I wrote this as an opinion piece on another site I do reviews and news for - but wanted to share my thought on the whole thing with another community that I'm quite fond of - the duders and GB community. If I haven't been totally crushed by the invevitable wave of "Fuck you bro PS4 for life, I love rooting for a huge company" comments elsewhere I'll be in the conversation here. The tl;dr is that I felt like Sony came off a bit pandering while Microsoft gave me more confidence that they're actively affecting change.

E3 is over, maybe in more ways than one, but that could be an entirely different article. I’m here to analyze what I saw after watching the big two go head to head in entirely different fashions. We saw a tale of two platforms last week, and responses online are varied, interesting, inflammatory, and more. While my personal opinion is that Microsoft crushed it – many others believe that there was no comparison to what Sony put forth, and still yet some hold out hope that Zelda will be the sole reason to reinvest in another Nintendo console at launch. My hope here today is to shine a light on the seemingly less popular opinion that Microsoft had not just a great showing, but one that didn’t just pander to their audience, and instead gives owners or potential buyer’s faith that the behemoth has a solid course in the coming years.

Remember these are two large companies that don’t owe anyone anything. The bottom line is they’re selling products, making money, and glad to take yours.

Our boy Phil led off with what was honestly surprising – coming out and acknowledging not only that Xbox One S is a thing, but that it will release at $299, at an alleged 40% reduced footprint, and offer a few new features. It will not play your games better, get that garbage out of here because I don’t believe it and it wasn’t actually said by any Xbox rep. HDR is neat and all but if a game wasn’t made to take advantage of it, we might as well move right along. The new controller and overall reduction in size is exciting – it shows more than just Microsoft thinking about shoving games down the gullet, but that they’re investing R&D dollars into refining the platform. This will be a huge point later on when we get to the end of the Microsoft show, so I won’t beat it into the ground (not yet).

I’m not going to stop and chat about each game they showed here because you, dear reader, have the power to check out each show individually, and then blast your thoughts at me in the comment – instead, I want to focus on what these presentations did that was interesting.

Gears and Forza Horizon 3 began the now-infamous, and what I thought were TM Jeff Keighley, lead-ins of “EXCLUSIVE”. What’s more interesting is the outlandish claim that because games are coming to PC there is no reason to buy a console and they can’t call them exclusives. First off – they can call them exclusive because they’re not on a Sony platform. Second, sometimes on sites like this and in articles like this we forget that we aren’t the bigger picture. Generic Consumer A does not go out and say “I read on (insert latest gaming blog/site) that I should just build a PC for my son/daughter instead because there is no reason to buy these game boxes”. They hear “I want an Xbox/PlayStation” and they go out and buy that device. Exclusives, in general, are a pretty awful thing when you really look at it – the motivation there is purely business focused to force the purchase one way or the other. I know why it’s done, I just don’t like it. The fact that Microsoft is embracing (at least attempting more now than ever to) the PC platform is encouraging and extremely forward thinking.

As we go through a few more things we’re just going to skip ahead to the quick mentions of new features in Xbox Live;

• · Arena – Multiplayer/Competitive hotspot for tournament play
• · Cortana – voice activated assistant
• · Background Music
• · Looking for Group – Never raid or go into an Incursion alone, Division and Destiny players rejoice!

While Arena didn’t hit for me, I see the point and like the angle – why not have a home on the platform for the competitive stuff? Those that want to take their game up against their zip code, state, region, or whatever. Cortana is kind of cool and might help for things like responding to messages quickly or if anyone still uses snap (that’s still a feature right?). But there are other opportunities to ask things like “what’s the score of the Copa game on right now?” that might be able to be answered without having to remove yourself from the immersion of the game you’re in. Background music…I mean that’s just a long time coming and is honestly about damn time. Listening to Spotify on PS4 is a great feature, and it’ll surely be something I use with No Man’s Sky if the soundtrack doesn’t jive. Looking for Group also adds a feature that while it was somewhat present on Xbox 360 in the form of Beacons, it wasn’t adopted well due to the fact that it was basically introduced and you were left to run with it. As long as games can work in LFG in a way that does it all for you via the menu, or at least makes it intuitive, we’ll be in good shape.

