PS4 vs XB1 at E3

The console juggernauts slug it out

Posted by Josh Folland on Jun 14, 2013 in Blog | Comments Off on PS4 vs XB1 at E3

So, E3 is wrapping up and the internet has been buzzing with new information about everyone’s favorite upcoming titles, the latest developments in the next gen consoles and discussions are taking place online virtually everywhere about whatever caught anyone’s eye. The big talk of this week is the Xbox One vs the Playstation 4. Both Sony and Microsoft have had opportunities to both make an initial announcement on the existence of their console as well as some of the details to get the rumor mill rolling, but after this week we know have a fairly concrete idea of what we’re going to get out of the box.

The Xbox One has been receiving a lot of flak over the last week. Microsoft opted to be the first to set the bar by kicking off E3 on early Monday. While Microsoft’s conference in and of itself was not all that bad and they demoed some very interesting new games and technology, it was the tiny details that hurt Microsoft. Already coming off of what many felt an admittedly lousy start from their announcement a few weeks ago (such as the negative reactions to the always-online requirement and used game market DRM), Microsoft had a lot to of ground to make up for in the spotlight; and when the time came the internet piranhas tore them to shreds.

 

The gaming community was not pleased to see this interview. Don Mattrick’s now-famous line “We have an offline device, it’s called the Xbox 360” has been blogged about all over the tubes within hours. Meanwhile, Sony was slated to be last up on the main E3 platform Monday evening and completely stole the show by capitalizing on the golden opportunities Microsoft had laid out for them (I wish I could have seen the look on some of the Sony PR teams’ faces that afternoon). The crowd cheered like it was $your_favorite_sports_team winning the $important_title when Sony revealed it had a totally normal console used games policy and no always-on requirement, as well as its $100 cheaper console at $399 as opposed to the Xbox One’s $499.

 

Now, you can argue “people don’t like change” all you like but the Sony team that put this presentation together knocked it out of the park. Microsoft’s actions revealed what the gaming community wanted (or, more specifically what it didn’t want) and as a result the internet’s opinion on the matter is damn near unanimous: This was Sony’s week, not Microsoft’s. Sony even managed to slap this together during the busy Monday to further capitalize on Microsoft’s actions.

 

I’ve already seen a number of people on my social networks say they’ve pre-ordered their Playstation 4, but none have said they’ve preordered an Xbox One. I’m certainly not interested in Xbox One after this week’s showing, but I’ll definitely keep an open mind to it in the future.