10°

Playstation Showcase 2023 good but not amazing

We've waited a good time for a PlayStation Showcase as long, varied and dedicated as last nights viewing and yet I walked away from it feeling that we would have to wait a little bit longer for what we many of us were after.

I do not often buy into the hype and expectations set by the media and public for these events but acknowledge that a lot of people do and for those, they were set high leaving most feeling underwhelmed. We were treated to a showcase of 3rd party/ MMO game reveals that offered little beyond intrigue with the grand finale being a big look at Spiderman 2. Some of these titles I believe will be sleepers and turn out to be pretty decent. Going in, I should have known that this is how Sony would setup for this event as this year's big system sellers will be Final Fantasy and Spiderman, so it makes sense that these two would be the main focus, especially as the competition hasn't really pushed anything out so far. There is little reason to show all your cards.

The two standouts outside of FF & Spiderman were Metal Gear Solid and Project Q. MGS actually made me say WOW. It could be the nostalgia, it could be the intro. All I know is that it did enough to grab me and want it immediately. Then we had Project Q. I believe that this is the beginning of Sony really pushing a cloud service and haven't really seen that being talked about since. It's the perfect system to have a streamable game service that doesn't require you to own a PS5. It will be really interesting to see the price point of this product and the map for it's lifecylce going forward.

To close, I felt like the show needed one big first party game to really round it off. That should have been factions. The only reason I could think that they haven shown it yet is because they want to keep building the hype and then give it a state of play.

If inwas a betting man, I'd say there will be a nother showcase before Christmas that sets up next year.