Let’s jump to the finale. The Project Scorpio reveal was masterfully handled. They’re starting the conversation, being transparent, and introducing developers, publishers, consumers, and decision makers to what their vision for the next few years looks like. Whether or not you agree with iterative console designs and improving hardware a few years into a cycle or not, it seems like at least one platform is doing it for sure – while Sony either realigns or prepares a solid public-facing message. There were some serious missteps though, 6 Teraflops is a good number, but it’s also tough to really get the meaning of that measurement across in a quick marketing video so it’s probably left better unsaid. Dive into the Tflops and write speeds later – I’d rather just hear “most powerful console ever made” because that gets me interested.

Getting developers talking about the Scorpio also reveals that conversations are already in the works – the people crafting experiences for the new hardware already have the information and can direct workflow accordingly. It’s short-sighted to say “well developers are going to have to accommodate for a large swath of hardware” because of the fact that any developer going to PC already does – and yes there’s a point of obsolescence. You’re not playing The Witcher 3 on your Voodoo card – that does not happen on PC and it’s unrealistic to think it won’t happen at some point in the console space either.

This all served as a sort of lens to my feelings of the Microsoft event – I got excited. Not so much about the games, sure some looked really interesting and great, but more for the platform. It reassured me that the future of Xbox is indeed a future, not just focused on showing me glossy trailers for games because the internet clamors for “gamesgamesgames” at a press show.

Sony, on the other hand, had some seriously impressive stuff – God of War, for instance, looked great, like a real reimagining of the formula. Gone are the days of mindless button mashing – I do worry it’s going a little too much for The Last of Us/Tomb Raider copy/paste into a Nordic setting but we’re still a ways off with plenty of time for me to be proven wrong.

And that’s the thing.

We’re still some ways off from a lot of what Sony put out there.

Sony showed us a new God of War, Days Gone, Horizon Zero Dawn, Detroit: Becoming Human, Farpoint, Death Stranding, Spiderman – all of which have no release date mentions. While these are all interesting and cool looking, and certainly on my personal radar – I can’t help but feel that they were only in the show to hype the crowd and make it seem as though Sony had nothing but games constantly. In reality, we don’t have a lot to go on beyond the fact that games are coming and we have to trust they’ll make it to full release. Even Crash Bandicoot was announced, but not in the way you want him to be. How many of us are going to go pick up Skylanders just to scratch the Crash itch? The remasters are coming, and while that’s cool I’m not convinced they hold up in their own right. Sony left me feeling pandered to, simple as that. I got the distinct feeling of “you like games and VR, so here it is”. To be fair we did get dates on Last Guardian and PSVR itself but it just felt like the most exciting things were left at a “coming soon”.

I did enjoy Sony spending some time stating that between release and the end of the year there will be 50 “games” – if those end up counting things like a Star Wars or Batman mission then the count between games and what are basically tech demos starts to shrink, but the sheer number of possible experiences shows that Sony is committed to having content there for PSVR.

That isn’t enough for Sony as a platform holder though. What about PSN? Why does the PlayStation phone app give me a timeout error within the app itself when trying to read a message? Why is the store experience on the phone basically just a browser and on the console still slow and laggy? What’s next for PlayStation in the way of features? There are so many simple questions that need to be answered about the infrastructure that I came out of this conference thinking “wait but what about” that I wasn’t confident at all about much beyond some of the games that we *might get in 2017.

