Reaction: PlayStation's Showcase Was A Win For Xbox, Whichever Way You Slice It

It was pretty bad for first party content especially after 18 months of no showcases but overall with the great looking indies, excellent spiderman 2 and hell divers 2 gameplay trailers, and the multitude of great third party titles, it wasn't a bad show by any means. But the Internet and fake fans like to over react by saying it was a s**t show etc.
Which I think is especially unfair on those indie devs who worked hard on those games just to look at the fans backlash and make them feel crappy about their games like they aren't good enough.

Let’s just hope Xbox showcase does better for Xbox than this show did for Sony.

It was bad, in regards to Sonys studios. The majority of games shown are multi platform which for Sony and its business model is a problem. It seems to have a pretty dry time ahead for several months from its own studios.

I'm just hoping all the multiplats that Sony showed aren't also in the Xbox show. I want to see different stuff.

@Tharsman Couldn't have said it better!

@UltimateOtaku91 Fake fans? I have all the Playstation consoles, handhelds and now even their latest VR headset. I think it’s not unreasonable to expect updates about their first party output but this was just 90% third party.

OT: I really hope Xbox shows how an event should be done. New games with gameplay instead of teasers for GAAS / life service games.

It was really poor. Out of the 30 games or so revealed, easily 70% of them were CGI trailers or just title screens.

Which is why I loved what Xbox did with the Developer Direct. 4 or 5 games but really going in depth on what you can expect.

That being said, loved seeing Alan Wake 2 with a set release date!

@Sanquine By that I meant those that all of sudden have given up on sony and saying they have lost faith and will move on from the console maker, there was quite a few last night commenting that on pushsquare.

A train wreck regarding Sony first party titles.

😴💤

@UltimateOtaku91 I’m sorry, but with all due respect to all indie devs out there, I don’t go watch the biggest brand shows only to have Plucky Squire and Cat Quest become the biggest gameplay highlights of the show.

Too many cinematic reveal, of service games on top of that. No one wants to watch a cinematic render of a multiplayer focused game, and Sony basically had 3, 4 if you count hell divers, such reveals. Maybe more, I might had lost count. At least that foam stars splatoon clone had about 50% or 40% gameplay footage.

The show had to be a lot shorter, remove all the pre-rendered previews for multiplayer games, keep the big third parties, open with that cool looking game (name escapes me now ends with zero) and remove the Immortal trailer… it was already out there why include it here????

Anyways also, remove the Wii Q and earbud reveals. Make those blog posts.

Spin off the indie stuff into separare state of play, and for the love of gaming… No more movie trailers ever again!!!

A shorter show would had been way more positively received.

@UltimateOtaku91 you can’t blame people for being disappointed - doesn’t mean they are “fake fans”. Even you yourself flip flopped in your comments on Push Square and even changed your score from a B to a B- once you realised everyone thought it was trash. If you want an echo chamber then just private message one of the other Sony elite fanboys.

Also whenever Xbox show indies they get moaned at so yea all is fair.

Edit: or just block me then… random!

I honestly get the impression that if there's no Nintendo Direct, Nintendo will popularize the "do no big event, just do a Partner Showcase and mostly dripfeed 1st party info on social media" approach to the summer that they used in 2020 and 2022 because after all the big showcases all attention is still on TotK as if the showcases never happened.

So like for example in 2024 for events you see:

• January - Xbox Developer Direct
• February - Nintendo Direct, State of Play
• April - ID@Xbox Showcase, Nintendo Indie World
• June - Xbox Developer Direct, Nintendo Partner Showcase, State of Play
• August - Nintendo Indie World
• September - Nintendo Direct, State of Play, ID@Xbox Showcase
• November - Xbox Developer Direct
• December - Nintendo Indie World

Apart from the lack of first party, the problem with the showcase was the sheer amount of cgi trailers. Not really alot of gameplay in the whole show. Not good enough.

I hope MS don't do the same next month, I want gameplay not pointless cgi rubbish

well they failed in many levels:
1. no 1st party games beside spiderman 2 which we already saw no surprises
2.i didnt see someone talking about this but...their is no actual humans communication and showing their passion and vision only Rayan who was looking like a robot, just a trailer after the other.
3. even MGS collection and alan wake 2 that i like felt mah not because of the tailers themselves but how they show them in a boring way.
4. the format is so bad.

i was always praising Sony marketing but seem like all there showcases and state of plays are horrible last 2 years

@Sakai some CGI is fine, especially for first reveals of story focused games, but they are a big no-no for multiplayer games, and they can’t be the majority of the entire show.

@Tharsman No more movie trailers ever again!!!

If you crash in the game, you just restart. But if you crash in real life, THERE IS NO RESTART!!1

Microsoft should follow suit with a Halo film, but instead of following eSports players, it's 90 minutes of 343 Industries trying to figure out how long they can stretch one season pass out for.

@K1LLEGAL ultimate flip flopping ? Wow surely not like that would ever happen ....again and again and again lol

They messed up badly for a console maker thats always shouting about exclusives they had nothing
For me spider man was good but felt like dlc to the first one

Even if he BIG ps fans that told everyone on twitter the showcase would be so good that Xbox fans would sell their Xboxs have come out and said yeh I was wrong

Edit sorry tagged the wrong person

The niche, hardcore gaming community seems so out of touch with the large general gaming population. The truth is that most gamers who watched the showcase, or will watch clips of it on YouTube, will associate these games with PlayStation now.
Xbox will also show off some third-party games at their showcase. It will have the same effect for the general gaming audience, but in Xbox's favour.
Showing off third party games is not a bad thing!

