Sony has announced its annual PlayStation Showcase and I feel nothing. That’s partially my declining mental health talking, but it’s also quite sad that a platform that used to ignite such feelings of excitement within me can now barely manage a dejected hurrah. Since the PS5 launched almost three years ago, true exclusives remain in the single digits and what we can expect in the coming months are all sequels, remasters, and live service expansions of universes we’re already familiar with. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is going to be great, there’s little denying that, but deep down I know it’s an open world superhero game with all the bells and whistles that come with it. I’ll enjoy it, but to say I’m excited would be a lie.
With a runtime of just over an hour, Sony has confirmed the showcase will focus on a range of upcoming PS5 and PS VR 2 games. None were given specific mention, although Spidey and the likes of Factions 2, Pragmata, Silent Hill 2, Goodbye Volcano High, Tekken 8, and Little Devil Inside all feel like safe bets. A mixture of first and third-party exclusives and the mandatory indie darlings that inject a bit of variety into proceedings. These are all games I want to play, although there are none I’m foaming at the mouth to get my hands on. Once again, the end product in most of these cases are experiences that are much too easy to predict, or their eventual release is far enough away that getting my hopes up now feels pointless.
When my mind is forced to conjure up potential new announcements, all of them fall into sequel territory or things rumoured so far in advance that speculating feels futile. Bluepoint is probably working on a Metal Gear Solid remake, Ghost of Tsushima 2 is definitely a thing, and aside from Factions 2, Naughty Dog is either flirting with a new IP or yet another sad marathon through the apocalypse. Final Fantasy 16 is too close to its launch for another major glimpse, not to mention it was recently the focus on an overlong State of Play.
So what exactly does this leave us with? Sony has plenty of first party studios and enough firm relationships with outside partners to blow the doors off, but increasing budgets and production pipelines means there are less games and even fewer opportunities to show us what its talent is busy working on. It sucks, and was always going to be the endpoint once Sony began putting blockbuster prestige over gameplay variety. Even looking back at the PS4 era, there were far more memorable exclusives and ideas doing the rounds. Nier Automata began its life as a PS4 exclusive and was downright industry defining, while other gems like Gravity Rush 2 and Concrete Genie helped push forward a diversity other platforms just didn’t have.
Except last week Pixelopus was shuttered, and recently Dreams live support was given an end date as Media Molecule moves onto a new, likely less risk-averse project. Japan Studio biting the dust with only Team Asobi rising from the ashes also casts aside PlayStation’s far more experimental ideas which helped cement its place on the map to begin with. Jim Ryan has a narrow international view on where this brand is going and what games will charter its success, and sadly the ones I grew up enamoured with aren’t a part of that vision anymore.
When you consider that perspective, it’s easy to see why I’ve become disillusioned with it all. The big PS5 exclusives worth talking about mostly meld into a single, expensive mass of the same successful narrative tropes and gameplay templates. When they don’t, kinda like Days Gone on PS4, everything is done to scrub them from history and ensure they aren’t sat alongside the cool kids. God of War Ragnarok, Marvel’s
Spider-Man, Horizon Forbidden West, and The Last of Us are all great games, but ones I’d struggle to define as truly unique.
Time has taught me the Showcase won’t remedy these misgivings, and everything points to a future on this platform further obsessed with narrative prestige and live service offerings as the things I value most are left in the dust. Maybe I’m stubbornly attached to the distant past, or maybe Sony has tasted success so palpable it doesn’t want to risk leaving it behind. The medium needs genre diversity though, and to see PlayStation abandon it bums me out.
I’m willing to let myself be surprised, yet it sucks to know a passion I used to have for Sony’s output has diminished so rapidly. A doubly depressing thought when I know most exclusive games arriving in the coming months and years are bound to be incredible, but fail to light a fire in me. My tastes and desires have developed into a new direction I welcome, but I can’t deny the bittersweet reality that the platform I grew up with doesn’t resonate with me any longer.