At first, I came out of Sony pretty excited, thinking this was one of the best E3 events ever – a point that I think still stands. After reflection, however, I’m still frustrated with the things I’m frustrated with Sony for. While Microsoft definitely didn’t execute flawlessly, they did show me the path to a better environment and ecosystem – something that at the end of Sony’s show I felt as though we’re going to deal with the PS4 and PSN just the way it is at least for another year. It was missing Shu, it was missing Boyes (are we done “building the list?”), it was missing the indie charm that garnered praise in years past. A live symphony was an incredible touch, and the showmanship displayed was superb, but when looking at a “state of the union” regarding the PlayStation brand I didn’t feel inspired or hopeful for the black box on my shelf.

The bottom line is that if Neo is in the works, and Sony plans to release it in 2017, they need to start the conversation with developers – which isn’t a big revelation – but they need to also warm consumers up to buying a new, more powerful console in the same way. The pitch has to be absolutely flawless. The case for early adopters or tech addicts (i.e. me) to get this new console has to now compete with a new Xbox project that we know is more powerful than anything out there now. When I think ahead to the year for Microsoft I see a few smart choices and some evolution. By talking about Scorpio now, they’re giving developers time to adapt and have things ready to take advantage of the new hardware day zero. If Neo comes out without a lead for developers, is less powerful than the Scorpio in a straight up, head-to-head comparison, and doesn’t boast a comparable or superior network platform we should all be seriously concerned about the decisions being made at Sony from the top down.

I’ll quickly wrap up some things that might already be clear, but I’m decidedly Xbox leaning. I’ve got a PS4, I’ll be picking up a PSVR, and I have plenty of friends on the PlayStation platform. I love it for what it is but my Xbox gets more of my time that isn’t dedicated to the PC, mostly because, as with Xbox 360, that’s where my buddies are. This is also got wordy, but try not to just get angry because that’s the initial response when someone criticizes anything you spent $400+ on.

I’m still very excited for the next year in gaming. However, now I’m excited to see how Microsoft implements their strategy, and if Sony starts to be more proactive. Even with a gigantic and nigh-insurmountable lead, Sony shouldn’t let off the gas. Hopefully you got the gist of my argument, and even if you disagree there’s a conversation and valid points that we can discuss, instead of a fanboy war over two of the largest companies out there.

I got the distinct feeling of “you like games and VR, so here it is”.

Exactly. And that is exactly what I want. Microsoft's announcements did nothing to move the needle at all on me wanting to buy a Xbox. Meanwhile Sony's press conference cut the fat and just let the games do the talking. With a number of first party exclusives being shown right out of the gate. Yeah, they pandered to their audience and tbh I don't see whats is wrong with that. If they know what their fans want then give it to them. Their strategy just re-enforced my decision to keep going with Playstation this generation.

@demoskinos: MS's announcements moved the needle from "mildly interested in buying an Xbox One" to "I'm never buying your console as long as you put out your games on PC which seems to be what you're doing." So while MS will now get money off me for things like Gears 4, I won't be buying an Xbox One or any console they put out as long as they're supporting the PC in the way they seem to be.

I do enjoy hearing somethings about the ecosystem though, like updates to PSN or dashboards or PS+ and there was none of that. I also missed Boyes and Shu not being there. However, since Sony now have their own show, I can understand some of that stuff will end up there.

I'm right there with you on preferring Microsoft's pitch to Sony's. I feel that as I've gotten older and seen the same marketing cycles over and over I just can't get excited for trailers and the like anymore. That's not to say that I'm not looking forward to new games, mind you. I just prefer to save my excitement for when the game is released as an actual product. So this basically resulted in me seeing a bunch of flashy trailers at Sony's press conference and saying "huh, that could be cool" to each one. On the other hand, hearing about where video games are heading is immensely fascinating to me. Microsoft laid out this vision where Windows and Xbox become a unified platform that gives consumers greater options on where and how they play games. Anything that makes gaming more open, more consumer friendly, and more diverse is something that I'm on board with. Am I fully convinced that UWP will become a thing? Maybe, maybe not, but Microsoft has set a precedent that a platform holder need not be beholden entirely to their proprietary device. It's exciting times and I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

@demoskinos: I think my point there was more that it felt like they were telling you what you'll like - "this is the future, trust us, and you will like these games, you will. YOU WILL." A good example is Days Gone. I saw nothing there that actually made me want to buy it - sure it's really pretty and the zombie flow tech or whatever is interesting but I just didn't see substance there. I get you though and I understand the sentiment that if they're available on a more powerful platform, why consider another box? Do you think they'll start to go for the "compliment" angle - say you've got a beast or decent PC in your office or bedroom - would an Xbox One S be able to compliment the ecosystem by game streaming or something like that.

