There’s no denying that Sony started 2011 incredibly strongly. They’ve had a consistent stream of fantastic first party exclusives since the end of 2010 and they’ve gathered some impressive momentum as we head into the summer season and the big show looms on the horizon. That’s right, E3 is mere months away and with Sony’s end of year looking a little less impressive than the first few months, what might they have in store for the future?
Well, with the exception of the assumed announcement and unveiling of Warhawk 2, there’s not a lot that we know about. We can assume that Uncharted 3 and The Last Guardian will get an airing, probably both playable. Resistance 3 should be there in a big way too. Those are what we know about from Sony for the end of this year but that leaves options for the start of next year a little thin.
It’s also reasonable to assume that we’ll see something of the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD remakes. Which brings us to something which might be a major concern: Will HD remakes take the place of new announcements?
Sure, we all love to see old favourites spruced up a bit and put out as collections. We’ve had or are expecting God of War, Sly, Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell as well as the Ico games. We’d love to see GTA III Trilogy or a Jak and Daxter collection too. Everyone is clamouring for Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII. We like them. It’s nice to have the option to replay some old favourites and it’s nice to have the opportunity for new players to enjoy them. But we don’t want them to take over.
Apparently, PSM3 has spoken about a rumour that Sony might have a big announcement up its sleeve for E3. That’s nice but we’d like Sony’s big E3 announcements to be about new games, blockbusters and massive franchise continuations. As much as we like an HD remake, it’s not something we’d like to see replace the traditional big news from a show like E3.
Sony have already spoken about their willingness to do more and the trend spreading to Ubisoft and Eidos (Square Enix now) is demonstrative of the popularity that HD rereleases have. It would be a shame if that distracted companies into thinking they can put big new releases on the back burner.
Sony have started this year strongly but with a less impressive back end to the year and virtually nothing hinted at for next year yet, will the recent buzz around these HD collections mean that those are all we’re given? We hope not but when the pre-E3 rumour mill starts firing up with rehashes of older games, we start to worry a little bit about the future for brand new games.
Ryan1991
Not a big fan of MGS. Would much rather see SSX3 in HD.
Pete_UK
You know where you can stick your ‘HD remakes’ Sony.
http://www.siliconera.com/2009/06/29/sony-patents-emotion-engine-emulation-technology-for-cell-processors/
sesameseed
I don’t think Sony, or their rivals, are running out of ideas. They just realise it’s far more lucrative to get a bit of spit and polish on an old game than develop a new one from the ground up. Makes good business sense.
Unfortunately, with this trend adding to the wash of sequels/annual updates we already get, new IPs are going to become even rarer. That’s such a shame.
tom_lord
What the…………………….Twisted Metal & The Last Guardian, Ratchet & Clank along with Uncharted 3, Resistance 3 looks like a pretty solid “holiday period” to me…………Apart from Gears 3 & Forza 4, Microsoft have been even quieter. And this year has been sooo strong for exclusive PS3 titles so far (MotorStorm, LBP2, Killzone 3, SOCOM, inFamous 2, Yakuza 4) plus, no doubt a shed load of Move titles, no worries!!
With E3 so close, it’s no wonder we haven’t heard much :)
tom_lord
ooops, too many “&” there!
gideon1451
I hope they’re not! D:
Hoopiness
Poor article. Is there even a story/discussion here?
You post a tabloid heading – Are sony running out of ideas? – then go on to say how they’ve had a strong start to the year, and how we can look forward to the likes of Uncharted 3, TLG, R3, Warhawk 2 etc.
So basically, the article comes down to…”We haven’t a clue what, if anything, Sony’s next announcements will be. Thus we will make the illogical jump to allow ourselves to pose the question of them struggling”.
The only flaw is that if you knew what they were going to announce, then they probably wouldn’t need to announce it would they. It might turn out to be a disappointing period they’re entering, but this article is a stab in the dark at this point.
Hoopiness
I meant to add…I do totally agree about HD titles. By all means have them, but I have to say, none of them excite me like new titles. Money for old boots if you ask me.
Kronik76
Have to say I was thinking the same thing. It does seem like a pointless article.
colossalblue
well, there’s no story here – hence it not being a news story. There is clearly a discussion though, since you are discussing it!
The point is, this has been a phenominal year for them but the second half looks like it will be slowing down a bit (unless they do manage to get the NGP out everywhere by November) and next year looks quiet just now.
Seems to be a lot of people assuming I’m criticising Sony here – I’m not, I’m just trying to get a discussion going to see if people think there might be an issue (as there was when similar predicament arose for Microsoft last year, who have then had a dire year for exclusives). It’s just a question, no harm intended.
colmshan1990
I don’t think it’s a pointless article, you raised a couple of good points.
