GamesCom 2014 is extremely important for Sony as while they are clearly in a position of dominance regarding the next-gen (or shall we finally call them new-gen consoles); Sony really need to keep that momentum rolling into 2015 to further continue the PS4’s successful start and to stave off any advances from Microsoft; therefore I predict that the PS3 will not have much stage time, beyond a price cut to make the PS3 more appealing following the successful launch of the PS4.
We can be sure that Microsoft will be bringing new reveals and updated looks at triple A blockbuster sequels for their console exclusive franchises, such as Fable, Forza, Gears of War, Halo and much more besides to attempt to level the battle for new-gen supremacy, which adds further emphasis to the importance of Sony having to bring their A+ game to topple anything Microsoft will be able to buy with their endless money pit. Meanwhile, Nintendo can continue to churn out the continuous line of Mario, Wario, Luigi, Donkey Kong and Zelda games with the potential of a return to their former key franchises, such as F-Zero, Metroid, Pikmin and Star Fox.
Sony’s E3 press conference was a pretty good show with the highlights being the announcements of a much enhanced version of Grand Theft Auto V coming to PS4 in late 2014, alongside Little Big Planet 3 set for release in October 2014, Infamous: First Light set for August 2014 and Bloodborne set for 2015, while there were also updated looks at Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and The Order 1886. However, even though there were plenty of games on display; there were plenty of no shows that will hopefully be unveiled to the public at GamesCom 2014.
Sony’s very own loyal fans have been rumbling more and more even more so than prior to E3 about how they have bought the PS4 for PS4 graphical performance quality as they feel some indie games are effectively retro games, regardless of how great the gameplay may be. The majority of the indie games releasing on PlayStation platforms look amazing, but we have obviously came quite far since retro hardware was released, but the gameplay is absolutely there even when a game has not been developed to match today’s graphical standards. However, despite gamers calling it incorrectly and unnecessarily overly criticising the aged look of some indie games; it must be said that the indie games with retro graphics are currently supplementing Sony’s line-up of PS4 games, which actually validates gamers’ arguments that the blockbuster PlayStation 4 titles are seemingly missing in action. Therefore, while it is great to have a steady stream of games being released at respectable prices; let’s hope that GamesCom 2014 sees Sony start to show far more of their ace cards in the form of the triple A blockbuster exclusive franchises that everyone bought a PS4 for in the first place.
However, I would anticipate a brief indie games showcase with some gameplay from the next batch of indie games from expert indie developers and publishers including: Curve Studios’ excellent array of indies who have been responsible for bringing such excellent games as MouseCraft, The Swapper and Titan Attacks to PS4, PS3 and PS Vita via triple cross-buy purchases, alongside Ripstone’s equally amazing indie games, such as Pure Chess and Stick it to the Man on PS4, PS3 and PS Vita; Pure Pool on PS4 with Flyhunter: Origins and Table Top Racing on PS Vita. Devolver
Digital will be at GamesCom and are expected to continue their indie games support for all PlayStation platforms, such as the upcoming PS4 cross-buy enhanced port of Hotline Miami ahead of the arrival of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number on PS4, PS3 and PS Vita with Shadow Warrior and The Talos Principle also coming to PS4 and the hopefully imminent release of the delayed Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition on PS3 and PS Vita, while Broforce, Not A Hero and Titan Souls are all set for release on PS4 and PS Vita in early 2015.
Sony are more than likely set to supply further indie support with such titles as CounterSpy and Hohokum receiving imminent releases, while this will more than likely be supplemented with some brand new indie announcements for PS4, PS3 and PS Vita as was the case at E3 with the surprise return of cult favourite Grim Fandango, alongside the most probable reveals of native PS4 and PlayStation Vita versions of the previously rumoured Journey and The Unfinished Swan, which would make sense considering that Flow and Flower were released for both PS4 andP S Vita at the launch of the PS4 and they are by Thatgamecompany as is , while Journey and The Unfinished Swan appear to be the two most requested games to be brought into the cross-buy initiative following on from their successes when they were originally launched on PS3, although there could be more indie games that follow suite, such as Rain. It does not end there for the indies though as FuturLab are set to release their amazing game Velocity 2X from September 2nd 2014, so perhaps they will soon reveal their next project and the same can be said for Just Add Water as they are set to release Gravity Crash Ultra this week and with Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty already released on PS4; it is a good possibility that there may be a new announcement of a new project, although which platform is anyone’s guess, but it would most likely be PS4 or PS Vita or perhaps even both.
