Sony's Underwhelming Press Conference

David from BagoGames writes: The E3 2018 Sony Press Conference had plenty of stand out moments. The Last of Us Part 2 looked stunning and so did Ghost of Tsushima. The Last of Us Part 2‘s gameplay showcased absolutely outstanding contextual animations and animation-blending. Its production values and level of detail put every other game to shame. Much like Uncharted 4 before it, Naughty Dog’s efforts make every other studio look a generation behind the times.

[masterfox]

You know the thing is that the games displayed by Sony in this E3 are so god damn good and insanely stunning that whatever user comment, article displayed by journalist that wants or tries to downplay this Sony presentation it just feels like , haha keep trying my child ;)

[UCForce]

Well, their games showed promise but their format and presentation are clunky and awful. I just hope that they don’t this next E3.

[-Foxtrot]

They won't, I honestly feel like because they knew this years E3 was going to be smaller, something they kept telling us, they used it as a chance to experiment with the format.

It failed horribly...and honestly I'm just glad it happened now instead of a year where it's one of their bigger shows. Imagine if this happened at a show where they had a lot to show and get through? It would have been a trainwreck.

[SuperSonic91]

It is deliberate.
If you noticed PSX is getting better and bigger while E3 is getting smaller.
Low budget but effective.
Sony E3 mafe sure TLOU2, GOT, Spiderman and Death Stranding is gonna sell multi-million units and its ajob well done.

Sony is up to something truly PlayStation. Greatness Awaits!

[UCForce]

@SuperSonic91 I know, but Sony have to do better.

[angelsx]

Next E3 will be all about ps5 and The Last of Us 2 release date cross gen.

[UCForce]

@Ninja_Ryu Easy there, just don’t get cocky.

[UltraNova]

As I said, it was a mediocre presentation when it comes to Sony but the game play they showed overshadowed everything else shown in E3.

[WickedLester]

Thank God we dont play presentations. At the end of the day, content is what counts and Sony's was outstanding.

[dreue]

My oh my, for me it is all about games, and they show me the best, of all games, at least they show us games and gamwplay, format wise i dont really care.... Again it is all about games...but of course presentation could be better... But that is not the main factor....

[StrawberryDiesel420]

Well i thought the tent presentation out of Last of Us 2 was a nice touch. Spiderman, Ghost of Tsushima, Last of Us 2, Dreams and Death Stranding blow any exclusive on X Box One X away by miles. Its almost like Sony games are a generation ahead of anything on the One X. Hell, God of War 4 destroys anything from the entire One X catalogue lol. Is this author on drugs? And are u smoking what he has? You fan boys are grasping at straws like always. Keep eating crow while Sony absolutely trounces One X in sales, games, first party studios etc.

And all those multiplats MS showed off at their E3 like Cyberpunk and Shadows Die Twice will be on PS4 also. So try harder.

[darthv72]

There is still TGS and PGW and PAX and PSX so I bet there is much more to come over the next several months. I remember when MS used to do their "X" show as well. They need to get back to doing those like Sony has PSX.

[OB1Biker]

Yes it would have been cool for psx but its as if Sony gave the finger to E3 conferences. Its kind of amusing tbh that even so they still got the edge at E3 because E3 is not all about a conference to start with.

[blackblades]

Seems like people care more about the format and presentation then the beautiful games/gameplay that people went there for.

[Omegasyde]

I am still trying to figure out why they did pre-e3 announcements when they had so little to announce + using 2 locations.

Whomever planned this Sony event needs to get fired.

[chrisx]

I know right? "David from BagoGames writes: The E3 2018 Sony Press Conference had plenty of stand out moments" yet goes on with that headline. it's pathetic really.

[Darkwatchman]

It’s not pathetic? Defensive much? You know how the internet takes wordsmith out of people’s mouths. I STARTED WITH THAT so people would know that I’m not hating just to hate. It had good moments, but it was ultimately underwhelming in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to Microsoft’s. Underwhelming does not equal bad. Underwhelming means what it means. Just because it’s underhwleming, that doesn’t mean it had no redeeming qualities at all.

Fanboys are so defensive and annoying, my god.

[-Foxtrot]

"Fanboys are so defensive and annoying, my god"

Don't edit your article after people call you out then use the "fanboy" card...what's next? "You guys are such trolls".

[Darkwatchman]

@Foxtrot
Are you dense? I never edited anything in the article. What is posted now is how it was published and went live. I have not gone in and changed anything. I started the article with the positivity so no one could put words in my mouth because here’s a concept. You can acknowledge the positives of something while still finding it underwhelming. It’s not all black and white, my guy

[CaptainOmega]

@Dark

What's pathetic is you damage controlling your article.

