For one week in August 2013, the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany becomes the centre of the gaming universe as the world's biggest publishers and developers invite you to check out the games that will light up the rest of the year and beyond.



We'll kick off the show at 18:00 BST on 20 August 2013 with a briefing to media on our release plans for PlayStation 4, as well as updates on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita.

This is it folks... coming off their new Viacom deal , Sony has officially announced that there will be an announcement next week to announce the official release date for the PlayStation 4. Tipsters were set off with a brief pre-announcement for the pre-announcement for the official announcement for the release date, and now the news has saturated enough so that we now know that there is an official announcement in the sights to announce the official release date.The official announcement for the release date announcement comes courtesy of the official PlayStation blog , where Sony officially announced that they would be officially announcing the official release date next Tuesday on August 20th, officially.This official announcement for the upcoming official release date announcement was also accompanied by a short blurb so everyone will know when to tune into the announcement for the official release date of the PlayStation 4, with the blog saying...Now that we have all that official announcement nonsense out of the way, it's time to talk games and the PlayStation 4.As usual, we'll keep you updated on all things Sony when August 20th rolls around. They'll be following Microsoft's short GamesCom 2013 press conference as well, which will briefly cover some of the new exclusives for the Xbox One. Coming out of E3 things are looking especially shaky for Microsoft given that most of their big guns were already unveiled at the biggest trade show of the year – worst yet is that a few of their exclusives are actually ports from the Xbox 360. This unfortunate factor has led many to believe that the Xbox One could be heading into the holiday launch season behind the curve.Sony, alternatively, has evened out many of their game announcements so that we know that they have a nice cache of AAA titles on the way from their first and second-party studios... not only that but they also have been seeking lots of exclusive support from independent developers. Sony, unlike Nintendo, has garnered strong third-party support on the AAA front, and unlike Microsoft they've garnered strong support from the independent sector as well.GamesCom should prove to be another easy-win for Sony so long as they stay consistent with what they have been doing since the February 20th reveal And just to keep gamers interested until the official release announcement on August 20th comes into play, Sony has a new video up for, which you can view below. It's pretty easy to see that Sony will probably come out on top this gen with a strong software battle with Nintendo. August 20th can't come soon enough.