There is somewhat of a retro revival taking place with the quite surprising E3 reveal of the return of Tim Schafer’s Grim Fandango on PS4 and PS Vita, while the classic MegaRace trilogy is set for re-releases on PlayStation consoles later this year with a brand new sequel built from the ground up for modern consoles is set for release most likely in 2015. The stunning Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty has been highly successfully as it was only stopped from being the number one game on PS4 by The Last of Us: Remastered, despite only having been released on July 23rd 2014 on the European PlayStation Store with Team 17 having also had great success with returning their franchises to modern day consoles particularly in 2013 when they brought back Alien Breed and Superfrog to positive receptions.
This paints a picture that if retro games receive a makeover or a brand new sequel, then gamers are ready to pay for the privilege and after all; how long have been asking EA for a brand new Road Rash? It seems as though the statement from their loyal fans has finally hit home for Sony and it would seem from recent interviews that Sony are actually open to a return of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon; arguably two of the greatest mascots from the era of the original PlayStation to be brought back to modern consoles with the only stumbling block being the amount of money it would cost to purchase the intellectual properties that currently both reside at Activision that appear to not want to particularly use either character for the moment outside of Spyro in Skylanders or sell them for too cheap a price.
A Syphon Filter re-boot for a PlayStation home console from Sony Bend has been rumoured for quite some time and it is believed that GamesCom 2014 is finally the time for it to be revealed to the public after it was a no show at E3 2014. Sony Bend developed two amazing Syphon Filter games for the PSP and the brilliant PlayStation Vita exclusive Uncharted: Golden Abyss, so in my opinion; there really is no better developer to re-launch Syphon Filter on home consoles, alongside a PlayStation Vita version or spin-off. In the build-up to E3, Sony trademarked a number of titles with one called Kill Strain, which sounds suspiciously along the lines of what you would anticipate from a Syphon Filter game’s subtitle, but regardless of how you look upon the trademarks; it certainly adds more credibility to the belief of there being a Syphon Filter re-boot just waiting in the wings to be announced for the PS4. However, in the days leading up to E3 2014; concept art of what looks to be a brand new horror IP from Sony Bend emerged and looking heavily inspired by Aliens and Prometheus. I must say that having looked through the concept art; it would appear as though the player would view everything from a first-person perspective with even one of the concept art pictures appearing to show a Project Morpheus headset on an alien’s face to indicate virtual reality support, although that project was also a no show at E3 2014, so perhaps we will see one or both of these projects finally officially revealed at GamesCom 2014.
The Last Guardian was being as heavily rumoured to finally be announced as a PS4 exclusive than ever before in the build-up to E3, while certain publications, such as IGN had even went as far as to say that it had been cancelled and will never see the light of day, which Sony had quite literally laughed at. It is the fact that Sony had openly laughed at IGN’s claims of cancellation in the build-up to E3 that made me genuinely believe that The Last Guardian would be at E3 in a very big way, because if it was not scheduled to appear, then why not just openly respond by simply saying the claims are untrue? However, it was once again a no show and as The Last Guardian is such a heavily requested game since its original PS3 announcement at E3 in 2009; we should be expecting for Shuhei Yoshida to tease us all that it always was a PS4 tech demo to target PS4 quality visuals and animations; even before the PS4 existed, so I would expect a GamesCom 2014 update on the progress of The Last Guardian.
Project Morpheus is a serious contender for being a major part of GamesCom 2014 following three ten to fifteen second trailers that Sony has sporadically released over the last week with bleak scenery and the third trailer teasing, “Watch horror reinvented on PS4 #PlayStation GC”. The wording of “reinvented” is certainly the clue word here as rumours are abound that the game being teased is actually Until Dawn, which was initially announced as PlayStation Move game for PS3 at GamesCom 2012, but has not been heard of since. That is until now if the rumours are to be believed as it looks as though Until Dawn has been re-tooled as a PS4 game with the “reinvented” wording applying to the virtual reality element provided from Project Morpheus and then you have to think to yourself as to why Sony would announce Until Dawn as a Project Morpheus game; unless Project Morpheus was actually being unveiled to the world with an official name, pricing and release date.
Project Morpheus is an area of the show that Sony could shine supremely with Project Cars already confirmed to support Project Morpheus, which in itself adds credence to the potential of a late 2014 worldwide release of Project Morpheus in its finalised form as Project Cars is set for release in November 2014 and yet has already openly discussed Project Morpheus implementation. Housemarque who developed Super Stardust, Dead Nation and Resogun have teased within the last 24 hours that they will officially be revealing something at GamesCom 2014, so there is another possibility for massive Project Morpheus support from a developer who has always supported new PlayStation technology, such as 3D gaming and the trophies feature with Super Stardust on PS3 and the release of the excellent Resogun for the launch of the PS4, so if you are willing to bet on anyone to support Project Morpheus, then bet on Housemarque to and in doing so to absolutely deliver something special.
