Last of Us Part II’s State of Play Inclusion is Unfortunate for PlayStation Experience 2019

Last year, Sony Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden explained, during a segment for the PlayStation Blogcast, the cancellation of PlayStation Experience 2018. Due in part to Sony not having a sufficient amount of announcements to justify the event. In his own words, Layden said, “We don’t want to set expectations high and then not deliver on that. It was a hard decision, but we have determined that this year we will not hold PlayStation Experience.” And that was the end of that.

From there, fans have always speculated whether or not the famed fan event would return. Especially when no representative from Sony ever clearly stated that there would be another PlayStation Experience in the future. However, Sony has always had this never say, “never” atmosphere. With that said, a thought occurred to me after Naughty Dog’s began Tweeting about their The Last of Us Part II presentation during today’s “State of Play.” PlayStation’s new live stream video showcase.

"I'm gonna find…and I'm gonna kill…every last one of them." pic.twitter.com/vO0cC6dGkO

— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) September 20, 2019

During previous significant events, Naughty Dog has been what Sony typically began or concluded a presentation. As fans of PlayStation Experience will remember during PSX 2016, Naughty Dog’s back to back announcements of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and the existence of The Last of Us Part II. The roars from the crowd, mine included, continued endlessly at the thought of more high-end titles from the Jax and Dexter developers. The cheers were big because Naughty Dog games are a big deal. The fans know it, the press knows it, and Sony knows it.

Fast forward back to today and now Sony is having Naughty Dog presents their latest epic during the State of Play. While we as fans always knew that State of Play was another an experimental avenue for the company. The announcement for the video showcase never expressed one way or the other if this was the replacement for PlayStation Experience.

On top of that, Neil Drunkmann expressed gratitude when attending PlayStation Experiences in the past. He would acknowledge that the fan event is the reason the company always chose to wait until they could announce their games.

That fact alone leaves me to believe that if there were a PSX 2019, Drunkmann would have pressed Sony to wait a few more months to wow a dedicated crowd of fans.

Sony’s most significant game is debuting on what was considered an experiment — proving that State of Play is an easy way for them to connect to fans directly. As Naughty Dog gears up to reveal The Last of Us Part II, the only unveil I can think of for a future PlayStation Experience would be a PlayStation 5 announcement.

State of Play goes live at 1 pm PT / 4 pm ET and will last for around 20 minutes.

You can watch the Livestream on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter or Facebook.