So then, it happened. The first day of E3 is over, both Microsoft and Sony have had their big conferences and we can now formally begin choosing sides in the upcoming console war. However, as first skirmishes go, I think the Sony press conference was a lot like dropping a nuclear warhead on a village of jungle pygmies. It was spectacular, horrifying, and absolutely brilliant to behold.
Microsoft was already off to a bad start, before E3 even began. Their reveal of the Xbox One, with its stupid name, ugly case and perma-kinect (because the only thing people love more than having a camera pointed at them all day is to know that it’s always listening to you). They also failed to produce anything resembling games, instead featuring an overly long video of sports personalities talking about disingenuous bollocks and then a trailer for CoD Ghosts with a motion capture dog (which will definitely die) and more sun shafts than you can shake a stick (or the laws of physics) at. Coupled with the fact that used the words TV, more times than gamers, and couldn’t manage to deliver a consistent message about DRM post reveal conference, people were understandable worried about what to expect from the new christened Xbone. However, Microsoft, after seeing the less than stellar reaction across the board promised ALL of the games at E3. And to be fair to them, they delivered pretty well on that. There were an infinitely greater number of games at their E3 conference. They even had a few decent exclusives, including Dead Rising 3, the inevitable new Halo, and possibly most shocking of all Metal Gear Solid V. except Metal Gear wasn’t actually an exclusive, they just got overexcited on twitter.
All in all, an acceptable performance from Sony. They set out to win people back, and I certainly don’t think it hurt. After all, this is the future. £429 for a console that won’t play used games, has to make daily check in with the cloud to function, and is always staring at you, like the brain damaged cousin of Hal from 2001, is what we can expect from a console nowadays, right? Nope! Because just a short time after, the PlayStation 4 happened.
The Sony conference started inauspiciously enough, talking about their current consoles, the PS3 and the Vita. A variety of games was detailed for each including The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto V and Batman: Arkham Origins. All very promising current gen titles. And then, things really began to get interesting. The PS4’s controller was revealed a while back at the initial announcement, but the actual hardware itself was shown in full at E3. And it was pretty. A stylish matte and shiny black affair, with blue lights that make it look like the sexy cousin of Hal from 2001. Score 1 for Sony.
They then decided to have a brief talk about the TV and movie functions of the PS4. Notice the word brief. What Microsoft spent most of its reveal time discussing was dealt with in about 5 minutes by Sony. And it then became immediately apparent that this was because any more TV stuff would get in the way of the ALL of the games. Because Sony brought a lot of games to the party. The first section of the event was used to show off some familiar (but still impressive looking) first party titles like Killzone: Shadow Fall, Driveclub and my personal ‘ohmygodfuckyes’ moment infamous: Second Son.
Then Sony pulled out the little guns. Their support for indie developers was made abundantly clear, featuring demos of Don’t Starve, Transistor and something called Secret Ponchos (which I will buy, no matter the quality). The confirmation was made that Sony will allow people to self-publish games on the PS4, making Microsoft’s demand that they find themselves a publisher seem crotchety and mean spirited.
In truth Sony could probably have left it there, and had all the hype they could have wanted. But they weren’t done. Not even a little bit. They followed up with their reveals of third party support including very impressive demos of Assassin’s Creed IV (the stream of which crashed, proving at least that it wasn’t a trailer) to the increasingly intriguing cyber-terrorist-em-up Watch_Dogs. They even showed a teaser trailer for a Mad Max game, which looks to be a nice antidote to all the serious semi-realism going on at the moment. even Square Enix got in on the action, showing off Final Fantasy 15 and the second numbered sequel in the Kingdom Hearts series.
PlayStation Plus was back with a vengeance also, with Sony stating that the service will continue, with no need to buy another subscription if you’re already a member when the PS4 is released. The service will continue its services of cloud saving, discount and fucktons of free games. The first being Drive Club, from the launch day, and going on to include several of the indie titles mentioned above. There was however, a small razor blade in that particular stick of candyfloss. Online play will require PlayStation Plus. However single player games and all other functions of the PS4 will not. Given that this was the Xbox 360 current scheme, and given how much content is on offer under PS+ it seems like a bit of a no brainer. On the subject of DRM and online the confirmation that PS4 games can be traded and sold freely between players got a colossal round of applause, as did the news that there will be no need to check into the cloud every 24 hours as the Xbox does. Honestly, at that point they could have just told Microsoft to go and fuck themselves and everyone would have applauded. Which they basically did, releasing a 30 second video on how to share PS4 games. Turns out you just hand them to someone else, and that’s it.
The conference finished up with a demo of the new FPS-MMO from Bungie, Defiance. It looked pretty, looked like a lot of fun to play and most importantly, enemies dropped loot. Tasty tasty loot. And then came the death blow for Microsoft, the aforementioned nuclear detonation that laid waste to the Xbone and all who followed its heretical path. The price. £349. £80 cheaper than the Xbox One. The over the audience’s rapturous applause, you could just about hear the sound of Xboners wilting under the ice cold shower of PlayStation superiority*.
There’s no arguing that Microsoft set the bar low with their two previous conferences. They didn’t provide enough games initially, have enough indie support, 3rd party excellence, or give away crap tons of free games. But that didn’t stop Sony from picking up the bar, lifting it above their heads, and beating Microsoft into a coma with it. Granted it’s a while before both console are released, but I already feel fairly certain which camp I’ll be in.
Xbox One is dead! Long live PlayStation 4!
*I apologise for the graphic nature of this metaphor
By Reuben Williams-Smith
@r_williamssmith
The Reviewing Floor 