@jesus_phish - Good point PSX is definitely the more fan-centric event where they'll probably bring out more warm fuzzies. Think the marginal gains they make on each console sale would be negated by increasing digital sales on the Windows platform? Maybe that's the whole strategy anyway - "we make $x on each console, but we make $x+20 on each digital title sold" - at a certain point it might become more about Microsoft than Xbox.

Here's the thing, as a consumer who has had a PS4 since day 1, my only real concerned right now is what can I play on this $400 machine I invested in. Sony showed me things to play this year and next. Microsoft didn't have a bad showing, but their focus has shifted to 'the future'. I have responsibilities and priorities before my gaming hobby ( as much as I love it, I am an adult with a family) So what I expect from a game company is what is going to cater to me personally in the immediate future, not 2-4 years down the road in terms of hardware. Sony's Presser was exactly what I wanted. No bullshit numbers, no boring speeches. Game after game after game.

Also, 'pandering to the audience" is exactly what they should do and that's why the majority of people praised it/them.

I agree with your assessment on Sony. They give me a vibe of early PS3 era Sony. They know they have sold the most consoles this generation, and they feel like they are resting on their laurels a bit. Other than the games they showed off, I have no idea what the future of PlayStation is. To me that screams "we're happy with things are, and we're just gonna continue what we're doing." I feel a company should be a bit more dynamic in this industry with how fast is has been changing in the past few years.

God of War looks interesting, as does Horizon. Out of all the games they showed, the one I'd buy a PS4 for is Spider-Man, but I'll wait for it to be like $200. Other than that, I'm not really interested in anything they showed. The VR segment was boring.

Maybe I'm more biased to Microsoft since I don't own a console and I play on PC. It was exciting to be a PC gamer and hear about a bunch of games coming to PC. I've always had the opinion that console exclusives are dumb, especially this generation when the consoles are built on the same architecture as PCs. I know why console exclusives exist, but that doesn't change my opinion that I think it is stupid.

It made me excited when Phil Spencer was like "we want everyone to play together, regardless of the device you choose." For so long the gaming community has been segregated by consoles and brand loyalty. It is cool to see someone high up in the industry try to end that mentality.

After this past E3, it shows that Microsoft still has a lot of work to do with improving their reputation with gaming enthusiasts. All I've seen is "Microsoft just gave me zero reason to buy an Xbox, I'll just build a PC." Yeah, that's the point. They want you to play their games, regardless of what platform you're on. But if you're even aware of the idea of building a gaming PC, the Xbox One S or Scorpio is not designed for you.

The reason I was more excited for MS's lineup over Sony's is because most of those MS games come out within the next 12 months. Sony showed a ton of trailers, too much VR and very few release dates or gameplay

As someone who owns a PC and a PS4 (AKA Bloodbornebox) I came away from the press events thinking Microsoft's presentation was better in terms of pace but what they were showing were things that I simply don't want from a console. What I care about are good games Sony just decided to show a bunch of them where as Microsoft showed me some more hardware that I could buy to play the same games. I couldn't care less about what Microsoft is planning to do with new hardware because that means I'd have to buy new hardware. I don't want to buy a new Xbox (thankfully now I don't have to) but I do want to buy some good ass video games, which sadly most of the ones shown at the Xbox Presser were lackluster or I later found out their demos were misleading.

