written by Mohammad Fahmi
Sony recently held an online event proudly titled “The Future of Gaming.” The livestream that ran for over an hour showcased the games that will be released on PlayStation 5 and ended with the reveal of the PlayStation 5. While the livestream was watched by more than 7 million people worldwide across multiple platforms, was it enough to entertain gamers all over the world during this tough time? Let’s talk about both the good and bad of it.
Beginning with the Bad
In a show called The Future of Gaming, Sony somehow decided that it would be a great idea to open it with an announcement of GTA5, a game that was first released in 2013 for the PlayStation 3. To make it even worse, the trailer was almost the same as the trailer we have known for seven years, only with more information about new content for the PlayStation 5 version. To be honest, with that opening, I was surprised that Sony didn’t follow up with another announcement of Skyrim.
No Price Point Announcement
It seems weird that both Sony and Microsoft haven’t announced the price of their next generation consoles. All we knew was the fact that PlayStation 5 will arrive with a digital-only version, which will more than likely be cheaper than the regular version. Another interesting point we should consider, during an interview with BBC , Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said that they emphasize on value rather than price. Judging from that statement, it seems like PlayStation 5 won’t be a cheap console to have.
Also, no release date announcement
Holiday 2020, so far that’s the only information we have on the release date of both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Sony has confirmed that the pandemic that is currently happening around the world won’t mess with their schedule to release PlayStation 5 this year, even though it might affect the number of units they can sell. But, seeing how The Last of Us Part 2 had to be delayed due to logistical problems caused by COVID-19, it’s not surprising that Sony will hold out any details on the date until they get everything sorted out.
Bad communications on one of the game announced
Among the fantastic games announced, one title caused quite the discussions online due to the vague nature of its release. The game was Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the new chapter of Insomniac’s Spider-Man planned for PlayStation 5. The trailer announcement made some people conclude that the game is a sequel to the 2018 Spider-Man for PlayStation 4, while a Sony executive said that it’s an expansion from the 2018 game. Later on, Insomniac confirmed that while Miles Morales is based on the 2018 Spider-Man, it will be a standalone game like Uncharted: Lost Legacy.
Now for all the Good
Enough with the bad news. Now, let’s talk about the amazing things that happened during the livestream.
Design Reveals
After speculations and fake images that were spread out across the internet for months, Sony finally showcased their next console. The PlayStation 5 appears to have a sleek design with white as the dominant color of the console. There are no other color variants confirmed yet, but judging from the fantastic Photoshop work by the fans, it seems like the default white color of the PlayStation 5 won’t be the most beautiful version of the console.
One thing the announcement failed to mention is how big this console is. A Reddit user, GREBO7 , took this matter at hand by comparing the size of the disc tray with the previous PlayStations and Xbox. The result? PlayStation 5 might be the biggest console we’ve seen since the first Xbox. Hopefully, this drawback means less noise when running any upcoming AAA games.
The Exclusives
PlayStation is known to be the home for high-quality single player exclusive titles. So, it’s not surprising to see that the second game announced in the event is a single player exclusive game for PlayStation 5, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, that will be released this holiday season.
The show continued with more amazing exclusives announcements such as Gran Turismo 7, Ratchet & Clank, Sackboy A Big Adventure, Returnal, Demon’s Souls, and the long awaited Horizon Zero Dawn sequel, Horizon Zero Dawn: Forbidden West. More surprisingly, we were shocked to learn that Bethesda’s upcoming action-shooter Deathloop, as well as their next-generation action-adventure game Ghostwire Tokyo will in fact both be PlayStation 5 console exclusives.
Good balance between the big games and the indies
We can’t deny that some of the best games that were released in the past decade were indie games. But games from smaller teams with smaller budgets tend to get so much hate by a lot of gamers online. Thankfully, Sony didn’t back down and decided to showcase a good number of indie games that are confirmed to appear on PlayStation 5.
From the queer adventure game Goodbye Volcano High, the cyberpunk cat platformer Stray, Little Devil Inside, Kena, Oddworld Soulstorm, to the latest game from the creator of Octodad that featured a soundtrack from Kero Kero Bonito, Bugsnax.
Overall, the event seems to have yielded pretty positive reactions from gamers all over the world. Although, without any details on the price and release date, it’s still hard to decide which one (PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X) will conquer the game industry for the ninth generation of video game consoles. But judging from the games announced, Microsoft sure needs to take cautions against PlayStation 5’s amazing library of games.