Five Predictions For PlayStation at Gamescom

What does Sony have up its sleeve?

At E3 2013, Sony came out swinging with a surprisingly impressive press conference. Interestingly, it wasn’t game announcements that made the presser what it was (after all, the only new game of real consequence shown was The Order: 1886). What made it remarkable were the ancillary announcements – such as PS4’s $400 price point – and how unabashedly the monolithic Japanese company took direct aim at its primary competitor.

But that’s old news, and now Sony has to figure out a way to follow all of that up. Since Sony’s press conference in Cologne, Germany is right around the corner – with IGN in attendance – I figured I’d take five guesses as to what Sony has up its sleeve.

 

1.) PlayStation 4 Gets A Release Date

This is almost certainly a given. Indeed, Sony has all but confirmed it. The real question is, what release date (or dates) are we looking at? Which regions will get PlayStation 4 in 2013, and which, likely due to supply constraints, will have to wait ‘til next year?

For a long time, I’ve been saying that I think PlayStation 4 will launch in North America on November 12th. But that’s nothing more than a guess. Both North America and Europe – PlayStation’s two biggest markets – are going to get the console in 2013, but I also suspect Japan will have to wait until 2014 to get in on the action.

There’s also the not-so-inconsequential matter of SKUs and bundles. Sony made wavesby announcing a $400 PS4 at E3, but the fact remains that that’s the base model (Sony declined to talk about other SKUs during the show). Will the company reveal newer, premium PS4 bundles? How about one with a PlayStation Vita included? With PS4’s deep interactivity with Vita already established, the latter seems like an inevitability, even if it’s not something shown at Gamescom or immediately made available for consumers.

 

2.) PlayStation Vita Gets A Price Drop

This has to happen… doesn’t it? In fact, it already has in Japan. PlayStation Vita has, at best, been a disappointment for Sony, even if it’s widely considered to be a fantastic piece of hardware. Nintendo’s 3DS may not be able to compete with Vita’s horsepower, but it’s trounced it in terms of must-have games, and to keep Vita competitive worldwide, Sony needs to make a series of moves, starting with making its handheld more affordable.

If Vita were to get a price cut, the question of its expensive proprietary memory cards will also have to be addressed. Vita software varies in price greatly, but with memory cards a necessity, it’s possible the company may also address this issue.

Some think that Sony may be gearing up for a Vita redesign, one that makes the hardware cheaper to manufacture, therefore allowing Sony to pass on the savings to consumers without having to take a loss. I think this will certainly happen at some point – ditching the OLED screen alone would make the Vita cheaper to manufacture – but Sony almost certainly has a plethora of unsold Vita stock to work through first.

 

3.) Media Molecule Reveals Its PS4 Project

Media Molecule is one of the 12 studios Sony owns, and its LittleBigPlanet games are among PS3’s most popular exclusives. However, the British developer noted following LBP2 that it wanted to move on from Sackboy, and the studio’s primary team has been quiet ever since.

Don't be fooled. Most of Media Molecule isn't working on Tearaway.

While Media Molecule has a small team working on Tearaway for PlayStation Vita, the fact remains that a majority of the studio is working on something else entirely. Sony often likes to flex its local muscle depending on where it is for the conference or convention in question, which is why showing off a big project from a European developer at Gamescom makes a ton of sense. What this project could possibly be, of course, remains to be seen, but you can bet your bottom dollar that whatever Media Molecule is toiling away on, it’s going to be strange.

Some folks also think Guerrilla Games’ unknown project could be revealed at Gamescom. It’s possible, but unlikely. Guerrilla’s other game – Killzone: Shadow Fall – is a PS4 launch title, and it may make the most sense to let that title breathe for a bit before pivoting to the developer’s other, non-Killzone offering.

 

4.) Vita Gets A Fresh Round of Support

Regardless of how cheap or expensive PS Vita is, if it doesn’t get support from Sony itself, the handheld will undoubtedly perish a premature death. Vita may be home to a slew of awesome games – there’s no doubt about that – but it lacks compelling software that pushes hardware beyond the PlayStation hardcore. Sony needs to be the one that leads the way in solving this issue.

Could Infamous come to Vita?

At Gamescom, I think Sony will reveal at least one Vita game from its extensive roster of IP, if not more. I don’t think any of these games will be developed by a Sony-owned studio (not even Sony Bend), but I think a God of War game, an Infamous game, and another Uncharted game are all within the realm of possibility. Maybe we’ll see something awesome from one of these franchises at Gamescom.

Of course, you can probably expect some new indie announcements for Vita, too. But Sony has to flex its muscles outside of the realm of the $5-$10 game if Vita is to go from niche device to mainstream success.

 

5.) PlayStation 3 Gets More Games

We already know PlayStation 3 isn’t dead. In fact, it’s quite alive. Puppeteer, Beyond: Two Souls, Rain, and Gran Turismo 6 are four exclusives coming to the console this fall. But knowing how Sony has operated in the past – think God of War II -- the company is unlikely to have any intention of turning its attention completely to PlayStation 4. In other words, at least one new PS3 game will be shown at Gamescom.

Rest assured, you haven't seen the last of Sackboy.

I think that game is going to be LittleBigPlanet 3, a title long rumored to be in development at Sumo Digital. Sony wants LBP and Sackboy to continue even in Media Molecule’s stead, and adding LBP3 to the list of fall exclusives will help push a PlayStation 3 that, by the way, will almost certainly be dropped in price when PS4 launches.

Not everyone’s going to want a PlayStation 4 this fall. There’s a lot of life left in PS3, and Sony’s not going to give up the ghost so easily, especially now that PS3 is selling in global parity with Xbox 360.