The fact of the matter is Microsoft is so damn far behind that they had to show this stuff, they had to convince people that they still mean business so naturally they're going to put all their cards out on the table.Sony still has Neo to talk about but they just chose not to dive into that yet because they're confident that people are wanting games for the console they just bought a few years ago and based on the general consensus they were right.

You said you felt like you got a better idea of Microsoft's vision for their platform because they showed things like the XB1s and developer dialogue about Scorpio, but honestly none of that is new. The XB1s is what Sony has been doing with their consoles since their first one the only key note from that announcement was the price point. The developer dialogue about Scorpio to me was complete and utter fluff you had developers saying "these are the highest quality pixels that anybody has ever seen" or "It's got the highest res and the highest framerates." To me it was just a buzzword video. Not to mention Sony did the exact same thing with the PS4 when they were talking about it years ago.

As for features on what else they planned for their product to do I guess because I'm almost 100% PC now I'm so heavily detached from the console ecosystem that things like Looking For Group and Arena just go way past my area of care. I find anytime consoles try to add ancillary features along side playing my games they're more often than not cumbersome and just bog down the experience. What I want from a console is the ability to put in a game and play it, if it's online I want to be able to invite my friends through a list and have them jump right into the game that's it. Consoles have never done any extra features anywhere near as well as what is on the PC so I don't' want any of it. The more a press conference spends on products or features that are ancillary to the games the less I care.

That being said, the Sony conference didn't do much for me either. My interest waned on Horizon Zero Dawn because it now looks to have a very similar if not identical gameplay loop to the Farcry games. Resident Evil 7 could be interesting but it could also lose all its identity by scrubbing out the ability to see that franchises iconic characters when you play them. God of War looks alarmingly similar to The Last of Us and Days Gone just looks bad. So in the end I thought the big 2 were both kind of lackluster and the games that weren't shown on the stages at E3 looked great. Games like Nioh and Nier Automata are what I'm getting really excited about in the end, not what platform developers are trying to gussy up to get my hype bux.

"First off – they can call them exclusive because they’re not on a Sony platform." Dead Rising 4 is a Microsoft timed exclusive.

The Project Scorpio reveal was masterfully handled. Not the words I would use given the confusion and articles afterwords.

Arena, Barkground Music and LFG already exist on the PS4 great for XB1 owners sure not exaclty a bold future.

How are Sony not talking to developers, yet Microsoft are and how long is too long? We have no idea when Neo will be revealed and launched to criticise one way or another.

Since when has E3 been about release date's Sea of Theives, Scalebound, Gear of Wars, ReCore, We Happy Few, Cuphead, Tekken 7 and Halo Wars 2 all revealed last year. Next year all of Sony's games will have release dates.

As important as the platform to play the games on is, and MS has some pretty good ideas for that from the presser, their showing of games doesn't make me want to buy into their new hardware. Good for them starting to put things on Windows 10 but what's the point of even having dedicated gaming hardware if moving forward everything's going to be on PC? Xbox becomes PC? Not a terrible future I guess, just going full circle.

This E3 all I wanted was a release date for The Last Guardian and Sony delivered so all is well with the world.

In the echo chamber that is the interweb gaming community, I understand how people would be quick to dismiss Phil Spencer's plans for the future. Most of the people that frequent message boards and websites will either have a strong allegiance to a console manufacturer and/or a powerful gaming PC, so Microsoft's strategy makes no sense to them. Nothing wrong with that obviously, but as you mentioned, this is not the average. 15 year old Billy from Bumblef*ck, Ohio will need his parents to buy him a console, and if he likes Forza and Sea of Thieves better than Sony's offering, these titles will be exclusive to him on the XBox platform.

For me, as someone who has come to the conclusion over the past few years that he'll probably never buy another console other than some future Nintendo machine, exclusively for Zelda/Mario Kart, I really appreciate the "Play Anywhere" mantra. It's about choice, which, to me at least, is a big thing, in this Netflix/Spotify/etc era. Even though there are decisions I find bewildering, such as sending the smaller S out to die instantly, it gives me confidence that Microsoft is at least willing to think outside of the box (pun intended).

