It ain’t like it used to be during the days when E3 was the only venue in town for big annual video game reveals. Now there’s the PAX, pre-E3 events, Spike’s Video Game Awards, an international (albeit desperate) Tokyo Game Show, and any number of other major events to reveal new games as part of a gaudy corporate spectacle. Look at the San Diego Comic Con—Activision used that to debut its new Deadpool game when it could have just as easily teased that one out at E3. It makes sense to spread your goods out though to keep people frothing. With Gamescom, Europe’s biggest public and trade gaming expo, just around the corner, what should we expect?
Sony has news for Gamescom. Its press conference is coming up on Aug. 14, and there’s a good amount of buzz surrounding the PlayStation company in the lead up. Word is that it’s got a new model of the PlayStation 3, the PS3-4000 series, waiting in the wings. That new device will carry a hefty price cut too if rumors are to be believed, bringing the PS3 down to around $150. That may not be Sony’s big announcement for Gamescom though.
Playfront (via NeoGAF) reported on Wednesday that Sony is bringing most, but not all, of its recently announced titles to the show, as well as some games we haven’t seen in action yet like Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified for PlayStation Vita. The company has two unannounced titles at Gamescom as well though.
What could these unannounced titles be? Sony is already teasing new Vita titles for an upcoming event in Japan, and there might be more for the struggling handheld in Germany. Guerilla Games, the studio behind Sony’s Killzone series, said in March that the Killzone team is hard at work on the PlayStation Vita. Since Guerilla is one of Sony’s main European studios, its game seems like a good candidate for the show. Guerilla also said that it’s working on another PS3 title in the Killzone series, so this title might be a cross-platform game like Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
What else? Late last year it was rumored that Sony Bend, another of the company’s studios in Europe, was working on a new Vita title in the long-dormant Syphon Filter series. Bend provided the Vita with its strongest launch title, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and are undoubtedly well into production on its next title.
