Jeff Grubb has doubled down that Sony does not have any State of Play or Showcase events planned for this December.
Anticipation that Sony would have such a December event has been brewing since the start of this year. Tom Henderson, Shinobi602, and Kurakasis have each dropped hints that fans took as evidence to stack together to support this rumor. The final smoking gun had apparently been a PlayStation ad that was deleted, because it was teasing a December 3, 2024 date for something.
Last week, we reported on Jeff Grubb debunking the rumor on Twitter. Afterwards, he addressed the rumor on an episode of Giantbomb’s Game Mess.
Grubb talked with co-host Lucy James about the whys that Sony fans were expecting such an event. Thus far, we only learned that Sucker Punch was making a new game in the Ghost of Tsushima franchise, switching to a new story and setting with Ghost of Yotei.
There are multiple Sony studios that are working on games, that fans don’t know about, and they are looking to get more information on. Santa Monica Studio, Sony Bend, and Bluepoint Games are just some of those studios that we know have games in development. Sony still hasn’t shared what fans need to know to be excited and just learn about these games.
This does tie into another concern that Sony fans have, which is that there are not enough first party games coming for PlayStation 5. PlayStation owners are never lacking for third party games. However, the discourse among fans is that if Sony is not delivering enough first party games for their PlayStation 5 user base, then that makes the console less worthwhile. It compares unfavorably to choosing to buy an Xbox Series X|S instead, or more likely, a PC.
Grubb went on to explain that Sony cannot conveniently prepare a vertical slice or a trailer for their upcoming games in the same way that they could in the past. Because these games are bigger, more expensive, have bigger development teams, and are generally bloated, it takes extra effort to make a presentation, even just a 30 second trailer. Those trailers really can delay the production of those games, so Sony studios are better off making that trailer when they have made enough of the game that it won’t be as much work anymore. And, of course, that’s the case for all AAA game studios right now.
James also pointed out that if Sony had a December event, it would be too close to the upcoming The Game Awards. They could, in fact, get a bigger captive audience if they paid for an appearance at The Game Awards, instead of producing a presentation on their own, regardless of scale.
In any case, if Sony does have something to reveal, they won’t have any events for it. Grubb definitely confirmed with his sources that no word has been going around that such an event is planned, and other journalists and sources that seek out this information have also not dropped hints that one is coming soon.
You may not like it, but as Grubb and James explained, it’s symptomatic of the slow pace of video game development in the current generation of video game consoles. You can watch them talk about it in the video below.
