There’s a lot of uncertainty about what Sony will show off at it’s annual E3 press conference on Monday. Earlier this week, Media Molecule and Guerilla Games–two of Sony’s first-party studios–said that they wouldn’t be showing off their new games. And while that’s disappointing, there should plenty of exciting things for everyone. Here are five predictions.
#5. Sony Bend will show their game
While there have been rumors that Sony Bend will be skipping E3, I haven’t been able to find the source of those rumors. I’d be genuinely surprised if none of Sony’s first-party studios debuted a new title, and Bend has been working on a PS4 game for some time now. Remember, Sony filed some interesting new trademarks a while back; could one of them be Bend’s game? Bend, known for developing Uncharted: Golden Abyss for Playstation Vita, is rumored to be working on a horror game; even Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida used the word “panic” to describe Bend’s game.
I expect Sony will, for the most part, focus on what’s coming to Playstation in the next 12-18 months. Yes, we’ll likely see some Uncharted footage–and I don’t expect that game until late 2015–but I’m betting that Sony will play it relatively safe, and not risk showing games that are too far off. It’s possible that Bend’s game might be the most ready unannounced title they have. Keep in mind, unveiling a game too early can be dangerous, and I’m sure Sony doesn’t want another The Last Guardian fiasco. Speaking of which…
#4. The Last Guardian will reappear
Yes, I’m a believer. The Last Guardian hasn’t been seen in the wild since early 2011, but Sony insists, as recently as March 2014, that the game is still in development. My guess is that the game was moved to PS4 because it was too much of a headache to develop on Ps3. The PS3 was difficult to develop for, after all. A re-reveal of The Last Guardian would be, obviously, huge for Sony and sell a lot of PS4s. It’s been a really, really long time since we last saw the game, and it’s been an exhausting wait. This has to be the year, right?
#3. Sony announces a PS4/PS Vita bundle; Vita gets a price cut
Even though the Vita is now available in a slimmer model, it hasn’t gotten any cheaper, but I think that’ll change soon. The Vita Slim is cheaper to produce than the original model, so it’s due for a price cut. In addition to that, a PS4/Vita bundle would be a fantastic reveal and get more Vitas into the hands of gamers. While the Vita has always been a promising device, the existence of PS4 remote play now makes it a much more compelling product. Don’t expect Sony to give up on the Vita just yet.
#2. PS Vita gets new exclusives; New studio PixelOpus will make Vita games
PS Vita is in desperate need of some new exclusives to energize sales. Don’t be surprised if Sony announces they’re partnering with a second-party developer to churn out some exclusive games for PS Vita, similar to how Sony worked with Ready at Dawn on the God of War PSP games. Perhaps we’ll see an inFamous or Twisted Metal game from a second-party team.
Though I’m more confident we’ll see a new Vita game from a new studio called PixelOpus. The New York Times reported that this new studio will be unveiling their first game at E3, and I’m betting it’s a Vita game. It’s likely a small development team, so they’re probably not working on the PS4.
#1. A lot of Playstation Now, not a lot of Project Morpheus
There’s been a lot of buzz about Sony’s Project Morpheus VR device, but I think we’ll hear more about PlayStation Now, a streaming service they announced prior to Morpheus. PS Now has been in closed beta for a while, so expect Sony to announce that the service is entering open beta soon. The closed beta on PS4 started recently, so don’t expect the service to debut officially until late summer.
As for Morpheus, it’ll be mentioned, but probably only briefly. It’s entirely possible they’ll just show a quick video of developers talking about how excited they are about the device’s capabilities. Depending on how far along Sony is with Morpheus, they might mention some developers that will be using it, and maybe even give a vague release window.
And those are my predictions. Have some predictions of your own? Let us know in the comments. Sony’s E3 press conference will be held on Monday, June 9 at 6 P.M. PST.