E3 - 2017

[Aslanna]

June 13-15, 2017 !

I hope Sony brings the orchestra along again!

[Aslanna]

No surprise... Sony wins again. Why does Micorosoft even bother showing up? I guess because the "EXCLUSIVE!" or "WORLD PREMIERE!" announcer guy needed a job.

[Winnow]

Didn't even watch Sony's presentation. Microsoft's was good. Bethesda's was weird.

Only comments I read about Sony's press conference were on The Verge (or some other tech/gaming board) were there was disappointment with Sony's effort this year. Pretty much the same games they showed last year. Did they forget the orchestra or something?

Nice that Xbox One X is the smallest Xbox console yet and not a flashy box but the most powerful by far of all the consoles.

[Animalor]

Watched both and really liked em. As usual, Microsoft focused on holiday 2017 and Sony focused on 2018 and beyond mostly.

Sony spent a lot of money for an auditorium for something that could've essentially been a YouTube Playlist though. A solid hour of trailers and then end?

[Aslanna]

What's wrong with just showing a solid hour of games? That's what the people want! Unlike other presentations who plastered "EXCLUSIVE" over everything, which made me laugh every time I saw/heard it, even though they had only a few ACTUAL exclusives to show in the entire NINETY MINUTES of show. Do people really enjoy the (usually) cringe-worthy onstage demos? MS has too much fluff in their conferences. Times are changing and nobody wants to hear a bunch of people yapping throughout a conference.. Stop trying so hard and let the games speak for themselves. Ubisoft could take a hint there as well. Bethesda's conference was pretty good in that regard and it is nice that everything they showed will be out this year (I think?).

I realize MS (sorta) unveiled new hardware so time had to be devoted to that but I'm talking beyond that. Oh hey all here's a new Porsche that nobody has seen before! Now go buy our new console! Please?? Solid presentation! I get that it was in relation to (yet another) Forza but still. I'm not sure exactly the point beyond that considering this is a conference about video games. Ooo synergy!

"WORLD PREMIERE!"

Winnow's buddies over at Forbes:

Sony Beats Microsoft At E3 Once Again By Doing What It Does Best

This year, Microsoft walked in with a big advantage: it had Project Scorpio to show off, which we now know as the Xbox One X. But Sony, in its way, swaggered on stage and took the show again. This may not have been as strong a show as last year's, but Sony manages to keep winning by showing off its greatest strength in the face of Microsoft's greatest weakness.
...
E3 shows are, now more than ever, about games, and Microsoft lacked a marquee exclusive to really tie the show together: the closest it got was Crackdown 3, which doesn't quite feel ready for center stage.
...
Deciding who won E3 isn't necessarily who has the better platform, though that never hurts. E3 is, at the end of the day, a show, and one that's grown more and more consumer-facing over the years. Sony understands that, and its stable of exclusives help to keep that show moving with the relentless pace the company prefers.

My prediction for next year: Microsoft changes their show format to be more modern.

[Funkmasterr]

Microsoft: Xbox X; it has 6 teraflops!
Sony: *flops veiny, exclusive filled dick onto the stage* - "See, we only need one flop".

Jokes aside, none of them were great. Sony definitely had the most games shown that I'm interested in - for MS Sea of Thieves looks like it could end up being a fun co op game, but that was about it for me.

[Aslanna]

It seems like Ubisoft outdid MS (Rare) with their game Skull & Bones. Although Sea of Thieves seems more 'family friendly'. Nether one interests me. I liked AC:Black Flag well enough but didn't feel I needed the pirate stuff expanded and made its own game.

Hopefully both of them are good and people have fun playing them. I wont be one of them!

[Winnow]

Sony's stance on refusing cross platform for minecraft:

In an interview with Eurogamer, PlayStation global sales and marketing head Jim Ryan tries to get Sony’s point across as to why it’s holding out and...doesn’t quite get there.

“We’ve got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base”, he says. “Minecraft - the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it’s all ages but it’s also very young. We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe. Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it’s something we have to think about very carefully.”

When Eurogamer pointed out that, you know, even Nintendo is OK with this, Ryan says “Yeah, that’s true. Everybody has to take their own decisions. We’ll do that. Like I say, we have no philosophical stance against cross-play at all.”

Sounds like there are some serious legal stances, though, ones perhaps involving the Xbox and Nintendo side of things (remember, Final Fantasy XIV can be played across PS4 and PC).

Shame for PlayStation owners, then, but everyone else can at least look forward to a future where a precedent has been set, and more and more games can hopefully work across platforms. Platforms that aren’t the PlayStation 4, anyway.

Comments:

Sony seem to have this mentality lately of “we have sold more consoles so fuck our customers they bought them anyway so why do good things?” Not a good long term game plan . MS seem the best lately in terms of giving owners what they want which surprises no one more than myself. Nintendo finally seems to be listening to fans and yet Sony just doesn’t care. It’s like “you bought a PS4 already so we don’t really need to do anything for you now” between this and their equally lame excuse re: backward compatibility I’m starting to think Sony is hiring ex congressmen for their management

A successful Sony is also an arrogant Sony. And an arrogant Sony leads to colossal future fuck ups.

