Predicting The 2021 PlayStation Showcase

On Thursday, September 9th there will be a showcase on the future of the PlayStation 5. While this is only a glimpse of the short-term future, we will get a look at games coming “this holiday and beyond.” Although we should see every major title Sony plans to release in 2022. Excluding anything related to the upcoming PSVR2 platform. The entire presentation should last around 40 minutes. We have rounded up our best guesses at what we might see.

Sony World Wide Studios

If you take a look at the list of studios Sony owns, it’s hard to come up with a lot. With a 40 minute limit and room for external studios, we do not expect much here. Sony has over 25 games in development internally. We should see anything and everything that will come out in 2022.

Let’s start with the easy guesses, and Gran Turismo 7 should be a lock. Earlier in summer, it leaked Sony had been testing the idea of a GT7 beta. Gran Turismo 7 was first showcased during the 2020 Future of PlayStation Showcase. I fully expect to see an update on GT7, with the possibility of a beta launching that day.

Horizon Forbidden West received its own showcase back in late May. Sony may hold off here, especially after the reaction to the pre-order debacle. Yet Horizon Forbidden West is the next major Sony first-party PS5 game. We expect to see a gameplay trailer here, with the longshot of a demo. PlayStation still has to show what is new this time around.

The Untitled God of War sequel has a very good chance to show during this event as well. This was another game we saw last year, even if it was just a logo. God of War was initially slated to launch in 2021. Unfortunately due to Covid work from home orders and the fires in California last year, that has been moved to 2022. With that said the game should be ready to show.

Another easy guess would be a PS5 release of The Last of Us Part 2. In early 2020 footage leaked of a Last of Us 2 multiplayer. Then Naughty Dog confirmed they were working on a stand-alone release of a follow-up to the multiplayer mode Fractions. Then you have a remake of the original TLoU confirmed to be in the works by former Sony employees. It sounds like a The Last of Us Collection could be on the way very soon. Quite the interesting way to re-sell The Last of Us Part 2 for $69.99.

Another easy guess would be the inevitability of a PS5 port of Dreams. When Dreamscom came and went this summer, we were shocked that a PS5 version of the game was not announced. Sony has been strange when it comes to dealing with this team and their game. The shrinking community could really benefit from a PS5 and PC push to inflate engagement. 

A Mega Announcement Is Coming

Finally, over the weekend Twisted Metal, God of War creator and former Sony director, David Jaffe took to his YouTube channel to hype the event. “There will be two titles shown that I know for sure will be the titles that reflect the Sony that you know, love, and champion about Sony first-party.” Then he goes on to describe a conversation with someone “in the know” at Sony where they speculate on two other games that could show. Both unannounced, one of which will “blow people’s minds.” 

If we were to guess, of the two games, the one that is less of a surprise to Jaffe is probably Spider-Man 2. Marvel’s Spider-Man came out on the PS4 in mid-2018. It became content complete in late 2017 around the time a sequel was green-lit. Another team within the studio followed up with Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales in 2020. With that, the original Spider-Man team could have been incubating ideas for a sequel as early as four years ago. Ultimately It may not end up being a 2022 title, yet it should be ready to officially announce.

As for that second surprise game, Jaffe was reluctant to say who was making the game as it would give away what the game could be. To me, this sounds like BluePoint Studios. It definitely sounds like an IP that we are all familiar with. BluePoint is known for remaking classic Sony games. They also teased they were working on more than one game prior to announcing 2020’s Demon’s Souls. Surely BluePoint is working on at least one classic franchise regardless.

Second Party Partnerships

In 2018 Firewalk Studios was founded by former developers of games like Bioshock, Call of Duty, and Mass Effect. Sony has acquired the services of the team for a “partnership” that was announced back in April. Their AAA Action-RPG-FPS is three years in the making and could be ready to show. Who isn’t looking forward to more monthly headlines of “Is this finally the Destiny killer?”

While both Kena and Deathloop have had their time in the sun this year, the timing of this showcase is centered around the release of these tiles and the Tokyo Games Show. Just like Death Stranding Director’s Cut both Kena (“kay-nah”), and Deathloop are major PlayStation releases that come out this month. Both games will be there in the form of their final launch trailers or maybe an in-depth look at gameplay. 

Sony’s Influence Over TGS 2021

While Sony will not be presenting during the 2021 Tokyo Games Show, it will be there in the form of its many exclusive games from third-party publishers. The TGS events will take place overnight between September 30th and October 3rd. Most if not all of the presentations will not be presented in English. That is because most of it will be old news to us. Between Gamescom, E3, and publisher events this summer, TGS will be tied to new Japanese-specific trailers. I believe a lot of Sony’s timing of Thursday’s event is tied to games that will be shown during TGS. 

Final Fantasy 16 is a prime candidate to be one of these titles. Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix has cemented its relationship with Sony in the form of a number of exclusives. Among them are Final Fantasy 16, Forspoken, and the timed exclusive releases tied to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Both Forspoken and Final Fantasy 16 appeared during these mega PlayStation presentations last year. It is very likely we see at least one of them again. Final Fantasy 16 even featured some gameplay last year. It seems to be further along than most imagine. In the case of Forspoken, we now have a voice actress teasing news is on the way.

Street Fighter VI was long rumored to be a part of last year’s marketing beat around the PlayStation 5. After the departure of Producer Yoshinori Ono and the impact of working from home in Japan, it is uncertain just how delayed Street Fighter VI really is. If it is at all on track for 2022 it would be at this event for sure. Capcom has a 50-minute TGS presentation at the end of the month, with not a lot already announced. They will be showing something at this Sony showcase for sure but what?