The fact that Microsoft socials and YouTube immediately blasted out the list of all the games coming to Xbox and released Xbox branded trailers was genius. I personally forgot the Showcase was happening and got my first notification of Alan Wake 2 and MGS3 from the Xbox Twitter account.

Most of the show was basically mid. Some reveals I thought were terrible, such as Foamstars and whatever the game from Haven was. There were some nice looking indies but likely not ones I personally will be interested in. At the end of the day I was only interested in
Spiderman 2
AC Mirage
Alan Wake 2
MGS3
Destiny (got me with Cayde-6 /sigh)
Intrigued by Marathon, cool trailer, but need to know a ton more.

Everything else is likely a pass for me.

@Sakai Disagree completely, 100%

This is (the successor of) E3. Gameplay is for cheap blog posts or youtube direct stuff. This is the video game hype superbowl, give me Blur Studios quality cgi trailers all day please.

If anything, have an after show with gameplay.

The PS showcase was clearly lacking a real demonstration of a trebuchet. That would have been the chef's kiss, and they forgot it.

Whilst I will agree that this was more a 'generic' showcase you'd expect from Geoff Keighley, not a First Party specific Showcase, its not that dissimilar from many 'Xbox' shows over the years that had 30+ games at E3 of which only a 'small' selection were ever Exclusive.

I don't see it as a 'win' for Xbox as those games were made by 3rd Party multi-platform devs and would be 'expected' on Xbox too - unless they get 'taken away' by deals to exclude Xbox. A 'win' would be those games coming to Game Pass as far as I'm concerned - being able to 'buy' the 'same' multi-platform games on Xbox should be 'expected' regardless of who has 'marketing' deals.

When MS closes ABK and announces games coming to ALL platforms - like they do with Minecraft or ESO or F76 new 'content', will that be a 'win' for Playstation because those games 'release' on PS5 too? Not really - just means that more Gamers get to play at Launch because its not so 'limited' on where you can play - a win for Gamers and of course MS who will no doubt consider the 'revenue' a Win.

The only way its possibly a 'Win' is the Public perception that Sony is likely to have a 'tough' year in terms of First Party releases (although PSVR2 releases add up as well but require an expensive 'headset' to play) for PS5 only gamers - having to 'rely' on 3rd Party releases for exciting new games to play on their Console - like MS did last year when they had 'very little' to offer. Still had 'great' games (even if they came to other platforms too) and exclusives (High on Life for example).

In fairness, they also showed more 'Playstation 5' game footage than MS shows 'Series X' footage. Its still showcasing the games Sony Playstation gamers can look forward to playing on their Hardware, even if Xbox gamers get to enjoy some of them too.

From my perspective, knowing its 'Sony' and therefore likely to be $70+ games at launch - even 3rd Party multi-platform releases, I doubt I'll be buying any this year anyway as I refuse to pay more than £50 for ANY game - especially as I have a LOT of games in my Backlog, Games on Game Pass/EA Access, Free games from Gold/PS+ and with Back Compat, sales of 'older', patched, complete and working games for a LOT less money are more 'appealing'. I know I own the Witcher 3, but when you can buy the Complete edition (all DLC) and 'FREE' upgrade to Series X/PS5, I'd rather buy that than Spider-Man 2 for example and play that until SM2 drops in price. Mind you, I could be playing Starfield or Forza instead of 'buying' AC:Mirage, MGS, AW2 etc at release.

It still highlights the Games Sony gamers 'expect' this year to keep them 'playing' on their favourite platform, the fact that Xbox gamers won't miss out on most of those games too is 'great' but its 'only' a win if they can deliver 'more' exclusive games that will 'compete' with Final Fantasy 16, Spider-Man 2 etc as these will likely still 'beat' Xbox showcase if all they have is Forza and Starfield - especially if they aren't 10/10 games...

@Kaloudz Yeah, we had Sony's showcase which was a third-party showcase except for the next Spider-Man game. Now we have the first-party games ahead!

I'm very curious as to whether Sony's new focus on blockbusters and live service games is going to be a good thing....

@TakeItEasy The format was pretty much the one thing I didn't have an issue with. The games can and should speak for themselves. I don't need a talking head spouting corporate buzzwords and trying to convince me to be excited.

Too bad the trailers were primarily CG movies, and didn't showcase much in the way of actual gameplay.

@UltimateOtaku91 You know, people can just be disappointed in a thing. It's alright. If you're excited, our disappointment doesn't de-legitimize your own feelings.

@K1LLEGAL @Martsmall I find it even more hilarious the argument of acknowledging "indie" games now after years of boasting about the supposed superiority of the elite Sony exclusives on Push Square.

@Ralizah new Ips and multiplayer games cant speak for themselves certainlh the one shown also the animation wasnt good between the trailers

@Ralizah I understood why people were disappointed and I even said myself that it was a mediocre showing from a first party point, my comment about fake fans were aimed at those saying they are leaving sony behind because of one showcase.

I'm just here for AC and maybe Dragon's Dogma 2.

@Banjo- yep I remember some ppl calling these indie games game pass fodder

@UltimateOtaku91 In general, people who leave an ecosystem tend to just drift away from it. If you're invested enough to loudly complain about how you're done with Playstation, chances are you'll be in line for the next one at some point as well. So I tend to see that as merely a way of expressing disappointment. Perhaps in a hyperbolic manner, but some of us are drama queens, y'know?

