What's Sony's 'Blockbuster' Leipzig Announcement?

David Reeves, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's president, has promised global announcements and ‘blockbuster’ revelations at Leipzig this year.

Speaking at a European media briefing, Reeves said, “It’s not just Euro-centric – there will be some global announcements. The announcements we make will be more important for the local markets that come to Leipzig. And it’s not just Leipzig, it’s Game Convention – if we had one in London we’d do it in London. We have a number of things which is real blockbuster stuff for Europe.”

Intriguing. If Reeves is promising something "blockbuster" specifically for Europe then what he's referring to probably is not going to be game-specific, as that would be equally as relevant for other territories. It also seems unlikely that it would be specific to PS3 hardware, given that Sony has already confirmed a new version of its home console for Europe.

If Reeves is to be taken at his word, that leaves two options - something relating to PSP hardware in Europe, or something to do with the PlayStation Network. A brand new PSP can be written off, since it's highly unlikely we would get a whole new PSP in Europe before anyone else. It could be that a modification to the existing PSP is coming to Europe before other territories - perhaps with a built in hard drive?

Or... it could, just possibly, be a PlayStation phone. Hardware releases for phones are dependant on deals with networks and it could be that Sony has something lined up for Europe before other territories. Rumours of such a device were recently revived by Marketing Week, although the publication said that it will not emerge until Christmas 2009^†.

The other option is something specific to Europe on the PSN. It's unlikely to be Home-related (unless Sony has, in fact, been softening us up for another delay – but it's unlikely Reeves would be pimping such an announcement). Again, the chances of us getting it before anyone else are very slim.

That leads us to something TV-related. We have yet to receive full details of what downloadable video content we can expect in Europe and when. If it is, SPOnG will be thoroughly underwhelmed.

As for the global announcements – Home, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2 and PS3 hardware are all pretty well covered. Maybe a sequel to Uncharted? Something GTA-related like a PSP game to match Chinatown Wars on the DS would certainly count as big news.

There's also the lingering promise of an amazing new PS3 game that was hinted at by the BBC's Darren Waters. Back in February he said he was shown a game by Sony that could represent a “step change” in what consoles are capable of. He was sworn to secrecy about what it was at the time, but confirmed last week that the game still hasn't emerged^††. Could this be revealed at Leipzig.

Whatever it is, it needs to be big. Sony's E3 keynote was uninspiring at best. In fact, it looks like we're relying on Leipzig to provide some spice to the whole conference/convention season. Numerous industry bigwigs have criticised the event as a letdown.

Even the UK MD of Sony Computer Entertainment, Ray Maguire, has laid into E3 as lacklustre, saying, "I think we felt that E3 suffered by not having that grandeur and the theatrical shows that demonstrate this is a business that generates billions of Euros. It was more like a convention for plumbers." His comments spookily mirrored those of Ubisoft's North American president, Laurent Detoc.

Speaking about how Sony sees the gaming calendar's big events, Reeves said, “We feel now that we have a pattern globally which is E3, Tokyo Games Show and Leipzig – it gives us three bites of the cherry to come out with our announcements. We cannot tailor all our announcements to July.”

Fingers crossed!

^{Sources: MCV, †Marketing Week (thanks to Forum poster way), BBV, Tech Radar}