Can we finally admit the State of Play format is a successful one for Sony?

[Deleted member 58846]

People have been wary and critical of the State of Play series so far, due to a variety of reasons. Some of them make sense, such as Sony not managing to set expectations properly ahead of the first couple of episodes (though I personally greatly enjoyed them both). Others come down to console war reasons.

Whatever the reason, Sony's performance and success with the State of Play brand has been under a lot of scrutiny. I think with this newest stream, they have finally achieved a great balance of smaller and larger announcements, with good slick production values and great pacing all around. All around, I see the response to the newest SOP being very positive, and I think people are coming around to the format.

I personally hope Sony continues with these going forward on a permanent basis (though I would also want annual PSX conferences, at the very least), and I think the newest episode shows that this format has a lot of traction for Sony, specifically.

What do you have to say about this?

 

[Geek]

As someone 52 minutes into this Inside Xbox stream, yeah, it's successful

 

[Bomblord]

I have no strong feelings about it which is weird because I generally like Sony and get way-overhyped for Nintendo directs. I really have no method of explaining the discrepancy and I feel any attempt to quantify it would be incorrect and or be insulting people who are enjoying them.

 

[Gero]

IM watching the xbox show and yeah... state of play is a way better format.

 

[Rosebud]

The format is perfect, the problem is the content

 

[Multiverse Moo]

I definitely think its getting better, but you're going to get a lot of people in here going "I knew stuff that was coming so it sucked" or "it didn't have X or Y game so it sucked" or "I didn't care for any of those games so it was trash".

People complaining about any sort of VR inclusion just makes me laugh. Sorry you can't enjoy it, but a few minutes of VR isn't going to kill you. Your time is not being "wasted" when you already spend hours arguing on the internet about videogames and going out of your way to be hateful and salty about things on a daily basis.

Agree with the idea of having these regularly every few months, but keeping PSX and other major conferences when there is a lot to show. I do miss devs sharing a bit about their game, or playing a demo live (like the God of War reveal) despite knowing it can take a lot of resources from development.

 

[Kolx]

As a way of showing smaller titles and updates on 1st party titles? yes. Replacing conferences for big reveals? hell no.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

I love the format, people need to understand that PS4 is about to be done, they aren't going to have much more for the system and need to keep the expectations in check. If they still don't show some big reveals once PS5 is what we are talking about then sure let's stop this format.

 

[Kawngi]

I don't think there have been any great State of Plays yet as far as content shown (aside from 2ish trailers across them all). They've all felt like a small handful of nothing, and then the one juicy bit at the end. For the format itself, I get that they're going for the Nintendo Direct style, but SoP hasn't had any of the same charm.

 

[ApatheticDolphin]

E3 live shows have too many chances for fuck ups so I get it.

 

[Mass Effect]

I like how lean and straight to the point it is. And like I mentioned in the other thread, the format reminded me of Cinematech, which was always fun.

 

[SeriousGoku]

Screw that, give me live events. I would never have watched this if not for TLOU 2. Where as I'll watch any live press conference.

 

[Toumari]

As someone 52 minutes into this Inside Xbox stream, yeah, it's successful

Click to shrink...

Pretty much this. Inside Xbox feels really drawn out with so much filler and bad jokes. At least SoP keeps it straight to the point of showing what the fans want. I still prefer live events though... would have been amazing seeing the crowd reaction to Joel.

Also I much preferred the old graphics they used than the updated ones for the game transitions. The new ones looked like they came from the year 2005 with all those bezels/shadows.

 

[Naga]

The Nintendo Direct format? Sure, they're getting better at it.

 

[Desma]

I really feel like they're just testing the waters for now.
I'd imagine they'd be way better once Sony has a bunch of games to show on these.

 

[Jarod McChicken]

The format is good, although when you show something as cryptic as Humanity it would not hurt anyone to explain the thing in two or three lines.

Now, the content is another matter...

 

[PlanetSmasher]

The success or failure of one of these things is driven entirely by what games they talk about. If they don't show anything you care about, what's good about it?

It's been so long since Sony's shown anything that matters to me. So damn long. :|

 

[MarcelRguez]

Personally speaking, the format itself is fine. It's the lack of content to carry one of these what hurts it the most.

 

[Chopin the Third]

I thought it was great. Same with the other two.

 

[Arthoneceron]

As the highlights and showing some short trailers in-between? Sure, but it's a copy-paste.

 

[Memento]

I still prefer live conferences but I believe this format could be just as hype if they make it their premier presentation for new reveals next gen like Nintendo with Directs

In the end it is a about the games shown and it seems they are getting more confident on putting real blockbusters on it

 

[fontguy]

"Admit." Like people are in denial and it's tearing them up inside.

 

[fanboy]

Conferences + state of plays? Hell yeah, its going to be very cool. Games like Arise and Afterparty get spotlight and Sony can give us updates on their big games in first half of the year. I like this format.

 

[Nightengale]

In isolation - they're fine.

In execution, they're still lacking but improving. My main complaint - the lack of an 'ecks' factor for em.

In broader context, a big part of this is contributed by the fact that Sony has nothing to announce in 2019 as far as big games go, but so far the 3 SoPs combined isn't even close to matching Sony's annual conference lineup content in a decent year, much less a good one.

