The strange thing about E3, the biggest video game show on the planet, is how little a platform’s lineup actually matters. On paper, Playstation 4 fans are in a bit of a rough patch, as only one of its major releases is actually slated to release this year. However, Sony not only showed off a number of future titles at their show, they also managed to make those presentations stellar. By innovating and surprising audiences, Sony walked away from E3 as victors, even in the face of a competitor with two new consoles and several big releases over the next calendar year.
It’s not that Sony’s games were completely unexpected. We’ve all known for some time that a new God of War was in the works, for instance, and it was well known that Kojima’s new company was developing for Sony and that Bend was working on their first console release. Even the biggest surprise of the night, a Playstation-exclusive Spider-Man game being developed by Insomniac, had been rumored in previous weeks and made sense given Sony’s ownership of the film properties. But the show was focused specifically on the type of material that fans wanted to see. There was no long aside about a dancing game, or a movie adaptation, or multimedia capabilities. Sony wanted to make sure we were excited about the games we would be playing in the future.
They also deserve credit for taking risks. God of War could have been a simple continuation of the series, lifting the combat and gameplay loop of the previous games and inserting them onto a different time-period or mythology. But instead, the game has been redesigned from the ground up, focusing more on exploration and the relationship Kratos has with his new son. God of War wasn’t the only game this year to take inspiration from The Last of Us, but it was perhaps the most interesting context for such developments. The game shows a commitment to change and growth, not out of financial necessity, but because it’s just more interesting to do so.
This type of commitment carried the night, with Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding being perhaps the strangest game ever shown at the conference. This was also the first year in which Sony’s VR offerings actually appeared to be worth a damn. Several games were shown that didn’t just appear to be fun, but actually looked like they belonged on the current generation of hardware. If the video footage shown is to be believed, then console VR is not as elusive and de-fanged as it once appeared to be.
Even the third-party content shown was refreshingly original. Resident Evil VII’s radically new approach to the franchise is the most exciting thing to happen to it since Resident Evil 4, despite it’s obvious P.T. influence. Hell, even Spider-Man switched up the character’s look and design. The conference was able to seamlessly transition between these titles and Sony’s in-house fare, like the brilliant nature/tech fusion of Horizon: Zero Dawn.
The whole thing makes me feel somewhat sorry for Microsoft, which put on a very solid show and demonstrated a bold new plan for the future. While Sony chickened out on revealing the Playstation Neo officially (despite confirming its existence mere days before), Microsoft went ahead and told everybody about its “Project Scorpio.” Such a move is a bit of a gamble, as it begs many of the same questions that the Playstation Neo does about game development prioritization and short console lifecycles. But Microsoft made it clear that the Scorpio is just one device in an emerging Xbox platform, one that would emphasize PC gaming and several ways to access your games. It’s a risky move, and it remains to be seen whether Microsoft’s open-platform will be able to compete with the likes of Steam, but at least it’s interesting.
Perhaps it is unsurprising that spectacle plays such a huge part in successful game marketing. Given the medium and its emphasis on technical developments and impressive graphics, catering to the audience with surprising demos and cutting-edge imagery may be the best way to go. But it will be interesting to see whether Sony can retain its current momentum, especially in a year with so few releases and so much hardware-based confusion.