Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Here’s everything Sony revealed at its E3 2018 press conference

Matthew S. Smith
By
Ghost of Tsushima
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sony came to E3 2018 promising that it would offer a deeper look at four games, alongside a few other tidbits of information. That’s exactly what it did. There’s something here for every PlayStation 4 fan, though most of the games shown still don’t have a release date.

The Last of Us: Part II

The show kicked off with the first gameplay footage of The Last of Us: Part II. After a narrative scene focused on Ellie, a flashback kicked her into brutal combat. The mix of stealth gameplay and ultraviolent takedowns was a little bit reminiscent of the latest Tomb Raider games – perhaps because there were no zombies in sight, and Ellie was instead pitted against human foes. The experience looked impressive, vicious, and touching all at once, but you’re out of luck if you were hoping for a release date.

Recommended Videos

You’ll find more about The Last of Us: Part II here.

Related

Ghost of Tsushima

Teased not long before E3, Ghost of Tsushima appears to be an open-world fighting game set in China during Mongol invasions. The extended gameplay demo focused on a series of fight scenes, most of which were classic samurai duels. Very little was shown of the game’s interface, so while we now know it’s a hack-and-slash, it’s hard to say exactly how it’ll play out. Almost nothing about the story was revealed. As with The Last of Us: Part II, a release date is MIA.

You can read more about Ghost of Tsushima here.

Death Stranding

Already famous for its weird, haunting trailers at previous shows, Kojima Production finally made waves with gameplay at E3 2018. We had the chance to see protagonist Sam Bridges hide from, them apparently haunt the game’s strange floating smoke monsters, which seem to remain invisible unless revealed by a radar that’s apparently attached to a baby.

Yeah. Like we said, weird. No combat was shown, but the gameplay reel focused heavily on exploration. It appears players will have plenty of chance to walk, run, and climb across massive and gorgeous terrain. For what purpose? Well, that’s still unknown — as is the release date.

Read our full Death Stranding news here.

Spider-Man

Open-world superhero game Super-Man was by far the most complete of the four major titles Sony had to show. We already saw gameplay at last year’s show, so the E3 2018 reel focused on a different piece of gameplay, one that’d we guess is near the beginning of the title.

It’s what you might expect from a modern superhero game. Spidey brawls with baddies using fists, feet, and webs, while countering their attacks. The main difference from other titles is Spider-Man’s unique ability to swing through the city. It looks exhilarating.

Spider-Man is set to release on September 7, 2018, for PlayStation 4.

Nioh 2

Teased only briefly, there’s nt much to say about Nioh 2. It exists, and it looks like it’ll be much like the original title – so if you liked Nioh, you should be getting more soon. How soon? Sorry – no release date here.

Trover Saves The Universe

This game from Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland looks as hilariously strange as you’d expect and features the voices you know from the show. It appears to be some sort of 3D action-platformer. The game will be coming to both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR, but no release date was announced.

Resident Evil 2

Alright, it’s not a new game, but this remake received the most cheers from the crowd of any game besides The Last of Us: Part II. It looks thoroughly modern, and it has a relatively close release date of Janaury 25, 2019. Not bad.

What else?

That’s the main announcements, but there were a few others. A Destiny 2: Forsaken trailer showed the apparent demise of Cayde-6, Black Ops 4 announced the reintroduction of some classic maps in the new game, and Quantum Break developer Remedy teased a new game, Control, that looks very similar to Quantum Break.

It was a strong lineup, for sure, but one short on release dates. Spider-Man is the only major title we know will arrive this year. As for the rest? We wouldn’t be surprised to see dates remain unannounced until next year’s E3.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Matthew S. Smith
Matthew S. Smith
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Matthew S. Smith is the former Lead Editor, Reviews at Digital Trends. He previously guided the Products Team, which dives…
Nintendo confirms that it won’t be part of E3 2023
Pikmin and Bulborb in Pikmin 4.

