Sony Presentation at E3 2017: Recap and Grade

By Jay Parks (GrimlockTheDino)

Sony took the stage at E3 2017 on Monday night, following a solid performance from Microsoft the previous night. We all gathered, expecting the mighty Sony to put on a show to remember; instead we got one of their strangest events yet.

Presentation

2017 was by far Sony's worst E3 presentations in a while, mainly because there was no presentation. The show felt thrown together and clunky, with only a "hello" and "thank you, goodnight" from Shawn Layden. No one else even took the stage, just Shawn, and even when he did, it was just a quick few words and then back to the trailers. Our producer of the GameZilla podcast, Deadite, said it best,

"It felt like I was at the movies watching the previews. This was not an E3 presentation, it was a poorly thrown together highlight real."

 

Games

This is the only saving grace to Sony's night; they did show games and most of them were exclusives. I was not a fan of the presentation, but from just a game standpoint, there was some big news for PlayStation fans.

 

Uncharted: Lost Legacy (Release: August 22nd, 2017)

By now if you have listened to the GameZilla podcast, you know I am not an Uncharted player. So for me to come out here and say this game looks amazing and I want to get hands on it ASAP, that tells you something. This trailer looked amazing and the gameplay is top notch, but what do you expect, it's Naughty Dog.

 

 

 

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds (Release: Holiday 2017)

Our first surprise announcement was that The Frozen Wilds is dropping this year. Aloy is back and hunting new robot creatures as she heads towards the mountain. This is all we know so far, but hopefully this will help answer the questions we were left with at the end of Horizon Zero Dawn.

 

 

 

Days Gone (Release: TBA)

Another trailer for Days Gone is shown and yes it looks cool, the zombies look fast and the game play looks fun. But one thing is missing, we still have no release date...

 

 

 

 

 

Monster Hunter World (Release: Early 2018)

Monster Hunter is making its return to a Sony platform. We watched an intense dragon battle in a beautiful jungle setting, everything was here; tons of weapons, armor, and cooking. The game looks great and it is nice to see the series back on a Sony platform. However, Capcom confirmed this is not an exclusive and will be coming to both Xbox One and PC.

 

 

 

Shadow of the Colossus (Release: 2018)

Here was the surprise of the Sony presentation, a remake of Shadow of the Colossus! WHAT? This is real? Yep, Bluepoint is hard at work remaking this classic originally from Studio Japan and it looks gorgeous. If you're a fan or never got to play Shadow of the Colossus, get ready for this game, coming in 2018. 

 

 

 

Marvel vs Capcom Infinite (Release: September 19th, 2017. Playable Story Demo Today)

We got to see some new cut scenes laying out the story of Marvel and Capcom heroes teaming up with Thanos to take down the Infinity Stone-powered Ulton. No gameplay, but lots of characters shown and a playable story demo released live during the show.

 

 

 

 

Call of Duty WW2

It looks like old school COD. This is the direction the franchise needed to take and so far it looks good.

 

 

 

 

 

PSVR

Here is where I thought Sony would take the next step in the VR game. Instead we saw 6 more examples of why VR is still not ready for the masses. Half these games are glorified mini-games. Final Fantasy 15 VR is a complete joke; the VR shooter experience of last year is gone and now we have a Noctis fishing game. This was so bad that when they finished their VR section of the show the crowd was silent. A few of the games seemed interesting, but overall this segment of the show was a complete disaster.

 

  • Skyrim (Release: TBA) Looks clunky. A 6 year old game that now has a half-assed VR mode.
  • Star Child (Release: TBA) A platforming game you play in VR? This game looks interesting, but the trailer does not explain why you need to play this game in VR.
  • The Inpatient (Release: TBA) Supermassive Games (developer of Until Dawn) has been busy. As they work on their next main title, they have also been secretly working on this VR project, where it seems you are a patient inside of an insane asylum.
  • Final Fantasy 15 (Release: September 2017) This is Square Enix giving up on VR with FF15. The demo from last year was a Prompto VR shooter, now we have this mess of a bass fishing game coming this September. I can't even fathom how this game was allowed to ever leave the developers' office. What a disappointment.
  • Bravo Team (Release: TBA) Looking for the most generic rail shooter ever? Well, you found it with Bravo Team. This looks like the most boring rail shooter I have ever seen. How is this featured as 1 of 6 VR games for Sony's presentation when PSVR launch titles like London Heist and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood were better than this game.
  • Moss (Release: TBA) They finished strong with the only unique and promising VR game of the night. Moss has you controlling a strange creature who is helping a mouse traverse the world. The mouse is a warrior with armor and a sword, a character that, from the beginning of the trailer, you just loved him. Overall, a cool-looking concept, but not enough to save the VR segment of Sony's show.

 

 

God of War (Release: Early 2018) 

Perfect placement to get the excitement back in the crowd after that awful VR segment. God of War looks fantastic. We got a new trailer with a good amount of gameplay. Kratos is looking old but still showing he is the badass we love and the progression of the small child with him has a lot of promise. The story seems very interesting as the boy talks about how he is cursed and you can tell Kratos is hiding something from the boy. So many questions to be answered and we get to start our new Kratos adventure in early 2018.

 

 

Detroit Become Human (Release: TBA)

Quantic Dream (developer of Heavy Rain) has been working on this game for quite some time and we have all been very excited to find out more. We learned that you will be controlling Marcus, an android that has questioned his purpose and decided to defect and start a rebellion against the humans. We got to see gameplay that looked great with Quantic Dream's signature mechanic; everything you do has repercussions as you live out your own story. Overall, the game looks amazing, but seriously, where is the release date?

 

 

Destiny 2 (Release: September 6th, 2017)

We all know about Destiny 2. The news here is that we got a new trailer and found out they moved the release date from September 8th to the 6th. Why a Wednesday instead of the original Friday? Also, no summer beta dates announced during the show. We received beta dates from Bungie right after the show ended, so why not have it be part of the show?

 

 

Spider-Man (Release: 2018)

What is there to say besides OMG this game looks AMAZING! Insomniac has teamed up with Marvel and looks like they have created the best Spider-Man game ever. We got to watch game play of Peter going through a half-built skyscraper, fighting his way to the top. The mechanics look amazing; the web slinging is on point and the visuals are gorgeous. We did see quite a few "quick time events" but they looked fun and as long as the game is not full of them, I don't think it will be an issue.


Sony is leading the pack this generation and because of that I expected more. Instead we got a half-assed show with some great games thrown together in a movie preview-style segment. Because of the presentation, missing release dates for games that Sony has shown off at multiple E3 shows, and the lack of PS4 Pro marketing, I have graded Sony the lowest out of the group. They still get a passing grade because the games look great and Sony is still king, but this E3 was a mess for Sony on a presentation level.

Grade = C+

Want more Sony E3 2017 coverage? Listen to our GameZilla Sony reaction podcast