However, the wording of the title is closer to Daily Mail than most TSA articles. :P
On the subject of remakes, I love them. Then again, I had never played GOW on PS2, and only a little of POP. I’ll pick up Tomb Raider Collection (or whatever it’s called) when I have the money in my wallet. Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, and maybe a DSi distracting me right now though. And then there’s the Splinter Cell Collection, which would be the first time I buy a HD trilogy remake of something I still currently own on PS2.
But Resident Evil 4 is the one I’m truly waiting for. And in my opinion, that’s the best thing out this year, ahead of the NGP, Uncharted 3, Skyrim, Portal, and any others. It’s what I’ve wished for since the HD remaking started, and I truly can’t wait.
Deathbrin
You’re just living in an industry and that kind of hastens the time for you, regular people will probably be happily swimming in new games (for them) anyway.
quinkill
Pointless indeed. I’m sorry Peter but you saying there ‘clearly is a discussion here’ is a moot point. Please be aware that we are not discussing the issue itself, we are discussing the irrelevence of the headline. You have nothing to say on this. It’s yet another sensationalist headline on the TSA (which i’m getting quite sick of TBH). No offence but you’ve started to loose me and many other members recently with this kind of throw away article. There is no substance here and half the people commenting are not commenting on the article itself but whether the theme or issue is even valid. First endless discussion on Anonimous and now this? Just like the podcast (full of “in” jokes and “I watched this and loved it” quotes) I’m failing to see the analytical side of this website. Maybe I was wrong to sign up…it’s just I though this website was different to the rest. Get with it or I’m off, along with the rest of the members who bought into the TSA ethos.
TheArgonian
I really doubt they are “Running” out of ideas. Knowing Sony there probably hiding everything. Plus Sly 4 comes out next year
jacklum
“Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell… We’d love to see GTA III Trilogy… Everyone is clamouring for Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII”
None of these were/would be published by Sony, so why are they part of this discussion?
MOVE
“…with a less impressive back end of the year…”????j
Are you serious??? Last Guardian, Resistance, Uncharted, Twisted Metal, Sorcery, SotC and Ratchet. It seems a bit stronger than the first half of the year, and didn’t you put a lot of those games in this sites’ top twenty for 2011?
quinkill
Agreed. TSA are starting to fall into category of websites that want hits rather than quality and guess what?…controversy sells! Daily Mail and The Sun come to mind.
Just as long as the advertisers stay happy, hey? Land.a Panda looks great ;)
SpikeyMikey23
are you going to pay the staff for running this site? server costs and all that?…..
MXZ
I dont think Sony are running out of ideas, i jut think they are looking for a quick buck with the releases of HD remakes
(which is not bad, especially if we see an Jak and Dexter and Ratchet and Clank remake)
there are still PS3 games with scarce release dates (The last guardian, Sorcery, Sly4 and that new quanic dream game) so i guess those could be considered the NEW games as we have very little knowledge of them besides the fact that we know they exist and will come out, one day.
the future for the PS3 is clear, it will have some more HD remakes, a few sequals and just a good number of as yet uunknown games and then POOF!, the PS4 is released and Sony get a second chance not to screw up a HD console.
i also think its safe to assume that the PS4 will come with a built-in 4K player (much like how the PS3 came came out with a built-in blu-ray player which at the time was a revoulation) which would also mean that PS4 games could have ungodly graphics (and content!) to interest the market
and what games would the PS4 have? most likely, God of War 4, Uncharted 4/5/6, Heavy Rain 2: Heavier rain, LBP3, Shooting shooter Mcshooty 12, a new SingStar, God of War HD collection 4k and of course numerous other 4K remasterings of PS2/PS3 games.
theres a future for the Playstation (especially the portable) but that future wont be here for a while so for the moment we can only get excited for whats just ahead of us……HD remakes and sequals (unless Sony sirprises us with a PS4 at E3 but thats just absurd)
Jas-n
4k is a resolution not media format. The PS4 will simply move to a more refined BD drive (faster speed, maybe BDXL or simply quad layer BD support).
teflon
I’m with Jas-n on this. 4k might be a resolution, but it’s primarily used for the purposes of editing at as high quality as possible, then it’s downscaled for the BD release of films.
But that’s as far as it goes, really. TVs will maintain 1920×1080 as the top end resolution for the foreseeable future, with the emphasis being on increasingly convincing 3D tech, which will aim to move to glasses free ASAP (one would hope).
So, really, where’s the PS4 going to go? Well the PS3 99% does 720p at 30Hz, and now downscales detail to be able to achieve 3D which needs 60Hz. So the PS4 will simply shore up those resolutions and frame rates. Sony may well mandate that it’s 1080p and at 60Hz for 3D across the board. BDXL might be added simply for data capacity, but game data never reaches the 50GB size at the moment, really.
Deathbrin
720p at 30 fps is awful by emerging standards, if you mantain 1080p at 60fps minimum and manage a severe graphical increase that would well suffice for a next-gen. Not mentioning new social features and whatnot. SONY really have to bring the PSN up to shape.