The format was proven successful by Nintendo years ago.
Now the content seems to be the issue most people have.
Now the content seems to be the issue most people have.
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Can we finally admit the State of Play format is a successful one for Sony?
- Thread starter Deleted member 58846
- Start date
There is a pace and trailer cutting given by whoever puts together the Directs that just makes other presentations feel lacking. Kinda Funny Showcase is the only thing I've seen that really captures that same feeling.
Nintendo also just produces so much content compared to Sony or Microsoft that format lends itself better to them. They release between 10 to 20 games a year on their own that they can spotlight and Sony has Day's Gone, MLB, some VR games, and Death's Stranding for a full year. That isn't enough to support a rapid fire format like this without showing deep into the future or getting some quality 3rd party reveals.
Edit: Dreams Beta also before I get corrected.
Nintendo also just produces so much content compared to Sony or Microsoft that format lends itself better to them. They release between 10 to 20 games a year on their own that they can spotlight and Sony has Day's Gone, MLB, some VR games, and Death's Stranding for a full year. That isn't enough to support a rapid fire format like this without showing deep into the future or getting some quality 3rd party reveals.
Edit: Dreams Beta also before I get corrected.
It's okay, and on a clear upswing, but it's still got some distance to go.
I was thinking about what the difference was, given the format now is so similar to the modern Direct "Headlines" approach. I think there's a few key issues, now:
* The format is *too* rigid. *Everything* is a 'Headline' , a block of standalone information with no relation to what comes before or after. The TLOU2 trailer was a prime example; immediately beforehand was the PSPlus TLOU-in-October reveal: That information belongs with the TLOU2 trailer! Contextualise it! "Here's TLOU2... and TLOU1 will be free on PSPlus in October!". (Also, "Available now" for that, if at all possible, would have been a rather more immediately exciting moment). The way the reveals took place in the SoP felt really weird and disjointed.
It does feel a little bit like the SoP is only really planned as a running order of trailers with a brief introduction, and the separation of the PS Plus reveal and the TLOU2 trailer highlighted that. They're starting to get the content right, but the delivery isn't there. Nintendo's Directs have evolved such that 'headlines' sequences are only part of the story; it's a full programme with separate features of which the headlines are just one. TLOU2 would have been better handled with a deeper dive, perhaps go into some systems, then conclude with the PS+ TLOU1.
* Talk more. NDs are a presentation with a VO that contextualises what you're seeing. These are games; help us understand how they are; inform us. I shouldn't have been left wondering if LA Noire VR is new content or the original game adapted to the VR interface, for instance. Humanity looks intriguing, and could be right up my street - but I don't really quite know what I'm looking at - is it puzzley? RTS-ey? Pikmin-ey? Is Wattam more of a Katamari-esque game or a Noby Noby Boy-esque toy? I'm happy either way, but I'd quite like to *know*!
* The last difference may be insurmountable... but, to be fair, it's very much a YMMV thing anyway. Sony are too cool, for want of a better word; Nintendo have cultivated an irreverence through recent years which means they can get away with being a bit silly in a way that Sony just can't. I think the Medievil Demo/Dan's Hat is a good example; I can't help but think that there's so much of a better way that information could have been delivered to the viewer in a way that matches up more with the irreverence inherent in the Medievil universe.
* Finally, there's another difference, and it's not really an aspect of the broadcast itself, but more the philosophy of the whole State of Play project when compared to Directs: It feels that State of Play is regarded within Sony as a way of getting trailers to peoples' eyes... and, currently at least, it doesn't seem to be aiming to do much more than that. Nintendo, on the other hand, does seem to be more invested in Direct with various marketing intiatives being integrated with the Direct system; shadowdrops are extremely common these days (we had, what, five shadowdrops in the last direct? Whereas here we had the Medievil demo?).
So here's how I'd structure it:
Promote the SoP explicitly the way Nintendo does; preannounce TLOU2 as the explicit centrepiece (we were all expecting it anyway), with other news around it.
Open with a high-profile reveal - that'd probably be CoD in this context. I'm surprised they didn't have Batman, that would have been a great item to put in there.
