PlayStation 2021 Showcase – Reaction

PlayStation Showcase 2021 – What Showcase?

I was massively excited about this. It was hyped to insanity, and it was absolutely nothing. I’m getting this out of the way now: IT. WAS. BAD. I’ll tell you why in a minute, but WHERE WERE THE 2021 TITLES? Where were the things we didn’t already know about? (Barring Wolverine which is incredibly hype, but no date, so I expect 2025.)

So, let’s start with the marketing. They said it would be a 40-min. stream, however, 5 minutes of it was taken up by an advert leaving just 35 minutes. Surely the big hype announcements were on the way? Well, not really. Of course, the Star Wars KOTOR remake is hype, but it’s only a timed exclusive, with no footage and no release date.

Then there was Project EVE, a PC and PS5 title that did look surprisingly decent. I am always up for an action game and it looks like Sony’s investment into Asian devs may well be paying off. However, and maybe this may be me being overly cynical, it didn’t look like anything special. It looked fun, but that’s easy to do with these games, and it did absolutely nothing new. Still, not a bad entry for the stream.

KOTOR REMAKE PS5
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

What followed was Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, which I am personally very hype for, and it was great to see footage; it did leave me wondering though. We were told about a unique spell casting system, yet we saw just more guns and again this is multi-platform. So while I am excited for this, it was a case of another multi-plat game in a “PlayStation showcase”.

Then there was Forspoken, which does indeed look great and is an actual game and not a typical SE tech show-off. I am excited about it, and I will likely buy the game, but again, it was a title we already knew about and one of many 2022 titles. It also doesn’t look like anything special; just your average fun romp. It is, however, an exclusive which only one other game shown at this point was, which at 15 mins. in was fine.  However, after that, it was just multi-platforms for the majority of the show.

tiny tina's wonderlands ps5
Borderlands: Tiny Tina’s Wonderland

For some bizarre reason, we saw more Rainbow Six Extraction. Why this was here, I do not know, and it took up 2 minutes. We did get a look at the Alan Wake remaster, which for me personally is very exciting, but again a multi-platform title which is fine, I guess, but this was a PlayStation showcase and all we saw for almost the entire show was multi-platform titles. We also saw more GTA V for another 2 mins. because that’s what everyone wants to see, right? It can only get better, right? Well, no. Not really.

What followed was a closer look at Ghostwire, but the trailer still lacked context, it’s only a timed exclusive, and it didn’t even have a 2022 date. Meaning, it might end up hitting 2023, if they can’t even promise 2022 at this point.  The next 6 minutes were taken up by the multi-plat underwhelming GOTG game, the painfully average Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt, and then, to everyone’s dismay, 3 more minutes of Deathloop. At least this one is an exclusive, even if yet again timed, but I don’t think anyone wanted to see more, at least not at a “PlayStation showcase”.

We then got what may, or may not be, an exclusive in the form of a very cryptic Kid A Mnesia Exhibition (not a typo), which looks to be another walking corridor horror sim that we’ve seen a million times before. It was followed by Tchia which does not seem to be an exclusive, and while I’m sure it has its audience, it will likely be on the younger side who really does not need a PS5, so this clearly will be on PS4.

The follow-up to that was a remaster of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy for PS5 and PC. Now, this puts me in a weird spot as a PC owner and PS5 owner. I am very happy to get this on PC so that I can use a mouse for shooting and get very high fps at the resolutions I want. On the other hand, it’s not much of a “PlayStation showcase”, in addition to that, why not simply bring the entire series? Surely porting the PS4 remasters and upping them to 4k60 couldn’t be that hard.

And that left 8 minutes for the heavy hitters. Just 8 minutes out of the advertised 40 to talk about first-party titles. In a way, it started off strong with Insomniac making a Wolverine game, an “emotional” one with old Logan, which is incredibly hype but no date. One would assume 2023 but is likely as far out as 2025.

We then got to see GT7, which does look amazing and has a lot of features from previous games that people may not have been expecting. It looks great visually and the content is without a doubt very high. It is, however, a 2022 title that is 6 months away and cross-gen. It is fitting of a “PlayStation showcase” but I was left wondering about 2021. The answer to that was not great, but I’ll get to it later.

Gran Turismo 7

We then got to see a teaser for Spider-Man 2, which is dated for 2023, which is why Wolverine is likely 2025. My problem with that trailer though is simple: no gameplay! We knew Spider-Man 2 was coming, we knew Miles and Peter would be together, and we knew Venom was going to be in it. So, all the trailer did was serve as a reminder to what we already knew. It is still a title to be excited for, but nothing big “reveal-wise”. Surely a new announcement of something we were not aware of, a reveal of something new and coming soon was around the corner, right? Sadly, no. Wolverine was the only announcement, and again while very exciting, it is also very far off.

The show then closed with God of War 2, officially titled God Of War Ragnarok. Now, I have quite a few issues with this, even though the game looks absolutely amazing visually and as a sequel to GOW 2018. As I’ve already said, the game looks fantastic but I was waiting for the date! I assumed, and hoped, given that Horizon’s delay GOW2 would actually hit its promised 2021 date. Nope, not even a 2022 window, although I expect it to hit 2022. The problem here is it is yet another 2021 title that is not happening. The blog post says see you next year, so I’m assuming this is in the 2nd half of 2022, at best.

God Of War Ragnarok Release
God of War: Ragnarok

That was it. That was the show. Now, on one hand, you could argue we got Wolverine, God Of War 2, Spider-Man 2, GT 7 – that’s one hell of a show. I would, however, beg to differ for a few reasons. For starters, only two of these titles will likely hit 2022, with one guaranteed and the other nearly certain. Spider-Man 2 is 2023 and Wolverine likely further off. This leaves only two games for 2022, both of which we already knew existed and while they look great there was no megaton reveal.

We heard about 25 games in dev, with over half being new IPs, how the show was about 2021, and the future of PlayStation, yet no new IPs were shown and only previously announced titles were featured. The 2021 stuff was all multi-platform. That is the problem. The end of 2021 is coming, the holiday season is near, and there is no title to push for X-mas. While there are already some solid titles for the PS5, a lot are cross-gen and there’s no big holiday title. Microsoft has their first big title, in fact, the only big title for their new console since before their launch: HALO. This is where Sony has messed up for me. If you already own a PS5, then (the admittedly amazing) Ratchet and Clank is all you got. If you were holding out for more titles before you buy, there’s nothing for you again this year. Holiday 2021 for the PS5 is incredibly dry.

This was no “PlayStation showcase”, it was a multi-platform, previously announced extravaganza. With only a hint for a new title absolute years out and no acknowledgment that GOW 2 is missing its promised release date. Sony was completely silent about that and it’s obvious why, as it is a very bad look. Neither were any of the “new IPs” or the other approximately ten games in development. I also am not sure where I sit with Wolverine being an exclusive. Sony seems to be getting all the actual big Marvel games as exclusives, which is not a good thing for consumers, in my opinion. Yes, there’s Marvel Avengers which has a great core ruined by GAAS trash, and GOTG looks very rough and incredibly average.

The big hitters are exclusive to Sony and I don’t think that’s good for anyone in the long run. So, if you already own a PS5 – nothing for you this year! The first year consisted of a cross-gen Spider-Man, a next-gen exclusive remake of a PS3 game, the amazing Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and more great cross-gens.

Summary

Unless you are a Ratchet fan, there is absolutely zero reason to get one by Christmas. Especially true if you’re already one of the over 116 million PS4 owners. This was incredibly deflating, completely overhyped, and has me slightly concerned for PlayStation under Jim Ryan.

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