One can only imagine the reaction if Sony partnered with EA and Activision to place a tick in the box next to virtual reality first-person shooters with the Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises respectively, alongside a VR detective mode in Batman: Arkham Knight and a first-person VR component within the recently announced Mortal Kombat X, perhaps with VR patches for Sony’s first-party games such as Killzone: Shadow Fall to provide an even greater depth of support.
Plenty of stores have offered an unofficial PS4 and Vita bundle during the 2013 holiday season, but Sony are widely anticipated to reveal an official PS4 and PS Vita bundle. This would make sense and be perfect timing for two reasons as Microsoft have untethered the ever increasingly maligned Kinect 2.0 from the Xbox One to enable the Xbox One to retail at a comparable price to that of the PS4 at £349.99. With Microsoft’s desperation following a continued month on month losing streak for the Xbox One in comparison to Sony’s PS4; we can expect Microsoft to officially announce a price drop in absolute desperation in an attempt to lure undecided consumers over to the Xbox One, although providing that Sony hits the appropriate price point with the official PS4 and PS Vita bundle; it could stop the traction of Microsoft’s new marketing strategy and price drop before it has barely even begun, while the PS Vita is widely considered to be the companion product of PS4, especially considering the remote play, second screen, cross-buy, cross-save and cross-play features and functionality between the PS Vita and PS4.
Sony could confirm a firmware update for the PS4 to help stave off the monthly updates the Xbox One by Microsoft, while Sony seemingly has a varying strategy that sees a huge update being created and implemented every so often with no indication of when it is coming or what features it will contain pretty much until the day of release, so an announcement regarding a Version 2.00 firmware update can be expected with the firmware update comprising of all the features that the PS3 has, but the PS4 is yet to support, such as CD playback, MP3 support alongside various other audio formats, a music visualizer, DLNA support and download management with customisation in the form of folders, themes, wallpapers and avatars, which would therefore bring the PS4’s firmware to around the level of the feature rich PS3’s firmware. However, there would still be the case of such promised features as being able to immediately resume a game from where you had reached at the end of your previous gaming session upon the next time you power up your PS4, while backwards compatibility with physical PS1, PS2 and PS3 discs, alongside digital emulation for PS1, PS2, PS3 and Minis are all major features that have yet to be implemented with 3D Blu-Ray playback barely being patched in before Microsoft did for the Xbox One, despite it effectively being technology heavily influenced by Sony.
It has been tipped that a rumoured PS4 campaign for 2014 will be called “The Year of the 4” in which a number of sequels ending in the number 4 will be released for the PS4 in 2014. However, this PR campaign has been thrown into serious doubt with confirmation at this year’s E3 that Uncharted 4 will not release until some stage of 2015 and several key figures having left Naughty Dog and the Uncharted 4 project, such as the lead writer and creative director Amy Hennig having left to join Visceral Games working on an upcoming Star Wars game, while the game director Justin Richmond left to join Riot Games and even the lead villain expertly portrayed in the announcement trailer by veteran actor Todd Stashwick has been re-cast after he had openly vowed to have enjoyed his six months providing the voice-over and motion capture for the lead villain.
Despite Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley having been drafted in to help complete the development of Uncharted 4; I am somewhat concerned for my favourite games franchise as it was Amy Hennig that brought that charm, humour and wit to the story’s script and characters; arguably losing the figure that made the entire tone as appropriate and precise to that world as possible is potentially going to strip the Uncharted franchise of what makes it cinematically stand out so well from the crowd. Also, a further unknown quantity of the PR campaign angle is Insomniac Games having seemingly been pinched by Microsoft to develop Sunset Overdrive exclusively for the Xbox One with the only dangling thread of a connection between Insomniac Games and Sony PlayStation being the Ratchet and Clank remake in development for PS4 and a Ratchet and Clank film, which were both announced at E3 2014; resulting in it appearing as though the Resistance franchise could potentially be all but dead in the water at least for the time being. Meanwhile, there have been rumours of God of War IV for a while, but there is nothing absolutely concrete that would confirm the existence of the game in the build-up to Sony’s E3 press conference, so the Year of the 4 PR campaign may not happen after all.
When Sony Liverpool (formerly Psygnosis) had their development studio inexplicably shuttered with the building turned into a testing facility and members of the development team re-located to Evolution Studios to work on the new PS4 exclusive racer DriveClub; it is not exactly too far fetched to think that perhaps they were working on something else alongside the extensively delayed DriveClub. Two games that immediately spring to mind are new sequels to two popular PlayStation exclusives in the form of a new WipEout and a new MotorStorm. However, a new WipEout sequel is the more likely of the two as it was rumoured to have been under development for between a year to a year and a half, which surely means that it would be on the brink of completion and ready for a 2014 release.
