E3 2021: The point about Sony
E3 2021
The new generation of consoles is now widely underway and, usually, this would have transformed the period of E3 into an authentic struggle without quarter, a race for the most prominent exclusivity, the most exciting service, the most prized coat of arms.Unfortunately, however, the Los Angeles festival seems to have lost much of its magic and no longer seems to be the forge of dreams it was until a few years ago.
The reasons may be different, not least the fact that thanks to the spread of live streaming services such as Twitch, large international publishers can organize proprietary events in which to completely focus attention on themselves, without being forced to share the spotlight with fierce competitors.
It is a bit of the philosophy that Nintendo has adopted for some time with its Nintendo Direct program, a series of videos at irregular intervals through which to inform the community about the status of work and about the new games coming for the console of the great N.
Even Sony seems to have decided to veer in a similar direction with the State of Play label, deserting E3 for 3 years now and opting for a separate presentation also on the occasion of the reveal of PS5.
Sony's communication strategy has sacrificed participation in major events such as E3 in favor of the State of Play, following in the footsteps of Nintendo's Direct. Yet, PlayStation was the protagonist of some of the most memorable moments in E3 history. It is impossible to forget the orchestra conducted by maestro Bear McCreary (already winner of an Emmy Award for the DaVinci's Demons series) which anticipated the dazzling return of Kratos; the exciting presentation of PS4 with all the communication strategy that allowed Sony to dominate the latest generation of consoles; the incredible announcement of Final Fantasy VII Remake that literally blew up the internet.
In short, PlayStation at E3 has always been synonymous with great surprises, at least until a few years ago.
What will happen, then, in 2021? Unfortunately, no one knows for sure. Sony has already announced that it will not officially participate in the event again this year, leaving to direct competition what was once the most prestigious stage of the entire industry.
It must be said that, unlike Xbox Game Studios which still play mostly hole cards, the vast majority of Sony's first party studios have already revealed their ongoing projects.
Sony Santa Monica is working on the sequel to God of War, recently postponed to 2022, Guerrilla Games is in the final stages of work on Horizon: Forbidden West (protagonist of the latest episode of State of Play) while Insomniac Games is about to launch its Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
In the past, Sony has been one of the protagonists of E3 with some of the most unforgettable moments of the event. How can we forget the orchestra of maestro Bear McCreary who presented God of War to the world? Sucker Punch, fresh from the global success of Ghost of Tsushima, has recently started the recruitment campaign for his new project (evidently still in the most embryonic stages of development); Naughty Dog only released their masterpiece The Last of Us Part II last year, so it's hard to believe they're ready to show the general public something new.
In all likelihood Media Molecule will continue to support the his Dreams (yes, a real dream factory) while Poliphony Digital will continue work on Gran Turismo 7, also postponed to 2022.
The biggest unknowns remain Sony Bend (the authors of Days Gone ) and London Studio (former creators of The Getaway series), both protagonists, recently, of rumors about possible triple-A projects coming to PlayStation 5, between new IPs and the return of historical series such as Siphon Filter or the The Getaway itself.
Nothing prevents, however, that given the large size of the large internal teams of the Japanese giant, someone is also secretly producing other titles of which we do not know exist but, at least for the moment, we have no data to support of this hypothesis.
So what? That's all? No surprises? Has Sony fired all its cartridges yet? Apparently not.
Most of Sony's in-house studios have already spoken openly about their developing projects. Will there be room for some unexpected surprises? A few weeks ago Christian Svensson, Sony's third-party studio relations manager posted a hissing post on LinkedIn inviting fans to 'wait and see what PlayStation's third-party partners are working on'.
This statement follows another rather interesting public release, that of PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst who, around mid-May, said that there are as many as 25 exclusive titles of various caliber coming to PS4 and PS5. It is time, therefore, to launch into some speculation.
The first name that comes to mind is that of Bluepoint Games, the talented studio specializing in the restoration of old glories that accompanied the release of PlayStation 5 with the excellent remake of Demon's Souls. Bluepoint periodically becomes the protagonist of new rumors and rumors about phantom new titles in the works: only time will tell us if, under these rumors, there is also a fund of truth.
There are those who speak of a return of Legacy of Kain by the Texan studio of Marco Thrush and Andy O'Neil, who claims to have information about a re-release of the Jak & Daxter trilogy, who hopes to see the next-gen version of Bloodborne.
The most recurring suggestion, however, is that of a complete remake of the first, timeless, legendary Metal Gear Solid, an authentic milestone of the action / stealth genre released in Europe back in 1999. It would be an incredible blow for Sony but, although Konami has exposed itself with several comments on probable collaborations with external firms, it is difficult to predict whether this possibility will materialize or not.
Is Silent Hill really in the pipeline? Many insiders agree: Sony is about to announce a collaboration with Konami. Staying on the subject of Konami, we cannot help but mention the proverbial elephant in the room, the title that more than any other has been linked to the PlayStation brand in recent months, always remaining elusive and ethereal: Silent Hill.
Multiple industry insiders have expressed their opinion on the existence of a new episode of Konami's splendid horror series, now absent from the scene after the clumsy attempt made with Downpour in 2012 which led to the closure of the studio due to bankruptcy Czech Vatra Games. If we were to unbalance, we would say without concealing a certain emotion that the city of fog is really about to return to our consoles but ... in what form? Will it be a remake of the first episode? A reboot similar to the one attempted by the never too late PT / Silent Hills by Hideo Kojima? And above all: who is developing it?
Some say that Sony's historic Japan Studios has been reorganized precisely to support the work on the new Silent Hill but the recent removal of several of the team's most illustrious personalities does not bode well. We'll see (with fingers crossed).
Another rather intriguing rumor that has made its way onto the pages of all the major gaming information sites concerns Square Enix which, apparently, is collaborating with Team Ninja (former creators of the Ninja Gaiden series and the acclaimed NiOh) to create a soulslike Final Fantasy spin-off called Final Fantasy Origins which should feature refined action gameplay just like that of From Software's Souls and a ' very dark and violent setting.
Everything would arrive exclusively on PlayStation just like NiOh in its time and like the next canonical chapter of the series, Final Fantasy XVI. Do we want to believe it? Of course yes, but we will have to wait for the arrival of the next Sony Showcase to find out and, to date, there is not even the shadow of a date yet: it could easily end in September as it happened last year. for the presentation of the new flagship PlayStation.
Most read now
Microsoft launches 'Xbox Deals Unlocked', great discounts on games, three months Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for € 1 and much more
Take advantage of it!
Twitch, Reddit and half internet down would be all the fault of a single user
A 'sleeping' bug has been awakened.
Activision: CEO Bobby Kotick still takes stellar salary despite cut according to investors
Vain efforts?
According to some rumors, Final Fantasy Origins could be a soulslike developed from Team Ninja for PS5. We can't wait to know more. For the rest, Sony may have signed exclusivity agreements really with anyone to support the first years of the PS5 life cycle, waiting for the heavyweights of the proprietary team to be ready to drop their usual bombs.
Just think of the maneuvers that led to the arrival of Street Fighter V only on PS4, to Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo only on PS5 (by the way, both owned by Microsoft for a bizarre chain of events) or Square Enix's Athia project which later became Forspoken.
So PlayStation, if you are there, take a shot. Even without E3, even without the magic of years past, we can't wait to know what you have in store for us.
What about you? What do you expect? What game would you most like to see announced at a hypothetical Sony event? Let us know in the comments!