To your first point - they never said DR4 is an exclusive - they said "coming to" - shitty marketing wording for sure but to quote the worst kind of lawyer "that'll hold up"

I think part of the confusion with Scorpio too was due to speculation - I can't say for certain because I really didn't dive into it other than the Post-Show with Jeff the one night. I honestly took it as a "we'll find out more later"

I wasn't aware of a LFG or Arena on PSN. I've seen communities but I don't think they're the same angle on the same features.

The Neo to me is just weird now - the only acknowledgement of it is that it's real and they're not talking about it. There are rumors of it coming out this year, pre-PSVR which could be disastrous if they don't get out ahead of it with a clear message. I saw the same FFXV thing and yeah maybe that conversation hasn't happened with some, and maybe Sony is requiring much stricter talk - or hell who knows he might have been lying? To your point it's a bit too early but the fact that MS came out and got in front of those rumors when typically we expect a "we don't comment on speculation or rumors" line. It just puts the ball in Sony's court and to me feels like they could either do the smart thing and say "game on" or they can revert to PS3 Sony days like someone in the comments here said and be comfortable with their immense lead.

The last part for me isn't really about dates - it's about being ambiguous. It just felt like every game was a "coming soon" instead of any tangible window. I expect it to a certain extent during E3 that we'll get that ambiguity and some teasers for games we want to see - that's what the hype machine is for. What I don't get is nearly everything Sony showed had that feeling.

Interesting time for sure - I do appreciate the feedback and challenging my points, definitely made me think a little more in-depth on them.

@joe_mccallister: That was also literally the first taste we got of that game with not a whole lot of context otherwise. There could be way more systems at play in that game than people realize before they just brush it off as a zombie shooter.

Point being I don't think having executives in suits taking up 45 minutes of stage time explaining things really does anything for me. The games are the reason you have the hardware. I have a Playstation because of the games not the hardware itself.

I think you're stretching it when using the word "bold" to describe anything about the Xbox One S. I'm not just talking about it being leaked before E3. Almost every console that didn't meet with an early demise has had a smaller redesign at some point. This was Microsoft following suit. The PS4 is already small enough with a built in power supply.

I own both systems, so I was interested in both press conferences. Microsoft's still left me wondering why I own an Xbox One beyond Rock Band DLC when the 360 was my preferred console. Scorpio didn't change anything for me. It's pretty far down the line, so I'm sure I'll have a 4K HDR TV by then, they'll just need more exclusive games that I'd like to play. Up until Crash made his appearance, each game Sony showed off, even if they're far off, left me wanting to play them.

For me I like Sony's conference because MS Showed current games and what they plan to do in the future with a struggling brand. While Sony showed a bunch of future games that really, really appeal to me for the ps4's future.

I have plenty of old games to hold me over between No Mans Sky, to Last Guardian, to Horizon, ect. So I'm very happy.

Microsoft feels way more progressive technology wise than anybody else in the console business right now by trying all these new ideas. Not all of them work, like having a console that always needs to be connected to the internet and kinect, but something like being able to play xbox exclusives on Windows 10 and having a cross-buy feature is simple enough and hopefully with no strings attached to it to make it interesting. With this move though they're kind of shooting themselves in the foot right now by writing off any potential buyers for a console from the PC community. If the ports are good, then there's no reason for someone who has a fairly high end computer to buy any sort of Xbox this generation to play console exclusives. It is definitely more progressive as a company to do something like this, but at the same time it's really jarring to see them do something like this, obviously it's partly to promote Windows 10 and tap into a small customer base that wants to play their games. It's all very "techy" and kind of niche though. Even the Scorpio is suppose to be this big "techy" deal thing that's super powerful and "revolutionary", but will all this improve sales over Sony? I doubt it because....

