Summary
Since the PS1 launched in Japan in 1994, Sony has always had a bit of showmanship when it came to theirPlayStationpress conferences. From the hardware to the first-party software, they had the crowd going wild. They even had big reveals from third-party software over the years during E3 with notable franchises returning to a roar of celebration from the crowd.
Sony has always put an emphasis on play, so it’s no surprise that there is a level of hype for their games not seen anywhere else. Yet, how do the best PlayStation game reveals rank against each other? Not countingPlayStation hardware reveals, let’s find out.
6Twisted Metal (2012)
Sweet Tooth Drives Onstage
Twisted Metallaunched as a serieson the PS1 in 1995. From there, it received numerous sequels and touched every Sony console. The last game wasTwisted Metal: Head-Onfor the PSP in 2005 and besides a PS2 port, that was it for the series in quite a while.
That changed during Sony’s E3 2010 event which first had a live-action teaser trailer about two cabbies arguing about what game in theTwisted Metalseries was better. This led to the reveal of Sweet Tooth in the trailer and then Sweet Tooth drove out onstage with his truck. It was then thatTwisted Metalwas announced which didn’t get released until 2012 and that has been the last entry in the series for over a decade now.
5PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
A Smashing Move From Sony
Super Smash Bros.was an incredibly popular andbizarre crossover gamefor the N64 in 1999. Not many companies were bold enough to outright copy the idea but the release ofPlayStation All-Stars Battle Royalein 2012 seemingly opened the flood gates and now there are almost too many platform fighters to count. Rumors about the game started to spread in 2012 leading to Sony having to force their hand with an early announcement.
The big coverage was saved for E3 that year though when four players took to the stage to show the game off. It did receive some DLC characters but eventually, the developer, SuperBot Entertainment, was shut down in 2014. Will a future PlayStation console ever get a port or sequel forPlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale?
No Man’s Skywas showcased in the first major way during Son’s E3 2014 show. It was a full gameplay trailer that showed an explorer on a weird foreign planet interacting with wildlife. That alone was wild as it all looked extraordinarily colorful.
Then this explorer jumped in his ship and flew to space instantly like it was nothing. The promise ofNo Man’s Skyasa space exploration gamewas high. It continued to show well at shows but when it launched in 2016, things weren’t great for it. Still, over time, the developers at Hello Games madeNo Man’s Skya better experience, reflecting the awe and wonder that viewers had when this was first showcased.
At E3 2015, there was a demo released for a game calledKitchen. It looked like some type of horror game reminiscent of Kojima’sP.T.but no one of note was attached to the project. Then, at E3 2016, Sony revealed the surprise during their show. The trailer teased that beforeKitchenthere was something else.
There was a series of grotesque images while a spooky rendition of “Go Tell Aunty Rhody” played and the name was revealed. It wasResident Evil 7: Biohazard. A completely shocking surprise with a totally different tone to previous entries. Cooler than that, it was launched in about six months on July 30, 2025. Capcom would continue with this quick reveal-to-release trend, making every trailer following this announcement exciting. This includes other games in theResident EvilserieslikeResident Evil 2’sremake.
IcoandShadow of the Colossuswere two highly celebrated games on the PS2. That’s why the third entry from Fumito Ueda and his development team was so hotly anticipated. The big reveal for this project,The Last Guardian, was officially unveiled at E3 2009 andvideo game animal loverseverywhere gushed.
The trailer promoted a 2011 launch date for the PS3 but this would be wrong on a couple of levels. First, after E3 2009 the game was largely missing from Sony showcases until E3 2015 when it re-emerged. The game still looked the same but now it was being developed for the PS4. Thankfully, it would not disappear significantly again as it did indeed launch on the PS4 a year later.
TheGod of Warseries was all about Greek mythology and there were a lot of sequels and prequels between 2005 and 2013. Then, theGod of Wartrain stopped with the death of Kratos. Yet, with a thunderous live orchestra taking hold in E3 2016, a reveal trailer would change everything for the franchise’s big return.
A booming voice captures the audience, and emerging from the darkness is none other than Kratos himself.Kratos was much older, had a son, and was taking on Norse mythology beasts. What was going on? PS4 players would get their answers in 2018 followed by the story’s conclusion withGod of War: Ragnarokin 2022. What mythology will Kratos tackle next, if any?
