PlayStation Showcase Reportedly Delayed Over Activision Blizzard Deal
It's clear that the Activision Blizzard deal with Xbox is causing a fuss in the gaming industry, but the biggest screeches are coming from the PlayStation camp.
Flying out to meet with boards in order to stop the deal and reportedly offering game developers bribes to keep them from putting their titles on Game Pass, PlayStation has proven that Sony is less than happy with the deal.
The phrase "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" comes to mind, especially as the company retaliated by buying out Bungie shortly after the big news was announced - and now, it seems Sony is putting a presentation on hold out of fears it could make Xbox look better.
Sony Reportedly Cancels PlayStation Showcase
Last year's PlayStation Showcase was massive beyond words, and fans have been looking forward to a new edition this year - but it looks like it could simply not happen as a result of the Xbox deal with Activision Blizzard.
According to Millie A - a reputable industry insider - Sony was supposed to announce a PlayStation showcase on October 11. The actual event occurred on October 20, but as a result of the investigations into the ethics of the purchase, it seems it has been pushed back.
"The ongoing CMA investigation for MS acquisition of AB, has indeed delayed any Showcase plans for Sony," she says. "Exclusive titles and first party I.P were ‘locked in’. Sony believe a showcase will add weight to MS arguments. Silent Hill & Kojima Who Am I reveal were part of show."
When Could We See The PlayStation Showcase?
At this stage, there's no telling when we could see this Showcase, but we'd expect a potential announcement to come in the next month - as to be fair, these claims seem to be reasonable.
With new broadcast events from Silent Hill and Resident Evil announced, it's safe to presume they were gearing up to drop an announcement in this showcase and have since simply decided to go their own way. The big argument is that without Call of Duty, Sony would be knocked out of the market. It's something Microsoft recently disputed when it claimed every CoD player could abandon Sony and it would still be fine.
A new PlayStation showcase would be a real treat, but now Sony sounds like it's nervous about how it'll make Xbox look who knows how it'll look. Even though any showcase would still be massive, there could be a few AAA gaps in the presentation.