It won’t matter one bit, but the PlayStation Showcase left me concerned about the PS5’s future

I didn’t watch the PlayStation Showcase live for a number of boring reasons (one involves projectile vomiting, if you must know), but I watched it as if it were live this morning in the hope that a series of exciting announcements would lift my sad bones. My bones were not raised. In fact, they spontaneously moved to form the exact pose of the shrug emoji.

If this was Sony’s big showcase for PS5 this year, its “E3 moment” was uninspiring at best and worrying at worst. It’s not that it didn’t highlight some cool games, it just didn’t do much to get me excited about PlayStation, something the company does very well at its big launch events.

Xbox was quick to point out the featured games last night that are also coming to Xbox. You may not agree, but this list of games is the majority of the best titles featured in the showcase.

I’m excited about some of these, for sure (Alan Wake 2, absolutely; Dragon’s Dogma 2, oh yeah; Assassin’s Creed Mirage; Jim made me put it here), but usually these cross-platform blockbusters are accompanied by prestigious PlayStation titles. . E3 presentations of the past have seen real “wow” moments. This May Showcase had none. Maybe Metal Gear Solid 3 was meant to be, but it’s been an open secret for a long time and it’s not a PlayStation exclusive.

E3 2015 gave us Horizon Zero Dawn, Dreams, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Shenmue 3. It’s hard to explain how incredible that showcase was. Yes, Shenmue 3 turned out less well than we all expected, but there was genuine enthusiasm surrounding these games. Games that were and still are exclusive to the PlayStation console.

Obviously Sony isn’t just trying to woo me (although I wish they were) and everyone has to deal with development issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but yesterday I felt next to nothing for their lineup of exclusive games. . Final Fantasy 16, yes it looks lovely and is the most interested I’ve been in the series since CVG’s review of FF7 on PlayStation, but this isn’t new and exciting for a showcase. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 looked good, but then again, it’s not new, and to be honest, I don’t love the series like most people seem to.

I also can’t help but feel bad about how the show ended with Spider-Man. It’s a big deal for Sony, and I saw a lot of people delighted with the visuals of the game, but a known game that’s more or less going to deliver exactly what we expect, to me, isn’t a “and finally” game. Start the show off with Spider-Man 2, not the worst-titled game ever conceived, Fairgame$.

Aside from those two admittedly huge games, the aforementioned Fairgame$ shooter which I hope is dead on arrival, Helldivers 2 will be fine, and Concord is a PvP shooter, so file that as potentially DoA along with Fairgame$. I know much of my disappointment is directly related to my expectations, and Sony no doubt has more games to come (who knows, maybe they’ll even show up at Summer Game Fest on June 8), but currently what’s known to come no It doesn’t compare well with what’s already come, and that’s not exactly a very high bar.

Don’t read this the wrong way. PS5 has a lot of great games this year, next year, and beyond. However, as a way to get me (and I assume others) excited about the PS5, the May showcase just didn’t work. Having said all that, I think I’d actually use that remote playback handheld if it works well enough. It’s perhaps my highlight of the show, which really says it all.