@TakeItEasy A good trailer doesn't require a talking head to contextualize what you've seen, though.

I don't mind Nintendo Directs where you might get half a minute of the host telling you about an especially notable game after a trailer, but this format is still vastly better than listening to corporate heads stand around droning about the game, IMO.

It's obviously different if a game is meant to be spotlighted, like Starfield presumably will in the show soon.

the only game i am proper hype for from the presentation is dragons dogma 2 and it isn't an exclusive so not great as a ps showcase.
spiderman 2 looks good but i still haven't played miles morales game yet.

@TakeItEasy I think that's the big one, and that's what's missing from E3. People say they don't want a bunch of devs wasting time talking about their vision, they just want to see rapid fire commercials. But it was the devs talking about their vision that gave context to what you saw in a trailer or gameplay demo. When you just get rapid fire trailers you have no idea what you're watching, what the context is, what the game premise even is, you just see a bunch of flashy animation with no context that all blends into a seamless generic animation show. Devs talking about the game and describing the gameplay loop and environment in words was a critically important component of E3 shows that's entirely missing in the cheap bundle of youtube trailers that these presentations now are.

If MS's show isn't amazing I'm not sure I'm ever going to bother watching any of these presentations again. They're terrible and the companies forget why they used to work. IDK why Sony went weeks ahead....that's not their MO. MS has the chance to really listen to the PS feedback and have a "this is how you share" moment with their show. They probably blow it though....

@UltimateOtaku91 I don't think anyone is saying the indie games looked bad. It was a bad show from Playstation, because if you swap the logo and say it's an Xbox show, it's still the same show minus Spiderman and the Haven game nobody cares about.

It was basically the old E3 PC Gaming Show but for consoles, and for some unknown reason Playstation branded. Nothing's wrong with the games themselves, it's the fact that it's not actually a Playstation show, just a summer industry sizzle real that doesn't actually have much to do with the platform itself. From the brand that built it's whole image on being all about its exclusives.

"PS Showcase" means Uncharted, Killzone, some new IP from SSM, follow-ups on Spiderman (they did that) and Wollverine/Factions. Astrobot. The wind down for Dreams...bizarre FF7R revieals 7 years before it releases. Moneyhatting the audience for Shenmue 3. Things you watch PS showcases for.

What did they give people instead? A bargain basement Splatoon clone and fecking Cat Quest.

@NEStalgia true they just put together many CGI trailers you don't know what genre is that game or how it looks how it feels what the devs vision.... Its an empty shell

@Ralizah a trailer doesnt tell you a thing about the game and gathering bunch of CGI and throw them at poeple wont get them excited, and most poeple aren't impressed by CGI anymore like on the PS2 3 era,
And yesterday it was awful and i still to see a showcase thats full of trailers have success

While it didn't meet expectations for gaming news outlets, I doubt it did any harm to their player base or the trajectory they are on to sell a LOT of consoles. Sony will be fine. A missed opportunity, but I can't say I saw anything that did any harm to Sony either. Just a meh showcase, but they will be just fine.

For Xbox, it truly is a HUGE opportunity to drop a ton of updates and info on AAA first party exclusives that are in the works. They also need to be sure to deliver Starfield and Forza Motorsport on time and this year. Those games go hand in hand with the upcoming showcase. As we all know, these showcases have a long tail and get rehashed for months after they occur. Xbox needs to focus on building a narrative they have a LOT of AAA games coming soon (including this year) and that they are QUALITY. No more major flops like Redfall, at least for the next year or so....

If Xbox put out that quality of show . You would get the usual from the elite ps fanboys.. one of who is here ..about it was awful and I didn't spend so so on a console for Indies ...yet all of a sudden it was a alright show with some decent indies lol....was poor from PlayStation's perspective first party wise....also psvr 2 future doesn't look great....hope things change soon because after paying almost 600 for it I want more dedicated games for it

Considering how Sony fans have long been pushing exclusive titles as the be-all end-all of gaming, they have really shot themselves in the foot when it comes to that PS Showcase.

It was the constant CGI fest that bothered me the most, so hopefully XBox will do better on that front. So far as the exclusives go it was certainly a win on the surface, although it's important to remember that those dozen or so Studios ARE working on exclusive titles, even if they weren't shown, and they surely can't be as painfully generic looking as that Payday/Ubisoft looking game. So whereas with the majority of the Microsoft Studios everyone already knows what they're working on, XBox would do well not to rest on their laurels as Sony still have the ability to surprise and excite when they inevitably do reveal what they have coming up (unless it turns out they're all working on terrible GaaS games...)

Okay y'all be totally honest with me.

I was all in buying a PS5 TOMORROW-mainly for Street Fighter 6 and my entrance into this newest gen. That showcase was so bad - I don't know now. I haven't played an MS product in many years. I haven't played an MS console since the 360.

Does this thing have a chance against Sony? Do y'all think the SF6 X version will be on par with the Playstation version?

Thanks for taking the time people.

@Cashews Well if you need to ask questions then you already know the answers. I'd say stick with Ps, if you needed an Xbox you'd know it. But I promise you this. The Xbox show will blow your mind.

@Cashews
Even worse, and I'll say this...
The big draw for SF6 PS5 fans was that Super SF2 Turbo would be 'exclusive' to former players of Street Fighter 5. Capcom released an offer for SF5 owners on Capcom ID, allowing them to link ANY account to a Steam or PS5 account with a Street Fighter 5 profile.

