As you might have heard, PlayStation has revealed that they will be hosting a live presentation on March 25, 2019 called State of Play. E3 and other large events have become less relevant and viable, and many companies have decided to approach things in a more controlled and probably less expensive way in the form of streaming. We’ve already seen PlayStation and EA drop out of this year’s E3, so it isn’t exactly surprising that we’re getting a streamed broadcast instead.
Nintendo is sort of famous for this with their Nintendo Direct presentations, giving us a fast-paced barrage of new announcements and deep dives into upcoming games. Even Xbox has started down this path with their Inside Xbox live presentation.
With State of Play, it seems like the same sort of approach, giving us new information, game announcements, software updates, and more. The idea of getting a Nintendo Direct-style presentation from PlayStation is super exciting and it makes you wonder what they’ll show off.
There are still the main four that PlayStation has in the works: The Last of Us Part II, Dreams, Ghost of Tsushima, and Death Stranding, plus other slightly smaller projects. These are titles like WiLD and Concrete Genie. That being said, it might be obvious that State of Play would give us more info on those upcoming games, like release dates. But it’s been reported that the event will cover new announcements, as well.
What would make this worthwhile? We probably won’t get a PS5 reveal this soon, or any other hardware for that matter (sorry, Vita 2). Maybe we’ll see a new iteration of VR? It might be too soon for that, too. But we’re really hoping for some games to be revealed. Maybe some new remasters/ports and an update on the upcoming MediEvil remake.
There’s a ton they could show off, so let’s dive into what we’d like to see from PlayStation State of Play. Check out the gallery below for our wishlist of things we want to see in the PlayStation State of Play broadcast, then take to the comments below to let us know what you’d like to see!
What We'd Like to See from State of Play
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Fast and Snappy Pacing
Part of what makes Nintendo Directs so entertaining and successful is the way they're presented. They're usually short, fast-paced presentations with a ton of information packed in.
It's great because you barely have time to breathe because of the constant flow of announcements. Sure, not everything will blow your mind, but there's always so much stuff, it's hard to not be excited.
We'd like to see PlayStation replicate this with State of Play, while keeping us on our toes with constant announcements.
It may seem like asking a lot, but not everything has to be an insane announcement. If it even comes close to the pacing of Nintendo Directs, we'll be happy.
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Update on Bluepoint Games' New Project
After how well Bluepoint Games did on the Shadow of the Colossus remake, it's exciting to see what they'll do next.
The team is known for some awesome ports like the God of War Collection, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, and The Nathan Drake Collection.
The team announced that their next project would be bigger than Shadow of the Colossus, but it's unclear what that means exactly. We'd love to see an Ape Escape remake, but that doesn't really fit the description of being bigger than their last game.
What is clear is how excited we are to see what they're doing. Maybe an old beloved title will be brought back from the dead.
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What's Next for PS Plus
A major point of contention recently has been the handling of PS Plus after the departure of PS3 and Vita games. We went from getting six games each month to only two.
Now, it's arguable that the quality of games has increased (seriously, play The Witness), but since that's subjective, it might be best of PlayStation added a few more games to the service to make up for the loss of PS3 and Vita.
Many fans want PSVR games or other features to make the service worth their money. It's definitely an understandable point, so PlayStation has to evolve the service as we get closer to PS5.
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Update on the Main Four (What is Death Stranding?)
It would not be surprising at all if we got an update on the big PlayStation exclusives. To remind everyone those are: The Last of Us Part II, Dreams, Ghost of Tsushima, and Death Stranding.
Most of those titles are easy to understand. The Last of Us Part II will play much like the first game and we've even seen some gameplay footage for it, but we'd love to see more.
Dreams, again, is easy to understand if you can wrap your head around the fact that you can almost do anything you want anything in it, which might be intimidating.
As for Ghost of Tsushima, we know less about it, but from the gameplay footage at E3, it seems like it's an action game with an emphasis on melee combat.
As for Death Stranding, I couldn't tell you what that game is about or how it will play. We've seen various trailers over the years and even gameplay footage last year, but it's still unclear what this game will be or when it will release.
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PS One Classics on PS4
Do you remember that neat feature included on the PS3 and PS Vita? The one that allowed you to play PS One Classics digitally? The feature that is inexplicably absent from PS4?
Yeah, that one. It's insane that two last-gen systems were able to do this but the PS4 cannot. We've never heard an explanation from Sony as to why we can't play PS One Games digitally on our PS4s, so all we can do is speculate and be baffled that it isn't included.
They're leaving money on the table with this, or at least it seems like they are. Maybe the PS4 makes it more difficult to integrate, but since the system has been so successful, it seems like Sony could make it happen anyway.
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New PSVR Updates and Games
The PSVR is in an interesting place right now. On one hand, it has gained tremendous popularity and has earned a ton of revenue for PlayStation, leading the way for modern VR headsets.
But even still, VR is tough to demo and because of this, it makes it a hard sell to consumers. Also, despite going on sale frequently last holiday, PSVR is still an expensive product.
To be clear, it's the least expensive VR headset on the market, but consumers have a hard time shelling out hundreds of dollars for a device that can only be experienced if you try it on.
State of Play could announce some new PSVR games to add to the impressive collection. In turn, this could be what the device needs to garner more sales.
Games like Astro Bot, Resident Evil 7, Moss, Batman: Arkham VR, and more are awesome, but it doesn't seem like we often get games that generate traction like those do.
It's unlikely that we'll see a new PSVR headset, but some new features could be patched in to incentivize a purchase, as well as the announcement of more games.
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A Response to Google Stadia
You might have seen Google's GDC presentation announcing Google Stadia, a new streaming platform that allows users to play AAA high-fidelity games on a browser.
What was shown was impressive, sure, but it's unlikely that it will pick up as quickly as Google would like. Either way, this technology is impressive and it makes you wonder what the other companies will do to compete.
To be clear, PlayStation probably won't come up with an exact replica of this, but they might do something similar.
You can already use PS Now on PC and PS4, but when compared to Google Stadia, they really need to step it up if they don't want to be overshadowed.
PlayStation also recently enabled the ability to play PS4 games on iPhone with the use of Remote Play, which is definitely a step in the right direction, but still nowhere near what Stadia is promising.
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Send the PS4 off With a Bang
Finally, PlayStation needs to send the PS4 off with a bang. Sure, we have the main four in the pipeline, but we've known about them all for quite some time, so it would be awesome to get one more surprise to bookend the system with.
This is wishful thinking, of course, but getting a huge game, one that many of have been clamoring for, could send the system off right.
A game of the same caliber as The Last of Us Part II or Ghost of Tsushima.
Sony has been so eerily quiet lately that surely they have something to talk about now, right? We won't hold our breath, but can you imagine the explosion of positivity if Sony announced Bloodborne 2?
Not likely, but it certainly would help keep their momentum going as the next generation approaches.
