Here’s my main event, the show I always look forward to. I took the Tuesday off work to ensure I could watch this live in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Can Sony follow up on 2 of the greatest E3 conferences in 2015 and 2016. Shawn Layden the week before this conference told us to expect some surprise Japanese game announcements and that there wouldn’t be much talking but plenty of game trailers much like 2016. Plenty of 3rd party partnerships to promote too such as Battlefront, COD, Destiny 2, Fifa, Far Cry… unless of course if these are skipped due to them appearing at their own respective conferences (minus the Activision titles). Without further adieu here is how Sony’s conference went:

Much like last year, Sony have “Too many games!” so they started their conference off with a preshow at 1am.

Pre-Show

Preshow starts with a  nostalgic video for Gran Turismo, reminding us of the good times from Gran Turismo 1 all the way up to the new iteration Gran Turismo Sport. No official date given, just the year of 2017. Perhaps the date will be dropped in the main conference.

Crash Bandicoot is up next on the pre-show. A new trailer for Crash Bandicoot N.Sane trilogy. Coco is playable.

Following this up is Mark Cerny discussing the PS4Pro. He mentions he’s especially impressed with Horizon: Zero Dawn suggesting it looks great on PS4, but is another level on PS4Pro. He goes on to disucss Kojima Studio’s Death Stranding & Insomniacs Spiderman games. They look pretty incredible in this press snippet.

New Knack 2 trailer is shown, It’ll release in September this year.

New scheme called Playlink launching, Mobile phones can be used to play these games. First game revealed is called Hidden Agenda and it’s from the developers of Until Dawn. Playlink acts a second screen, so the game is played on the TV, but 5 other players can interact with the game with their phones. Another game announced call “That’s you” sounds like a party game, again using PlayLink. That’s you is free to PS+ members coming out July 4th

Matterfall is next to be shown on the pre-show. It’s from the makers of Resogun.

HotShots (Everybody’s golf) is next with a new trailer. Sony Smashing games out so far just in the pre-show. Coming out on August 29th.

After this we get another look at GT Sport. Still no date, but this time we get “Fall 2017”.

A PSVR game is announced, Superhot VR. Superhot has been out for PC a little while now, but nice to see it adapted for VR.

Another VR game announced called SPARC.

Another game trailer shown for a game teased last week. Tropico 6 features on the preshow, it’s coming 2018.

And onto another game, It’s Undertale. Incredible news, Undertale coming to PS4. Legitimate great news!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pXeuXtzr-I

And the games keep coming, we now get a new trailer for Ni No Kuni 2. Please remember this is JUST THE PRE-SHOW SONY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9fbNzc-tzI

PSX is confirmed for December 9th and 10th. Good news! And we’re finally starting the live show after a pre-show that could rival some of the actual conferences we’ve seen so far.

PlayStation Conference

We’re in the theatre like last year, we’ve got an orchestra like last year. Here we go. The orchestra this year has a distinct “Indian” theme and vibe to it. Perhaps building towards Uncharted: The Lost Legacy? The answer is yes, We get a look at Naughty Dog’s next game slash DLC.

What appears to be snow starts falling inside the theatre, and a Guerilla Games logo appears on the screen. Horizon Zero Dawn DLC?? YES Please! Aloy returns. Horizin Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds.

Straight to another trailer now, Bend Studio logo flashes onto the screen. We get a new extended look at Days Gone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQj5s7k3GxU

After that Shawn Layden makes his way to the stage. “let’s just agree we love games, and want to see more of them!”. Shawn touches on the 2017 release schedule so far with Horizon, Nioh, Persona 5, Resident Evil 7. And there’s plenty more to come. Bringing the exclusives we want, and home to the biggest and best 3rd party franchise. And with that, we’re back to the games. A game that has a rabid cult following now to be shown…It’s Monster Hunter. It’s coming early 2018.

Japan Studio logo is next, followed by Bluepoint. Shadow of The Colossus Remake / Remaster. WOW. Coming in 2018

Fire lights the stage next, It’s Marvel vs Capcom Infinite up next. Pretty epic looking trailer, coming September 18th. Dante is name dropped in the trailer. A little teaser to Devil May Cry 5?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl6Cpu1NE1Q

Looks like we’re continuing the 3rd party reel as Call of Duty WW2 is up next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPxE-7Vw-FQ

And now we’re moving onto PSVR. It sounds like Skyrim music, and it is. Skyrim VR is happening. Looks like Bethesda have been busy getting their games primed for VR. Another VR game now called Star Child. A Sony Interactive Entertainment game from Supermassive Games is up next. The Inpatient, looks like some sort of asylum escape game. Final Fantasy 15 VR makes another appearance. Coming September 2017. Another Supermassive PSVR game starts up. It’s called Bravo Team. To the next VR game it’s called Moss.

And now hopefully back to traditional PS4 games. I think it’s time for God of War. Yep… It is! It’s coming early 2018.

Next up, Detroit: Become Human.

Onto Destiny 2 next.

Shawn Layden is welcomed back to the stage after that rollercoaster of games. A true exclusive for PS4 now. Spider-Man to close the show out? Spiderman is releasing in 2018.

So that was it, it was only just over an hour. It was a good show, but I do feel a little disappointed, which is weird. I guess it’ll always be tough to try and compete with E3 2015 and E3 2016 going forwards. The pre-show packed a lot of punches, which I think perhaps fuelled the hype for the main conference. I can see there being a fair bit of negativity from this show. Where the hell was our Shenmue HD Collection 🙁

– Murr