Ergo, when SF6 comes out, I'm going to be playing 2 Turbo, and I don't even own a PS5. Never have.

@BAMozzy “Whilst I will agree that this was more a 'generic' showcase you'd expect from Geoff Keighley, not a First Party specific Showcase, its not that dissimilar from many 'Xbox' shows over the years that had 30+ games at E3 of which only a 'small' selection were ever Exclusive.”

I was actually getting this vibe while watching. I’m an big Xbox guy, but over the years had to watch shows where there were TONS of games, many of which turned out to be great, but little first party firepower. As I watched this showcase it felt like an Xbox showcase from a few years ago.

With your point at the end about Xbox needing more than Forza and Starfield, I do agree. However I do think that Starfield is going to be something special. It’ll be a 9/10 game because of bugs and openness with people complaining that not all filler is great. But it’ll be played for years and and be regarded greatly barring a complete meltdown by a team that really hasn’t missed. I think a good Starfield showing alone will carry some weight. But yeah they could use a few more nice showings from First Party.

@xMightyMatt14x I don't doubt that Starfield will have its fans that will play it for the next decade or more, creating mods etc etc.

What I meant is that even if Starfield and Forza are bangers, Sony still showed Final Fantasy and Spider-Man 2 - both expected this year too. I know FF isn't 1st Party (may as well be), but its still 'exclusive' and if MS only have Starfield and 'yet another' Forza (eventually - however 'great' it is, its still on every Xbox), this will still seem 'great' for Playstation fanboys to brag about.

MS can still 'lose' if they don't capitalise on Sony's 'lack' of first party games by not having 'more' than Starfield and Forza. I expect some 3rd Party games too - some maybe 'exclusive' - timed or otherwise - but I still expect MS to show some - inc those coming to Game Pass that are 'still' releasing on Playstation too.

As disappointing as it was maybe for PS fanboys expecting more, or better for 'Xbox' fans than expected as they also get to play some of the games, its still a relative thing - until MS do theres and we see what games we ALL can enjoy as well as those 'locked' to a specific platform, its difficult to say that Xbox 'wins'. The expectation and potential is there for MS to make This look 'weak' for PS and double down on how good Xbox will be but if we only get those two games and 'everything' else they show is on Playstation too, it could look 'bad' for MS - can't 'beat' Sony when Sony have a 'bad' showcase...

Its just premature to make these statements - especially before we see what Xbox has to show and a lot of the games we did see, we saw PS5 footage too showing PS5 gamers exactly what to expect - MS can 'fail' there too...

Sony got a few big titles to release early and now seems to have little left in the pipeline. Meanwhile, Xbox started slow with a steady build up. I'm telling you guys MS is on the right track. If they can hold the course they will continue to reclaim market share.

@BAMozzy I get that. Luckily Phil Spencer came out and said in the Kinda Funny interview that we would get “updates” on several of the games they asked him about (Any mixture of Fable, Avowed, Hellblade 2, Perfect Dark, Compulsuons game, Everwild, etc.). Im expecting that the “disappointing” part will be that Hellblade is next spring when some are wanting this fall. But still I think not only are they set up by Sony for a hit, but I think Phil has been preparing anyway and they’ll have several more First Party games to show off, establishing a better roadmap at least into next Spring. I’m not expecting a Home Run, but I’m expecting a surprise double or even triple.

@TakeItEasy @NEStalgia I agree with both and disagree with @Ralizah because although I understand that some shows are very long and boring when there is much commentary, the shows that are a compilation of trailers don't tell me anything. I often pause them to see what game it is because I don't even know and many times I need to read the banner to recognise them. There was a Microsoft show that I watched intrigued and for me it was like everything was shooters and blood and I couldn't tell one from another. I don't remember when it was released but I think it was also around these summer pseudo-E3 events (yes, I know it's not summer yet). Eventually, we received much more than shooters on Xbox after that show and I love the variety that Xbox provides nowadays but those shows like that particular one I mentioned and Sony's Non-Sony Momentum-High Show, while not exactly counterproductive, are very poor and fail to do what they're supposed to do.

Nothing more generic-looking than Sony's games since PS4 started breathing one year after it was released: gloomy and linear versions of Ubisoft's games filled with mediocre gameplay and outstanding cinematic production such as Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War and The Last of Us Remastered, followed by cross-gen pseudo-sequels on PS4 and PS5 such as Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarok and The Last of Us Remaster Remastered, after promising a brand-new generation that Microsoft wouldn't be able to deliver because of them supporting Xbox One for a few more years. PS5 was marketed to reveal a new generation in gaming to the world and yet it is PS4.5.

@xMightyMatt14x Do you think that Starfield will get 10s if it's a 10 out of 10 game? I mean, it's not published by Nintendo or Sony 🤔.

Ya...kinda agree. That was lackluster at best. Spiderman 2 looks great and some of the PSVR2 games. But most everything else was third party. The Project Q looks stupid and pointless. The buds look cute tho.

@PapaGlitch
What is GaaS?

@Banjo- Well said about Sony's games since the PS4 era took off, and I think this latest showcase has really taken the steam out of the PS train. For too long it's fans have been dependent upon pushing those exclusive titles as the single most important thing in gaming, and now they have hardly anything to show for that selling point. It's like they now have to completely rethink their strategy.