So many dystopian games.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 looks surprisingly good

Metro Exodus had some incredible detail and effects (at least on Xbox One X demo)

Anthem looks like it could be better than Destiny (wouldn't take much).

State of Decay 2 looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

Wolfenstein 2 has potential

Never been a God of War fan so that's a pass

Sea of Thieves has potential to be fun depending on how loot/trading works.

Pass on the Star Wars stuff

Far Cry 5 is a maybe


Microsoft did a good job at their press conference. They introduced the Xbox One X, made a point that it was the smallest xbox yet (no need to add a triple decker layer) and went on to show its power in featured games. Great strategy. They added original X-Box compatibility just to spite Sony that can't even understand the value of going back even one generation (not surprising seeing as they are too cheap to include HD Blu-Ray even in their top end "Pro" lol console. Check the Fake News and retraction by Ars Technica regarding how many people take advantage of backward compatibility. Look it up yourself.

Head of Microsoft gaming thinks the $249 One S (soon to be $199) competes with the PS4 "Pro" lol, while no console competes with the One X. That's pretty accurate. Xbox One S and Pro do some 4K stuff while One X can actually get some 60fps 4K with much less trickery.

With Microsoft making an actual effort (unlike Sony) to make One S and X backward compatible, there's no reason for anyone that has the money to not get a One X whether you have a 4K TV or not. It's an actual decent upgrade compared to the "Pro" lol. I was hoping for a quadruple decker PS4 announcement but maybe Sony got wind of Xbox's cooling solution and saved themselves some embarrassment.

I like the simple look of the One X. PS4 Pro looks retarded with the third layer. Maybe they should innovate more and increase power while also shrinking size. Just a thought.

[Funkmasterr]

While I agree that Sony should just be honest about the X Platform stuff, I've watched several interviews with whatever the head of Xbox guy's name is, and he basically didn't answer a single question because he's too worried about trying to spin it to their narrative, so don't play like that shit is just Sony.

Furthermore, on the cross platform front - Final Fantasy 14 is cross platform with PC, and the game didn't end up on Xbox because they wanted their servers to be separate from PC/PS4 and Square wasn't having it. I get the feeling Sony's real reason is because it would be cross platform play on Microsoft's terms, and they're not interested in that, and I don't blame them. Nintendo on the other hand can use it as a learning experience for how to build online infrastructure since I'm pretty sure they don't have a fucking clue, so of course they're on board.

That being said, I give a fuck about cross platform play about as much as I do backwards compatibility; that's to say, neither is a factor for me and never will be.

[Funkmasterr]

It seems like Ubisoft outdid MS (Rare) with their game Skull & Bones. Although Sea of Thieves seems more 'family friendly'. Nether one interests me. I liked AC:Black Flag well enough but didn't feel I needed the pirate stuff expanded and made its own game.

Hopefully both of them are good and people have fun playing them. I wont be one of them!

As much as I hate to say it, I'm going to disagree - Sea of Thieves looks more fun to me. More of a focus on co-op, which is what I'm interested in. Skull & Bones looks to have a PVP focus, and that interests me considerably less.

[Winnow]

Re: Xbox One X

We went hands-on with the latter, and found that it looks just as stunning in real life as it did on stage. Technically, much of what the game does might be possible on less powerful hardware. Yet its aesthetic is enhanced with incredible lighting effects and, at times, a buffet of on-screen objects. These details look even more impressive when viewed in 4K on an HDR set, where the game’s vibrant colors seem to jump free of the television.

The key to the above, however, is “4K on an HDR set.” We saw the Xbox One X in a group briefing on a massive display, paired with Dolby Atmos sound, and it was truly unlike any console we’ve laid eyes on before. Every game – even Minecraft – boasted massive draw distances, lifelike lighting, and high-resolution textures. It felt like developer’s vision was beamed out of their collective minds and beamed directly to the screen, without compromise.

-Digital Trends

Glad I invested in a higher end 4K HDR screen. My PC games already look awesome but will be nice to have console games join in.

[Animalor]

So those assholes at Ubisoft.... I see the trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2 and I was really happy. I call the kids over to look at the trailer with me. The other was rater T and fairly inoffensive language-wise...

Then it starts raining F-Bomb faster than a late night HBO TV show. Seriously UBI? Perhaps a bit of a warning next time!

[Aslanna]

E3 - PlayStation Part 2! Lots of (new) stuff shown off. Unlike other companies that just use the same presentation they used at E3... You can skip to 1:16:00 if you don't want to watch the 'preshow'.

A lot of VR titles, which doesn't interest me all that much, but it shows they are still supporting PSVR.

That leaves me wondering what Sony has for PSX which is only like 5 weeks away.