Segue into headlines. As mentioned above, don't leave them to just run trailers, but have the voiceover talk you through what you're seeing. Probably Medievil first, lean into the humour; follow with Humanity, Piccolo, the other reveals; possibly make the VR an explicit sub-section.The last headline should be Wattam, it's anticipated enough to cause some excitement and adorable enough to contrast with what's to come.
I'm in two minds about what to do about the The Show on PS+ reveal, because it's a significantly less enticing product in Europe. I happened to watch the US SoP but I just checked the Europe one and it is actually a different narrator - although the script seems the same. It felt really odd to have a full high-profile trailer for the baseball game and then just a quick throwaway "Hey, TLOU:R too" in a region where I imagine the latter is the bigger draw. I think possibly you swap the two reveals over depending on which region's SoP you're watching.
That said, I think the best method, as mentioned above, is to have a different game as the second highlight in October's PS+, and then shadowdrop TLOU:R for PS+ in the TLOU2 section - but that was probably not on the cards as an option!
End on TLOU2; talk about it first, maybe reveal some new mechanics; then shadowdrop TLOU:R if that was on the cards, and conclude on the trailer.
I was thinking about what the difference was, given the format now is so similar to the modern Direct "Headlines" approach. I think there's a few key issues, now:
* The format is *too* rigid. *Everything* is a 'Headline' , a block of standalone information with no relation to what comes before or after. The TLOU2 trailer was a prime example; immediately beforehand was the PSPlus TLOU-in-October reveal: That information belongs with the TLOU2 trailer! Contextualise it! "Here's TLOU2... and TLOU1 will be free on PSPlus in October!". (Also, "Available now" for that, if at all possible, would have been a rather more immediately exciting moment). The way the reveals took place in the SoP felt really weird and disjointed.
It does feel a little bit like the SoP is only really planned as a running order of trailers with a brief introduction, and the separation of the PS Plus reveal and the TLOU2 trailer highlighted that. They're starting to get the content right, but the delivery isn't there. Nintendo's Directs have evolved such that 'headlines' sequences are only part of the story; it's a full programme with separate features of which the headlines are just one. TLOU2 would have been better handled with a deeper dive, perhaps go into some systems, then conclude with the PS+ TLOU1.
* Talk more. NDs are a presentation with a VO that contextualises what you're seeing. These are games; help us understand how they are; inform us. I shouldn't have been left wondering if LA Noire VR is new content or the original game adapted to the VR interface, for instance. Humanity looks intriguing, and could be right up my street - but I don't really quite know what I'm looking at - is it puzzley? RTS-ey? Pikmin-ey? Is Wattam more of a Katamari-esque game or a Noby Noby Boy-esque toy? I'm happy either way, but I'd quite like to *know*!
* The last difference may be insurmountable... but, to be fair, it's very much a YMMV thing anyway. Sony are too cool, for want of a better word; Nintendo have cultivated an irreverence through recent years which means they can get away with being a bit silly in a way that Sony just can't. I think the Medievil Demo/Dan's Hat is a good example; I can't help but think that there's so much of a better way that information could have been delivered to the viewer in a way that matches up more with the irreverence inherent in the Medievil universe.
* Finally, there's another difference, and it's not really an aspect of the broadcast itself, but more the philosophy of the whole State of Play project when compared to Directs: It feels that State of Play is regarded within Sony as a way of getting trailers to peoples' eyes... and, currently at least, it doesn't seem to be aiming to do much more than that. Nintendo, on the other hand, does seem to be more invested in Direct with various marketing intiatives being integrated with the Direct system; shadowdrops are extremely common these days (we had, what, five shadowdrops in the last direct? Whereas here we had the Medievil demo?).
So here's how I'd structure it:
Promote the SoP explicitly the way Nintendo does; preannounce TLOU2 as the explicit centrepiece (we were all expecting it anyway), with other news around it.
Open with a high-profile reveal - that'd probably be CoD in this context. I'm surprised they didn't have Batman, that would have been a great item to put in there.
Segue into headlines. As mentioned above, don't leave them to just run trailers, but have the voiceover talk you through what you're seeing. Probably Medievil first, lean into the humour; follow with Humanity, Piccolo, the other reveals; possibly make the VR an explicit sub-section.The last headline should be Wattam, it's anticipated enough to cause some excitement and adorable enough to contrast with what's to come.
