All right, now that we’ve all managed to scrape our jaws off the floor, let’s talk about Sony’s conference. Though I think it was less of a conference and more of a performance. What made Sony’s efforts stand out was that they were clearly there to present and entertain. They didn’t want to make you laugh, like Ubisoft, they wanted you to be awed.
What better way to do that than to have an orchestra pit? In the dawn of our digital age, live musical performances are rare and often too costly for a company to bother. Thus, it was special from the start. I don’t know about you, but I was instantly brought back to the first time I heard the Symphony of the Goddesses from Zelda . Those first notes of game music are undeniable and invoke that excitement, that thrill, of everything indescribable. It is the moment you hear your favorite band live for the first time, the power of your favorite music just blowing you away. The use of music, especially live music, was key to getting us all in the right mood. Sony definitely chose correctly when they picked such an evocative piece to open their show with.
The music ended, the screen lit up with, “Sony Interactive Entertainment presents…” and the trailer for the rebooted God of War started our jaws toward the floor. Thinking back, I don’t even think it was that great of a trailer, but the live gameplay was a treat regardless. After such amazing music, it was easy to be caught up in the story of God of War without breaking your immersion at all. This too, was a conscious decision on Sony’s part. Choosing to not have the host come out right then and introduce the show was the perfect way to continue the thrill the music left.
The gameplay ended with a beautiful wide shot of the new God of War world, and a dragon flying overhead. Nothing beats dragons; I don’t think we’ll ever tire of them. Shawn Layden finally came onto the stage, with the orchestra accompanying his strut. He introduced the show with an homage to the events in Orlando that was not only appreciated but felt honest coming from Layden.
Thus began the wild ride that was the rest of Sony’s conference. The sheer confidence in which they allowed each trailer to speak for itself was more than enough to awe me. It felt similar to when Steve Jobs walked onto the stage and pulled the Macbook Air out of an envelope for the first time. Like, no big deal, let me just show you this thing that will blow your mind.
That said, lets talk a little about the games that truly had me fixed to the screen. The Last Guardian had a tiny bit of new footage and a release date that brought the crowd to a cheering roar. This is a game I think everyone is looking forward to, though it will probably break our hearts like Ori and the Blind Forest did. Immediately after, again with no break to discuss the trailer or anything, came a trailer for yet another game I am dying to play, Horizon: Zero Dawn . It revealed something of an RPG flavor, as we get to choose our response to people and situations. Though this makes me very excited, it wasn’t nearly as cool as watching Aloy take down yet more machines.
After such a mind-blowing performance, it’s hard to remember that Microsoft is even a competitor for Sony. It seems, at this point, that Sony is just twisting the knife and waiting for Microsoft to bleed out more sub-par games and last ditch efforts. Needless to say, Sony knows how to put on a show and did an amazing job in making sure we’ll be talking about it for months to come.