PlayStation fans have had quite a bit to digest in the first half of 2019. Sony has been making news at a furious clip, specifically because it’s already talking about the concrete details of its next-generation console, including its release date. But also making headlines was another big move from Sony–the company completely skipped E3.
Just because Sony didn’t share any news at the year’s biggest gaming convention doesn’t mean there weren’t games getting a lot of attention, though. The show was full of major releases slated for the second half of 2019 and into 2020, like Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Dogs Legion, Control, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Ghostwire Tokyo, and Elden Ring. Sony might not have been present, but PS4 exclusives and semi-exclusives, like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Shenmue III, also made a big splash at the convention.
With so much going on with Sony, the PS4, and whatever its successor console winds up being called, there’s a lot to keep up on. We’ve compiled this cheat sheet to bring you up to speed on everything you need to know about what’s happening on the PS4 front, from news about the new console to E3 and beyond. Read on to keep yourself up to speed on all things PlayStation that you might have missed.
Sony Skips E3 2019
Several companies have started taking their E3 festivities off-site rather than appear at the actual convention. Electronic Arts now has its EA Play event in Hollywood, for example, while Microsoft maintains a presence at the Microsoft Theater just next door to the Los Angeles Convention Center where the rest of E3 takes place. But while major publishers have been moving away from E3, they usually maintain some kind of presence during the convention, including showing off their plans for the future in big press conferences.
This year, Sony was abnormally silent–the PlayStation maker skipped E3 altogether. Sony didn’t hold a press conference to show off new games or discuss its next console, slated for release in 2020. Sony also usually dominates the show floor in E3 with a huge booth, where attendees can try both future and current titles–but Sony gave up that space as well. It was a quieter E3 without Sony in attendance, and that has resulted in somewhat less news from the company about what to expect for the rest of the year. There were still plenty of PlayStation games on offer at the show from other publishers, though.
PlayStation 5 (By Some Name) Is Coming
It’s official: Another Sony game console is coming. Sony revealed some details of the new console in May, although some key pieces of information about what we can expect from the new machine are missing. We don’t know if it’ll be called PlayStation 5 or something else, or what the console will cost. We do know the machine will feature backward compatibility with PS4 games and that it’ll support PSVR. It’ll feature SSD storage and support 8K visuals, provided you have a TV that can handle it. Sony also later teased the possibility of multiplayer playable between generations–meaning you could take on PS5 owners from your PS4 in games that are available on both platforms.
The console is set for release in 2020, so it seems likely there will be a lot more details coming soon, likely before the end of the year. Though E3 has come and gone, there are plenty of other conventions between now and April where Sony could reveal more details.
Some Developers Are Talking About PS5 Development–Kind Of
It’s still early yet, but developers are starting to get peppered with questions about their games appearing on PS5 (or whatever they call it). Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red didn’t rule out releasing the game on new consoles, but said it’s “not our area of interest right now” but didn’t rule it out. A report from Wired said Death Stranding could make it to PS5, something Sony wouldn’t comment on. There are surely more games being planned for the PS5 at this point with its launch next year, but so far, nothing is confirmed.
Sony And Microsoft Team For Cloud Gaming
Though Sony and Microsoft have long been rivals in the console market, with the expansion of the idea of games as a streaming service, the two console makers are teaming up. The two companies announced the partnership in May, which will focus on entertainment technology. The two companies are working together on Microsoft’s cloud architecture, Microsoft Azure, and it sounds like Sony may soon be using Azure for its own games and content streaming services. What’s particularly interesting is that the team-up comes just as Google’s Stadia streaming service has been making headlines. Sony has PlayStation Now and Microsoft is planning its xCloud service that will both compete with Stadia, so it seems the two console makers are looking to team up against a bigger rival.
Death Stranding Gets A Release Date
Just ahead of E3, one of the biggest PS4 exclusives on the horizon grabbed the spotlight. That game is Death Stranding, the first project by Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima after exiting Konami. We got a new, weird trailer for the game, plus a release date: November 8, 2019. The trailer also gave us a close look at Death Stranding’s gameplay, something a slate of past cinematic trailers haven’t yet made clear. There may yet be more news on the way, too: Kojima is set to appear at San Diego Comic-Con in July.
Big Games On the Way–And A Few Exclusives
Though Sony wasn’t at E3 to show off big games, there were a few PS4 titles that made headlines anyway. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake made a meteor-sized impact with a new playable demo of the Bombing Run and a look at how the game’s combat will play. Square Enix also released an extended trailer that game with a release date: March 3, 2020. We learned that FFVII will span two Blu-ray discs–but this first episode will only cover everything that happens in Midgar, and Square Enix has no idea many episodes the entire FFVII story will require.
We also got a new look at Shenmue III thanks to a fresh trailer announcing the game’s Epic Store exclusivity–something the studio later discussed in a post on its Kickstarter page in response to some players’ reticence. Director Yu Suzuki also spoke on the GameSpot E3 stage about realizing a 20-year vision with the game.
Plenty of other huge games got shown off during the E3, and while they’re not just PS4 exclusives, they’ll be rounding out PlayStation owners’ libraries as they’re released through the rest of 2019 and into 2020. Titles like Watch Dogs Legion, Cyberpunk 2020, Ghostwire Tokyo, From Software’s Elden Ring, and Marvel’s Avengers will all be available to PS4 owners before too long.