Although there were some leaks ahead of the Sony press conference at E3 2016 (mainly God of War), perhaps the biggest surprise, Death Stranding, remained a mystery up until Hideo Kojima appeared on stage.
As Sony Interactive Entertainment President Andrew House told Japanese site AV Watch (translated by Google Translate), their PR team has introduced a strict new information management system, and it has “begun with almost no [leaks] in its favor.” In fact, he was so concerned about Death Stranding leaks ahead of E3 2016 that they limited the amount of people at rehearsal and didn’t even show the trailer.
Elsewhere in the interview, House talked about the PlayStation 4 Neo, which didn’t appear at E3 2016. While there is a bump in image quality and the frame-rate is increased or more stable with games played on Neo, he says the jump isn’t the same as with a new console generation. There might also be some online multiplayer improvements with Neo, but there’s no additional functionality.
Adding to an earlier comment about how PS4 games designed for Neo require a “small but manageable” amount of extra work, House says he hasn’t heard anyone refer to development as difficult. While there may be some added work, a publisher told him that it’s ‘within a range that can be fully managed.’
House also brought up the fact that Sony expects to move 20 million PS4s this fiscal year, suggesting we may see Neo before March 31, 2017.
