PlayStation 5 Showcase 16/09/2020

Well folks, it finally happened. After months of speculation, discussion and the rumour mill spinning so fast it would make Crash Bandicoot dizzy, Sony finally nutted up and revealed the price and release date for the PlayStation 5. mind you, considering Microsoft were basically forced to reveal the price of both the the Xbox Series X and Series S after the two were leaked last week this should come as no surprise. Both companies were basically in a massive baiting game to get the other company to reveal their price first so with Microsoft having revealed their price, albeit unwillingly, it only made sense for Sony to do the same.

But there was more to this showcase than just the price point as their were also plenty of game trailers to go with it. Some were new announcements while others wee some more details on games we already knew about. So let's go through the event and see what Sony's got for us.

We open with a sizzle reel going over a lot of the games coming to PlayStation 5, most of which is footage from the previous showcase. It's a decent way to start by showing us a bunch of games that are coming to the system even if I would have liked to see more detail on some of them.

But the event kicks of proper with the big reveal of Final Fantasy 16. though strangely the opening caption tells us the game footage is being captured on a PC emulating the PlayStation 5, not exactly the most auspicious of starts. But hey it's Final Fantasy 16, that's a pretty big reveal to start off with. Something about this game though doesn't sit well with me though and I think it's the art style. If you've been paying attention to the Final Fantasy series lately you'll probably have noticed the series has been making a big push for the western market. It started in 15 but it looks to have reached it's nadir with this game. Final Fantasy 16 is the closest to a western RPG the series has ever gotten, at least from what I've seen.

Now that isn't a bad thing, honestly it makes sense they would do this given the collapse of the Japanese gaming market, but I can't help but feel that a lot of the series style has been lost. It looks darker and more serious than a lot of previous entries and a lot of the more colourful aspects of the series appear to have been given a gritty make over, especially the character designs. Say what you will about the goofiness of previous entries character designs at least they were memorable, these new characters look like generic default designs from a Final Fantasy MMO. Even graphically I don't think it's that impressive. Don't get me wrong there are parts of it that do look pretty great like the grand scale of the summons but it doesn't look that much more graphically advanced compared to the last few entries. Then again those games looked really good so I suppose that isn't a bad thing, I just expected it to be a bigger leap graphically.

The game looks like it's following in the Final Fantasy 15 mould. Is that game any good? I don't know the consensus on that one. To be honest I don't know what to think about Final Fantasy 16. I'll have to see more of it before I can make a proper judgement on it. That being said I am glad the series is going back to a more medieval fantasy setting after the modern fantasy approach Final Fantasy 15 took. It's nice to see it go back to it's roots, well kind of. The game is a console exclusive to PlayStation 5 though it is coming to PC as well. I love the end card that revealed that, they put the “also on PC” line at the bottom in tiny text like it was the fine print of a shady contract. Got a laugh out of that.

So after this we get another title card stating that all game footage from this point onwards will be captured directly from a PlayStation 5. Ok now we're getting back on track. And we get some new footage of Spiderman Miles Morales. I loved the Spiderman game on PlayStation 4 and it looks like this new game has the same level of quality. Miles' new powers look like they'll be really fun to mess around with and the set pieces look just as spectacular as the first game if not more so. I'm not fond of The Tinkerer being the main villain, seams like a weak pick considering how good Spidey's rogues gallery is, but this isn't a full sequel it's a smaller side game to tide people over until the proper sequel comes out.

Spiderman Miles Morales looks great and I can't wait to play it when it comes out in the holidays, on PlayStation 4. Yes it turns out that Miles Morales isn't a PS5 exclusive as it will also release concurrently on the PS4. Now they have said that you will be able to upgrade to the PS5 version for free if you decide to upgrade to the new console which is nice but why would I upgrade to the new console when I can play it just fine on a console I already own. This is an issue with the PlayStation 5 but I'll elaborate on that later.

