During last month’s E3/Summer Game Fest announcement bonanza, Sony was one of the many conspicuously absent companies. However, if you were expecting big, E3-style announcements out of the PlayStation maker’s July showcase, prepare to be disappointed.
In a blog post today, Sony Interactive Entertainment senior director of content communications Sid Shuman said that the much-anticipated July 8 “State of Play” event will mostly focus on Deathloop and other third-party games.
“In this extended gameplay sequence, we’ll see Cole use his abilities to stealthily skulk across rooftops…or go in guns blazing to create a whole lot of mayhem,” Shuman wrote of Deathloop. “In addition to this long look at Bethesda’s violent adventure, we’ll have updates on some exciting indie and third-party titles. The full show clocks in around 30 minutes.”
Shuman went on to say that God of War, Horizon Forbidden West, and the next generation of PlayStation VR will be nowhere to be found during this showcase. He added, however, that “we’ll have more updates soon.”
This year’s E3 was fairly disappointing in the grand scheme of Es and 3s, and many were hoping additional presentations from companies like Sony and EA in July would at least partially remedy that. Now, though, Sony has tossed a bucket of ice-cold water on fans’ speculative fires, and BioWare said last week that it won’t be bringing Dragon Age or Mass Effect to EA Play Live on July 22. It seems, then, that publishers are directly asking fans to temper their expectations.
This might come as a bit of a letdown, but it makes sense; no company managed to fully mitigate the ravages of covid, a pandemic whose impacts on industries will continue to be felt long after this summer. All of which is to say: You’ve probably got a lengthy backlog, and there’s an endless list of indies waiting in the wings for you to try. Probably focus on those for now.