Sony Announces Hour-Long PlayStation Showcase To Close Out May

Clear your calendar: Sony is next up to announce its big gaming showcase as we head into a summer devoid of E3. The company has revealed that the PlayStation Showcase will air on May 24. The broadcast starts promptly at 4 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Pacific). You can follow along with a live stream on Twitch or YouTube.

"The show will run a bit over an hour, focusing on PS5 and PS VR2 games in development from top studios from around the world. Expect a glimpse at several new creations from PlayStation Studios, as well as spellbinding games from our third-party partners and indie creators," Sony said. That's pretty vague, but we always appreciate the room for wanderlust.

Competitively speaking, Sony will put the ball in Microsoft's court, as it'll beat the latter's Xbox Games Showcase by a full three weeks. That gives Microsoft plenty of time to call an audible if it decides its showing feels a little weak. As always, gamers will ritualistically compare the two shows in the annual task of determining who's leading the console war (which everyone swears is over, but comments sections everywhere say otherwise).

The PlayStation Showcase is generally bigger in scope compared to State of Play, which Sony typically uses to focus on specific titles. This one is more like an E3 keynote. Although the PlayStation VR2 recently starred in its own State of Play, Sony may feel pressured to give it a significant portion of airtime to reassure early adopters they're in for a regular stream of content. That event happened in March, and we're not sure how much it could realistically add to the roadmap just a couple of months apart, so perhaps we'll get finalized due dates for some of the titles we've already heard about. We know of over a dozen titles launching in 2023 alone, but we're not sure how far along the development timeline they all are.

As for PlayStation 5, it's safe to assume we'll see new trailers and gameplay for several confirmed upcoming first-party titles, including "Marvel's Spider-Man 2" and "Marvel's Wolverine." Sony could also show off more gameplay from "Final Fantasy XVI" that's set for launch on June 22, among other titles from third-party studios it'll help advertise. We're also still craving more information about "Death Stranding 2," the "Knights of the Old Republic" remake, and Naughty Dog's multiplayer experience for "The Last of Us." And it wouldn't be a proper PlayStation event without some pleasant surprises. You'll have to tune in with us to see what those are.