It’s Over!!! – Internet Decides Console War Winner at E3.

Mark the day folks.  June 10, 2013.  This is the day that will go down in history as the date in which the epic clash between titans Sony and Microsoft was decided before the first shot was ever fired (Sony took some shots, ooohhhhh).  Yes, after day one of E3 with both media giants’ press conferences completed, the victory was, magnanimously, awarded to Sony.  My Twitter timeline exploded with “I just  pre-ordered a PS4.”  Amazon.com likely sold out of PlayStation 4s before they even got stocked with units.  I suppose Microsoft is going to just pack it up then.  I mean why bother competing when the fight has already been decided, in what appears to be such a colossally one-sided fashion?

Sony eviscerated Microsoft bro.

So where are we really?  Sony clearly has the momentum right now.  It’s obvious, and you’re blind if you deny that, but this competition is so clearly far from over!  The vast majority of us, myself included, haven’t even picked up the new controllers.  Microsoft to their credit, had an excellent press conference from a games perspective.  They showed off some potentially massive exclusives.  Halo will be huge, because it always is, but their line up over all looks really solid.  Forza Motorsports 5, Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, and Quantum Break look like great exclusives.  Ryse  is another exclusive that could be huge for the Xbox One.  Although it has been confirmed as a cross platform game now, Metal Gear V  looked extremely good.  The new Fox Engine and the new methods of sneaking were really impressive in the gameplay demo they showed off.  I’m not sure yet how much better games are going to be able to look on PS4 with it’s faster memory.  Aside from all of the negative attention they’ve been getting for some of their service policies, I think Microsoft has built a strong foundation for the Xbox One.  Also to their credit, they seem to put their foot in their mouths at almost every opportunity lately.  If it isn’t somebody telling gamers to “deal with it,” when it comes to always requiring an internet connection, it’s statement’s like ‘there’s the Xbox 360.’  It’s all good for a laugh or two right now but this PR nightmare will eventually end for Microsoft.  Microsoft has lots of support and I know lots of gamers are excited for the Xbox One. Microsoft’s success is hinging on very risky play with the Xbox One and are banking on dominating high to medium density urban and suburban markets where a solid and reliable broadband connection is easily obtained.  Their innovation with the cloud and always online services are extremely forward-thinking.  The result is new DRM measures which have left a bad taste in the mouths of console gamers who are relatively unexposed to DRM.  I’m lucky enough where I have high speed internet so the Xbox One is definitely interesting to me, but if I’m honest…?  Their ‘Kinect is always watching,’ kind of, really, creeps me out.

Depending on who you talked to, Sony’s press conference was ‘really strong,’ or it may have been ‘the equivalent of Sony slapping Microsoft with their overly large genitalia.’  Personally I thought they showed off a lot more indie games and I think there are some really unique gaming experiences that are not available on the Xbox One.  Sony positioned themselves as an inclusive and very open habitat for indie developers to flourish which could transform the PlayStation Store into something more like Apples app store with literally thousands of titles self published by indie developers.  The biggest news though, was the announced price of $399.99 that undercuts the Xbox One by $100.00 (not including tax).  Sony followed that up by firing a few shots confirming that the current console software license rules are still ‘all good in the hood’ when it comes to PlayStation 4.  This means there’s no convoluted and complex sharing of games with friends and the ability to trade, sell or keep purchased games is still there.

It will be genuinely exciting to see how this plays out over the next 5 years.  Sony played it relatively safe putting out an incredibly powerful, yet relatively inexpensive product and have really worked on offering the most attractive services in terms of PlayStation Plus and Gaikai that are far more flexible to allow a larger population of gamers to play their games.  Microsoft on the other hand has really gone big with their vision for Xbox One.  With the cloud, they have the potential for some fascinating opportunities to revolutionize the way we play games.  Forza Motorsports 5 is barely scratching the surface on what I feel is possible through something like the cloud.  It’s as awesome as it is creepy really, because it’s always recording and storing your data.  I think that might be a difficult proposition for Americans though as we’ve just recently found out the extent of which our own government spies on us electronically.  Government spying aside, the games look breath-taking as they’re moving closer and closer to photo-realism.  I grew up with Super Mario Brothers on the NES and it’s really something to see how far this hobby has come.