03 April 2023 , 14:00
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The gaming industry was shaken – if not entirely surprised – to learn of E3 2023’s cancellation last week.
Organisers ESA and ReedPop had been silent for months so the decision to cancel E3 2023 wasn’t especially shocking, but it has put pressure on major publishers like Ubisoft and platform holders like Xbox and PlayStation to wow players with their own digital events later this summer. Previously we had no idea how the latter planned to stoke up excitement, but we now have a supposed window.
Journalist and reliable leaker Jeff Grubb took to Twitter to reveal when PlayStation will be hosting its own digital showcase event. According to Grubb, it will take place some time before Geoff Keighley’s own Summer Game Fest event on June 8, 2023 and therefore well before the Xbox and Bethesda showcase on June 11 and Ubisoft Forward on June 12. Grubb neglected to give PlayStation’s showcase a hard date, indicating that it is either still unknown or hasn’t been decided yet.
The last time PlayStation held a dedicated State of Play showcase was back in February, airing the day after PSVR 2’s launch to showcase more upcoming title’s for the headset alongside other non-VR titles like the delayed Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Since then, PlayStation has stayed silent about when players will next gain more information on exciting forthcoming exclusives such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and the sequel to Death Stranding.
Compared to Nintendo and Xbox, PlayStation is the console platform we know the least about in terms of what is coming later this year and beyond. Final Fantasy 16 is set to arrive as a console exclusive on June 22, 2023, just after the supposed digital showcase, while Insomniac is pulling double duty with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 supposedly coming in September and then Marvel’s Wolverine in the near future following that.
PSVR 2 is already losing to the Meta Quest 2 in the VR headset battle
Summer of games
While I’m all for secretive game development if it results in some genuine surprises at a AAA level, as a dedicated PS5 player I’ve been left wondering for too long what I have left to play by way of first-party exclusives. I immensely enjoyed Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok last year, but it’s not lost on me that we are treated to fewer and fewer PlayStation exclusives as the years roll on. That’s why PlayStation could use its earlier timeslot this summer to really impress, and steal a march on the competition.
Historically, PlayStation has been really good about revealing some never-before-seen surprises during its summer State of Play presentations. It was only a few years ago where it was through this that we learned of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, for example. That’s since been put on ice due to development issues, but that doesn’t detract from the initial jolt of excitement we all felt when the game was revealed. If PlayStation is smart, it’ll have some equally as impressive surprises up its sleeve sometime before June 8, 2023.