So you remember that Harry Potter RPG that was rumoured a few months back? Turns out it was real. The game is called Hogwarts Legacy and I it sounds like a cool idea. Being able to make your own wizard and explore the Harry Potter world while crafting your own story is a great idea for a videogame. Now I say it sounds good and not it looks good because, well, we didn't get any actual gameplay. It was more of a concept trailer than anything else and those don't excite me too much. Until I see the game in action I can't be too hyped for it. Still the premise is intriguing so I am keeping an eye on this one.

Then we got some new gameplay for Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War. Yeah it's Call of Duty alight. I really don't have anything to say on this one. Do you like Call of Duty? Then you'll probably like this. They did reveal that PlayStation is getting an exclusive multiplayer Alpha, yeah that won't piss off PC and Xbox fans.

Some more footage of Resident Evil 8: Village was next. It looks very different compared to previous Resident Evil games. It follows in the Resident Evil 7 mould with a first person view and more emphasis on horror than action. It also looks like it has an emphasis on eastern European folklore rather than the biological horror of previous games though I suspect that will play a part in the final game. I wish I could say more but there wasn't that much actually shown in the trailer itself. I'm sure Resident Evil fans are super excited though. It comes out next year so it might be a little bit until we see some actual gameplay.

We got another trailer for Death Loop going into more detail on what the game is about. I still think this is a cool premise for a game and the new trailer makes it look even more interesting. It looks like the game will entail you manipulating events to make it easier to kill off your intended targets. I'm not sure if this will be a linear adventure or if you're given some freedom in how you approach each mission but I am intrigued in learning more. I only hope that the recent troubles at Arkane don't negatively impact it. It comes out in the second quarter of 2021 and is a PlayStation console exclusive, meaning it'll be on PC as well. That surprised me because I also thought it was coming to Xbox. Oh wait, it is because it's only a timed exclusive. Man fuck timed exclusives.

Next up we got the reveal of Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition, aka Devil May Cry 5 now with more Vergil. I don't have much to say here since it's an update on Devil May Cry 5. granted Devil May cry 5 was a great game but this is still an update on a 2 year old game and while the added content is nice you can still get the same game for cheaper on current consoles. I also don't know why they don't release this content as DLC for current gen consoles since it doesn't look like that much has been added to it. It is coming out at launch for both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X but only digitally.

Oddworld Soulstorm is next. I'm not the biggest Oddworld fan but I have had a fascination with the series because of it's unique art style. It looks like Soulstorm is a soft reboot of the series following Big n' Tasty which is probably what the series needed after it fell off the rails in the switch to 3D. It looks amazing graphically and the series trademark humour is still in tact despite the darker tone. It definitely seams bigger than previous games too and way more challenging. It's supposedly coming out later this year but they haven't given us an actual release date yet.

Five Nights at Freddy's Security Breach is next. I'm shocked this is still a thing, I thought it ended like 4 years ago. Frankly it should have ended 4 years ago. There really wasn't much to this. If your a fan of Five Nights at Freddy's then I'm sure you'll enjoy this but it just isn't for me.

Alright now we get to the big launch exclusive for the PlayStation 5, the Demon Souls Remake. Not exactly a good sign when the big exclusive is a remake of a PlayStation 3 game but whatever. The game looks, well it looks like Demon Souls. Honestly the gameplay demo wasn't that impressive from a gameplay perspective. It wasn't exactly the most exciting showcase though the sizzle reel at the end did a lot to help it look more interesting. Graphically though it's amazing, best looking game so far. I'm glad it was confirmed as a launch title but, again, the big new launch title for the next generation is a remake. That's not a good sign.

Next up was the announcement that Fortnite is coming to PlayStation 5, to the surprise of absolutely no one. Moving on.

