Here’s A Rundown of Everything Shown at the PlayStation 5 Event Today [16/09/2020]

What will surely go down as one of the longest Summers is finally coming to an end. And with it the never-ending game of console price chicken ends too. Microsoft’s Series S console was leaked along with the Series X’s price making for a low-key reveal of what is a very big deal. The Series X will run you £449/€499/$499 while Series S will come in at the shockingly low (for a new console in 2020) £249/€299/$299, this lower price point was made extra shocking with Microsoft’s confirmation of the Series S’ specs, basically confirming it will be the same console with a lower RAM, smaller SSD, no disk drive and a 1440p native resolution instead of 4K. All of this is none too shabby but where the new Xbox is really stepping into its own is when it comes to services value. Game Pass has been praised by enough people that you probably already know its an inarguably great deal but it is worth spelling out just how aggressive Phil Spencer’s division is pushing it. Game Pass on PC or Xbox is $9.99 a month while Xbox Live Gold (the thing that lets you play online on consoles) is also $9.99 a month, however Game Pass Ultimate, which includes PC and Console Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold, currently costs $14.99 a month. All this works out so that currently if you have one version of Game Pass the service basically pays for itself if you play 2 new AAA games in a year, while Ultimate becomes an equally good deal if you play 3 new AAA games on it a year. Oh, and they’ve been adding a lot of recent titles… Including all Microsoft published games… And EA Play was just added to Game Pass for free.

This sure is a lot of talk about Not PlayStation in this PlayStation news story but context is important here and expectations are high. Xbox is pushing the narrative that they have the best value console, pretty much ever, for sale, while PlayStation has been continuing to beat the drum of “you can only play certain games on our platform”. In a world where the walls between closed systems ecosystems are slowing falling (crossplay) and there is a huge economic downturn riding the wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, you have to imagine that Sony will have to change their tune. So did they?

Things started off with a sizzle reel of games shown at their last event but nothing new was in there. Instead, they led off the show with a major announcement.

This footage seems to be like Square Enix saying “we swear its a real game this time, not just a CGI trailer”.

Final Fantasy XVI

One of the most storied and important franchises in the video game industry has to be Final Fantasy and it is admirable how much creative control singular creatives have been given of various entries in the franchise. For that reason, it was a bit disconcerting to see that the 16th mainline entry in the franchise is being developed by the very corporate sounding Creative Business Unit III but Square Enix has never given their studio’s, particularly exciting names. However a quick look at the PlayStation blog will alleviate any diehard fans’ fears with confirmation that that Studio is being led by Naoki Yoshida, and he will also be acting a the lead producer on the game. Why is this a big deal? Well, Yoshida is often credited not only as the leading creative force behind Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn but the man that saved the franchise’s good name by remaking that game from the ground up. This comes after Final Fantasy XV was considered somewhat of a disappointment by both Square and fans of the franchise, resulting in its DLC plans being cut short. XVI seems to be leaning very heavily into what makes XIV so beloved; a complex character-driven fantasy world. The trailer was captured on a PC emulating a PS5 (it’s nice they’re upfront, I guess) but Square's history of focusing on tech and engines to the detriment of their games, and especially ports, will leave some concerned. It’s currently slated to launch as a PlayStation console exclusive in 2022 but with the next info being held until next year at the earliest and Square Enix’s, we’ll call it, storied history with delays for Final Fantasy games, I can’t help but feel like that date is a tad optimistic.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

The first gameplay demo of the show was footage of the second-best web-slinger (Spider-Gwen No.1). Superhero games seem to really like being set at Christmas as like Batman Arkham Knight it allows for fewer pedestrians to get themselves into trouble while you are trying to swing from building to building. The game has been confirmed to pick up a year after the first game with Miles having somewhat established himself as Spider-Man also. Insomniac also showed off the two factions that seem to be using New York as their battlefield; the sinister-sounding Roxxon and Tinker’s gang only known as the Underground. The demo itself was pretty damn impressive with lots of impressive ray-tracing (puddles-and-all), combat that seemed to be a great acceleration of the previous game’s and an impressive looking set piece. The demo was capped with the announcement that Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales will be launching this holiday.

Portkey Game’s Hogwarts Legacy

Nah, I’d rather not talk about it. 

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Did you think we’d get through showcase season without a scripted gameplay demo of the new Call of Duty? Nope, not happening. The series that only becomes more problematic with each passing year is now going to tackle the notoriously uncontroversial politics of the Reagan Era. While this demo was a visual spectacle to behold and had some incredible sound design the whole game continues to leave a nasty taste in the mouth.

Werewolves? I am all for Resident Evil going full haunted house theme attractions.

