Rate-a-Conference E3 2016: Sony
After the Microsoft conference, it seemed unlikely that Sony would be able to top what their competitor had shown. Yet, somehow, Sony managed to do just that. This was an amazing conference, and will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the best that has ever been put on. The show started with a bang, with the reveal of a new God of War game that looks more The Last of Us than hack and slash brawler, and after that, the show never slowed down. Sony Bend finally announced their new title, a Zombie game entitled Days Gone; The Last Guardian made an appearance afterwards, finally revealing a release date for the much-delayed title; Horizon Zero got a hefty gameplay video, and Detroit, the new David Cage game was shown (with all the emotions).
The calibre of all of these reveals is truly mind-blowing to see
VR was also shown off a lot, with even more games revealed for the platform. This included the surprising reveal of a Batman Arkham VR game; and Insomniac was revealed to be making a PS4 exclusive Spiderman game. Then, we saw two absolutely crazy reveals come completely out of left field. Crash Bandicoot was surprisingly, not dead, and will be returning soon with a fully remastered version of the original trilogy, as well as an appearance in the next Skylanders game. We also got an appearance from Hideo Kojima, who showed off a CG trailer for his new title, Death Stranding, which stars Norman Reedus, and seems to involve some kind of invisible robo-baby, as well as dead fish.
The calibre of all of these reveals is truly mind-blowing to see. Each one showcases the power that Sony currently wields as the market leader in terms of consoles. There wasn’t a single game in this show that looked poor, or had a bad showing, and most of them look set to be fantastic titles. However, as always, there are some caveats to this. The Kojima reveal is meaningless at this point, with the game most likely not releasing until 2019 at the earliest; the lack of talk about the Playstation Neo was jarring; and bizarrely, a lot of these games all seem to look the same (i.e. like The Last of Us). However, that is not to take away from the strength of this press conference.
This was an amazing conference
Sony could easily have used this show as a way to do a victory lap, and for them to bask in their success, but instead, they did the exact opposite, refusing to rest on their laurels, instead opting to show even more games that prove that what they are currently doing truly is ‘for the players.’
Game of the Conference: God of War (because it looks like it’s become an interesting franchise again)
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