Grow up.

[IamTylerDurden1]

Agreed.

I can see the criticism of the intermission after TLoU 2 showing, but to dismiss Sony's conference as "underwhelming" when they showed probably the two best games at E3 (TLoU & Tsushima) is silly. Not only TLoU and Tsushima, but Death Stranding, Spiderman, RE2, and Control were all fantastic gameplay demos. Nioh 2 was a huge suprise as well. But more importantly Sony's big 4 games all had fantastic gameplay demos that really were the class of E3. Sony also had much more coverage after the stage demonstration including 15 min of live Spiderman gameplay with Insomniac.

Multiplat trailers are nice to see, but what really counts is how your own games look and Sony's big 4 were jaw dropping. The presentation was obscure, but do not discredit what was shown. The Last of Us II was special.

[Majin-vegeta]

intermission was crap but at least we got a free game so thats a positve

[Darkwatchman]

I did not discredit what was shown. I begin the entire article by highlighting what impressed me, including shadow dropping black ops 3 as a bonus free PlayStation plus game. I’m not discrediting anything. You can find something underwhelming while still acknowledging its strong points.

[-Foxtrot]

There's a huge difference between "there presentation was so shit this year what the f*** were they thinking" and "there conference in general was really shit" because the latter sounds like you are calling the games or that they didn't have anything to show.

The presentation structure was awful but honestly almost every game they showed I was excited for, I just wish they had used the intermission to just show the multiplatform trailers we saw in the Microsoft conference, least then there's no filler or dead air.

[IamTylerDurden1]

Darkwatchman

You edited your article. Smh.

Anyway, you claim the Microsoft conference was much better and you praise the games they showed as well as the amount of games shown. How about the fact that they showed Sea of Thieves, Cuphead, and Pubg which were basically commercials for already released Xbox exclusives? How about Captain Spirit, Tales of Vesperia Remastered, and an indie game via a single dev (staring a fox) all getting their own legitimate stage time? Those were 6 terrible showings used solely for advertising and padding. Oh btw, Gears Mobile? Don't forget that. They also boasted about 50 games and 18 exclusives ect but a portion of those games were counted from a 2 min indie sizzle real.

You claim the Microsoft show was filled with fast paced rapid fire game announcements yet they had a long boring segment advertising Game Pass. Phil also came out for boring monologues multiple times.

The Microsoft show was much better than last year, and it had a great collection of multiplatform games, but it was not a spectacular show. This was not Sony E3 2015 or 2016. It had its flaws. It was a good show because of the multiplats, but i prefer the incredible gameplay demos and the classy nature of Sony's show.

[Darkwatchman]

I did not edit my article at all??

[IamTylerDurden1]

It really feels like Microsoft viewed E3 2018 as a huge competition while Sony just wanted to show people what they have. Microsoft tried desperately to stuff the show with anything they could while Sony just wanted to show us the good stuff. SE actually showed 2 PS4 console exclusives called Babylon Falls and Quiet Man. I'm sure Sony could've worked a way to show them on their stage. It would've added 2 more new "EXCLUSIVES". Sony could've shown Days Gone and Dreams even though they had a heap of coverage pre E3. But they just went with a different style, really the antithesis of Microsoft. And that's okay because the big 4 carried the show.

I guess it's just preference, but aspects of Microsoft's show turned me off. I find it funny how arrogant Microsoft was and how many times they said "EXCLUSIVE" even if it was timed. I don't believe Sony said "exclusive" once. I love how Microsoft refuses to reveal sales numbers yet they were all about numbers at the conference. It's just interesting. Different strokes i suppose, but exclusive and 1st party games are what count most at your conference, your OWN games, and Sony killed Microsoft in that area. Sony, MS, and Ubisoft had good showings. The rest was bad.

[manabyte77]

The downvotes to your comment just go to show the utter lack on reason by Xbots. All four of Sony’s exclusives with actual gameplay shown blew away anything shown exclusive to Microsoft. Just tip your hat to Sony. They have the best internal devs in the world, and it shows. My god, give Xbots anything at all to grasp on, and they pounce on it like rabbid dogs. All I can say is thank god for Sony, and I hope Xbox cult members enjoy their subscriptions next gen. Especially once they jack the prices and ditch the incentive once those suckers are hooked.

[SuperSonic91]

They need clicks.

[Ninjamonkey82]

It isn't that tbh im glad Sony showed great games but E3 has evolved into more than just that now its expected no mater who you are what position in what fictitious race your in E3 you put on a show everyone will remember hell isn't like 10 people turn up to see it. This thing is global this what makes the world pay attention and people love a good show. Imo everyone let themselves down this year.

