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LuckyTrouble on 12 June 2017
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starcraft said:
LuckyTrouble said:

The problem is, what AAA games did Microsoft actually announce? Forza 7, a hugely established IP that was basically guaranteed to be at E3? A trailer for Crackdown 3 that was met with mixed reception? A trailer reel of indie games, that, lets face it, most of us are going to forget about within the week anyways? Time spent on multiplats for no other reason than to say "LOOK GUYS XBOX ONE X PLS BUY IT"?

Sony's conference was undeniably stronger, even if it wasn't exactly The Hulk of E3 conferences. I can't see defending Microsoft anymore when they clearly are not invested in the games anymore. They care about hardware and game platform software. To be fair though, we all should have seen it coming a mile away when we look back at the original announcement for the Xbox One and see Microsoft's original vision for their media box. They wanted to make a console that was more of a straight up computer. The gaming community didn't welcome that though as so drastic a change, so it has been done more gradually instead. The days of Microsoft caring about procuring specific IPs and game development are long gone.

Well, it is deniably stronger, because here I am denying it

That logic cuts both ways. Sony didn't announce a single AAA game outside of Monster Hunter, which we now know is coming to Xbox. Indeed, the best version will be on Xbox. Again, Microsoft showed as many if not more games than Sony during this conference.

Does that change that, more generally, Sony are currently managing their console better? No. But in discussing these two keynotes specifically, your argument really struggles to stack up.

Sony strengthened existing AAA's we knew little about. I won't defend their lack of overall new announcements, but I will praise the positive feedback generated by showing quality gameplay trailers for Spiderman, God of War, and Days Gone. I will praise firmly establishing what Detroit actually is after a relatively ambigious reveal last year. They gave focus to PSVR and announced new IP without making it look gimmicky and showing that PSVR isn't just a passing trend for them. They even managed to genuinely surprise with the SotC remaster/remake announcement. Along with a nice show pre-press conference, Sony focused on the games, gave us much needed details, snuck in a couple announcements, and avoided using indies as a time filling crutch.

Microsoft focused on a piece of hardware that is too ambitious at this time and is going to have a hard time selling at a $500 price point. They showed one new AAA that isn't a new IP. They got rights to first showing of Anthem and Metro Exodus, and that was neat at least until you realize they are multiplats and were likely paid for exclusively to push the Xbox One X. We got a trailer for a game that was announced longer ago than anything in the Sony conference to mixed reception, and we got an indie reel in a desperate push to prove they still had games coming, where individuals such as yourself mistake quantity for quality and strength of exclusive AAA or even AA content.

I can concede that the new exclusive announcements weren't strong on either side, but I simply can't agree that Microsoft somehow did better when Sony effectively filled an entire hour with almost nothing but trailers, making it all about the games with nothing feeling like a crutch to kill time and fill the hour.