soul_tech10Jul 16th, 2008 - 15:52:48

What do u mean sony failed to impress, each company impressed thier own consumers, i was imressed at the video download store, mag, ratchet and clank quest for booty, resistance retrebution, loco roco and patapon 2 and god of war 3. microsoft did nothing but copy sony and nintendo to try and stay in the fight, nintendo and microsoft are the onl fair players.

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PS3 OwnerJul 16th, 2008 - 16:02:24

It wasn't a bad presentation by Sony, it just had no 'FF XIII' moment. Also E3 is a smaller event now so Sony probably don't allocate it the same budget, whereas MS know where their bread is buttered and will throw as much money and special guests as possible at it to ensure they impress their Core American audience.

Sony have traditionally always given a bigger showing than MS at Leipzig and save their biggest news for the Tokyo Games Show. At the end of the day E3 will be remembered for the day MS stole FF XIII, and short of Sony announcing Gears of War or a Halo sequel nothing would have topped that!

The Sony conference had a lot of positive messages, and it is easy to ignore MS's 1 year+ head start or the fact they only focus on one platform and not 3 etc. In a generation where 3rd party exclusives are all but dead (unless you have MS's bank balance) the focus needs to be on 1st party and Sony's E3 conference showed that they are very strong in this area.

The only place to play a Sony game is the PS3, with MS it's the 360 for a few months followed by PC, and there's a 0% chance MS will be able to poach them down the line (unlike MS's 3rd party reliance that see's the likes to Oblivion, Lost Planet, Bioshock, Saints Row etc appearing on the PS3 eventually - even Gears 3 has the option to go multiplat).

They also illustrated that developers are now getting to grips with the hardware, and reminded people that the PS2 took a few years to get into it's swing too, also the focus on 'added value' on PS3 3rd party multiplat releases is a recurring theme.

I also liked the touch of launching the video store on the same day as announcing it, after the constant 'DelayStation' criticism and Home delays it was nice to show something new and say - you can have it right now!

I just wish they had something a bit more stand out, like God of War III gameplay and release date instead of a CGI teaser. A lot of the announcements were rumoured previously, MAG was the closest they came (256-player online sounds good). I also wish they had some more RPG or RTS games, Sony were very heavy on shooters this year.

Microsoft is a slick PR machine and their conference comes off as more impressive and flashy, but when you strip it back and ignore the FF XIII bombshell what did their conference consist of? - A blades relaunch that was already rumoured and simultaneously rips off Sony's XMB, Home and Mii's. A ripoff of SingStar, a ripoff of Buzz, a ripoff of EyeToy Play, a ripoff of Eye of Judgment (sort of), etc. How much of MS's conference featured new and unique IP's or ideas? The answer is probably none of it - it was a big collection of existing franchises, multiplatform releases and ripoff's from content available on other platforms...

FF XIII is still coming to PS3 afterall, it's not as if they bought Sqeenix! And don't forget FF vs XIII is still a PS3 exclusive... Look at how much MS (allegedly) spend to be able to say 'look you don't need a PS3 to play this you can play it on ours as well', wouldn't fans prefer them to say 'look at what we've developed that is new and groundbreaking and only available on our system' - the difference between the Sony and Microsoft is Sony spend their money on the latter and Microsoft on the former.

We all talk about the PS2 upgraders - it's this stream of last-gen gamers that will decide the console war - and is saying 'you could also play it on a 360' enough when you can still play it on the PS3 on a familiar system/controller? If they got DMC4/GTA4/FFXIII exclusively they would stand a good chance - but they seem to be more concerned with stopping existing 360 owners having a reason to switch to a PS3 than to convert PS2/PS3 owners...

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PS3 Lives OnJul 16th, 2008 - 16:17:43

Yuck, this article is horribly biased. Little Steve spent one paragraph showering praise on the 360, when in fact all Microsoft did at E3 was show some games we've already seen, stole ideas & exclusives from nintendo and sony, and bashed the PS3 throughout their press conference. I was disgusted...I was considering buying a 360 until I saw this..pffh...and people said Sony were arrogant.

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XXXmonkeyJul 16th, 2008 - 17:48:16

Microsoft did focus more on its software line-up than Nintendo or Sony.

Nintendo only actually highlighted a handful of Wii games and didn't have a core franchise title to build on, while Sony wasn't exactly rolling out its wealth of upcoming exclusives, although Tretton did claim PS3 has masses of 'em.

Microsoft highlighted Gears of War 2 (which did look amazing) Fable 2, Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts, The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, Galaga Legions, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Portal Still Alive... all of which are console exclusive to the 360. Then there's Halo Wars and Too Human which are also console exclusive.

If Sony really has such a software advantage and Tretton is going to claim that 2008 is the PS3's year when it comes to software, then Sony should have gone balls out to show it. I mean, who gives a damn what's coming out on the PS2 these days or that old PS3 games will be released as greatest hits?

Focus on your flagship console and its kickass line-up and blow the opposition out of the sky.

Sony did not do that and is still to make good on software promises it's been making since the PS3 first arrived.

I agree that Microsoft's address was the best of the bunch.

And, while I own all three of the consoles showcased at E3, if you wanna talk about stealing...

...let's look at the lame motion-sensing SIXAXIS that Sony aped from Nintendo, Microsoft's Mii-inspired Avatars, the force feedback rumble that both Sony and Microsoft famously took from haptic company Immersion, the rumored Newton controller that Microsoft is developing, PSN's movie downloads as Microsoft signs up Netflix, or the recent PS3 inclusion of Trophies, in-game XMB and in-game music which is lifted directly from Microsoft's Achievements, in-game dash, and in-game soundtrack feature.

Sony and Microsoft are just as bad when it comes to this.

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