Resident Evil Village

After the last PlayStation event Capcom promised a deeper look at their newest RE game in August. However, this didn’t come to pass. And so after the developers issued an apology to the community they confirmed more would be shown soon. This was that more, another trailer showing off the grim-looking premise for this game and a little bit of expanded upon footage, with the tease of a Resi 4 style shopkeep there at the end. With how little has been shown in these two trailers I’m sure that Resident Evil fans will be running wild with speculation until its release sometime next year.

Deathloop

The style of Arkane Paris’ new game continues to impress, looking like Timesplitters had a wild night with the Incredibles with a hefty smattering of over the top violence and immersive-sim tools and gadgets. It seems similar in Hitman when it comes to emphasising learning maps and targets routes and routines,. However the immersive-sim systemic nature of all Arkane game and the added wrinkle that there will constantly be another player hunting you makes this seem like a refreshing take on multiple genres. 

Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition

While the base game had plenty of fans, this Special Edition seems to seek to push visual fidelity and performance quite unlike anything else shown at the showcase. Later confirmed to be running at 4K 120fps Dante, Nero and Goth Kid’s character action romp looks to be a showpiece for the PS5. Along with these gameplay improvements, it appears that there will be added story content (with a major plot point of the original game being given away in the trailer). Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition will launch with the PS5 but is also coming to the Xbox and PC.

Oddworld: Soulstorm

Otherworld Inhabitants’ games were never something I played when I was younger but I always thought they were a light-hearted, if somewhat dark in places, commentary modern industrialism. This trailer sought to reinforce how grim this world actually seems to be though. It’s nice to see a big new console promoting such an old-school style game but whether it will be received well is another thing.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach

Scott Cawthon’s FNAF series has been continuing to be a quiet success after its astronomical explosion in popularity died down. The man himself has been quiet on what he’s working on next but vocally supporting fan games created by the FNAF community (and even is help funding some). But now he has confirmed his next major FNAF project will be called Security Breach and that is about all we know.

This version of the game is going to be easier, right?

Demon’s Souls

We saw an extended gameplay demo of Bluepoint’s long-awaited remaster and it’s exactly what you’d expect from that studio, absolutely stunning. It cannot be understated how much care and attention appears to be being given to this game and recreating the feel and tone of the original, but after some early screenshots left some fans concerned this trailer looked to ease those fears. The game was confirmed for launch and is looking sharp.

Fortnite

Epic’s cash cow has already been confirmed for next-gen systems, but similar to GTA V showing up at the last event it seemed like the perfunctory thing to do was have a short trailer for one of the most popular live service games in the world. The only new info here was solid confirmation that Fortnite will be available at the launch of the PS5

PlayStation Plus Collection

This was an odd one. As we talked about at the top of this piece, Sony has been under fierce pressure from Xbox’s aggressive marketing of Game Pass and its value and needed to hit back. This seemed to be their attempt at a strike back while also being an acknowledgment of the lack of launch titles. This collection will come bundled with your PlayStation Plus membership and provide you with instant access to: God of War, The Last of Us: Remastered, Uncharted 4: A Thief’’s End, Battlefield 1, Monster Hunter World (but not Iceborne), Fallout 4, Final Fantasy XV, The Last Guardian, Ratchet and Clank, Infamous: Second Son, Days Gone, Bloodborne, Detroit: Become Human, Batman Arkham Knight, Mortal Kombat X (not 11), Persona 5 (not Royal), Until Dawn and Resident Evil: Biohazard. While this is a great collection of (mainly first-party) games, it feels like not only are most of these games that people who own a PS4 have picked up on steep discount already but there are some glaring omissions such as Marvel’s Spider-Man, The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima. All of which paired with the paltry number of third party games makes this look like a much weaker offering than Game Pass. I guess it’ll be a nice thing to pad out the library of first-time console owners though.

Price and Date

Bit of a surprise here. Most expect the difference between the disc-based and disc-less PS5 to be £50/$50/€50 (as the hardware is functionally identical in the two machines). However, the PS5 (with a disc drive) will be launching at £449.99/$499.99/€499.99, while the disc-less version will be a fair deal cheaper at £349.99/$399.99/€399.99. So it certainly seems Sony wants to push players in the direction of downloading their games. And while the Xbox Series X/S will have a worldwide release of November 10th, Sony will be staggering its launch. The US, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Mexico and South Korea will all get their hands on the console on November 12th, while the rest of the world will have to wait a week until the 19th.

“That’s all you get” - Cory Barlog, 2020… Probably.

God of War

Small teaser here but all we really saw was a blue version of Kratos’ Omega and the teaser that “Ragnarok is coming”.

And that was the show! We now know what is going on with the new consoles and things are looking mighty interesting. While on paper Microsoft is making all the right business moves, Sony had such runaway success with the previous console generation, that between built-up goodwill and the continued tying up of exclusives they have will certainly remain competitive. And like that the next season has already begun.