[DanteVFenris666]

Sure there games were better then what Microsoft showed off for exclusives.

But no need to be a fan boy. The presentation was mediocre and disjointed. Xbox had a better presentation. Which is the first time I admit that sense I’ve watched e3. Also nothing new wasn’t shown in sonys conference. Why the fuck did Sony not make dmc 5 an reveal for them? Why did they let Microsoft take everything?

[CaptainOmega]

The only thing that turned me off was the format of the conference. Overall they showed off 4 big games in detail, including other surprising games that made it a fine E3. I'm sure they'll take a different approach next year.

[affrogamer]

They had already given us a heads up on what they were going to focus on, their top 4 upcoming exclusives. They showed the best looking games and best gameplay out of all the conferences. I don't know how you can possibly look at that as "underwhelming".

[rpvenom]

If I'm not mistaken.. Sony awhile back mentioned that their going to focus on making PSX (which is more for the fans versus the press and industry). Meaning they're not investing a lot of money to impress critics anymore at E3. E3 also costs them a lot of money.. Maybe they wanted to downplay this years conference so that PSX stands out more and since that is more for the fans and gamers.. why wouldn't they? Plus it probably cost them way less to do that then to partner with E3.. I am obviously speculating but I do recall comments made where Sony is pushing more for PSX versus an E3 presence.

[The 10th Rider]

Yeah, except last year's PSX was unimpressive too. If I remember correctly they only announced a single game and it was a remake.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Format was garbage

[RpgSama]

Definitely, the format was garbage, hopefully they will never repeat it again, having said that, their games were the best in the Show, TLOU2 made a tomb raider producer say it was fake, that's how amazing it looks

[maybelovehate]

Yeah, it just wasn't fun. Oh well. It is just a conference. It means nothing at the end of the day. We can all go back to playing games instead of watching them and forget it ever happened.

[Razzer]

Agreed. “Winning” E3 means next to nothing in anything other than fanboy bragging rights. Ultimately, E3 is just PR fluff.

[Team_Litt]

http://n4g.com/comments/red...

http://n4g.com/comments/red...

[Razzer]

Your point? I mean you didn’t have to go back to last year to find instances of me saying what company “won”. This year I said Bethesda won and MS beat Sony. It still doesn’t mean a damn thing in the larger scheme of things. So not sure what point you think you just made.

[Relientk77]

They needed more games, announcements, and surprises

My opinion

[zackeroniii]

Was the same old recycling of forza, halo, and gears surprising?

[Razzer]

And how does that make Sony’s conference any better?

[alb1899]

The announcement was a surprise because we haven't any news from this titles.....doesn't matter that they are sequels

[Prince_TFK]

What surprising is the acquisition of 5 new devs. But hey...that is not important right?

[Razzer]

Yep. Laydon even said don’t expect surprises. He wasn’t lying. The whole thing was ho-hum.

[Jinger]

I mean Nioh 2 was a surprise. Wasn't expecting a sequel announcement yet, but I don't mind, I freaking love Nioh

[Ristul]

Control was also a surprice, but yeah, not exactly Sony's strongest E3, I also think they want to release some of what is in the pipeline before they announce new stuff. Lets face it, they have lots of stuff in the pipeline so holding back a little could be a good thing for next years E3. I still think they had the strongest games with the best demonstrations of said games, Microsoft did good too though. Nintendo didn't show as much of interest (for me) witch was a bummer.

[Razzer]

Sure. I’m primarily talking about first party/exclusive surprises. Think that is what Laydon was referring to as well.

[blackblades]

Have ya heard the crowed reactions they sounded surprised when they seen the gameplay of the games and nio2.

[traumadisaster]

I reviewed the 2012 Sony E3 and it was underwhelming kind of similar to this one, and then the next Feb 2013 a new Playstation was revealed.

Maybe they are doing it again?

[obidanshinobi]

The intermission after TLOU2 was a big misstep but overall I think the conference was great.
Lots of gameplay shown instead of just cinematic CGI trailers.
We got a good look at TLOU2, Ghosts Of Tsushima and Spiderman, three games I'm well hyped for.
The conference also didn't drag on and it didn't overstay it's welcome.
Sony seems to realise that we want to see actual gameplay footage, there were games shown at the other conferences that will be out sooner than TLOU2 and Ghosts that didn't show any or hardly any actual gameplay footage.
It wasn't underwhelming at all, what a load of nonsense.

[Aceman18]

That's what I watch for the games I could less about what format they used.

