Reaction: Solid Xbox Showcase Should Give Sony Some Motivation To Stop Being Sony Clock And Duggar About PS5, PS4

The curtain has closed on what is, in this writer’s partially informed opinion, perhaps the strongest Xbox Showcase In recent memory. It wasn’t a total knockout on par with some of the PlayStation’s best ever E3 Presentations – Is something even possible now that we’ve effectively transitioned from a live audience to a trailer montage? – But it was too much, very much Rich in choice of first-party and third-party titles, across a spectrum of good, different genres and themes.

Perhaps most surprising about this presentation was the sheer strength of its third-party content: Sony has historically done an excellent job of signing marketing deals with the biggest names in the industry, but Microsoft has been unable to find major, traditional has brought the heat with its selection of PlayStation-centric series. , like Persona 3 Reload and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The Redmond firm’s outreach team strategy appears laser-targeted at titles with historic Sony associations, which makes sense.

Trailer for while elsewhere The Clockwork Revolution And south of midnight Lack of, it is clear that Microsoft has a significant investment in the acquisition slowly Beginning to bear fruit. There a very much of first-party games in livestream, incl the story, Hellblade II: The Saga of SenuaAnd Accepted. Some will point to the lack of meaningful release windows outside of Starfield and Forza MotorsportBut that doesn’t mean their presence should be ignored.

And all this after an underwhelming PS Showcase Which shed an unexpected light on Sony’s roadmap of PS5 exclusives. We know it’s partnered with Square Enix to secure console exclusivity for Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth , but outside of those two the only ones really waiting are Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Helldivers 2 . Yes, it’s publishing Death Stranding 2, Stellar Blade, and Rise of the Ronin, but it’s fair to say we’re mostly being left in the dark.

The platform holder tried to use its presentation to introduce new studios Heaven and Firewalk last month, but neither FairGame$ nor Concorde really satisfied the appetite. And with Marvel being Wolverine only From the sometimes-industrious Insomniac Games to more publicly known first-party projects, we’d argue that it’s time for a cloak-and-daggers approach to the organization’s upcoming titles. The next time Sony takes to the YouTube stage, it will need to deliver.

Of course, context is important here: PlayStation has No The voyage has been made, and it is releasing the major, game of the year Caliber exclusive games for a lot of year now And we know that the likes of Naughty Dog, Santa Monica Studio, Band Studio, Guerrilla Games, and more are busy working on new projects for us to enjoy. All this is comforting; Even the most cynical enthusiast wouldn’t try to argue that there’s any danger of a PS5 drought, even with so few unknowns.

But with its main Redmond rival starting to reveal the goods, the time to pull back the curtain — if only a little — is now. Last month’s PS Showcase wasn’t a disaster by any stretch of the imagination, but it was easily the weakest of showcases in a summer gaming schedule that once again failed to capture the spirit of the best E3 years. With the platform holder effectively taking a year off in 2022, it needs to understand that fans now expect – and arguably deserve – a more meaningful roadmap from its many first-party teams.

How are you feeling about the PS Showcase after Microsoft’s big show? Do you think Sony’s presentation managed to stack up, or are you still disappointed by the lack of first-party projects at the show? Let us know in the comments section below.