It cannot be emphasized enough. Sony’s State of Play, PlayStation’s version of Nintendo’s “Directs”, was a massive disappointment. It’s unfortunate too, because it had so much potential. Sony has a wonderful new system in the PlayStation 5, but like so many consoles that launch prematurely, there’s very little in terms of substance for the platform. Sony confirmed this today, as most of their announcements for the PlayStation 5 were PlayStation 4 ports or smaller titles that yes, look incredibly interesting, but weren’t supplemented with any huge announcement. The most interesting showcases were Deathloop, which looks fantastic, and Kena: Bridge of Spirits, which also looks phenomenal. Kena will come out in August for both the PlayStation 4 and Playstation 5, while Deathloop is a timed exclusive coming out on May 21. The biggest announcement was Final Fantasy VII Remake: Interlude, which is a port of the PlayStation 4 game with an extra chapter padded on. Sony did need to do that much to hype the fanbase, but it’s unfortunate to see that they didn’t even do the bare minimum. It may be unfair to compare it to Nintendo’s direct, but Nintendo had announcement after announcement after announcement. They had several new titles, exclusives, announced. Skyward Sword HD may be an HD remaster of a 10-year-old game, but, it still excites the fanbase. Splatoon 3 and a new Mario Golf entry look incredible.
Sony just needed to show one thing. One big announcement, or one big showcase, and it would have been a solid presentation. If they had shown some of Horizon Forbidden West it would have been a success. That’s a game everybody could rally behind. While the PlayStation 5 is very difficult to find, it simply doesn’t warrant a purchase right now given the price and the library of games. There’s very little in terms of exclusives. Perhaps if Horizon was already out, it would be a nice purchase. Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a great entry in the Spider-Man franchise and has some nice representation as well. But that will only carry the system so far. The problem is fundamental and systemic to next-generation systems, and the only company that managed to figure this problem out at launch was Nintendo with the Switch. While its big game was Breath of the Wild, which also came out on the Wii U, it had a slew of exclusive, original, AAA titles between launch and the following six months. The PlayStation 5 has no such lineup. Nintendo has been doing digital events for years and knows what works and what doesn’t. Sony is new to this game and hasn’t figured it out.
There’s always the possibility that I’m completely wrong here, and I accept that reality. Maybe I’m simply not the target audience for the State of Play digital events. I love Sony, and PlayStation is a fantastic brand. This criticism is not out of disdain for any company or gaming platform, but more a frustration that the platform isn’t living up to its potential. It’s still early and supply is low, but Nintendo and the Switch have been dominating the Japanese video game market for some time now. They are consistently on top in hardware sales and software sales. I would love to get a PlayStation 5 if the system was warranted, but right now, it isn’t. There aren’t enough exclusives and there aren’t enough announcements that would warrant a purchase. When your one major announcement is a port for a game that isn’t even a year old, in Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade, there’s a serious issue. It takes time to develop games and optimize them for a system, and this isn’t a knock on developers, but it feels as if Sony rushed the PlayStation 5 out the door when it wasn’t ready. And that is very unfortunate.