PlayStation’s earliest mascots may be making a return on Sony’s new platform.
Sony’s marketing team seems to have found its niche: larger-than-life trailers blending live-action gamers with the digital worlds of their games. Incidentally, that kind of grand-scale trailer makes it really easy to hide secrets and easter eggs. This being the internet, the subtle references hidden in today’s PlayStation 4 launch trailer were discovered within hours of the video going up, and some of them point in some interesting directions. If current theories are correct – and that’s a sizeable “if” – the classic PlayStation lineup could be making a comeback.
For starters, the trailer itself is pretty cool, so have a look. Spot anything unusual? Sure, there’s dozens of references to the big-name PS4 titles like Killzone and Drive Club, but a few signs hint at relics of Sony’s past. Around the 48-second mark, there’s a street sign behind the army of Helghast troopers with a silhouetted Crash Bandicoot on it. Parappa the Rapper is also visible as street graffiti. They may just be clever references, but if that’s the case then why don’t we see any PS2 icons like Sly Cooper or Jak & Daxter making appearances?
It goes a bit deeper. Neogaf user famousmortimer, who has leaked accurate information about other next-gen news in the past, posted that a new Parappa the Rapper title was in development, and that it may be one of many series being resurrected on the PS4. Many of those franchises’ original developers have moved on to other commitments, so (according to famousmortimer) Sony might be handing off its old-school IPs to indie developers to breath fresh life into those series. Take this all with a hefty grain of salt, obviously, but the pieces fit – and you should never doubt the marketing power of nostalgia.
