On Monday, June 10th 2013, a new generation in the video game industry was put to the public's eye and battle lines were drawn immediately. Between Microsoft and the negatively-received Xbox One (Or Xbone to the majority of gamers that have seen it previously), and the Playstation 4's powerful reveal and software line up, it became apparent that there was a choice to be made. Before I get to my preferred choice, I will tell you what I liked and disliked about what I saw today.
What I liked: Today's conference began with Microsoft, which can really be called "damage control". After a less-than-stellar reveal event with the Xbox One, which presenting a very disheartening image to video gamers of a great majority, it was a necessary move and Microsoft certainly came out swinging. They displayed several titles and made many of them known exclusives including: Dead Rising 3, Crimson Dragon, and several others. I did find these titles and a few others to be quite interesting and with the focus placed on the video games, it proved to be a bit of a burden-lifter off of Microsoft's shoulders.
Then came the Playstation 4 press conference and everything changed from there. Boasting higher graphical power, a surprisingly low price ($399), and several exclusives and titles that simply were a lot more interesting to me personally, it was the clear winner for the day. A lot of information that was missing in the Microsoft conference was made incredibly clear in the Sony conference which, again, made the console that much more appealing to me.
What I did not like: Some things that I did not like was the limited coverage on Spike TV. It was only the Microsoft conference and EA as well, while everything else was to be shown via live stream on one of several websites. Due to the weather, the live streams had plenty of hiccups so it was a bit of an annoyance. Getting to the conferences themselves, the lacking of any clarification on Microsoft's part really was disheartening to me, especially after showing the games they had available. While the exclusives will be a bit of a loss, in comparison to what I will be getting out of the PS4, the hassles of the Xbox One remain a strong point of contention. Some technical issues, while amusing during the conference, were also pretty annoying. As stated before, some of the exclusives with the Xbox One just made me sad. They looked that good that I will miss playing them unless their exclusivity is broken, which I would be grateful for.
Who do I believe won E3 Day One: While I believe that the winner is very much clear to those who viewed the conference, I will simply say that the PS4 is a much more likely purchased console than the Xbox One. It simply has more power, greater clarity in its functionality, more exciting exclusives and the potential to really bring a variety of options to gamers, not just to anyone that happens to have a TV to play video games on. While the new games shown for the Xbox One were compelling enough to get me thinking about it a bit more, once the PS4 was on the stage floor there really was no turning back. Sony takes away E3 Day One as the victor and the next console that I will purchase along the line will be the PS4.
Besides the hiccups, you haven't explained why you wouldn't buy the Xbone just as fast as the PS4
ReplyDeleteIt is because of the features, pricing, set-up, what?
Most of that information has been circulated pretty thoroughly already, that is why I did not put it into my reaction. But for clarification's sake: the reasons why I will not buy an Xbone are 1) it requires connecting to the Internet at least once every 24 hours to maintain functionality, 2) the possible invasion of privacy by means of the Kinect is very unsettling and 3) the price of the system at launch is $100 more than the PS4 so it really is a no-brainer that the PS4 will provide a better deal. Plus, the assortment of titles for PS4 go more in my favor than that of the Xbone, particularly in regards to exclusives.
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