I'm in two minds about what to do about the The Show on PS+ reveal, because it's a significantly less enticing product in Europe. I happened to watch the US SoP but I just checked the Europe one and it is actually a different narrator - although the script seems the same. It felt really odd to have a full high-profile trailer for the baseball game and then just a quick throwaway "Hey, TLOU:R too" in a region where I imagine the latter is the bigger draw. I think possibly you swap the two reveals over depending on which region's SoP you're watching.
That said, I think the best method, as mentioned above, is to have a different game as the second highlight in October's PS+, and then shadowdrop TLOU:R for PS+ in the TLOU2 section - but that was probably not on the cards as an option!
End on TLOU2; talk about it first, maybe reveal some new mechanics; then shadowdrop TLOU:R if that was on the cards, and conclude on the trailer.
People saying they want it to be better really mean they just want megatons. Everyone overhypes themselves and then ends up disappointed.
Thank you. It's like people want these Nintendo Direct like bombs to hit. Switch life is in it's prime. PS4 is a year away from being done with TGS just passing last week we got tons of info. PSX should be the only legit thing people should be ready to get hype about.
It really feels like a soulless version of a Nintendo Direct. It's easy to compare, and it doesn't look good when you do that. Feel like this format works best for Nintendo where their devs/personalities are more customer-facing than Sony.
Ultimately it doesn't matter. The quality of each stream is going to come down to what the games are.
Ultimately it doesn't matter. The quality of each stream is going to come down to what the games are.
Besides medievel and tlou 2 the stuff they showed suck (besides civilization but I've never played that). What in the ever loving hell was humanity? It looked like a wii game. And the music accompanying it was wack too.
Plus did the narrator pronounce it medy evil? It sounded weird. It's medieval except spelled evil.
Plus did the narrator pronounce it medy evil? It sounded weird. It's medieval except spelled evil.
this is me, but I hate live presentations, too much fluff and stupid crowd reactions and too drawn out.
The format is not the issue, is the content. Today's most exciting thing for me after TLoU II Trailer was seeing that MLB 19 will be part of October's PS Plus Lineup.
If that doesn't speak to the quality of the show, then I don't know what will. Kind of makes me wonder if it was the best idea to move to this format at the end of this generation.
If that doesn't speak to the quality of the show, then I don't know what will. Kind of makes me wonder if it was the best idea to move to this format at the end of this generation.
They did cram a lot into 20 mins, so I can only imagine what they'd do in a 30-40 mins Sony Dire- I mean State of Play, and while the content wasn't quite there yet, I do hope they keep doing it and experiment more with the presentation, because so far the disembodied voice and lack of punch between some transitions are a bit of a downer.
Yeah, this is the word I was looking for, it's very rigid, they need to give it more personality and using actual people during the presentation would help a lot with that. Hell, I don't even know what Koizumi does at Nintendo but I fucking love it when the guy shows up in a Direct.
It wasn't. I think people kind of forget how dull some of the Directs were during the days when the Wii U was an obvious failure.
I think these are overall successful for Sony. They could do better but I'll take these over the Inside Xbox format every single time.
I don't know; did anyone really care for it prior to the TLOU2's trailer? Felt underwhelming and a bit of a ripoff of a Direct.
I remember the times when I saw many people laughing at Nintendo Directs, now they're cool.
Thanks Sony.
Thanks Sony.
Because it's cool. Directs are for kids. Adults don't like to have fun.
That's why I avoided comparing it with the Nintendo Directs because I do remember when they started they were awful.
I'm sure they'll get better, but right now the content isn't there. I haven't watched Inside Xbox so I can't comment on the quality of that format.
Depends on you're definition of successful.
If we define success for Sony as an effective means of delivering multiple advertisements in one go to a decently sized audience (one that would likely be much larger than many of the smaller games would receive otherwise), then sure, I don't think could argue that it's not. These videos likely don't cost a whole lot to produce (maybe a few thousand dollars if you add up the total labour cost) so Sony is likely getting there Money's worth over simply dumping the same trailers straight to their Youtube channel with no notice.
