Analysis: Winning E3 2017

Since the start of the Console Wars, there has been an unspoken element to the Electronic Entertainment Expo.  The idea that there is some great contest between the titans of the industry for the hearts and minds of the gaming community, where there can be only one true victor to chart the course of gaming for the next year.  As it has been for the past fifteen years or so, that contest has been between Sony and Microsoft.  And while E3 is still going on for the rest of this week, the great contest has already been decided.

Microsoft: Hard Sell

Microsoft's presentation was anchored around the Xbox One X (previously assumed to be called Xbox Scorpio), its newest iteration of the Xbox One.  From a hardware standpoint, it's hard not to love it.  Everything has been given a significant upgrade from what's currently sitting in the Xbox One S or earlier models.  The fact it's using a liquid cooling system built right in is impressive.  Native 4K support and full compatibility with existing Xbox One games certainly appeals to gamers who haven't gotten on board with Xbox One yet as well as those looking to upgrade their hardware to the latest and greatest.  And with exclusives like Forza Motorsport 7 matched up with manufacturers like Porsche, it sounds like Microsoft has done a great deal of work.  Even the retro-gamer demographic got some love with the announcement that first generation Xbox games would be available to play on the One X and would be enhanced for HD displays.

Sony: Soft Power

Sony did not announce any new hardware this year.  This did not stop them from showing off games which were going to be using some of their recent hardware, like the clutch of PlayStation VR titles ranging from a reworked Skyrim to the platformer Moss.  While there were some exclusives and brand new titles like Moss and the post-zombie apocalypse adventure Days Gone, the lineup seemed to consist heavily of sequels (Destiny 2), remakes (Shadow of The Colossus), reboots (God of War), and expansions (Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds).  Possibly the one new title that screamed "must have" was Spider-Man, which showed off what one can surmise was a mission within the game, and Sony saved that one for the very end of the presentation.

Blow-By-Blow

In terms of efficiency, it feels like Sony managed to somehow pack more into an hour of presentation than Microsoft managed in an hour and a half.  While Microsoft had various people from hardware engineers to race car drivers getting up and talking, and Phil Spencer acting almost like an MC, Sony's Shawn Leyden popped up only a couple of times and made a few brief comments before letting the trailers roll.  Microsoft might have new hardware, but Sony is pushing new games, particularly for its recently released hardware.  The number of titles that were specific to PlayStation VR in their presentation represents a serious commitment to that sub-platform.  Microsoft had nothing comparable to offer up.  Perversely, the fact that there was new hardware out of Microsoft didn't lend any sense of urgency to buying new Xbox One titles.  While it's gratifying that gamers don't have to rebuild their library all over again, there weren't many titles on display that felt like they were worth plunking down money for pre-orders on, or at least ones that we didn't already know about.

Conclusion

This year was Microsoft's to win and they didn't have the follow through necessary to make it happen.  They had the chance to make a splash and they half-assed it by offering up an incremental, albeit significant, upgrade to existing hardware.  They didn't give any of their games room to really breathe.  If I had to pick one truly engaging game announcement out of their presentation, it wasn't Forza 7, it wasn't State of Decay 2 (cool though it was), and it wasn't Anthem. Not even the gameplay trailer for Shadow of War did anything for me.  It was the one for Ori and The Will of The Wisps.  That one actually felt like it was inviting me to discover more.  Microsoft's presentation ultimately felt self-congratulatory for some reason, a lot of back patting over the new hardware with the games almost being an afterthought.

Sony's presentation might have been loaded with a lot of "more of the same," but it was almost exclusively focused on the games themselves.  Sure, they had a nifty opening act, but even Leyden himself indicated that Sony wanted to show off games, not necessarily the hardware running behind them.  And show off, they did.  I've long admired Shadow of The Colossus, but seeing it remade with the full horsepower of the PS4 behind it, it looked almost like an entirely different game.  They made their presentation about what you could do with the hardware available, not about the hardware itself.  And in this case, that's enough to give them the win this year.