@Wiiiiiiii Games as a Service, online games that are updated over time to keep selling stuff such as cosmetic downloadable content. Sometimes they are free-to-play. A good example is Fortnite. The multiplayer part of it is free and developers add and rotate many items on the digital shop for the players to check and buy. More recently, they added an optional monthly subscription in Fortnite.

@JayJ Absolutely. Some people (e.g., Ultimate) talk as if Sony was the holy grail in gaming and I'm glad when people come out and say not for me.

The thing is that without those supposedly superior exclusives or not as many as they would like and with games launching on PS4 until now and on Windows from now on, PS5 is not the elitist exclusive paradise that they pretend.

There was so much hype going into this event. Everybody thought since it had been 18 months since the last one, that Sony was going to come out swinging. There were tons of fake lists online of games to be at the event. Everybody’s expectations went through the roof. I think everybody needs to temper their expectations from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. It’s taking so long to make games now. We need to be more realistic. Yes, it wasn’t the best show Sony had. They didn’t show much first party at all. I’m sure the games will come. I’m being patient for Microsoft to release their games. It’s my platform of choice. I’m excited for their show but I’m also keeping my expectations in check.

As a 3rd party showcase, this would have been a decent enough show. It wasn't a 3rd party showcase, it was Sony's first party showcase, the first one in 18 months, and it needs to be looked at under that microscope. I believe in calling them like I see them and I have come down on MS on many occasions in the last couple years for various things, which I felt were fully substantiated. That said, this was a GARBAGE first party showcase. Anyone stating this was a good show, or even a decent show, looking at it as a first party showcase...well, those people are kidding themselves.

Hand down one of the single worst showcases for Sony I have ever seen. Literally, that showcase gave MS and XBox a reason to celebrate and make comical posts about all of the XBox games coming. An EPIC level fail from Sony. I am a multi-platform gamer and have been since Atari 2600, Coleco-Vision, and Intellivision. Again, I just call them like I see them and this showcase was a joke. Thats not hyperbole, that is just fact.

@EvilSilentFrame

Keeping your expectations in check is a solid move. I do the same myself with any showcase like this. That said, this was a pitiful showing by Sony. MS gets lambasted when they have weak events and they should again if they have another weak one in a few weeks and it should be no different for Sony or Nintendo for that matter. Nothing wrong with being honest and this was honestly a tragedy for a first party showcase. Lets hope MS can beat this as Sony certainly set a very very low bar here.

@Markatron84 I would pay top dollar to see a version of "The Office" that takes place inside 343.

@Banjo- I think the problem that Sony has, is that their success in PS4 era was so deeply based on their "sad dad" games like GoW and TLoU. Supported by some other story-heavy and graphically impressive games, a type of game that almost only PS could make up to that level. But they are making an effort to do something other than that (as those games take 4-6 years to make anyway) and their new schtick is live-service games, with Fairgames, Marathon, Concord and probably some other stuff. But GaaS market is already really crowded and break-neck competitve with some big players that have pockets as big as PS or even bigger. It also isn't something that thrives on exclusivity because it needs player numbers, hence a game like Marathon is multi-platform despite them owning Bungie.

Thanks for the opinions fellows - I think I'll grab an X instead of the PS5 now. I bought over 1.6 million dollars (USD) of XBLA games back in the day - maybe I can still play a few of them? And there seems more hope here than Sony.

sincerely, cashews

@Banjo- Honestly I feel like the perspective of gaming media is a 10 is only possible when something is hand crafted, cinematic and more linear. There are exceptions to this rule, but there generally seems to be knocks on very open RPGs for being too long, having too much filler, or having any level of repetition, even if the experience had by many is better than critics say it will be (due to the open nature of the game). Even PlayStation games like Horizon generally get this knock which puts them at 9s. So due to this I’m expecting a 9. Some of the new experiments, such as with ship building probably won’t land the way they want or be “robust” enough for some, but I think it’ll be closer to Skyrim in quality than Fallout 4. Meaning in my opinion it will be very very good, and probably a 10 for many players.

Now if it starts getting 8s and 7s from critics then that will mean alarm bells should be going off.

@UltimateOtaku91 "the internet and fake fans". Would like to see media bias(gamerant, games radar, metro.uk) react to the PlayStation showcase.

@BAMozzy starfield can fail. Xbox has tons of 1st party exclusive still pending.

I hope so but doubt it. I mean I already don't use my PS4/Xbox One for anything but third parties anyways and mostly bargain bins at this point. I mean this year I care for what Atlas Fallen, Immortals of Aveum, Disgaea 7, Pikmin 4, Forza Motorsport 8 I need gameplay and the structure of the career/menus design or I'm not interested I'm skipping it. Not much really and I haven't even played all my 2022 games yet. That and I also have 20+ retro games to play on old consoles. I'm good for the year.

Am I interested in a few yes (I mean Immortals was already there and I saw the first two trailers before the showcase and was already sold on it). The Indies looked great but I'm not going to play them because I buy physical I don't digital but wise them the best they always make interesting games.

Spiderman 1 wasn't for me, 2 looks good (meaning I will say it does a good job and more power to that audience) but I didn't like the first one and didn't play Miles Morales. I'm not into open worlds of it's scope let alone in general unless it's Sunset Overdrive or Gravity Rush their gameplay and structure made me want to play them, I put a lot into Spiderman 1 I didn't play a bit and drop it I played at least 90% of the game's content (up to the last few bosses part of the game) but I didn't enjoy more than 2 side missions (Radars and the laser grid one, maybe the ground pound one because I had to actually use a skill tree ability for once as it's the only one required in the whole game) and the puzzles in doc ock's lab that's about it, maybe the taskmaster challenges.