If they continue with SoP next year, they need to show that they can deliver stuff that are expected of their major conferences if SoP is the format moving forward.

 

[defaltoption]

Still not better then live events and nowhere near as good as Nintendos directs, better than Microsofts version still but only because Microsoft does this weird mix of both a live event and pre recorded stuff I can't get behind. I think theyll both get better going into next gen though.

 

[Rotobit]

They've been getting better at having one or two big reveals, but they tend to be way too short and don't leverage third parties enough. Could just be because we're in the tail end of the generation though.

Either way, the Direct approach will always be better than a single event in June around the same time as everyone else's. Doing what they do means games like FFVII Remake and Last of Us 2 DOMINATE social media for the full day, maybe even a week.

Assuming the PS5 reveal will be a live event though, I think hardware reveals are better served by conferences.

 

[vestan]

Live conferences will always reign supreme in my mind tbh, but these are nice too.

 

[BBboy20]

*watching Inside Xbox*

Yeah, it is.

 

[VirtualCloud]

Decided to check out inside xbox for the first time today. State of play is ahead of inside xbox but no where near Nintendo directs, it needs some work.

 

[BassForever]

The format is fine because it's copying what Nintendo does which is excellent

The problem is they have very little to show that is actually hype. You could take the best of both state of plays so far and you still don't have enough to justify a direct style show.

 

[Tatsu91]

As someone 52 minutes into this Inside Xbox stream, yeah, it's successful

Click to shrink...

the problem with inside Xbox is it is way to long DIrects work because they are to the point and do not overstay its welcome

 

[Lokimaster]

Yea i like this way better. It's already has 160k views.
While it was live streaming it had over 140k viewers. Comparing it to the inside Xbox which only had around 11k viewers.

 

[Jerm411]

They're fine but in a lot of ways feel pointless to me...just send out a press release and the trailers.

Like I figured this one would be a lot more TLOU II centric.

 

[get2sammyb]

I like it, they just need to stick at it. I thought today's show was pretty good -- a nice mix of different titles from across the ecosystem.

 

[JediMPG]

I liked all 3 SoP so far. I can only imagine it'll get better and really find it's footing in the PS5 era. Right now it at least fixes the problem that people said Sony had in that they don't spotlight indie games.

 

[bionic77]

They need to work at it. I prefer to just read about it and watch the trailers afterwards.

Which is weird because initially I thought Sony's press was way better than Nintendo's (remember when Reggie used to get on stage and act like a weirdo?). Now I like watching Directs even when I don't care about the games. So hopefully Sony can make it way more entertaining and not just something I watch to see the first glimpse of a game.

 

[Bulby]

Entirely depends on the content. The presentation itself is generic as fuck

 

[Prine]

I think the recent one showed it's quite terrible to be honest. These short snippets of mostly unknown or forgettable games that many don't care for isn't helping the show. The last few SoP have been mostly uneventful, which is the opposite of what it's supposed to be. Needs better content, and spend more time on hyped games. I mean, we should've got some Kojima interview or a new trailer for DS. Shenmue 3 is around the corner, that would've been far better to show then all the games on display (bar LoU).

 

[RyougaSaotome]

The format is mostly fine if not up to the overall polish of a ND. It's the content.

And the reality is that we're at the end of a console life cycle for Sony, which means we're not necessarily going to get a host of surprises with each video in the same way that we do with NDs right now because Switch is young in comparison.

And that's fine.

 

[iksenpets]

It's fine. They took Nintendo's format and it works, even if it is noticeable that they don't do it as well as Nintendo does (yet, at least)

 

[Deleted member 58846]

I feel like a lot of people in this thread are missing that Directs themselves are a handful of big moments- one near the beginning, and a couple near the end- with a lot of interesting filler (but still filler) making up the bulk of them. They're not 40 minutes of pure hype, nothing is. I think State of Play is getting close to achieving that kind of pacing, though yes, being confined to what has been a relatively off-year for Sony so far does mean even their highs are not as high as the competition at times.

 

[TheAggroCraig]

It needs some more personality behind it. Xbox keeps trying too hard but I feel it's hitting younger audiences pretty well but what do I know.

 

[Bishop89]

It's perfectly fine

 

[gadwin]

Really not a fan of the Direct format. Make it an indie showcase and begin doing live events again (which I guess will be back next year).

 

[Kyrios]

I like the format. It's straight and to the point.

 

[Linus815]

I mean, they're basically just a bunch of trailers piled on top of eachother. Not much else to it. Just a short 10-20 second intermission between them. So the quality of state of play depends entirely on the content.

personally, id prefer if there wasnt state of play at all and they just uploaded stuff on their yt channel whenver it's ready

so i dont really fit in any of the poll options, i dont care about live events much either.

 

[ghostcrew]

I'll mirror others in being a mix of the poll options. Yes, the format is a successful one. They get better each time and today's was awesome. But I do still miss live events. As great as today's State of Play was it was still nowhere near the hype levels of a legendary big conference show.

 

[Optional Objectives]

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[•79•]

It was a twenty minute block of trailers. I don't get the handwringing?

 

[NediarPT88]

Not really, I don't think any SOP was particularly good so far, despite having a good trailer here and there.

I hope they go back to conferences after revealing PS5 or instead just go all-out on SOP with meaty shows (not just 20m) with important reveals.

I did like the presentation better in this one.