Originally published on Trevor Trove on November 29, 2016
Alright, I knocked my Game Awards Predictions out of the way last night so tonight, we’ll tackle the PlayStation Experience predictions before I head off to Anaheim tomorrow to experience it all first hand. Last year, I definitely over-predicted what I thought would appear (really only being write about Final Fantasy VII Remake getting a surprising bit of love. And then I realized after my E3 predictions that I’d probably made some PSX predictions by accident. There have been two of them now at least, though, so I think this year I can make a slightly more informed set of predictions. It’s still certainly a tricky show though because anything really big could wind up officially announced at the Game Awards Thursday instead when (arguably) more eyes will be watching. Plus there’s the fact that they threw the conventional conference out the window for their E3 presentation with it’s live orchestra and bum-rush focus on game after game.
There’s also the fact that one of my predictions was going to be Stardew Valley getting some stage time when Gio Corsi runs through the 3rd Party partnerships. But that was announced today instead for a December 13th release date so I’ve got to find a new fifth prediction instead. And I won’t go with the likely news that Marvel vs. Capcom 4 will be announced. Though I’ve been laughing since I heard the leak because that’s exactly how Street Fighter V leaked in the lead up to the original PSX. Capcom and Sony need to plug some holes.
- The show kicks off with the Uncharted 4 Story DLC. I predict we’ll get a teaser of this at the Game Awards with an end sting that says something like “See more this weekend at the PlayStation Experience. Uncharted 4 debuted it’s first gameplay footage at the first PlayStation Experience and then one of the early scenes with Sam at last year’s show. It makes sense to go for the three-peat, I also would guess that one of the heretofore unannounced panels and autograph sessions will feature Neil Druckmann, Bruce Straley, and maybe Nolan North and Troy Baker.
- Tim Schaefer’s Happy Fun Time Minute. Another prediction built on tradition (and one I incorrectly predicted for E3). Tim Schaefer came onstage at the first PSX to announce a release window for the Grim Fandango Remaster and announce that Day of the Tentacle would get a similar treatment. At last year’s show, he gave the Day of the Tentacle release window and announced that Full Throttle would get a remaster to round out the trilogy. With Full Throttle Remastered confirmed as one of the playable titles at the show, I think he’ll continue with tradition and announce a Spring release window and perhaps something new. Maybe a release date for the VR game Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin? Costume Quest 3 maybe?
- Kojima Time. One of the many rumors to come as a result of last year’s somewhat lackluster ending was that something got scrapped in the 11th hour. When Andrew House announced to the world a little over a week later that PlayStation would help produce Kojima’s first game away from Konami, my immediate theory was that this was that final “holy shit” moment that got cut. But since Konami lawyers had basically banned him from attending The Game Awards, Sony certainly didn’t want to run afoul and so, instead we ended on the odd choice of Paragon. Imagine if Andrew House had come out after the Paragon segment and said, “Well you’ve seen our Paragon, now here’s our Renegade. Ladies and Gentleman: Hideo Kojima.” and announced the partnership there. That room and the internet would have gone crazy. Anyway, with Kojima being honored with an Icon Award at the Game Awards in part to make up for last year’s forced absence, I imagine we’ll get the same here, perhaps with some concept art for Death Stranding. Or maybe he’ll bring out Norman Reedus as another autograph session. Kojima “and special guests” are already confirmed for the Saturday 1pm panel and he has the 2pm autograph session. Why wouldn’t he get a bit of stage time too?
- Horizon Zero Dawn gets a showcase segment near the end of the show. As the latest in the PlayStation 4 trend of big first-party games that got pushed out of the fall to a spring release, this will likely be the last chance to show off the game before it releases February 28th. So I think we’ll get an extended live demo of the game. It’s another one confirmed for the show floor (and I imagine it will have a pretty impressive booth with one of the large Machine creatures onsite for photos) so it’ll probably go the same route as say The Order 1886 from the first PSX and show the segment and tell the audience “and if you’re here in Anaheim, you can play that demo yourself after the presentation.”
- Spiderman is the One More Thing. So here’s the prediction I made up after my “Stardew Valley and maybe Undertale get some stage time with Uncle Gio” guess had to be scrapped. On the heels of the alleged Marvel vs. Capcom 4 announcement mid-show and a possible Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy teaser at the Game Awards (where Batman, Tales from the Borderlands, and Game of Thrones were all announced), I think Marvel will close out the show with an updated look at one of the most exciting announcements out of E3: the PlayStation-exclusive Spiderman game being developed by Insomniac. Things have been pretty quiet since the announcement. But I say Marvel has a big presence this week.
So there you have my predictions. What do you think we’ll see this Saturday? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter. I’ll be live tweeting from inside the hall as best I can (please have good service Anaheim Convention Center).