There is a good chance that Polyphony Digital will showcase Gran Turismo 7: Prologue Edition, which will effectively be Gran Turismo 6 in 1080p, 60FPS with some further enhancements, such as the potential for a cockpit view that supports Project Morpheus.
The Agent was confirmed at E3 as a PlayStation platform exclusive franchise being developed by Rockstar Games and published by Take-Two, although that was in 2009 and the game has still not saw the light of day! However, there is renewed hope with Take-Two having previously stated in May 2011 that the game was not cancelled and then filing two new trademarks for the game in 2013 with rumours rife that Sony are set to announce The Agent as a PS4 exclusive imminently and as it was a no show at E3, perhaps it may be time to do so at GamesCom 2014!
The Last of Us: Remastered has confirmed that Sony are open to the idea of seeing some premiere exclusive franchises making the leap from PS3 to PS4 in the form of next-gen ports. This would most likely result in much shorter development cycles while providing a suitable test for each development studio’s new PS4 graphics engines, despite much increased performance in regards to frame-rate and graphics with a number of re-mastered PS3 games releasing on PS4 rumouring to include: a bundle of Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain from Quantic Dream, God of War: Ascension from Sony Santa Monica Studios that may include more God of War titles and Uncharted Collection from Naughty Dog featuring the complete trilogy from PS3, alongside Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Uncharted: Fight for Fortune – Complete Edition from the PS Vita with all of the downloadable content bundled in, which would actually make the most sense of all of the rumoured bundles as it is believed that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will not release until potentially as late as the end of 2015, so it would be a perfect time to introduce anyone who has not had the pleasure of playing Uncharted to the amazing franchise that has taken the PS3 by storm since Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune launched for the PS3 in late 2007.
PlayStation Vita
With the reveal of the previously Japan exclusive PlayStation Vita TV now having been re-branded as PlayStation TV with a 2014 worldwide release window; there is the potential of some new PlayStation Vita hardware being announced at GamesCom 2014 with the possibility of the currently Japan exclusive 64GB memory card releasing worldwide, alongside a re-structure of the pricing of the memory cards, so Vita consumers will no longer have stock shortages of 32GB memory cards, while also not having to spend between £40 to £50 for the privilege of not regularly having to delete games from a memory card to make way for a new game and it must be said that it would certainly make the Vita more appealing to current and prospective consumers.
It cannot be denied that Sony have attempted to be ambitious with at least one major reveal of a triple A blockbuster exclusive each year from Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation to Killzone: Mercenary, alongside the most recent of these releases being Borderlands 2 with the likes of Resistance: Burning Skies and Call of Duty: Black Ops – Declassified not quite totally fulfilling their outright potential. A couple of games that may be ready to step up to the plate for the PlayStation Vita this year is Infamous and Assassin’s Creed: Rising Phoenix with Infamous’ developer Sucker Punch having consistently been linked with the PS Vita even during the development and promotion of the PS4 exclusive Infamous: Second Son. Assassin’s Creed: Rising Phoenix would have almost certainly released in late 2013 alongside Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag if it had not been for the concentration required for a cross-gen game covering at least six platforms. The existence of the game cannot be denied as an image of the games’ logo can be found in the Abstergo offices in the modern day era of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, which would hint at the game initially intending to be a spin-off of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, just as Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation was to Assassin’s Creed III. Who knows, perhaps we will finally get to see a portable version or some form of exclusive from the Resident Evil franchise?
Time for the show!
I hope you have enjoyed my pre-GamesCom 2014 coverage and agree with my predictions and factual analysis of what we could be seeing from Sony in a matter of hours and it is certainly a real prospect that Sony could have all of these PS4 exclusives just waiting to be hand chosen based upon what Microsoft reveals in their GamesCom 2014 press conference; as Sony have the advantage of being able to plan, sit back and watch what Microsoft are able to bring to the table and then counteract all of that in their show later that evening! It is time for GamesCom 2014; so bring on those amazing triple A game reveals that will live long in the memory! Please remember that you can stream all of the action from Sony’s GamesCom 2014 press conference at http://blog.eu.playstation.com/gamescom/ which is set to start at 6pm U.K. time on Tuesday, August 12th 2014 and 10am U.S .Pacific Time and 1pm U.S. Eastern Time, while all of the third-party publishers, such as Electronic Arts will also be streaming their own press GamesCom 2014 press conferences with EA’s set for 10am on Wednesday, so enjoy this year’s GamesCom and may it be full of reveals you have been anticipating!
Jason Bonnar