I was a bit perplexed yesterday, after watching the 2023 PS Showcase. I got on to social media and folks were divided. Some were fuming about it but there was a bit of pushback. You had most people saying it was trash. Some pushed back saying it was meh. An even smaller contingent claimed it was really good. There were some people claiming this was worse than an Xbox conference.

Why was this all perplexing to me? I felt the exact same way about this one as every Sony show for the past five or six years. The best of all the conferences, but just ok when compared to the 2000s era E3. I would say the last thing that completely blew me away was a segment, not even a show. At E3 2018, when they had the Japanese dude playing the flute and they were showing Ghost of Tsushima gameplay. I remember thinking there’s no way that’s gameplay and the same thing with The Last of Us ll gameplay. Later on there was a cool trailer for Control.

Sony showed their upcoming service games. Havens heist GaaS game looked ok. I thought Foam Party looked cooler than that. But with services, I usually play them for a little bit, maybe a beta and never come back. The only service game I ever came back to was Warzone and that’s only when they have Plunder. I thought Bungie reviving Marathon was awesome then realized it’s all a multiplayer extraction shooter service.

Overall there was a lack of 1st party stuff, too much filler and CGI trailers. But this has been a criticism of mine for a bit. Given a bit more so with other conferences than Sony’s.

There was also stuff that literally no one wanted. The whole PS Cue, a streaming handheld? Why? I thought the handheld market was dying as they claimed why Vita failed. Just make a Vita 2, how is that hard? Put them service game makers on handheld duty.

What did I like? The Minecraft heist game, TearDown. Synapse, Alan Wake 2 (though I didn’t like the first one), Arizona Sunshine 2, MGS3 (cool trailer), Spider-Man 2 (thought it maybe Wolverine at first) and Phantom Blade.

I’m wondering if stuff got cut from the conference to maybe one for around the normal E3 time in June or something. That Sunset Overdrive tease was for nothing. That actually may be my biggest disappointment about the show. I wanted to see something for Firewall 2, Lo Fi, Wolverine or the revival of long dormant PS franchises. I would rather them remake old MGS’s rather than upressed ports. A Peace Walker remake on the Fox engine would be great. Just saying….

Update: It seems people have now come back to their senses and realized it wasn’t a bad show, just meh and still better than the others.