The PlayStation Showcase on Wednesday will define the future of gaming

So, out of nowhere, Sony has announced their summer State of Play and it’s in pretty much its usual E3 spot, just late May instead of early June. And rather than warning people not to get too excited, which they’ve done for the last couple of State of Plays, they’ve actually hyped it up and said it will have lots of new IP. This seems to be it, the big reveal event that we’ve been waiting more than a year for. The ‘second phase’ of PlayStation 5, as people are calling it.

The thing that makes it unusual, and this wouldn’t be obvious to most causal gamers, is that it’s taking place before Microsoft’s event, which is more than two weeks after. Usually Sony makes sure they always go second and they’ve clearly benefited from this, especially during the whole Xbox One reveal calamity. So why suddenly change? Why give Microsoft so long to react to whatever they announce? The obvious assumption is that they think they’ve got a great hand to play and there’s no way for Xbox to counter it.

How, I have no idea, but after the first few years of this generation never getting into top gear this is surely the moment at which things kick off properly. This is the moment at which we see who out of PlayStation and Xbox will be dominant this generation and going into the next.

In case you think I’m being overdramatic, consider the PlayStation E3 event from 2015, two years after the PlayStation 4 launched. Sony announced Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Shenmue 3, and The Last Guardian all in the same event and the internet went insane. They were already doing well but that was the moment that they cemented their leadership, and it became obvious that Xbox was never going to catch up. It seems obvious to me that Sony would want to repeat that performance.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll have a bunch of exclusives to show (they probably will but I’m doubtful about how excited people really are about Metal Gear Solid nowadays), just that they’ll try to project a position of complete dominance, where any possible rivalry from Xbox is made to seem irrelevant.

Of course, I don’t know this for a fact. I’m just guessing based on what Sony has said and what seems logical. But if Sony do have a boring show – and they’ve definitely had a bunch of them so far this year – then my point still stands, because if PlayStation slips up then Microsoft is right there to take advantage of it.

Microsoft understands the importance of the situation as well, they can’t help but do so given the rotten few months they’ve had. After years of no games and bad publicity they know they’ve got a lot to prove. Their event is two hours long (Sony’s is only a bit over an hour) so they obviously have a lot planned, and while it’s a bit easier to guess what they might show it’s harder to know whether it’ll be impressive.

I know I have a lot of confidence in Sony’s exclusives without even knowing what they are. I have very little confidence in a new Fable or Perfect Dark from Xbox. I’m pretty dubious about Starfield too, which did not look that great in the gameplay they’ve shown off so far. So there’s a lot to prove, as far as I’m concerned and, I would imagine, most other gamers.

So this is it. This is the big showdown. This is the ‘who won E3?’ of 2023, only without E3. I have no idea who will win, even if the safe bet is Sony, but I confidently predict that whoever comes out best after June will win the generation or, in Xbox’s case, at least be in a position to hit the ground running next gen.

Although there is another, far more boring option. Either one of them could end up pulling their punches, just as they have for the last year, because they don’t want to disprove anything they’ve said about the Activision Blizzard acquisition. With showtimes that long it doesn’t sound like they’re going to, but unfortunately it is a real possibility.

I’m going to stick with my prediction though, by mid-June the future of this generation of consoles and beyond will have been decided. I’m excited to see how it turns out.

By reader Tambor

The reader’s feature does not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.