With MS's first gaming outing, here are my thoughts.
PS4: was stellar. They really made the system feel next gen right away by showing Killzone. Their messaging from day 1 that the PS4 was a great system for devs and gamers. And they didn't just say it, they showed it. The first PlayStation meeting basically felt like E3 and Road to PS5's equivalent combined. They showed off the controller, the specs, their goals for the future and they showed off several major games. Knack, Killzone, Driveclub, inFamous, Dreams, Deep Down and several other games were shown.
Jonathon Blow, Quantic Dream, Square Enix, Capcom, Ubisoft, Blizzard were present at the show with either a game or a tech demo, etc.
This all happened within 2 hours of even learning about the console's existence.
XBO: their failings came down to two things. They basically doubled and even tripled down on their own backlash with the always online stuff.
https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/5/4185938/adam-orth-speaks-on-required-internet-connection-for-durango-rumors
They started with rumors. People were already upset, and some at MS gave a ridiculous response.
The existence of the Xbox One was practically preceded by controversy. And MS doubled down on it with their announcement.
And even after their announce they continued to back it:
https://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-509164109
https://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4353538/xbox-one-perform-recurring-online-checks-even-for-offline-play
https://www.wired.com/2013/05/xbox-one-analysis/
Their second failing was not focusing on games.
I wouldn't be surprised if they actually spent almost as much time talking about the UI and OS features as they did talking about games. Sports game and movies were a prevalent theme.
---------------------------------------------------------------
PS5: their showing has still mostly been a few articles. 2 wired articles, a playstation article about the controller, and backwards compatibility. Not much has changed here since writing up the thread. Everything about the PS5, minus the controller, has been very developer focused. From the Road to PS5 to the articles. Gamers aren't sure what to expect here yet. Sony is in a bizarre point where they seem like they are both behind MS, but also doing better in terms of attention.
XSX: MS feels like they took some cues from Sony's PS4 roll out, but also missing out on some very important things. And this was exemplified with their gaming rollout. The most major thing they had was a game that was announced before the show. Everything was pretty small.
Although part of MS's issue is probably that a lot of their stuff is cross gen. So their big games for the next year or two, are basically things we will see on Xbox One. So they're awkwardly with the strongest next gen console, and yet they feel like they have nothing really to show for it.
MS and Sony are both in pretty decent positions, they really just have to move forward with announcing some major games. And on Sony's side especially, it's pretty clear that they should have a lot to show.
PS4: was stellar. They really made the system feel next gen right away by showing Killzone. Their messaging from day 1 that the PS4 was a great system for devs and gamers. And they didn't just say it, they showed it. The first PlayStation meeting basically felt like E3 and Road to PS5's equivalent combined. They showed off the controller, the specs, their goals for the future and they showed off several major games. Knack, Killzone, Driveclub, inFamous, Dreams, Deep Down and several other games were shown.
Jonathon Blow, Quantic Dream, Square Enix, Capcom, Ubisoft, Blizzard were present at the show with either a game or a tech demo, etc.
This all happened within 2 hours of even learning about the console's existence.
XBO: their failings came down to two things. They basically doubled and even tripled down on their own backlash with the always online stuff.
https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/5/4185938/adam-orth-speaks-on-required-internet-connection-for-durango-rumors
They started with rumors. People were already upset, and some at MS gave a ridiculous response.
The existence of the Xbox One was practically preceded by controversy. And MS doubled down on it with their announcement.
And even after their announce they continued to back it:
https://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-509164109
https://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4353538/xbox-one-perform-recurring-online-checks-even-for-offline-play
https://www.wired.com/2013/05/xbox-one-analysis/
Their second failing was not focusing on games.
I wouldn't be surprised if they actually spent almost as much time talking about the UI and OS features as they did talking about games. Sports game and movies were a prevalent theme.
---------------------------------------------------------------
PS5: their showing has still mostly been a few articles. 2 wired articles, a playstation article about the controller, and backwards compatibility. Not much has changed here since writing up the thread. Everything about the PS5, minus the controller, has been very developer focused. From the Road to PS5 to the articles. Gamers aren't sure what to expect here yet. Sony is in a bizarre point where they seem like they are both behind MS, but also doing better in terms of attention.
XSX: MS feels like they took some cues from Sony's PS4 roll out, but also missing out on some very important things. And this was exemplified with their gaming rollout. The most major thing they had was a game that was announced before the show. Everything was pretty small.
Although part of MS's issue is probably that a lot of their stuff is cross gen. So their big games for the next year or two, are basically things we will see on Xbox One. So they're awkwardly with the strongest next gen console, and yet they feel like they have nothing really to show for it.
MS and Sony are both in pretty decent positions, they really just have to move forward with announcing some major games. And on Sony's side especially, it's pretty clear that they should have a lot to show.