5 Sony E3 2017 Press Conference Predictions

INITIAL THOUGHTS

Sony's E3 2017 press conference will take place this upcoming Monday, June 12th at 6pm PT/9pm ET. Last year, we saw the likes of new games God of War, Days Gone, Death Stranding, Spider-Man, Detroit: Becoming Human, The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Wipeout the Omega Collection, Resident Evil 7, a release date for the long-awaited The Last Guardian as well as a number of VR games such as Batman: Arkham VR, Star Wars Battlefront X-Wing VR and Farpoint. Then, PSX 2016 also revealed the existence of The Last of Us 2 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. All in all, a tremendous amount of incredible looking games. With many yet to be released, it would be very easy to predict that Sony would have its show dedicated to these games already announced games with hardly any time to spare for anything else. However, I believe that a number of new game announcements may end up actually stealing the show. After Hideo Kojima and Yu Suzuki announced that both Death Stranding and Shenmue III will skip E3, we can now begin to build realistic expectations for this upcoming E3 Sony presser. Having said that, the following 5 personal predictions represent what I believe to be new games to be announced with or without gameplay demos.

BLOODBORNE 2

Bloodborne 2 co-developed by From Software and Studio Japan is almost a surety. There have been so many rumors about it going years back of the existence of a 3-game deal between Sony and the studio known for the highly-acclaimed Souls games. The game will likely be shown via a trailer with a 2018 release date. This would give the game a 3-year development cycle that could be very plausible as they should have mastered by now the engine that they've used for all the many Souls games they've made over the years. It's easy to predict Bloodborne 2 and especially more once it became the PS4 first real system seller with a metacritic score of 92. After selling over 2 million copies, this would be a no brainer and could give the PS4 system an edge with this particular kind of hardcore action games by adding another exclusive to the list of greats such as Nioh and the original Bloodborne.

SUCKER PUNCH'S NEW OPEN WORLD IP

Much has been written about Sucker Punch Productions new open world IP. In fact, the game was expected to have been shown already. The studio's last game, Infamous: Second Son, released early on 2014 which was even after Guerrilla Game's 2013 Killzone Shadowfall. Whatever it is, it has enjoyed at least 3 years of development and may be ready for early 2018, four years later. If anyone has any doubt that their new game is an open world game, a run through the Washington studio's website gives it away. They had a listing posted on 2-17-17 for an Open World Content Designer. I believe that this upcoming conference will definitely feature a trailer with gameplay as the game should be almost ready for release. The time is prime for this long-awaited reveal. The rumors for an open world new IP came from some very accurate insiders of the likes of Shinobi602. My bet, therefore, is that the game shown is a new IP as the previous two franchises Sucker Punch created (Sly Cooper and Infamous) are likely exhausted at this point.

SPYRO TRILOGY REMASTERED

I predict also that Vicarious Visions will be reported to be working on a Spyro collection. With the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy set to release on June 30th, this team will be free to begin on a new project. A remaster of the original three Spyro games that launched on the PS1 would make perfect sense and may very well be the case. There was a picture posted by Sony Netherlands that included PlayStation icons such as Kratos, Sackboy, Parappa, Kat, Crash and yes, Spyro! The blue dragon happens to be the only character that has not made an appearance on the PS4 yet and Sony seems to hold some rights to the original trilogy. Therefore, a new partnership with Activision is likely to happen if we are to see the return of Spyro. I bet that a Spyro trilogy will be announced in addition to some other Classic remasters.

GOD OF WAR VR

Following Santa Monica's report that they are working on a big VR game, I believe that it's none other than God of War VR. A representative of the California-based studio, who wished to remain unknown, said that they were working on a big VR game that would be part of a second wave of VR titles. He or she also said that the new game would go well with the core PlayStation audience. Now, I believe that it's a God of War VR game of some kind for the following reasons. First of all, Sony has to bring some of its big franchises to VR and they still haven't done so at all. Furhermore, I believe that it's hard to conceive that PS VR will sell itself just with new IPs. Secondly, at GDC 2014, Sony showed a demo for God of War 3 in VR. In addition, the end of God of War 3  (warning: spoilers follow) included a first person combat scene with Kratos' blades flying in front of you as you struck the almighty Zeus. So, suffice to say, that a first person God of War in VR has already been played around with at Santa Monica studio. I believe the game will be announced at this E3 with some gameplay showing some traditional gory combat and featuring the greatest Spartan warrior in gaming.

RESIDENT EVIL 2 REMAKE

On August 12, 2015 Capcom officially announced that they were working on a Resident Evil 2 Remake. Later on, they also hinted that the game might release before March 2018. It will not surprise me one bit if Resident Evil 2 Remake is part of Sony's 2017 conference and ends up being another console exclusive. The original after all, never released on Xbox platforms. My prediction is that it will be shown with gameplay and will be a PS4 console exclusive.

CONCLUSION

Well, my predictions for the 2017 Sony press conference end here. These 5 predictions represent some of they new stuff that I believe Sony will announce. I look forward to seeing whether I hit the mark on any of these. Obviously, the press conference will include newer footage/gameplay for a number of the games we already know about. Yet, as long as the Sony executives keep the talking to a minimum I think this show is going to be a blast.

What do our readers think about these predictions? Share your thoughts below.