[madforaday]

I was thinking the same, the last thing I am worried about is what kind of format they used. I mean are we really nit picking on what format a company uses for their presentation. I mean, nothing was wrong with it, and it was their first time trying something new but god forbid you do that.

I think all the publishers/developers had good showings at E3. I mean E3 is like Christmas, even if Santa didn't bring you all the gifts you want, you still had a good Christmas (or whatever Holiday you celebrate). You don't nit pick on the small things. Santa used the same wrapping paper on two of my gifts... 4/10

[bluefox755]

They're the only one's that made me more excited for the future of the console than before I started.

[Nacho_Z]

I think we're over it now, everyone? Yeah, thought so. Onwards and upwards.

[Jayszen]

I suspect that Sony is not showing us anything other than what has been revealed until the end of last year as anything new now is slated for the PS5. In fact, this entire presentation felt to me like it was winding down and showing only the offerings that are due to be released for the PS4. Between the TLOU 2, Spiderman, Ghost of Tshushima and Death Stranding as well as Days Gone and Dreams, Sony has enough to cover the last 18 months of the PS4 and I would not be surprised if the PS5 will be revealed next year for release Holiday 2019.

[aConIsDemocracy]

it should only be about the games. I didn't see Richard Burton on stage for any of them. I can't believe you are now judging it on presentation. Lets have a e3 has talent contest.

[nucky64]

darkwatchman - i want you to directly compare the games sony showed (with GAMEPLAY) vs what MS or nintendo showed.......games that sony will have out to the public within the next 12-17 months (spiderman and days gone much sooner) and tell me that sony underperformed.
i was very impressed with the games. yea, the presentation was odd - but, that doesn't matter to me. it's a GAMES show. it's about GAMES. why do people watch??? to see a great presentation?? no. they watch for the GAMES. and sony delivered better than nintendo and MS combined on GAMES.

[Moe-Gunz]

They had the best games but the format of the presentation was terrible. It was like they were experimenting or something. Overall E3 as a whole this year was weak, but out of everyone Sony has the games I'm most looking forward to. That format was gawd awful.

[sampsonon]

sony' pressers got bigger every year since the ps4 launched and made the smartest move by pulling back and allowing us to see the (last) few games they have slated to release before they reveal the ps5.

remember it's the games that count, not broken promises and announcements that your company purchased studios to make up for your lack of new ips/exclusives that should have been already.

sony's pressers almost always get picked apart for one reason or another, it's just sad that having amazing gameplay of fully realized games have taken a back seat to glam and the amount of games shown.

i want quality over quantity please.

another home run sony.

[Skankinruby]

Lol sony has quality AND quantity over the entire competition

[sampsonon]

yes, but i was referring to the press conference not as a whole.

[michellelynn0976]

Underwhelming is being nice. This was garbage.

[Skankinruby]

Lol the only thing that's 'garbage' is your pathetic attempts to undermine sonys dominance

[michellelynn0976]

Oh lord. No, LOU just looked like a TR rip off. dS was just confusing and boring and GOT looked bland. Sony dominance. What a joke. Lol

[Aceman18]

Nintendo was worst imo they only showed 2 games I plan to buy FE, and octopath. Of the 2 I'll just be buying octopath this year since they pushed FE to next 😡😫

If I already didn't own a switch I wouldn't buy it based off of what they showed yesterday.

Sony showed me 4 games I definitely plan on buying, and a game conference is in fact a conference about GAMES which is all I cared about.

I could give two sh**s about what kind of format they used.

[michellelynn0976]

Nope. Three of the four games didn't look that good. They didn't do it justice. And at least Nintendo showed off some good stuff and stuff we didn't know. Sony was trash. Sorry, just was.

[Aceman18]

You smoking some serious stuff lol. I just can't with you the fangirl is epic lol.

Also other than smash (which I nvr cared for), fire emblem and octopath everything they showed was trash.

[NeoGamer232]

The Last of Us II was literally amazing!

Ghosts needs a lot more work to be a AAA hack n Slash. And Spider-man looked to me as if it was trying to be too much like Rocksteady's Batman games.

I think they spent too long detailing the games. They could've cut the Sony demos in half and did the same thing. Also what was with the live entertainment? Then, jumping into a demo with the same background music type?

The other thing they lacked was clarity on exclusivity for third party games. And I guess the new norm of conferences is very few release windows so we really have no clue whether the games are this year, decade, or next decade.

[KickSpinFilter]

The Last of Us II looks like a whole other level. The way the animations flowed into the next were amazing. The fighting felt very personal. The environment reacting to her moving forward and recoiling was amazing. Plus the level of detail. It's looking like a new level of gaming.
Just mind blowing.

