[HTML1]

With Bloodborne and The Order: 1886 hitting store shelves earlier this year, 2015 has had a strong start for first party titles on the PlayStation 4. Unfortunately, that momentum has hit a few bumps in the road after high profile delays to two important franchises in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and a new Ratchet and Clank title. With E3 nearing in a few weeks, fans have been looking ahead to see what else Sony is bringing to the table, hoping for a surprise or two which can fill the gap left behind.

It now appears that the company is ready to finally admit what fans have known for a while: 2015 is going to be a bit lighter than normal for first party titles on the PlayStation 4.

PlayStation president Andrew House recently spoke at the annual Investor's Day Conference, acknowledging that the first-party lineup for PlayStation 4 is going to be "a little sparse" with the company having to rely more on third party titles than usual.

"We are working very hard to continue very strong support from third-party publishers and developers. Our first-party lineup is a little sparse this year so I think this places an even greater emphasis on getting good third-party support."

House then went on to point out that by leading the current-generation sales race, the company is at an advantage even with a weaker than expected lineup. Through third party titles, Sony can maximize appeal by having the games utilize unique PlayStation 4 functionality and offer exclusive content.

"Rather than seeking for complete exclusives, we have looked to publishers to really try to maximize the use of the feature-set on PlayStation 4 versus the competition. And I think that the use of Share and SharePlay functionality, those have been sort of defining platform features which can be seen not just in first-party content but across the whole range of titles."

PlayStation E3 Experience 2015

Without Uncharted anchoring the holiday season, Sony is down to just a couple of remastered titles with Tearaway Unfolded, which is an updated version of Media Molecule's unique Vita platformer, and God of War III Remastered, which updates the popular title for the PlayStation 4 and is also scheduled for release this summer. No Man Sky, an ambitious open world space exploration title from developer Hello Games, is also benefiting from the holes in Sony's release schedule, as the game is getting the "first party treatment" even though it is scheduled to appear on other platforms at a later date.

The timing of this admission is an interesting one, with the annual E3 conference looming in a few weeks and fans hoping that Sony has a few surprises up its sleeves. It's entirely possible that Sony is planning to make a few announcements, as speculation continues over what Guerrilla Games is working on as well as when the next God of War game is coming from Sony Santa Monica. It's entirely possible that Sony will also announce a number of new partnerships, bringing exclusive or timed DLC to third party titles as they've done in the past with games like Destiny or with the upcoming Batman Arkham Knight.

Either way, fans don't have too much longer to wait as E3 2015 kicks off the week of June 14 - 18.

What are you guys hoping to see from Sony at E3 this year?

Source: Gamespot