How Sony Can Surprise Us At This Year’s E3?

Sony has made an art form out of having the best stage show at E3 for the last few years. Since 2015, when they had the so called “E3 of Dreams” (the one where The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Shenmue 3, and Horizon Zero Dawn were all announced), they have effortlessly learned how to surprise and delight people, and mastered the art of keeping the spotlight firmly on then. While their competitors at Nintendo leverage E3 by having mastered an entirely different format, Sony is the master of the stage show. There is no question about it. Indeed, their ability to surprise people can also compensate for very obvious weaknesses in their showings- such as their propensity to announce games that may be years away from development.

Which is why this year is so curious for the company- Sony has, apparently, shown us their hand for this E3 entirely. They have very explicitly confirmed that they will be focusing on only four first party games – The Last of Us Part 2, Death Stranding, Ghosts of Tsushima, and Spider-Man– which means that we probably can’t expect a surprise announcement for something like Bloodborne 2 from their show. They have also confirmed that there will be “no new hardware” announcements, so we can’t even count on a PS5 or “PS4 Super Pro” announcement to keep us excited.

"This is a company that has mastered the art of surprising its fans- going all the way back to the shock announcement that the PlayStation will be $299 against an expected $399 price, back in 1994, to now. Surely they will still manage to delight us as they always have, right?"

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So how does Sony surprise us this year? Bear in mind, this is a company that has mastered the art of surprising its fans- going all the way back to the shock announcement that the PlayStation will be $299 against an expected $399 price, back in 1994, to now. Surely they will still manage to delight us as they always have, right?

The good news is, they probably will- and that doesn’t mean that they lied to us. No, it just means we can expect other kinds of surprises. Here are a few ways Sony can pull the rugs from under our collective feet during their E3 show this year.

THIRD PARTY GAMES, OBVIOUSLY

So let’s start with the obvious one- while Sony themselves will be focusing only on the four games named above, they also confirmed that third party and indie games will still get the spotlight at their show. So- new third party game announcements at the Sony E3 show could still be a major source of excitement. Whether it is our first look at the Resident Evil 2 Remake, or maybe Rockstar bringing back, almost a decade after its first announcement, Agent, there are a lot of third party games that could still do the job that Sony’s own first party announcements otherwise would.

"If Red Dead Redemption 2 is to be at E3, it will be at Sony’s show, given Rockstar’s marketing deal- so, again, seeing the world premiere of gameplay footage for that game would probably be enough to win crowds over once and for all."

For instance, there is a large chance that Shadows Die Twice, From Software’s new game, is probably multiplatform- but given the developer’s affinity with Sony, it will probably get a proper reveal at Sony’s show. That in and of itself will be a major source of hype and excitement for many. If Red Dead Redemption 2 is to be at E3, it will be at Sony’s show, given Rockstar’s marketing deal- so, again, seeing the world premiere of gameplay footage for that game would probably be enough to win crowds over once and for all. What I am saying is, third party game announcements and footage can still be plenty exciting- and depending on which ones Sony has on stage for its show, they could still add a dose of unexpected delight to proceedings for them this year.

GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE FOR THEIR OWN GAMES

So, Sony is bringing four games to E3 this year- Ghosts of Tsushima, Spider-Man, The Last of Us Part 2, and Death Stranding. Do you want to know what is interesting about them? Barring Spider-Man, we have not seen a single second of gameplay footage for any of those games. So just seeing how the long awaited sequel to Naughty Dog’s seminal The Last of Us, which is one of the greatest games of all time, might play is going to be extremely exciting- provided the gameplay itself lives up to player expectations, which it likely will. And even more than that? Death Stranding is the first non-Metal Gear game renowned auteur Hideo Kojima has made in a very long time- seeing what he does when he has carte blanche on game budget and resources, and freed from the shackles of that franchise, is plenty exciting in and of itself. That alone would probably get more people hyped than anything most other companies can muster.

"Death Stranding is the first non-Metal Gear game renowned auteur Hideo Kojima has made in a very long time- seeing what he does when he has carte blanche on game budget and resources, and freed from the shackles of that franchise, is plenty exciting in and of itself. That alone would probably get more people hyped than anything most other companies can muster."

Throw in gameplay footage for Ghosts of Tsushima, which is likely to at least be good (when was the last time Sucker Punch made a bad game?) and Spider-Man, which is looking set to be one of the highest selling games of the year, and Sony has plenty of ammo to generate hype even without new announcements.

PS4 PRICE CUT

This one is a pie in the sky sort of dream, but- the PS4 is now in the final stage of its life. It is still selling exceptionally well, far better than consoles do in their fifth year on the market. Wouldn’t it, then, be surprising if Sony were to permanently drop the price of the machine? It currently costs $299- would it not generate a lot of excitement if the console was dropped to $199 by itself, and $249 bundled with a game? Mind you, Sony actually did this for a limited time last year- in November, the price of the PS4 was dropped to $199, causing mass sellouts in the console’s fourth year on the market, and without any major new game release (except Gran Turismo Sport). PS4 ended up running circles around the competition that month- Sony could push the PS4’s sales pace beyond anything seen in the console market before, and also pick up a lot of gamers with a low price like that- hell, they can also use that chance to lower the price of the PS4 Pro, and boost adoption rates for that console, too.

"PS4 currently costs $299- would it not generate a lot of excitement if the console was dropped to $199 by itself, and $249 bundled with a game? "

It is very unlikely that either of this will happen- but if it did, I like to believe it would be the announcement that cements Sony’s domination of the console market for the rest of the year.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to GamingBolt as an organization.