. Do note the meeting is a general Sony meeting so there's going to be a load of stuff unrelated to Playstation.

@NEStalgia Yeah, at first it seemed like showcase would've been in some way connected to the financial results but then the results came in and they announced the corporate strategy meeting. If they don't announce by the end of the meeting, I get the impression there isn't a showcase and instead Sony pulls a 2022.

Their corporate strategy meeting is in 12 hours so I'd be surprised if showcase isn't announced by the end of that.

@Americansamurai1 The mobile market only accepts FTP games, the traditional model of buying a game doesn't work well there.

I think the corporate strategy meeting on May 23rd 2:30am UK time will announce PS5 Pro (and any other hardware) as well as what the aggressive PC strategy is which then allows the showcase to be focused on the games.

Sounds like either they'll price hike or force ads into every tier of Game Pass.

@Fiendish-Beaver Whatever the strategy is, it'll likely be announced on May 23rd at the meeting about Sony's long term vision for the future. More details on aggressive PC strategy feels more like a corporate meeting type thing rather than something you'd announce in a PS showcase.

@Beerheadgamer82 Agreed, at this point it seems most likely that Sony announces showcase on May 23rd at the Sony long term vision event for airing on May 30th.

@Frmknst Time is running out to announce a showcase if it is on the 23rd considering they announce a week in advance. Only State of Play has a shorter window between announce and airing.

If true, this is starting to sound like it may turn out to be annual franchise territory:

• 2022 - Horizon Forbidden West
• 2023 - Horizon Call of the Mountain, HFW Burning Shores DLC
• 2024 - Horizon Zero Dawn remaster/remake
• 2025 - LEGO Horizon
• 2026 - Horizon multiplayer game
• 2027 - Horizon 3

I figure that the June Xbox showcase will have a load of PS announcements meanwhile the June Nintendo Direct has a segment dedicated to more Rare games coming to Switch (including Diddy Kong Racing).

It's likely because of the Xbox multiplatform saga combined with Sony putting the PS5 on sale frequently during January - March 2024. That 2 week period when the rumours spiraled out of control and Microsoft just said nothing would've especially done a load of damage to people's interest in buying Series X|S.

@thefourfoldroot1 I'm hoping enhancement means like aiming for more frequent releases via variety of scope while maintaining quality. So like there being your usual big releases (e.g. TLoU, Horizon, GoW) and then there's a bunch of smaller projects in between (e.g. the rumoured Astro Bot game).

This further gives the impression that GTA6 is earlier on in the year like March/April. Have GTA6 start the year and then 2nd half of 2025 onwards being a packed 1st party lineup.

@Th3solution My guess is that 3rd party PS exclusives/marketing deals are coming to an end (like CoD marketing has come to an end and no more Square Enix exclusivity from next month outside of Foamstars) but people still naturally come to PS5 anyway.

@Zenos @NEStalgia I think it's more about GTA6 than anything else. In 2015 you had stuff like GTAV 360/PS3 updates ending and Black Ops 3 missing out on content so for the typical mainstream player, you knew you needed a PS4 at that point.

This generation has stuck around with last gen for a lot longer than usual. 2025 is the big current gen moment with GTA6 so you'd probably see a spike in hardware sales start this holiday season.

@pharos_haven I don't know how powerful but I think it would be like how the Switch had some "miracle" ports of games from the PS4/XB1 era (DOOM 2016, DOOM Eternal, Witcher 3, Nier Automata, etc.).

That's really promising for Switch 2 3rd party support. Hopefully we see a situation where the Playstation Showcase has stuff like Octopath 1 and Triangle Strategy meanwhile the Switch 2 reveal has stuff like Remake/Rebirth/FF16.

Maybe it's something to do with LEGO Fortnite?