The live services eh. They had so many others that could exist of ideas than just shooters I came up with a bunch on Push Square in that live service article. A Handheld I don't like the direction they are going for.

I doubt Xbox won't have the same third parties shown, just as many live services and whatever games people have waited for already to be there hopefully.

I pretty much am at a point of not caring for most first party on either PS/Xbox side (especially when Sony kills off the studios I want to see games from). I keep the consoles around and like to see Xbox try with genre on existing IPs or something different hopefully but I'm not as excited as most people are for certain games/genres represented when others are more my focus instead.

@Belkan Well Games Radar states it was ‘near perfect’ and they stated before the show that nothing Microsoft shows in June including Starfield would beat it.

Xbox needs exclusives at this point.. it needs do double down on it and expand their global reach as well. XCloud needs to be expanded globally too if they want those sales numbers.

@Banjo-
Oh, so it's another name for live service games
Thanks

I was more interested in grandblue fantasy and another game, can't remember name, but it had a "0" in its name.

@Wiiiiiiii No problem 😊.

@BrilliantBill Yes, it was a few years ago that Sony revealed that over half of their games will be available on Windows and phones. Sony themselves said it and I saw the slides but Sony fans almost didn't believe it. It destroys all their reasoning to date. The problem is, as you said, that the service games market is overcrowded and people don't care if it's a Sony game because most players aren't Sony or Xbox fans.

@xMightyMatt14x It's like the critics are the same people reviewing films. It's either that of that they are fans of Sony's interactive films. Nintendo is seem with different eyes whether they make a sandbox RPG or a new Mario with little platforming because Nintendo is considered a company of geniuses even though most of the geniuses no longer work at Nintendo or have other roles. What score would Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom receive if the games were made by Ubisoft? They are not really Zelda games and still got 10s because they are a sandbox with realistic physics and little else. I'm sure that both would get 7s if they had a different publisher and I say this as someone that loved Immortals Fenyx Rising and are a big Zelda fan. By big fan I mean that Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess are three of my favourite games ever.

In short, for Microsoft is almost impossible to get a 10 and even Phil Spencer acknowledged that. If they didn't get it with Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush that are polished and original and those are the terms for making Stray Game of the Year... Critics will always find reasons to subtract points but then I read Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom reviews that are so hyperbolic that I can't take them seriously.

@Cashews Same. A PS5 Slim reveal would have been my signal to pull the trigger. That showcase cured me of that (I don't play live service multiplayer games and Spiderman 2 on its own isn't reason enough to plonk down hundreds of pounds).

As some of Sony's CG teasers started to blur together I did start to see an opening for Xbox. But then the Spiderman 2 footage kicked in and I wondered if we would ever see something similarly 4-quadrant that could go toe-to-toe. Outside of a 3rd person Indiana Jones Xbox exclusive I'm not sure where that would come from. Maybe one day.

@S1ayeR74 if it's PS it's okay to put positive reviews even though it was lacking, but of it's Xbox they'll put negative impact especially redfall mess. Where's the fairness.

That's all well and good but Microsoft don't wanna be relying on others.

PS5 has no Games.

@UltimateOtaku91 it was a bad showcase for Sony games terrible but for 3rd party games it was good and a good showcase for xbox as well I don't like the path sony are going down with live service games either I'll never touch any of that crap even if they were the only games available in the world l

@Moonglow I Hope all there live service plans fail completely and they just concentrate om making great single player games that's all I want anyway same as the xbox

@Wiiiiiiii gaas is the right word for live service games they might as well come from the backside lol

@Banjo- @xMightyMatt14x I think the fact that we're already guessing what the review scores are going to be for a game that none of us have even seen that much about, including itemizing the reasons for deductions and setting "alarm bell" thresholds tells us everything there is to know about the state of video game reviews.

It will be a Bethesda game, it will have jank, it will have something less than top of the line tech demo visuals. It will lose points for that. Indeed "10" is reserved for games that have no player autonomy because then no sequence can be broken, nothing can be approached out of order, and that's tragic for the whole industry that we're still at a point where this happens. Of course even film critics fall into this. Siskel and Ebert were the most respected film critics back in the day because they had a simple format of two critics giving their opinion of thumbs up or thumbs down. Allowing their well known subjective biases to factor into that opinion. Is Citizen Kane a 10? Maybe it's an 8.8 or a 9.2. Costuming was spotty and the technicolor remaster felt under saturated. Points lost. That just doesn't work.

The problem with reviewers is not allowing for the idea of what a game is trying to do to filter in the review. The cinematic games have a very clear objective. Get from beginning directly to the end. There's no real off path, or own choice, the game funnels you through the ideal sequence of events and actions to take. The game's premise is tell an enjoyable narrative, be visually impressive, and manage to at least be not mind numbing in gameplay in the process. Easy to review, it either does that well from moment to moment, consistently, and then ends in a short amount of time to finish and feel good about for reviewing. Easy!

Then take Skyrim. You can go anywhere, do anything, spend thousands of hours doing whatever including trying to break the dynamic systems of the game, there's no defined path, sequence of events, fixed set of events to evaluate, not really a fixed objective or goal to complete the game, it's not able to be completed in the week or so spent on a review, and it provides you endless opportunites to actively LOOK for the flaws, and with so many systems, most of them dynamic, the flaws will be findable.