Sony used to be like Microsoft by promoting the PS3 as the greatest piece of technology you can get your hands on, but it comes with a high price tag. That move didn't work for them and it took nearly 3-4 years to recover from that. Now with Sony, they're doing everything in their power to justify themselves to their customers to show that "hey, look, we're giving you this massive show to feel proud about your choice of purchasing a PS4 and we've got exclusive games that you aren't going to see anywhere else." Their E3 shows for the last 2-3 years definitely feed the ego of their customers to make them feel like they made or are going to make the right choice in purchasing their products. It's easy to get sucked into the hype of their shows because it's a big spectacle of games that we love and they totally pander to that in every way possible by trying their best to focus on as many games and genres that people love. It makes it even worse when they get your uncle Kojima to have a come back story after evil Konami gave him the boot.

I felt like none of the press conferences did much to get me excited about games coming the next year. I don't know if it's because of my lack of interest in the games presented or the way they were presented, I came away from this year's E3 feeling indifferent about the whole thing. Microsoft was smart to come right out with their plan for new hardware within the same generation, but I seriously doubt Sony isn't having the same conversations with developers behind the scenes like Microsoft is doing.

I also don't think Microsoft was all that forward thinking in making all future Xbox-exclusive titles to also include the Windows platform, when that was the thing they should've done years ago. They've been saying how they were going to treat PC platform more seriously but it was always talk and no follow-through. Hopefully they mean it this time.

My problem with Micrsoft (outside of some of my lingerng "Mattrick"-bias that I am trying to ignore) is that with the advent of Xone S and Scorpio all I really feel like I have been told is "here's a better way to play the games you're not playing anyway". I have grown tired of Gears, I never liked Halo. The only thing unique to Micrsoft I miss on PS4 is Forza, as I prefer that over Gran Turismo. But that's not really a system seller for me. I am mostly confused about what Microsoft is trying to do because none of their goals seem to align with trying to attract those that have yet to jump onboard. Or if they do, it's not working for me.

I can't say Sony had an amazing show, but they showed a few games I am interested in and on some level as someone that already owns the system, that's reassuring even if it isn't mindblowing. I am mostly waiting for them to really sell me on their VR headset. And I am curious how they will position the PS4.5 against the Scorpio.

I'm a PC gamer with only a Wii U/Super Mario Maker box as my only current gen console so I'm typically more biased towards the MS side of things anyway and I really thought that they had a better conference just by the fact that it was more of a conference. It had good pacing, gave the correct amount of time for games, had a variety of people talking and showed the near future and the distant future. Sony's conference on the other hand felt unnecessary. They didn't need a stage, they didn't use it. All Sony really did was play trailer after trailer. Sony's conference's typically go on for a couple of hours and this time it was barely over 1 so the pace seemed very rushed. While it all felt very exciting to see these games, they're all still up in the air and part of me was still left wanting. Apart from The Last Guardian, they don't have much else for 2016. You could say that PSVR is their big thing for the holiday but that's asking another £350/$400 from customers as well as how ever much Move controllers and the camera cost. The 50 titles announced also seems like a stretch. From what we've seen with the Oculus and Vive, I'm certain many of those titles will be little more than experiences.

Last year, Sony absolutely knocked it out of the park. We finally got to see The Last Guardian, Shu came out to show off Horizon Zero Dawn, Sean Murray and all of his adorableness gave a gameplay demo of No Man's Sky, Media Molecule came out with Dreams (still no idea what that is), mind's were blown with the announcement of FFVII Remake as well as the Kickstarter for Shenmue 3, Johnny V took to the stage and yelled some stuff and the conference was capped off with Uncharted 4. And that doesn't even cover everything. It was an absolutely packed conference but it was all managed so well.

One thing that did let me down about MS was there was nothing on the level of backwards compatibility from last year, which floored me. I suppose asking for something on that level every year is a bit much, but still feel a little underwhelmed on the console feature end.

That said, background music is a very welcome addition. It's a shame that the original XBox is still the only console that really did integrated soundtracks right, though. Looking for group will be nice. Cortana - frankly, it sucks right now in the preview program. Way too slow. I've heard they'll restore standard XBox voice commands for preview program members after testing is done though, so I don't hold much of a grudge. Hope they improve it before it's finalized.

