Remember E3 2015? At the time Sony‘s presentation during the event was widely praised as one of the best E3 showings ever, but two years later and some of the company’s biggest PS4 announcements are nowhere to be seen. Final Fantasy VII Remake and Shenmue 3 are both in development with no release date in site, while Media Molecule’s Dreams is nowhere to be seen.
Sony has now conceded that they may have announced games too early in the past, and that they plan to rectify this moving forward. Speaking to GameSpot, PlayStation Worldwide Studios SVP Michael Denny discussed the company’s decision to delay the announcement of Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima. This delay caused many to question whether or not Sucker Punch were actually still working with Sony, as the developer’s last release was the standalone DLC Infamous: Last Light back in 2014.
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But Denny stated that there was a reason behind this radio silence, and that Sony instead wanted Ghost of Tsushima to be closer to release before they revealed it.
“In the past, I think it’s fair to say sometimes we announced games too early,” Denny said. “And this is such a great project for Sucker Punch. It’s a game they’ve always really wanted to make themselves,” he added. “And I think it’s the right time to announce that, and they’ve been working on that game for a long time now. There is great [playable version of the game] already. So we’re just excited to let everybody know about it.”
Ghost of Tsushima still doesn’t have a release date, but it seems Sony has learnt from past mistakes and is now waiting until PS4 games are relatively far into development before unveiling them to players. While this will likely mean fewer shock announcements, it will also ensure that we aren’t left waiting for an inordinate period of time for a game to launch after Sony has pulled the curtain back on it.