A PlayStation livestream called State of Play has been announced by Sony. The broadcast, which will take cues from Nintendo Directs and Inside Xbox events, will announce a slew of new information according to the company, and will take place on Monday, March 25, 2019 at 5pm EST.
Company-sponsored livestreams have become a staple of the video game industry recently, with both Nintendo and Xbox using the broadcasting platforms they’ve built to announce major game releases, new trailers, and other important information. It’s always seemed odd that Sony has been reticent to join its two competitors with a PlayStation livestream in the same vein as a Direct, especially since the company will be skipping out on E3 2019 entirely this year thanks to a lack of major games to show.
According to Sony, fans of the PS4 can expect “new trailers, new game announcements and new gameplay footage.” Sony has also already indicated that the State of Play stream will not be just a one-time thing, and that the even will return several times throughout 2019 with more news announcement for fans of the PlayStation console. The first State of Play PlayStation livestream will take place on March 25, 2019 at 2pm PDT/5pm EST, and is likely to focus primarily on games we already know are closing in on 2019 releases like Days Gone, although there will likely be a few surprises, too.
2019 has been something of a quiet year for the console industry’s leader in sales, which is a major factor in Sony’s decision to skip this year’s E3. The only major exclusive for the PlayStation 4 that’s definitely arriving in 2019 is Days Gone, and after that, other exciting titles like The Last of Us 2 and Death Stranding might not even arrive before the calendar year is over. With all that uncertainty swirling around the tech giant, an announcement like the State of Play PlayStation livestream likely means it will have at least one unexpected and major announcement to help create some excitement.
That’s big for a brand that’s felt largely stale since the end of 2018 saw the company still riding the high of Spider-Man and God of War, even if it feels like one new game announcement won’t do much compared to the announcement of Google Stadia or Microsoft’s E3 2019 plans, the latter of which is steadily growing in renown and is rumored to be another industry-changing presentation. It’s also nice to see Sony catch up to Microsoft and Nintendo’s information sharing formats, which have been proven successes for some time now. Even if State of Play’s first go isn’t as exciting as some of the other things happening in the industry, hopefully it has enough personality and connection with fans to make it a worthwhile endeavor and something that will continue PlayStation livestreams in the future.
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Source: PlayStation Blog