In general though, you're spot on. Sony has shown that, at this point, their main goal is putting stuff up on the screen that make people cheer or scream or whatever. Not a hard job when the audience is all your diehard fans and developers, I suppose.. Between this year and last though, their presentation is looking more and more like empty pandering and unproven technology (VR) with occasional flashes of legit excitement (Horizon). There were a few pretty videos, hopefully the games live up to it when they're released in 2018.

The MS presentation just came off a lot more real. I'll actually be able to play that cool Forza game this year. The S is a nice and fairly modest revision that should appeal to people on the fence, but I'm glad it's not really "more powerful" in any meaningful way. The Scorpio reveal really surprised me since they announced it alongside the S, but (especially considering how terribly MS vomited all over themselves with the original introduction of the XBone), they handled it shockingly well. Phil seems like a good dude and is obviously determined to try to get the messaging right this time.

@joe_mccallister: I'd say absolutely.

There's about 15M Xbox Ones in the world right now. We can gather that from earnings calls from EA which let it slip. We know the PS4 number (about 40M) because Sony will gladly tell us, but Microsoft don't like talking about their hardware numbers. EA said something like they've sold "55 million fifas/we reckon there are 55 million next gen consoles" or something.

40% of Steam users who opt in for the hardware survey use Windows 10 64-bit and thus have access to the Windows Store. We don't know how many people opt in for that survey but I'm going to say it's a good few of Steams 125M strong userbase.

Even if only 10% of the Steam userbase opted to the survey, that means there's 5M people who could potentially buy something like the new Gears, Forza, etc, etc. That's a potential gain of 1/3rd over the current install base. And because MS will be selling the games directly themselves through their own store there's no middleman like Steam or Gamestop to take a cut of each copy sold.

E3 Still is a trade show i wanted more pie charts !

Eh, I'm not invested in the xbox ecosystem, but the only thing their messaging ultimately did was make PC gaming more attractive. Part of it is we're in the traditional midpoint of the generation, so yeah I want to hear about games. Selling platforms is for the end/beginning of generations. Not that platform updates don't have a place, but I'd rather they kept that brief. In past years that stuff often goes on too long and is always considered the worst part of a presentation.

Not that Sony is flawless, they do tend to hype stuff waaaaay long from being a finished product (did we really need the Death Stranding trailer?) and the Days Gone didn't have the most exciting showing, but that the only real knocks against them. Most of what they showed were exclusives and they seem to be more cautious in giving release dates. Which is fine, what's the point in wanting them so far out if they're just going to be delayed anyway?

I wasn't to excited by either press conference. And the fact that Scorpio is build for 4K (supposedly) and not 60fps is really disappointing. Also, I'm pretty sure 4K and 30fps will end up being 25fps, so what's the point? But I digress. The only games I thought were exciting were horizon and well, that's kind of it. Don't like Microsoft's line up and not much of Sony's either. Why am I a gamer again?

I agree, was surprised when a lot of game news outlets gave it to Sony, I thought MS had a much better showing. All the cross buy news, FH3 and everything in between had me really excited for MS's games future.

Something to remember about Microsoft's bold future and powerful console is that they are aiming to start selling it in around 18 months (holiday 2017); at which time, Scorpio may no longer be bold nor powerful. Whatever 6 teraflops means might not mean a hill of beans in 18 months, when you consider the 1070 and 1080 are available now-ish and supposedly have more teraflops bouncing around inside them (again, whatever that means).

Consoles are still going to be under-powered compared to PCs, but what else is new? I say this as a dyed-in-the-wool console player (I mainly play downloadable titles on my PC at this point). If Scorpio launched in the next 2 months it would be bold and powerful, but also cost north of $1K. In late 2017 I feel people will be a lot more grounded and tepid on the specs they've been excited about in the last two weeks.