Sony will Debut Their Own Direct-like Showcase Called "State of Play"

[Ronin]

Sony posted an update on their official blog announcing the kickoff of the first episode of their new game showcase, titled "State of Play." For those who don't know, the company would resign from an E3 appearance this year after more than a decade's attendance in favor of releasing information on their own time. State of Play, reminiscent of their console brand, appears to be the fruit of their efforts and the initial airing will focus on game software/trailers for the Playstation 4 and PSVR. While rumors continue to circulate of an upcoming Playstation 5 reveal, we will more than likely receive nothing more than a tease on that front. Most likely they'll keep the full scoop in reserve for their own Playstation Experience at the end of the year.

The top games are look out for are most likely Death Stranding, Ghosts of Tsushima, and The Last of Us: Part 2.

Furthermore, Microsoft is following suit by holding their own presentation, albeit on a smaller scale. Undoubtedly inspired by Nindies Directs, the big M introduced ID@Xbox Game Pass, a livestream highlighting the independent development side of the Xbox library. This shouldn't be too much of a surprise as the company has been on good terms with Nintendo seeing as Xbox Live and even Cuphead are confirmed to be coming to Switch.

From Nintendo, the most probable Direct coming up will likely center on Smash and Joker's moveset getting shown before he's finally patched in.

What's your take on this news? Are Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo's two biggest competitors, taking notes on how successful the Direct format became and emulating them, or is this unrelated? What do you expect to see at the respective showcases? Are you looking forward to more showcases like these, even if they aren't from Nintendo?

 

[Spirit]

Dont give a thundering **** about Microsoft and Inside Xbox has always been disappointing, so i dont have any faith in the new version.

Sony have potential to do well with theirs but I'm still not gona care much.

 

[the8thark]

MS and Somy didn’t copy the simple naming structure though. Nintendo Direct is so recognisable and easy to remember. The names for the MS and Sony ones are a mouthful. Not something I’ll easily remember.

These companies need to realise that copying what Nintendo does, though totally fine is not the only thing to consider. This only works if they also copy how Nintendo does these things as well.

 

[A Link In Time]

I'll tune in to this first one to see what games are shown and how its presented. But I can't see myself regularly watching these events as I have limited interest in Playstation games outside of what Naughty Dog makes.

 

[A Link In Time]

Awful, awful presentation. This made Nintendo's E3 2008 look good in comparison.

Concrete Valley was the only decent new game shown. It gave me some Epic Mickey vibes. The first half of the presentation was almost entirely dominated by crappy VR games. And then it ended on Days Gone and Mortal Kombat 11, two games releasing next month that we already know a lot about. Such a waste of 20 minutes.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

mmm, it was just kinda boring

 

[the8thark]

All the games shown

Iron Man VR 2019
Crash Team Racing - 21 June 2019
No Mans Sky VR - 2019
Readyset Heroes - 2019
Blood and Truth VR - 28 May 2019
Mini-Mech Mayhem VR - 18 June 2019
Jupiter and Mars VR - 22 April 2019
Falcon Age VR - 9 April 2019
Trover Saves the Universe - 31 May 2019
Everybody’s Golf VR - 21 May 2019
Table of Tales - 16 April 2019
Vacation Simulator - 18 June 2019
Observation - 21 May 2019
Five Nights at Freedy’s - Help Wanted VR - 2019
Concrete Genie - 2019
Days Gone - 26 April 2019
Mortal Kombat 11 - 23 April 2019

There will be more events like this, I thinkgSony want them to be semi regular every year based on what they said in the event.
The big issue I have with them is they mix in major studio games and indies. I don't think that's a good idea for two reasons. If the focus is major games, a few indies thrown in dilutes the whole presentation. Secondly, it also doesn't allow the indies to have the spotlight they deserve. I think Nintendo's idea of separating major games and indies is a much better idea.

Quality of games shown off aside I do think the presentation itself needs more. SOmething to wow us, not just a boring reel of trailers, a few words and then the end. Also the lady presenter really had zero emotion in her voice. You'd think they'd want the presenter to by hyped up about the PS4 line up. Obviously not I guess, but it is something Sony need to work on.

 

[Ronin]

For those who missed it:


Yeah, the presentation overall was pretty sloppy and the song choices were baffling, especially towards the end. Sony tried to shake things up so that it wasn't a complete derivative of the Direct format. But the most harrowing aspect is that virtually none of the games elicited even the slightest bit of excitement from me, and I'm not alone here (just take a look at the dislike ratio). 95% of the showcase hovered around PSVR, which fully indicates that Sony is slowly moving major support towards the Playstation 5 release. Maybe closer to E3 they'll pull out some of the big guns, but this initial showing is something of a debacle.

 

[the8thark]

Sony tried to shake things up so that it wasn't a complete derivative of the Direct format.

I think this was a bad thing. Having indies mixed in with larger studio games really didn't give either the time in the spotlight they each deserved.

But the most harrowing aspect is that virtually none of the games elicited even the slightest bit of excitement from me

I agree. The announcer didn't show the slightest hype for the games. If Sony itself can't even hype up their own games and show lots of emotion, why should we be hyped?

Sonly also forgot that each direct needs at least one must have game. Well, must have for at lwast some of the audience. Earlier in the year, we had Super Mario Maker 2 as the must have game from that direct. From the Nindies we had Cuphead and Blaster Master Zero 2. Add in a lot of other good games too. Even for the indies that are not so good, Nintendo still hypes them up. Even if it's a little cheesy at least Nintendo puts the effort in.

Sony need to realise that Directs are not jsut a verbal press release about a game. That's what it soulded like. Someone was reading a pre-written press release about each game. People don't watch directs to get game info. We can get that info from the internet easily. We watch directs to see how fun the games can be and how fun Nintendo hypes up the games. That potential fun is something a dry press release can't convey.

It seems Sony copied Nintendo with their own Direct. Sony copied what Nintendo did - a Direct, but not how Nintendo did it - making the direct great.
Sony needs to realise success comes with not copying the what, copying the how is the key. You can even copy the how while making the what different. As in copying all the core aspects but put it in your own unique form factor.

 

[Ronin]

Episode 2; not even that big of a bump.


I'm starting to see the overall problem with Sony's take on a bi-monthly news showcase: Compared to the Direct which most people are used to, the presentation just isn't nearly as engaging as it could be. Bits of the trailers makes it seems like they're trying to rush it out in time (like the MH girl saying "Singing" at two different points) but that's an impression I don't want to have. Just seems like Sony is falling short in both quality and quantity, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt as they're still new to this approach.