We then got the announcement of the PlayStation Plus collection. Basically if you buy PlayStation Plus at launch you'll have access to a selection of the best PlayStation 4 games for PlayStation 5 as a free download. This is a nice way to play these games on modern platforms but I can't help but feel like this is Sony's belated answer to Xbox Game Pass which is still a better deal because it has way more games on offer. Don't get me wrong this is a nice feature to have but, I already own a PlayStation 4 and have played all the games I was interested in. I'm all for backwards compatibility, one of the main selling points the series X has for me is it's backwards compatibility but that is backwards compatible with every generation of Xbox while the PlayStation Plus Collection only comprises PlayStation 4 games. Come on Sony you could have at least thrown in a couple of PS3 games as well. The PlayStation Plus Collection is a nice bonus but it is a bonus nonetheless, it's not a selling point.

Alright time for the big reveal, the price. How much is this thing gonna set you back for? The price for the PlayStation 5 is, £450 for the standard edition and £360 for the digital edition. Now that's not too bad a price, it's about the same as the Series X which means the two are on equal footing though the Series S being £100 cheaper than the digital PlayStation 5 gives it a slight advantage. I'm surprised that it took both companies so long to reveal the price, though I suspect the reason why might be the two companies trying to one up each other. Phil Spencer has even said he has the go ahead from the heads from Microsoft o sell the Series X at a cheaper price no matter what number Sony put on the PS5. It wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft drops the price by about fifty dollars just before launch.

Sony meanwhile is in a precarious position when it comes to pricing. According to a report by Bloomberg in February, the PlayStation 5 development costs had ballooned to $450 per unit. Meaning that the $499 price point they went with won't likely make that much of a profit. And they can't lower the price either because then they'll be selling it at a loss. Sony is stuck between a rock and a hard place with this one. Now in terms of release date the system will release on November 12th in some territories and November 19th for everywhere else, not sure why they did this but at least it's not that long a wait.

And that's it for the PlayStation 5 Showcase, there was a teaser for the new God of War game but it was just a teaser to say the game is coming and not really worth going over. S what did I think of the event. Well let me say this, in terms of the games shown it was good. Lots of big reveals, tons of good gameplay shown off and some genuine surprises thrown in. It was a good event, but did it make me want to buy a PlayStation 5? Sadly, no. And this is because of one simple fact, most of the games shown here are also coming to PlayStation 4. Yes they won't look as good as they do on the next gen consoles but I'll still be able to play them. Why would I upgrade when I already own a system that can play these games?

That's the main issue facing the PlayStation 5 to me, giving people a reason to upgrade. The only way the PlayStation 5 can get people to upgrade is to have true exclusives, games not available on systems we already own. This cross platform releases aren't necessarily a bad thing but they don't give me an incentive to buy a new console. Why would I when I own a PS4? To make matters worse, even games coming down the pipeline like Horizon Forbidden West will have PlayStation 4 editions as well so, how long is this cross gen release trend going to last.

When you look at the launch line-up for the PlayStation 5 only 2 titles can be called true exclusives, Demon Souls and GodFall. Demon Souls looks great but it's a remake, not a totally new game, and GodFall, as I said in the past, looks like the kind of launch game you forget about after a week. Think about this, the best games the PlayStation 5 has at launch are a remake of a PS3 game, a port of Devil May Cry 5 and a collection of PlayStation 4 game on PlayStation Plus. That's not a good line up. Say what you want about the Series X at least Game Pass gives you access to hundreds of games and it's backwards compatible with every generation of Xbox. And I'm not that convinced on the Series X either but when it comes to playing older games it has the PlayStation beat soundly.

Really this next generation looks like it'll be a slow one to get going. Nothing I've seen makes me think either of the new systems are worth it at launch. And through all of this the Nintendo Switch is selling so well that Sony and Microsoft are essentially battling for the silver medal in this race. Honestly I think I'll stick with the Switch for now, there's still plenty on there I haven't played yet. Maybe I'll get a next gen console later on but for now, I think I'll pass. Until next time, remember to stay safe and have fun.