We should probably be excited that we’re getting a new, powerful system with a bunch of pretty looking games, but it’s far more fun to complain. And Sony’s unveiling of the PlayStation 4, a two-hour long display of hardware specs and game trailers, gave us plenty to moan about. Whether it was the absence of an expected title or an underwhelming announcement, the event had its share of disappointments. Below are some of the biggest.
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The announcement of a Final Fantasy announcement
As disappointing as: Your best friend telling you he has a big secret but refusing to spit it out until next week.
Why it was disappointing: Square Enix had a weird showing at the event. The Japanese publisher and developer started with a tech demo for a graphics engine that it already unveiled last year. That’s already plenty underwhelming, but it wasn’t as bad as announcing that a new Final Fantasy would be coming to the PS4 without giving us a single picture or even a full title. But Square did promise to tell us all about it … at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June.
We don’t even know what kind of Final Fantasy game to expect. Will it be the next installment in the main role-playing series, Final Fantasy XV? Or will we finally see Final Fantasy Versus XIII, a game long stuck in the deepest depths of development hell? We have no idea. Guess we’ll just have to wait (waiting is the worst).
Where was The Last Guardian?
As disappointing as: Your fiancée leaving you at the altar, later reconnecting with you, and then leaving you at the altar again.
Why it was disappointing: The Last Guardian is one of the most anticipated PlayStation 3 games. Many consider developer Team Ico’s last two efforts, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, as some of the best classics released for the PlayStation 2. The Last Guardian looked like an adventure similar in spirit but with improved visuals.
Team Ico announced the game back in 2009, and we still don’t seem any closer to release. Meanwhile, we hear constant rumors of a troubled development. Many were hoping that we would finally hear news during Sony’s recent event, specifically that The Last Guardian was now a PlayStation 4 title. That didn’t happen. Once again, the much-anticipated Sony exclusive was a no-show.
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Blizzard’s gigantic announcement … of a port
As disappointing as: Having your dad tell you to hop in the car for a surprise trip, fulling expecting that he’s about to take you to Disneyland. You end up going to see the La Brea tar pits instead.
Why it was disappointing: We’ve long known Blizzard as a company that focuses exclusively on PC gaming, so it was a huge shock to see exec Chris Metzen on stage during Sony’s event. We were beginning to expect something big to happen. Maybe the follow-up to the historically popular massively multiplayer online game, World of Warcraft, would be coming to the PS4. Maybe Blizzard was going to announce an entirely new game, built to take advantage of Sony’s new hardware.
Instead, Metzen announced a port of Diablo III, an action role-playing game that came out for the PC last May. Not that Diablo III is a bad game, but a console version was something we were expecting last year. It’s not like the gothic hack-and-slasher is a technological wonder that’s only possible on next-gen hardware. The fact that Metzen also announced a PlayStation 3 version proves that.
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We didn’t see the PlayStation 4 at the PlayStation 4 event
As disappointing as: Dating a girl online who refuses to send you a picture of herself.
Why it was disappointing: We got to see plenty of the new system’s controller, but the actual box that houses all of that delicious hardware was strangely absent. This continues a trend originally started by Nintendo, who also put the emphasis on the Wii U’s new controller without showing the actual system during its unveiling.
But Nintendo may have actually been more justified to make a such a move than Sony. The controller is the Wii U’s biggest selling point, since the hardware isn’t anything special. But Sony is touting the PS4 as a graphical powerhouse with streaming and social features, while the controller, despite a few added gimmicks like a small touchscreen, isn’t all that different from the PS3’s (which was basically the PS2 controller to begin with).