Resident Evil Village DLC is a fairly safe bet when trying to guess what Capcom might bring. Resident Evil 7 had three sets of DLC that followed the game’s release, we would not be shocked to see them do the same thing with RE8. I suspect that Capcom would like to release a “Gold” or “Complete” edition of the game alongside the release of PSVR2. Releasing small story expansions within the existing game over the next year is an easy path to that.

While Elden Ring has no presence at TGS, it releases in four months. If Bandai Namco is not ready to show gameplay soon, we would be concerned about their ability to stick the landing this January. We do know that a 15-minute presentation was made during Gamescom last month. It would be easy for the team to slice that footage up and re-package it for this event. Elden Ring is among the most anticipated games today. Showing new Elden Ring content would be a huge win for Sony.

Sega Atlus

Just like Capcom, Sega Atlus has a presentation scheduled for TGS 2021 at the end of the month. It is unlikely that their 50-minute presentation will be tied to just Sonic, Shin Megami Tensei V, and Project Re Fantasy. A PS4 and PS5 port of the recent Persona 4 Golden PC re-release could happen here. It is a cheap and easy way for Sega to make millions of dollars under a franchise Sony would like to claim as theirs.   

With that, a Persona 4 PS4 and PS5 port would be a fantastic way to kick off a two-year marketing push for Persona 6. The follow-up to the massive JRPG hit would be a major announcement for this showcase. We honestly believe it would generate more excitement within the enthusiast community than God of War. Persona 5 as a core game finished development sometime in 2015, prior to globalized localization and porting the game from PS3 to PS4.

It is not clear how much of the team worked on Persona 5 Royal and SMTV but, if pre-production started on Persona 6 in 2016, the game is ready to be announced. Sega is going to market this game for at least a year, probably more. If Persona 6 is not at this event, look for it at The Game Awards later this year. Where the same team just did Sega a huge favor by pushing Super Monkey Ball at Gamescom Opening Night Live.

A Take-Two Interactive Showcase?

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar, 2K, and a small collection of other development teams has a ton cooking with PlayStation. Take-Two Interactive and PlayStation are deeply rooted in marketing campaigns on a number of games together. We already know that Grand Theft Auto 5 is getting a PS5 release on November 11th. Yet we do not know the scope of the content and changes coming to the game. We should find that out here. In addition to GTA V, this would be a great place to announce a PS5 “remaster” of Red Dead Redemption 2. 

Seven hours after the event ends, NBA 2K22 will be released. We could see some WNBA gameplay here. With the WNBA being the major change to this year’s game, it is odd that 2K has yet to release a WNBA-focused trailer. This would be a fantastic spot for that. At the very least this is where we would see the launch trailer for NBA 2K22.

2K’s next major release is going to end up being Tina Tina’s Wonderlands. The Borderlands spinoff series 2K was announced this summer. Tina Tina’s Wonderlands is projected to release within the first quarter of 2022. Yet it has not been given a firm release date, we could see that happen at this showcase. Suprise, on Thursday the team teased news is coming “soon.”

A major 2K release that has been given a firm release date is Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Set to release in March, 2K is going to be making a huge marketing push for its Marvel strategy RPG. If Sony has locked down exclusive content or a demo, something like that could happen here. 

Another 2K game that is a long shot is the Bioshock reboot. Bioshock 4 has been in and out of various stages of development dating back to 2015. It is unclear how far along in development the team is after rebooting production in 2017. Plus not officially announcing Cloud Chamber the new 2K studio behind the game until December 2019. It is a hail mary but, this is exactly the type of game Sony has been buying up as exclusive. Or at the very least have some sort of exclusive marketing deal.

Third-Party

Speaking of exclusive content, Spider-Man is still slated to come to Marvel’s Avengers this year. Square Enix and the team behind the game are adamant about the PlayStation exclusive content coming in 2021 despite its glaring omission from the game’s roadmap. Sony may want to present that content here at this event. Marvel’s Avengers sure could use the boost right now.

Other third-party games Sony has partnerships with include Call of Duty, Genshin Impact, Fall Guys, Among Us, and just about anything from WB Games. This includes Avalanche, the developers working on Hogwarts Legacy. 

Welp, the cat is out of the bag, and an Alan Wake PS5 remake has leaked, and it is releasing this October. We assume Control and Max Payne developers Remedy are set to sneak in the announcement here. They are rumored to be working on another game, could this be just a taste of a bigger announcement? This is a team Sony would love to own one day and has great admiration for their single-player story-driven games.

Indies

PlayStation loves to feature three or four indies at their events. They have an incredible track record of finding some of the most unique and innovative indie titles. PlayStation has a solid relationship with Devolver Digital and I would not be surprised if we saw one or two of the following, Terra Nil, Cult of the Lamb, Wizard with a Gun, and Serious Sam. 

Outside of that, it will be hard to tell what indie developers they have scooped up out of nowhere. The small team over at No Goblin released their PSVR add-on to 100ft Robot Golf back in 2017, they may be ready to share their next title. The same amount of time has passed for Team Cherry, the creators of Hollow Knight. Although their follow-up Hollow Knight: Silksong may be a long shot as many competitors are clamoring to partner with them.

OK, we are “overhyping” this showcase and some of these games will not appear. It will be exciting to see what does make it and what surprises Sony has in store. Many industry insiders and influencers are hyping this event as if something huge is coming. It is very ominous that this is not considered a standard State of Play event but, billed as something larger. Then you have this strange diamond aesthetic in the logo and teaser video. We will have to wait just a few more days to see what it all means.