The result is one game is 10/10, the other's a 7.5. Also compared to the bottle of Dom reviewed last week at a 9.2, near perfect scores except a finish that was a little drier than expected, this bottle of sparking water really lacks depth, flavor, it's clearly not up to the standard the bottle of Dom was, 6/10.

Though I still have to backtrack on the Zelda part, because too many people that joined in the middle think Ocarina=Zelda, but Ocarina is the one that really started a long period of deviation from OG Zelda. I still hold that BotW was finally the Zelda 2 that we never actually got since the 80s, and TotK is finally Zelda 3. I love all the ones between, too, but if you started with 1, BotW and TotK are far more a Zelda game than Ocarina. The aimless exploration of the overworld and trying to figure out what I can do and where I can go is what kept me glued to the original from the 80's into the 90's. And it makes sense because as the story goes, Miyamoto basically yanked the series back from Aonuma after the downward sales trend ending with SS, and rebooted it himself before handing it back to Aonuma to finish. Aonuma even commented at the time that he had difficult because the staff kept pushing back on his ideas saying "that's not what Miyamoto would do." So BotW/TotK is one last blast from the old genius himself (plus Pikmin 4) from before he moved onto being a hollywood producer and theme park engineer, lol.

@NEStalgia I think that you misunderstood me. I said, "If it's a 10 out of 10 game" and all my comment is based on that premiss and on what the scores are for games that I have played depending on the publisher which is something that shouldn't influence reviews. Imagine that Starfield is a 10/10 game, does Microsoft get a 10/10 like Sony and Nintendo? Nope.

@NEStalgia I agree, those cinematic games or interactive films that Sony produce are easy to play, easy to beat and easy to review even though the gameplay is shallow as a puddle. The developer just need to polish the path you're supposed to walk and that's an interesting observation but why does the semi-automatic gameplay make a video game be ranked more favourably? It's a video game, not a film. It's the same story I told you when I moved from PS4 to Xbox One. I found out that Xbox games are more gamey so it doesn't make any sense to disregard that and to praise the semi-automatic gameplay of PS games because we are talking video games and not films/movies. But then a trendy and exclusive indie comes to PS and gameplay is all that matters?

The NES and CDi games are the only Zelda games that I haven't played. You might be right but Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are much like a Ubisoft game but lacking many of the elements that Ubisoft works hard on. Then Ubisoft makes a Ubisoft-BotW game that is more polished and fun to play than BotW yet scores are much lower because it's not innovative enough but then Breath of the Wild's sequel gets 10s... Hypocrisy.

@Banjo- You're right, my friend, hell will freeze over before Starfield will get a 10 even if it's worth it!

@HarmanSmith That's exactly my point 😅.

@NEStalgia you stated very well what I was alluding to. Cinematic, linear experiences have a more controlled experience with more obvious aims. Open games allow for one to identify things that are wrong, even if there is far more gameplay that is “right” and much more offered than a controlled, linear experience. That’s why I’m predicting a 9 (if it’s amazing) and a 7 (if it’s surprisingly not). And I agree that the fact we can identify that and even WHY that will be says everything about game reviews.

I own both systems, I can't say I'm excited for any of the announcements. Other than FF16 nothing else feels like a big leap forward (even Spidey). Hope we get a date for next GTA, Persona and Elder Scrolls soon!

@Banjo- Yeah, like @xMightyMatt14x said as well, it's sort of a human bias in processing information. A linear cinematic game presents everything it has to every player every time. No player gets a bad run, makes the wrong choice, plays an imperfect sequence of events, hits an enemy gate too early, triggers glitchy behavior by doing something the game didn't expect triggers weird physics actions etc. Because the game is the same for everyone, points you to everthing of value, always in the ideal sequence and heavily tested.

So on review, objectively everything is perfect, there's no points to take off. It does what it intends to do and doesn't fall. An open game is the opposite of all that. It's not a guided, crafted experience from the designer to you. It's software. You put different inputs in and get different outputs. And you can break it. Easily.

As long as linear games are reviewed to the same basis as open, the comparison is worthless and so is the metacritic purpose.

As for Zelda, yeah the thing is Zelda 1 is basically the original open world sandbox action adventure game. Yes, miyamoto invented the Ubisoft template 😂. Way back in the 80s. Botw didn't copy Ubisoft, Ubisoft/GTA/etc all really copied the original Zelda blueprint and updated it. Then Zelda return to it after being being an rpg then a Vania thing for decades : 😁

@NEStalgia Yes but even if Starfield was perfectly polished it still wouldn't get the 10s because it's a Microsoft game, that's my point.

Now, look at the graphical mess that Tears of the Kingdom is on a TV that is not even mentioned in the reviews. The sequel doesn't represent the innovation that Breath of the Wild supposedly does and I say supposedly because it's a simplified version of Ubisoft's modern template with a bit of Tomb Raider archery and hunting, Monster Hunter cooking and monsters, just a few monster and enemies, and Trine's physics evolved. I have played Breath of the Wild a lot, hundreds of hours. I haven't played the sequel much but I was playing with a friend and it was like a slideshow when some kind of chuchus started fighting me. All the colours looking almost the same, blurry textures, worse than Breath of the Wild. It has nothing to do with the trailers' graphics! Nobody mentions that in the reviews. Then I reached a point with puzzles that reminded me more of Immortals Fenyx Rising than Breath of the Wild, one of them requiring using a plate as protection against vertical rays. Definitely, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kigdom developers have played many Ubisoft games and have copied some ideas.

