Sony is still not in the mood for talking (Credits: DPA/PA Images)
A reader is disappointed by the lack of new announcements at Gamescom and worries that the only company that came out of it well was Xbox.
You could have been forgiven for not noticing, but It was Gamescom this week – the so-called European equivalent to E3. Ignoring the fact that E3 doesn’t exist anymore I was still looking forward to Gamescom, because it had a preview event before it started by Geoff Keighley and there seemed to be quite a few different publishers attending both that and the event itself.
As anyone who watched it will know, Gamescom Opening Night Live was a complete waste of time, with no major announcements and the final reveal being a few unexciting minutes of Alan Wake 2. Not much of a mic drop moment.
I’m used to seeing dozens of interesting interviews from developers and industry figures from around the world, but I think I’ve seen maybe three this year… all from Xbox related people. There might not have been much news of interest this week but everything I have heard has been from or about Xbox, whether it’s Starfield, Phil Spencer or Forza Motorsport and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. By comparison, PlayStation 5 and Sony might as well not exist.
It’s pointless asking why Sony are being so silent, many have asked the question over the course of the last year and all you can do is guess. It’s so hard to work out because it makes no sense, especially when Sony are the kings of announcing a game before it’s released and have profited from doing so every time. This includes announcing things at Gamescom and yet his year they weren’t there at all.
Some thought they were keeping quiet because of the Activision Blizzard business but now that’s over they’re still the same. We all know they’re working on a PS5 Slim (and probably PS5 Pro) but they won’t announce it and rather than a new State of Play all we got about the PlayStation Portal was another boring blog post (that tried to hide the fact that thing is even more useless than it originally seemed).
Whatever Sony thinks is being gained from this is clearly not working and they desperately need to change their approach. Microsoft is walking all over them in terms of mind share and while Xbox might be behind in sales they’re clearly on the rise and Sony is doing less than nothing to counter them.
The only game Sony has out this year is Spider-Man 2 and yet they completely failed to make that look exciting in their terrible summer showcase. I’m sure it’ll be good but there seems to be zero chance it can match the hype or the quality of Zelda or Starfield.
Since there’s no obvious reason for the lack of communication there’s also no obvious point at which you can hope this madness will end. Will there be a new State of Play this autumn? Maybe, but there’s been no leaks or clue to say there is, so there could easily not be.
Sony feels like they’re asleep at the wheel and worse than that, they don’t care. People are still buying their consoles so they seem to figure that if they carry on doing nothing they can get the maximum reward for the minimum effort.
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If I had a release schedule like Sony, and the world’s biggest company breathing down my neck, I’d feel a bit more sense of urgency, about trying to keep my fans onside. Everything Sony has done for the last eight months or more is the opposite of that and I’m worrying that it’s really beginning to harm the long term prospects of the PlayStation 5.
I don’t say this out of a sense of brand loyalty but the fact that I have a PlayStation 5 and I’m beginning to think I backed the wrong horse. If it was easy to swap rides halfway through I’d seriously contemplate it and yet all I’d need to reassure me is a few promises from Sony, and all I get is deafening silence…
By reader ContractLad
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A reader is disappointed by the lack of new announcements at Gamescom and worries that the only company that came out of it well was Xbox.