Why sony is leaving e3 in my opinion

[EricHiggin]

Just had something cross my mind. Quite a while back there were some people 'in the know', who proposed/leaked that a mid gen PS4 was coming along with a slim model. Both ended up being true. Those same people also proposed/leaked that PS5 would be landing in the second half of 2018. 

Now what if PS had from the very start, planned on launching PS5 just 5 years after PS4? That would have meant PS5 would be the newest greatest thing on the market right now, and Dreams, DG, DS, GOT, and TLOU2 would all be cross gen titles, if not PS5 exclusives. Now if PS4 does much much better than you originally expected, and you want to milk that a bit, while some, if not most of your fans will let you get away with it, or just flat out be fine with it, why wouldn't you put PS5 off at least another year? Heck, some fans are practically begging PS to hold off until 2020 or later.

If you're PS and your thinking just go with the flow, then you might as well decide as early as possible, to push back the PS5 launch, beef up the specs, and start to focus on those later gen, or PS5 exclusive first party games being ready for PS4 instead. There is another problem now though. PS4 wasn't meant to last 6+ years, so what now? How about an affordable mid gen upgrade to fill the void for those who are upset the PS4 isn't cutting it during those last couple of years?

Think about the chit chat about why Dreams and Days Gone seemed to be behind or continually were delayed. Was it simply timing the market right for the best launch window, or do they really need that much polishing, or were those games being focused more so for PS5, even exclusive to PS5 perhaps, but ever since the decision to launch Pro mid gen, has meant a lot more work getting those 'broken' games running tip top on PS4 and Pro?

There were also questions about whether or not Pro was a rushed product based on the fact it didn't exactly seem like PS had ironed out all the kinks that they should have by launch, considering it didn't stray too far from PS4's hardware architecture. Some people were saying Pro was "half baked" based on the hardware and 'enhanced' games early on, and was lacking features that seemed like a no brainer. There is also the question of why such a late announcement for Pro? Was it because they knew about Scorpio and feared the spec comparison backlash, or was it true that they didn't see the need for an early announcement because that's not how iterative devices are marketed nowadays, or was it because Pro wasn't really planned for initially by PS and they did have to rush it somewhat to meet a mid gen holiday deadline?

You also had MS with Scorpio, that seemed to be more than fitting of a mid gen upgrade, if not bordering on next gen some would say at that time, that was fully ready holiday 2017. Was MS possibly aware earlier on that PS5 could be dropping holiday 2018, and wanted to get that 1 year lead like they did with 360? MS said they weren't doing the gens thing anymore, so another console that was compatible with XB1(S) in 2017 does make sense. It would also partially explain why so many people were wondering how, even in late 2017, MS was able to offer an almost native 4K system, for just $499. Well if you've been planning to go up against a PS5, and are trying to compete against a 2018 spec, as close as possible in 2017, a price subsidy for the first year would make sense to try and gain a much needed lead.

This type of scenario would better explain as to why it seems that PS doesn't have anything new to show for another year. If they planned to announce and launch the PS5 by now, this wouldn't have ever happened in the first place. If they decided to push back the launch by a year or more, it could very well lead to this gap that they had originally never intended on. Instead of taking their foot off the gas and coasting, allowing for the competition to potentially gain some of the momentum lost by PS, they instead kept trucking on assuming if they gain enough of a lead, they can basically 'coast to the finish'. Since they also seem to be able to do no wrong, while a year of complete silence would hurt them somewhat, all they have to do is fill that time with some great games, new event ideas, and some PS5 leaks, and they won't have to worry all that much.

Maybe this is touching on what really happened, and maybe it's not even close, but it would better explain why the event gap seems to exist, based on what we know right now. This even makes me wonder if PSVR was originally planned to launch with PS5 in 2018, yet was moved up with Pro to make sure it beat Scorpio and whatever it may have had to the market. While MS has been working on VR for quite some time, they did say they aren't pushing it because the tech isn't quite ready yet, and the PSVR sales sort of speak to that.

Last edited by EricHiggin - on 23 November 2018