A Sony linear game for me is okay, let's know how the story ends but I'm not really enjoying anything. The Last of Us is a disaster in gameplay terms. The story is not as original and magnificent as they say. The shooting sections of Uncharted are poor. But yes, reviewers are messing this up because they are appreciating the graphics and superficial perfection of linear adventures while not appreciating the gameplay of an open-world game at all, unless it's Breath of the Wild or its sequel.

Not long ago reviews meant something: good games get positive reviews and bad games don't. Reviews used to be reliable. Not anymore. Now, there are more good games than before but the way they are reviewed is completely biased.

Rise of the Tomb Raider (and Shadow of the Tomb Raider but that's quite boring) is really polished, not linear and looks awesome. It looks better than Sony's games, the camera is better, the gameplay is better. It's a more enjoyable game but it will never receive the same score as a Sony game.

All this means that games are reviewed differently depending on the publisher.

I was really impressed by the old games that I played on Rare Replay. Did you know that Atic Atac is some kind of predecessor of Resident Evil with enemies, rooms and keys of different colour?

I don't know what Vania is. Castlevania?

"PS5 boss says showcase had ‘best and most varied catalogue of games possible’ as nose grows to 10 inches"

Erase the last six words and you have a PS headline 🤣.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/05/26/ps5-boss-says-showcase-had-best-and-most-varied-catalogue-of-games-18849451/

@Banjo- I think if Microsoft made that very curated linear cinematic type of games it could get 10/10s. I'm glad they don't but I think the bias is less about Sony vs MS and more about linear fixed progression vs player agency and how reviewers see the end result. Sonys few non linear games get the same treatment. Horizon is imo a much better video game than Spider-Man and gow and tlou but always gets reviewed anemically. Got has days gone famously got panned etc
I don't think it's brand bias in reviews as much as genre bias. Ms doesn't make 10/10 genres.

Switch is weird. Even our resident graphics snob dezzy who goes on about AAA looking games includes switch games in that. Yeah the visuals look old because the hardware is old. Should the game be reviewed based on that or aside from that as, on its platform, it looks great for what the hardware can do? I don't think there's one answer to that.

Totk isn't really a ubi formula. It's a strange game. It's really part survival sim, part Zelda, part crafting game.... The good and bad vs botw is that it really doubles down on the survival sim aspects and I'm not sure I like that. Most of it isn't new, but with Fusion and emphasis on extreme temps it's very enforced. It feels like it inherited more of nms and Song in the Smoke than Ubisoft. I love (love love love) nms. SitS.... I'm not ambivalent about. I like totk and I think the design is kind of brilliant but I'd criticize how tedious some aspects are tough I'm also not super far into it because of the nms obsession

@NEStalgia Tears of the Kingdom seems to have more busywork. My friend likes the game but he finds aspects of it annoying and I didn't mention how bad the graphics and frame rate look to not be rude (yes, I'm nice and polite in real life 🤣). Our resident graphics snob is very incongruous, I have noticed but even worse is the obsession with how many Xbox are on the shelves certain days 😅.

My example is Starfield being a perfectly polished open-world game, use your imagination! 😉 I think that it still wouldn't get 10s. Also you didn't answer why Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom get 10s being imperfect open-world games with many flaws and that lack a lot of meaningful content. The answer must be that they are made by Nintendo. Have you read the hyperbolic reviews? Have a look at Metacritic's extracts 🤣.

@Banjo- I've played enough Todd Howard games to be immune to imagining polish, unless it's sold by the trading post for too much gold lol.

Yeah, I agree about the busywork. My two complaints are the controls for crafting, and inventory use are needlessly obtuse and frustrating, and the busywork...I do not like the fusion mechanic at all. The rest really is brilliant, and the crafting based puzzle mechanics is great. But those persistent annoyances would make me drop at least a point on a review.

Nintendo, more than Sony, does get a review bias I think both be being Disney level iconic and by a game being "the best one can expect given the hardware." Zelda never was a terribly popular franchise until botw. It's weird watching it become this sensation.

Though it's part inspired by Skyrim so..... It Just Works? 😂

@NEStalgia I haven't played Skyrim but it seems to be a bit like open-world Zelda. Yes, it's weird seeing this Zelda craze now. Do you think that the next Zelda will be like Fortnite with building mechanics and a players vs. environment mode just like the single-player mode of Fortnite where Bokoblins are your typical zombie invasion? It wouldn't surprise me 🤪.

The Legend of Zelda was my favourite video game franchise between Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have destroyed what I love about The Legend of Zelda.

@JayJ nothing to show??? Spiderman 2, FF16, Wolverine, TLOU Factions, Silent Hill 2, Ghost of Tsushima 2, KOTOR. Plus a new ip from Naughty Dog. Playstation has plenty in the pipeline. Just because they weren’t shown at the showcase isn’t a big deal. Xbox has Starfield an Forza, Forza is wat it is, we know wat it’ll be like. A fantastic, Gran Turismo style racing game. Starfield is anyone’s guesse. It could be a 10/10, it could be another Redfall, we just don’t know.

This showcase definitely didn't sell me on a Playstation 5, and with the dearth of multiplats i saw at that show I know i'll be fed on my xbox. I can revisit the ps5 conversation next year but i certainly wasn't sold on playstations upcoming slate.