[UltimateRacer]

The key thing here is who had the better games on display and that was clearly Sony. They showed what is most important the exclusives and the gameplay of them exclusives I was so excited.

[tmisellati]

the conference its self was meh in my opinion. but man , those games they had shown were absolutely mind boggling

[Skankinruby]

More like clickbait journalists' desperate attempt to undermine sony

[SoulWarrior]

The beginning was eh but I'd rather have seen the amazing exclusive games Sony showed off than Microsoft and the whole 'here are lots of games that will be available on other systems' and the same 3 IP's we see every year.

[DemoIishor]

*says they're going to present a handful of announced games
*presents said handful of announced games plus a few extra unannounced games
*people are still somehow underwhelmed and disappointed

[Vizigoth04]

....then I can make the argument “Okay? I can play much better versions of all these games on my Xbox One X”.

This will truly never matter to the gamer. We get all those Multiplats plus the great exclusives Sony offers. If I bought an Xbox I would not have access to PlayStations Exclusives. I honestly don't have time as someone who works full days and has a family to catch up in videogames with 2 or more consoles. I get all that I need from PlayStation plus VR. Does Xbox have VR?

[Darkwatchman]

I guess being platform agnostic is not possible? I owned only a PS4 all generation up until the Xbox One X. Yes, I bought a PS4 pro when it came out also. And now that the X exists, all these multiplatform games will look better on my X. Yes, I’m hyped for The Last of Us Part 2. That looked beautiful, but I’m also hyped for Devil May Cry 5 and Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition and Control, and countless other multiplats that will look better on my X than my Pro.

[mike32UK]

It was full of missteps and had zero flow HOWEVER the games are what should matter and they all look absolutely amazing! Sure we all love the spectacle of E3 and I have to admit that I was disappointed with that aspect, but we should definitely just concentrate on what actually matters.

MS on the other hand did pretty decent in terms of showmanship and actual content. A very balanced showing indeed.
Sony can't constantly give maximum showmanship AND maximum content otherwise we'd have more and more games announced well before they are due to be released.

[Vizigoth04]

My prediction for Gamescom 2018 through E3 2019

Gamescom
Red Dead Redemption 2 Gameplay
New BioShock
The Avengers Project

Tokyo Games Show
Shenmue 3 release date
Legend of Dragoon
FF7 Remake info

Paris Games Week
Dreams release date
Concrete Genie Release date
Wild info/release date

PSX
BluePoint's next game
Bloodborne 2
Syphone Filter

PSX/alternative Sony conference/E3 2019
New Hardware announcement
Superman
Horizon Zero Dawn 2
Agent

[OnDec76]

Snooze Fest just like UBisoft, Square Enix and EA's press conferences 👎🏽👎
27997;👎🏽

[Sayai jin]

Sony has been hitting on all cylindercylinders and thus is rightfully dominating sales. They better not let it go to their heads like early last gen.

[Bastrad]

I just wanted release dates, ballpark figures at least. Instead I was shown games I wanted but no clear indication of when they would appear. Dreams was announced back in 2013, Death Stranding in 2016. The Last of Us 2 is my most wanted, but it could be in 2020 when it gets released for all I know.

Just fed up with being drip fed bits and pieces years after reveals.

[CVTURBO1]

If Sony used a traditional style for the show this year they would of had an amazing showing! They had all the good games, but the format was confusing, the intermission was dumb, the little Dreams characters in between games was pointless. I wish they would of just talked a bit, showed a game, talked a bit, showed next game ect. Would of been perfect

[Manubiggs]

Well, its a good thing that I play games not press conferences

[WickedLester]

@Darkwatchman

I think the negativity with Sonys presentation is being way overblown. Yes the intermission after TLOU 2 was awkward and could've been handled better. I admit that. They tried something different and it didnt pay off. They'll learn from it I'm sure.

However after that, it was a typical Sony conference. No talk, just games. And man, what games!! I actually appreciated that, unlike MS' conference where a lot of time was filled with 3rd party multiplats and Spencer monologing over and over about their "commitment to gaming." Plus if you have to spend time at your E3 presentation talking about studio acquisitions, somethings wrong. It's the equivalent of telling a starving person "hey not to worry, the seeds are in the soil! You'll have food before you know it!"

Sony could've easily had a longer show by showing us a bunch of 3rd party titles we already knew were coming, but they know Sony fans come to see the exclusives and that's what we got. They dont have to TELL us about their commitment to gaming. We know that already. They've exemplified it for 4 straight generations.