The past few months have made it evident that the games industry is changing rapidly. Steam isn’t the biggest contender in the digital market anymore; Google is planning its own video game streaming service; and Microsoft and Nintendo might be teaming up for future partnerships and crossovers.
Sony’s latest announcement further adds to the year’s shakeups. In a first for the company, it announced a livestream presentation called State of Play, a presentation that strongly resembles Nintendo’s much-loved — and successful — Nintendo Direct presentations.
Sony’s State of Play is set to begin broadcast at 2 p.m. PDT/5p.m. EDT on March 25. Those that are interested can tune in for the broadcast via YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, or Facebook.
It’s more than just a one-off too.
Sid Shuman, Sony’s social media director, said Monday’s presentation is the first episode of a new video showcase effort Sony plans to continue throughout the year.
This first episode will present upcoming PlayStation 4 and PSVR software, which presumably means games already announced, such as new trailers, new game announcements, and new gameplay footage.
What these games will be is a mystery to many. As of now, Sony only has a handful of exclusives announced for the rest of the year: The Last of Us 2, Death Stranding, Dreams, and Ghosts of Tsushima.
Shuman made no comment about how long the episode is expected to be. It could be these games receive all gameplay footage time, or perhaps Sony will take a further leaf from Nintendo’s book and include non-exclusive or non-Sony games as well.
It’s nothing but speculation at this point.
Either way, it appears the State of Play is here to stay. In many ways, it’s a rather overdue move on Sony’s part, since the hallmark of good marketing and advertisement is making a personal connection with audiences, something Nintendo has excelled at for years since it started eschewing traditional means of announcements and advertisements.
