PS5 Showcase Highs and Lows

Sony plays by its own schedule. They do not care about traditional announcement schedules like the whole summer. Instead, they put the PS5 Showcase, their equivalent of an E3 conference, in early September.

We got a lot of great looks at their upcoming release schedule, but what stuck out for good and bad reasons?

High: Gameplay Trailers

One of the easiest ways to grab people’s attention? Show them actual gameplay. Well, Sony had that in spades.

During the presentation, we got gameplay trailers for well over half of what was shown. Not only did we get footage from known titles like Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, but also newly announced titles like Project Eve.

Sony showed that they know what fans want, and that is gameplay.

High: Insomniac Studios

No studio has the horsepower or accolades that Insomniac has. Since 2018, they have released two Spider-Man games and a brand new Ratchet & Clank game. All earned high praise, so you’d think they’d be ready to take some time off, right?

Nope, they needed to add Wolverine to their Marvel-inspired video games. Oh and we’re getting an official Spider-Man 2 with Venom and Kraven in 2023.

Insomniac’s pace and quality are unmatched right now. Don’t get us wrong, Microsoft bought a lot of fantastic studios over the past few years, but Sony arguably still has the top one right now.

Low: Exact Release Dates

COVID-19’s long-term effects are really showing. There were very few titles with exact release dates, some of which release in the coming months. However, those were exceptions, not the rule.

Developers are clearly hesitant to give exact release dates because their work has been backtracked so hard. Nobody wants to commit to exact release windows now because we can’t predict them. It’s an understandable move, but it’s also a sad one to know about.

Low: Smaller Studios

Remember how the last generation made a marked departure from small, riskier releases? Sony’s PS5 Showcase seems to want to keep it that way.

Small studios had tiny moments with Tchia from Awaceb, but that was really it. Project Eve does look quite interesting, but it fits the mold that most games were shown at the showcase have. Realistic graphics and third-person camera for another action game.

Don’t get me wrong, that mold is a successful mold that many great games fit into. However, Sony makes many of those games and does not offer as much as other places.

Overall, this was a great showing from Sony. Insomniac keeps going and expected major releases got full reveals today. It wasn’t perfect, but this was a very strong showing.