Nintendo has confirmed reports that it won't be participating in E3 2023, meaning the gaming trade show will be missing one of its key vendors when it returns in-person this June.
"We approach our involvement in any event on a case-by-case basis and are always considering various ways to engage with our fans," a Nintendo spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. "Since this year’s E3 show didn’t fit into our plans, we have made the decision to not participate. However, we have been and continue to be a strong supporter of the ESA [Entertainment Software Association] and E3."
After taking 2020 and 2022 off and being digital-only in 2021, this year was supposed to mark the grand return of E3, which was once a dominant game industry trade show that attracted every big video game company. Although Sony hasn't participated since 2019, it still came as a shock in January when IGN reported that both Nintendo and Microsoft would not be attending E3 this year as well. It appears that the report is true, as Microsoft has not confirmed any E3-related events outside of its independently run Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase.
Nintendo skipping E3 2023 not only takes away a vendor that dominated the show floor in previous years, but also raises questions about whether or not the company will hold an exciting Nintendo Direct around then. While Nintendo typically holds a big showcase with lots of first-party game announcements around June every year, in 2022 it only held a third-party driven Partner Showcase in June. Now that we know it won't be at E3 2023, we're left to wonder when exactly then next big Nintendo Direct will be. 
E3 2023 will take place between June 13 and June 16, but don't expect Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft to have a big presence there.

Read more
Here’s what E3 2023 could look like without Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft
Playstation character wall at E3 2018

Let's start with the good news: E3 2023 will be held in its in-person format once again after three long years of digital events necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this time with ReedPop at the helm. The bad news is that Sony, Xbox, and Nintendo -- gaming's "Big 3" -- may not show up at the industry’s biggest convention this summer.

This is according to a report from IGN citing multiple sources, who claimed the companies won’t be a part of the show or make appearances on the floor at the Los Angeles Convention Center in any way. Their absence from this year’s E3, especially Nintendo’s, may come as a shock to the gaming community, but it's not such a surprise when looking at the past few iterations of E3. Even before the pandemic locked everyone down in 2020, Sony and Xbox had been hosting their own E3-style livestreams, so it was more likely they would do it again this year anyway. Nintendo, on the other hand, managed to show off its upcoming games via Nintendo Direct streams and at its booth, console kiosks and all.

Read more
Summer Game Fest returns just before E3 2023 next June
The official artwork confirming Summer Game Fest's return on June 8, 2023.

Geoff Keighley has confirmed when Summer Game Fest will return in June 2023. It will begin with a live kickoff show on June 8, 2023, placing Keighley's game announcement alternative less than a week before E3's grand (intended) 2023 return.
Unlike past years, Summer Game Fest Live Kickoff 2023 will feature a live audience, like Geoff Keighley's The Game Awards. It will take place in the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park, with tickets going on sale in early 2023. It will still be livestreamed across platforms like YouTube and Twitch, though. It's currently unknown who's participating, how long Summer Game Fest will run afterward, or if it will feature a Summer Game Fest Play Days-like element for fans. Still, Keighley says all of that info will be revealed ahead of the event next year, teasing what people can expect. 
"In keeping with tradition, we'll have tons of exciting announcements from the developers that are pushing the games industry forward, and will once again highlight other publisher digital events, demos, and more surprises to be announced in the coming months," Keighley says in a press release. 
That June 8 start date, and the other Summer Game Fest events likely to follow, put Keighley's show just ahead of E3 2023. The ESA and ReedPop plan to bring E3 back between June 13 and June 16, 2023. With five days of lead time on E3, Summer Game Fest can coexist with the long-running gaming conference and encompass the plethora of publisher showcases that tend to precede E3.
Geoff Keighley made it clear that he wants Summer Game Fest and E3 to coexist for a while. "We've had extensive conversations with ReedPop about E3," he said in an interview with Epic Games Store. "I think it'll kind of fit together and flow kind of from what we're doing into what they're doing and stuff. E3, to me, is this kind of master brand that represents gaming news in June."
With the start date of Summer Game Fest confirmed, the coexistence of these two summer gaming events is a reality. Summer Game Fest returns on June 8, 2023.

Read more