What To Expect From The PS5 Launch Showcase

September 13, 2020

Pokemon Go Fanatics

Finally, with less than two full months to go until the November month that next-gen is meant to behind, we’re starting to get the details that we’ve been wanting for months. Xbox have now gotten out there and officially revealed the Xbox Series S and all of their launch price/date details (which we’ve collated into a handy article here). Now, it’s PlayStation turn, with the company confirming a new PS5 Showcase would be occurring on Thursday in the wee hours of the morning. While the blog post only contained a few details, we’ve pulled together everything you can expect to see at the show.

PS5 Launch Price and Date

While the announcement only mentions that games will be shown, they said the same thing about June’s PS5 Games Showcase before revealing the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition. With only a couple of months to go until launch, this is probably their last change at a big blow out show before launch, and so we expect both the launch date and price to be revealed during the show. Most likely as the last thing to be revealed.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

We know that the show will be showing off some launch games, and so it makes sense Spider-Man: Miles Morales will be there. Right now it’s the only PlayStation Studios game that we know is coming in ‘Holiday 2020’ (Read: Launch), but all we’ve seen is a tiny teaser and a couple of screenshots. Expect this to be a decent gameplay demo showing, along with confirmation of it being a launch day game.

Demon’s Souls

We know that the game has now been rated in at least three countries (South Korea, Japan and Australia) so Demon’s Souls is releasing soon. Bluepoint’s last game was released in early 2018 and they were the first developer PlayStation really talked up as working on PS5 games. As such, we’re expecting Demon’s Souls to get its first gameplay trailer at this show, along with confirmation that its either coming out on launch day or within the first month of the console.

Gran Turismo 7

PlayStation simply showed too much footage for this game for it not to be ready for release some time soon. Sure, what we saw was only a single track, but it was a good, long, continuous look at the game, its physics and more. I originally predicted that this would show up in the June showing and I’m still bullish that this will be a launch window game.

Returnal

Rumours in the past have pointed to Returnal developer Housemarque targeting a launch day release for the game. They’ve found immense success in the past being present at a PlayStation launch and there’s no doubt they’re keen to continue that. Given the game now has  box art on Amazon Australia, it seems pretty clear its coming sometime in the near future, so expect it to pop up here.

Sackboy’s Big Adventure

Talk has been that Sackboy’s Big Adventure has been in development for a hell of a long time and was originally planned as a PS4 game. Combine that with the gameplay segment shown in June’s showcase, which was filled with plenty of different areas, and it’s clear that Sackboy’s adventure is coming very soon. We wouldn’t be surprised to get confirmation here that the game is releasing on launch day for the PS5.

Silent Hill

There’s been rumours for months and months that PlayStation are working with Konami to reboot the Silent Hill franchise, and where there’s smoke, there’s almost always fire. June’s showcase was already heavy on horror between Demon’s Souls and Resident Evil VIIi, so there wasn’t necessarily room for another horror game there. Now, however, there should be ample space here for Silent Hill to pop up.

A Surprise New IP From PlayStation

PlayStation have previously said that they haven’t shown off their entire launch line up yet, so that means there’s still games yet to be revealed. With PlayStation only showing existing IPs from themselves so far, we’re expecting this could bring the announcement of a smaller new IP.

Godfall

The first PS5 game revealed and the one longest confirmed as a launch day/window release. It feels like this absolutely has to be shown here at the PS5 showcase. This is just about the last big showing that game can have to convince people they need it, which they haven’t managed to do just yet.

Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War

PlayStation have had the marketing deal for Call of Duty for a while now and all signs point to that continuing with Cold War. Given the game is releasing on November 13th, a few days before the PS5 is rumoured to release, don’t be surprised if we get some more footage here and confirmation of a launch day release.

Final Fantasy XVI

I’m still bullish on Final Fantasy XVI coming sooner than people expect and rumours have once again begun popping up about the game showing up at this showcase. It seems like the perfect time, both with getting massive mindshare leading into a new generation, but also with the Tokyo Game Show coming in a couple of weeks.

A Couple More Big Third Party Announcements

Honestly, we’re not entirely sure what else is going to be shown by third parties right now. A new generation is a massive time of upheaval in the console space and we can see some absolutely out there games pop up, so we’re legitimately unsure what else we could see here. With games being delayed left and right, we don’t expect too many games to be announced here, but we expect a couple more big third party games to pop up.

Indie Montage

Unlike June’s showcase, which gave Indies some extended playtime, we’re expecting their allotted time to be slimmed down here. A couple of games might get lengthier slots (like Bugsnax), but expect that we’ll get a 3-5 minute montage of indie games coming at/around launch.

 

There you have, everything that we believe you can expect from this weeks PS5 Showcase. It’s an exciting time in gaming and we can’t wait to see what gets announced and shown. If you’re keen to check out the show for yourself, get up at 6AM AEST on Thursday and tune in to PlayStation’s official Youtube Channel.