E3 2016: Five hopes for Sony and PS4 - The Last Guardian release date, No Man's Sky and more

Heading into E3, every company has a story. They all have something to prove, something to show off and something to gain from a successful outing. There's always talk about who "wins" E3, but in truth there's rarely a loser. All eyes will on Los Angeles next week as Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft, EA and Bethesda take to their respective stages and show us what we've got.

Sony enters the fray in the driver's seat. They've sold 40 million PlayStation 4s and have plenty of games to talk about. Their 2015 conference was a memorable one, but only because of games that weren't going to be released last year, and mostly won't be released in 2016 either.

We've run through our predictions for Sony's conference here. This article is for our hopes – the games we want to see, and what we don't want to see from Sony as they gear up to tell us more about what they have in store.

Focus on games coming out soon

The announcements of a Final Fantasy 7 remake and Shenmue 3 were two of the most shocking E3 reveals ever, but they were for games that barely any work had gone into when the veil was lifted. The announcements were made because Sony didn't have much to show that was new, exciting and coming out in 2015/16.

This year they'll be able to focus on the likes of Horizon: Zero Dawn, Gran Turismo Sport and their line-up for PlayStation VR – which will all be out over the next eight months (hopefully). They will likely have other games to show for release in 2017 – such as the rumoured God of War sequel and whatever Infamous developers Sucker Punch are working on.

Give The Last Guardian a release date

It's been long enough now; anything but a firm release date will only disappoint. Its reappearance at last year's E3 was followed up by total radio silence until very recently, when a handful of hands-on previews were published online. The game exists, it has been played and it's still being claimed that it will launch this year.

Last year was the game's last chance and it showed, this year is the last chance Sony has to convince people this game is a real thing that will someday be released.

New hardware that makes sense

2016 may go down in gaming history as the Year of the Leak, and the biggest leak of all has related to Sony's PlayStation 4 Neo – a new, more powerful version of the console reportedly set to be launched later in 2016.

Multiple reports of increasing levels of detail mean the Neo (just a codename) is real, and it would be irresponsible of Sony not to confirm some details regarding it. Not least, because it may impact sales of the existing console. There's nothing wrong with Sony's purported plans, but there's certainly the potential for confusion and irritation among consumers.

The Neo is believed to be a much more powerful machine capable of supporting 4K gaming. Sony wants all future PS4 games to be playable across both existing PS4s and the Neo with no exclusive features for either version and with a steady and equal frame rate on each. It all sounds well and good, but the messaging needs to be clear and their plan has to make sense.

Just ask Nintendo what a confusing, messy console announcement can lead to.

An indie fiesta

The most underrated part of any Sony press conference is the indie showcase. Sony's indie developer-wooing game has been on point with the PS4 and long may their relationship with smaller teams with inventive ideas continue. A few minutes spent highlighting some upcoming releases, and announcing a few new ones, wouldn't just be great for the PS4's broader appeal, but it'd make a nice change of pace from all the big budget games and their blockbuster aspirations.

No No Man's Sky

It's not the fault of the team at Hello Games that No Man's Sky has been in the public eye for so long. When they first showed it off in late 2013, they could never have known the life their ambitious space exploration sim would take on. With so much hype, and so much attention on every new piece of information and second of footage release, it's no surprise some gamers just don't want to hear any more about it.

The release date was set for the week following E3, so a quick reminder or launch trailer during Sony's press conference would have been fine – but after the game's delay until August anything Sony has to show off will just aggravate people. Just leave it, the game will still get a huge amount of attention once it's released.

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