With Sony skipping E3 yet again this year many have been wondering what their plans were to bolster hype for the PS5 following the disaster that was the managerial stint in California. A recent leak from 4chan may have provided insight into exactly what we can expect over the course of the next year leading up to a claimed October 30th release of a $500 PS5.
Before delving into these rumors I’ll stress that while many of these are currently being iterated by other leakers, this should all be taken with a very fine grain of salt. There isn’t anything inherently suspect about the leaks, but at the same time, there isn’t anything definite about them either.
According to the leaker, Sony will hold a State of Play on February 5th, followed by a second one closer to E3 and a final large event leading up to the launch of the platform on October 30th. In-between these major announcements Sony will hold two to three smaller State of Plays, which means the games referenced will likely be spaced apart to maintain hype throughout the year.
One very corporate thing the leaker did during the leak was mention repeatedly how plans change and “all titles are liable to not be unveiled.” A very odd way of putting it, which does add some credibility this might be a managed leaked, but that is purely speculation on my part. As the leaks are specific enough to garner interest, but not detailed enough to spoil anything.
As far as features are concerned much of what has been confirmed and speculated are mentioned.
– Key features of PlayStation 5 include:
· The ability to have 3 games and multiple media functionalities suspended while you play a 4th game.
· The ability to have different states of the same game running at the same time.
· In the cloud you can have as many games suspended as you like. You can use the cloud to resume a game on your console after months of playing other game exactly where you left off or of course any other platform through the cloud.
· Save data, screenshots and video clips can be offloaded to the cloud to free up hard drive space.
· Rigorous amounts of data and statistics for you to view about your games and platform use.
· Backwards Compatibility for all PlayStation Formats.
– More on Backwards Compatibility
On the gaming front the Playstation 5 has an impressive lineup both for launch and in development. Microsoft and Sony are reported to be in a bidding war to secure marketing rights for popular third party titles coming out over the next few years. With Microsoft having secured the rights to Rocksteady’s next title, but Sony having secured the rights to the teased Court of Owl’s game believed to be called Batman: Legacy though the leaker was unsure if this was the final title.
Launch Titles
New Killzone Title from Guerrilla Games (This title has been very much under wraps for years. It seems to be a huge departure / reboot from the rest of the franchise. Also extra focus on multiplayer.)
Demon’s Souls Remake from Bluepoint Games (It’s a full remake of the game. Despite having Miyazaki’s blessing the game is sure to be a source of debate for fans since Bluepoint are taking artistic liberties and adding their own ideas.)
SOCOM Reboot from San Diego Studio (Long rumored to be in development at Guerrilla, the game is being developed by ex Zipper Interactive employees and burnt out MLB devs using the Decima Engine. It has almost photo-realistic graphics.)
Gran Turismo 7 from Polyphony Digital (Huge project that has been in development since 2014. The game is designed to be supported for 10 years and has more employees working on it than any game Sony has ever made.)
New Ratchet & Clank from Insomniac Games (Start of a new Trilogy and sequel to the Future series the game has been in development since before the 2016 Remake was released. This game sees the return of space exploration, hoverboots and competitive multiplayer which could be free to play. Still being decided.)
New Multiplayer Title (Project Vanguard) from Remedy Entertainment (Sony is planning to acquire Remedy based on the reception to this game and a few other variables. In terms of this game, think of a cross between Control, Star Trek and the film Gravity.)
WiLD from Wild Sheep Studio (Back in 2017 the game was a mess and lacked direction with Michel Ancel devoting more time to Beyond Good & Evil 2. He is still on board just in a lesser capacity. The game has switched to Decima Engine and will be on PS4 and PS5.)
New Action Title from London Studio (Actually inspired by Hellblade, this game is a short, but hopefully satisfying open world Guy Ritchie-like adventure.)
>New Action Title from Japan Studio (From the makers of Forbidden Siren, this game is more of a spiritual successor to Gravity Rush 2.)
In development, won’t be seen at launch
-New Horizon Title from Guerrilla Games (2021)
-New Uncharted Title from New Unnamed Studio (2021)
-New The Order Title from Ready at Dawn Studios (2021)
-New Motorstorm Title from Codemasters (2021)
-New Spider-Man Title from Insomniac Games (2022)
-New God of War Title from Santa Monica Studio (2022)
-New Fumito Ueda Title from gen Design (2022)
As for Sony itself since the restructuring took control away from California the company’s internal morale is at an all-time high. The inference being like most of the consumers, Sony’s staff generally hated the decisions coming out of politics first division. As a final note from the rumor, Sony is again attempting to purchase Zenimax Media, but the leaker has said if nothing is heard about this by March assume it failed again.
There is a fair chance that the owners of Zenimax may agree to dump the company following the decrease in value that several high-level failures have caused the company over the last few years. Management has clearly been in a state of disarray for some time and it has long been speculated that the reason behind Bethesda’s recent anti-consumerist practices was to inflate the company’s value ahead of a public option or buy out.
Overall, I’ve no doubt that some of the details in this leak are legitimate. They are either too probable or already being talked about by multiple sources to be false. The real issue then is, whether the sum total of the leak legitimate or a clever rouse by an attentive person. We’ll know for sure on February 5th, but this would not be the first person to claim Sony has an event planned for early February, so keep your ears to the ground.
Source: 4chan
