There are a number of reasons why Sony's PlayStation showcase at this year's E3 was a little odd - and to be fair to the electronics giant, it did warn us. A few weeks ago, Sony issued word that it would be taking a new approach, avoiding major first-party announcements and focusing on four games that had already broken cover at least a year previously: Spider-Man, The Last of Us Part 2, Death Stranding and Ghosts of Tsushima. (Days Gone, star of the show two years ago, seems to have been thrown under a bus - and it's .)
This was a surprisingly blunt bit of expectation management, and the truth behind it is quite simple. Sony's marketing enthusiasm has long outpaced its actual first-party game development, and having announced too much too soon over the course of the last five years, it needed to take a year on the benches to let the studios catch up. There are simply no unannounced PS4 exclusives left in the tank. (Or if there are, Sony has in its wisdom decided it is too early, or E3 is not the right venue for any of them.)
Nor was it necessarily a problem. Armed with the knowledge that we would not be surprised, we could relax and enjoy extensive demos of four strikingly beautiful-looking games. Well, three. It's good that Spider-Man is only a few months from release, because this antic, joyful superhero game from Insomniac begs to be played and didn't really need another overly busy and garish demo, stuffed with characters and complicated peril, to sell us on it. It was an odd choice for the closer given the majesty on display elsewhere.