If we define success as are these presentations entertaining to watch on their own merit, then I'd say they're not quite there yet. The content Sony picks to fill these things with has been a bit ho-hum so far (though to be fair, this may not necessarily be entirely in Sony's control as they can only play the hand they have and that hand may naturally be a bit weak at the moment, given the generation draws to a close) and I think the format could use some more polish too.
The one way in which these presentations differ most significantly from Nintendo Directs is that they're a lot less verbose and more focused on delivering edited trailers. In Nintendo Directs, most headlines are just B-roll with the narrator delivering the information, with editted trailers only appearing during the spotlight segments. The script is often a bit cheesy but otherwise it gives the entire presentation a mostly consistent tone. By comparison, State of Play only features a very tiny bit of narration between the individual trailers, whilst said trailers speak for themselves. I personally find this makes the transitions a little jarring as we suddenly hard cut from a surious, solemnly toned trailer to the peppy English woman quickly delivering a few words too short of a cohesive sentence before hard cutting straight into the next tonaly disonent trailer. Not a big deal, but something I think Sony should work on refining (I'm not 100% sure how, maybe by making the narration a little less concise and adding some ever so slightly longer pauses between transitions, but stuff like that needs to be experimented with to find the right balance).
If we define success for Sony as an effective means of delivering multiple advertisements in one go to a decently sized audience (one that would likely be much larger than many of the smaller games would receive otherwise), then sure, I don't think could argue that it's not. These videos likely don't cost a whole lot to produce (maybe a few thousand dollars if you add up the total labour cost) so Sony is likely getting there Money's worth over simply dumping the same trailers straight to their Youtube channel with no notice.
If we define success as are these presentations entertaining to watch on their own merit, then I'd say they're not quite there yet. The content Sony picks to fill these things with has been a bit ho-hum so far (though to be fair, this may not necessarily be entirely in Sony's control as they can only play the hand they have and that hand may naturally be a bit weak at the moment, given the generation draws to a close) and I think the format could use some more polish too.
The one way in which these presentations differ most significantly from Nintendo Directs is that they're a lot less verbose and more focused on delivering edited trailers. In Nintendo Directs, most headlines are just B-roll with the narrator delivering the information, with editted trailers only appearing during the spotlight segments. The script is often a bit cheesy but otherwise it gives the entire presentation a mostly consistent tone. By comparison, State of Play only features a very tiny bit of narration between the individual trailers, whilst said trailers speak for themselves. I personally find this makes the transitions a little jarring as we suddenly hard cut from a surious, solemnly toned trailer to the peppy English woman quickly delivering a few words too short of a cohesive sentence before hard cutting straight into the next tonaly disonent trailer. Not a big deal, but something I think Sony should work on refining (I'm not 100% sure how, maybe by making the narration a little less concise and adding some ever so slightly longer pauses between transitions, but stuff like that needs to be experimented with to find the right balance).
I prefer a live conference. Couldnt help but think while the TLOU2 trailer was playing how hyped it would have been with an audience cheering and gasping. The cinematic games just dont work for this format
It serves its purpose fine, especially with a generation coming to an end.
But nothing touches a good press conference.
But nothing touches a good press conference.
It's a better format for anyone involved for any company.
Imagine the cost of this kind of in-house production versus renting a big ass place for the press plus all the perks and merchandise given to everyone that attends. It's more cost effective and efficient way to share information with all the interested parties.
Imagine the cost of this kind of in-house production versus renting a big ass place for the press plus all the perks and merchandise given to everyone that attends. It's more cost effective and efficient way to share information with all the interested parties.
The bigger problem is a lack of compelling content being announced. It's understandable, as they don't actually HAVE anything new to announce, as we already know about the last big exclusives ps4 will have. With Nintendo we expect a big surprise every time and they mostly deliver it.
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They've taken a format that Nintendo have developed for years and made into the (imo) best way to share gaming news.
Sony are copying it fine, the overall content being shown off though just isn't amazing yet.
Sony are copying it fine, the overall content being shown off though just isn't amazing yet.
Was the only thing I could think of when seeing it. Looked so weird since the rest of State of Play has a quite modern look. (Logo, loading animation before going live)
