I want to start off by saying that I loved what I saw from Sony during their Future of Gaming PlayStation 5 live stream. While I thoroughly enjoyed seeing everything they had to show, some of which was truly exceptional, I couldn’t escape the feeling that I wanted more. At times the conference seemed to be lacking something I couldn’t quite place my finger on, and up until the very end, it felt like this was a showcase of games for a console that we already knew everything about.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m just as excited about the console itself and what it can do as the games coming for it. I want to know the price, see the UI, and get a peek at other OS elements that make this the upgrade that I need. What can I do on PlayStation 5 that I can’t do on my PS4? Has online been improved? Are there new party chat features? Is there any new streaming integration? These are just a few things I’m interested in.
I would also of course like to know the launch date, the price, when I can preorder it etc. After two events surrounding the reveal of the console and the release only being a few months away, we still don’t have answers to these questions. I imagine they’re going to show us something more in-depth soon, but man they really could’ve blown everyone away if they went all out today.
The new Spider-Man game, Horizon, and Bluepoint’s Demon’s Souls remake were fantastic announcements that brought the hype of E3 to the table and I was so happy to see it. I really can’t wait to get my hands on them, but I wish I was this excited to get my hands on the console itself. I want to be looking forward to what the next-gen has in store. We have heard the overly technical side, and seen the games but are still missing so much. I expect that it’s only a matter of time, but I’m hoping that it’s at an event like this or a showcase of sorts with similar hype levels rather than another Wired article.
Let’s talk a bit about the reveal of the console itself. Yes it looks like a router, it stands up and looks like it may be difficult or awkward to lay on it’s side. It also looks like what I imagine a console would look like in a movie that came out in the 90’s but was set in year 2020, but in space. It’s a design chance that Sony is taking in an effort to stand out. It looks cool, it has lights, it screams game box, but I personally can’t bring myself to like it all that much. No matter how hard I try I just can’t. Not to mention I generally don’t like the color white, I imagine they will likely have a black version at some point but I feel like they are putting some effort into standing out here. All in all, I’m just really happy they finally showed us the console itself, and I look forward to finding out more.
Sony still has a lot to show us and I’m super excited to see it, but I think this presentation would have benefitted from some reveals from the console itself. Fans want a new PlayStation 5 and they want to see what it has to offer that the PlayStation 4 doesn’t. I assume from what we’ve seen up to this point we are in for a drastic overhaul of the UI and the OS but who knows, guess we will have to find out. In all seriousness, like many of you I will likely be a proud owner of the PlayStation 5 after everything is said and done, and nothing I saw today made me less excited for the new console.