I have had some time to let the Xbox One release event sink in and, after giving the entire thing some serious thought (and spending hours debating / arguing with my friends), I’ve come to some conclusions about the PS4 and the Xbox One and which console I will likely throw money down on within the first few months of launch. First, the PS4 launch was surprisingly uneventful. While us gamers may spend time railing against Microsoft’s terrible X1 launch, go back and look at how disjointed and awkward the PS4 launch was. The presentation was smooth enough. Everyone knew their lines and it all seemed to go off without a hitch. But think about what Sony decided to bring out on stage to parade around. Blizzard came out to announce Diablo 3, which for the hardcore Diablo fans should instantly make them want to grow wings and flaming eyes and turn Irvine into the flaming lands of Hell. Sony doubled down on the Move, which is the worst knock-off motion controller devices in this generation of gaming. There was that weird rock band-like presentation using the Move, which I couldn’t tell if it was demonstrating a new video or a new game or was just there to show off the tech or what.
The indie games were definitely represented and the new button to instantly record gameplay was there, but that did little to make up for that weird Deep Down presentation or the visually pleasing but otherwise shallow Killzone demo. As with Microsoft, I expect that most of the great titles will be revealed at E3, but this was designed to be the starting point of the new console generation. Sony should have started things off with a bang, but the overall execution felt like so much more of a false start. But at least Sony did a few things right. Throwing in some games placated the hardcore audience, throwing in some indie devs and talking about the openness of the console placated the casual audience and the indie developers in one swift move, so at least the direction of the console was laid out. It was acceptable mostly because it was familiar, which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. It’s good because I know exactly what I’m going to get, but it’s bad because I know what I’m going to get for the next 7-10 years. Microsoft had a month or so to learn from Sony’s wins and losses and to tailor their presentation to the wants and needs of their audience. Somehow, inexplicably, they absolutely blew it. I understand part of why they did it, and then again I also have no idea what they were thinking. Cable television is a multi-billion dollar industry. It’s looking for a way to revitalize its viewership, and a lot of younger, less affluent users are dropping their cable entirely. I am among that audience. I used to have a cable subscription, but cancelled it when I realized that I wasn’t watching any television. Seriously, I didn’t need to change channels. I’d watch episodes of Psych and Burn Notice when they came on, but there was little reason why I couldn’t watch them online the next day for free. So I saved an extra $80 a month and dropped my cable bill completely. Instead, I got a subscription to Netflix, which has been far more useful. I pay a much lower price and can watch a decent selection at any time. If I have two hours to burn, I can watch an episode of Sherlock. Or I can stop in the middle and pick it up the next day. I have watched more television shows now that I have the freedom to watch what I want when I want than I did in my entire four years at college. Microsoft saw an opportunity to kill a few birds with a single stone. It’s worried about the rise of non-cable TV sources. Things like Apple TV, the Roku, and Google’s eventual TV equivalent are all becoming serious threats to cable television. And once cable TV goes down the tubes, the remaining players are going to be there to devour the remains like rabid dogs. It will be a business-style feeding frenzy, and Microsoft wants a piece. Placing the X1 at the forefront of this future meltdown will position itself perfectly to take in the largest market share of the ala carte television audience. After all, if people already have the X1 in their homes, why not use it to watch television as well? Unfortunately, my biggest concern about the entire thing is that they’re losing sight of their original purpose. Not Microsoft as a company, their original purpose was changed decades ago, but of the Xbox. The people who are going to wait in line for days on end in the cold during the holiday season for the X1 or the PS4 are not going to be the 40 year old dudes with 3 kids and a mortgage. They’re going to be those hardcore gamers so dedicated to having the newest and the best that they’re willing to risk life and limb for the privilege of paying hundreds of dollars for a box of circuits that plays Halo 5 and Call of Duty. Yet Microsoft ignored that group completely at their reveal event. Reveal events are designed to give vision of the console, its true purpose for the coming years. Microsofts message informed hardcore gamers that they weren’t even on the radar anymore, that television, Steven Spielberg, and second screen capabilities were the future. And those elements may actually be the future, but that wasn’t what gamers were looking for. And before you harp on me and point out that both EA Sports and Call of Duty were there, I was looking for something new in gaming. Something that would get me excited about the future. Ghost Dogs was a damn good presentation last year at E3, and that’s the kind of new, awesome demonstrations that I expected to see. I didn’t want to see everything, after all with E3 just a few weeks away I want to keep some of the goodies for then, but this event wasn’t even a tease for that. We all know exactly how the EA Sports titles are going to play out because they’re the same every single year. And the same goes for Call of Duty. That series hasn’t changed since Call of Duty 4, which is fine, I’ll still end up buying Call of Duty: Ghosts, but I wanted to see something would make me associate the X1 with “new” and “exciting”. Second screen, cable TV, EA Sports, Call of Duty, and ESPN do not do that. But gamers weren’t the only one feeling shafted by the presentation. Indie developers and the international audience were both feeling completely left out after the dust settled. Seriously, as bad as hardcore gamers had it, rewatch the presentation and think about it if you were someone living in Australia or Korea. Nobody there cares about the NFL. The Kinect may work perfectly when the user speaks in a British or American accent, but what about if the user only speaks Korean? Or Japanese? Or Greek? Or Russian? All of those great voice commands are going to be completely worthless if the Kinect isn’t programmed to understand Swahili or Farsi or Vietnamese. Those are all things that Microsoft is going to have to sort out over the next few months, and I have full faith that they’ll be able to do so. What is going to be a bigger problem is how Microsoft is going to convince me that the X1 is going to be a better console than the PS4. Because without having a cable TV subscription, the rest of it seems completely absent. I don’t watch sports very often, and when I do I usually end up at a friend’s house for the game. So without the advantages of ESPN and cable television, it’ll come down to if the second screen capabilities and X1’s exclusive library are more valuable than the PS4 lineup that I already know is going to be great. So far I haven’t seen that. The number of PS3 and PS4 exclusive titles that I am excited to try at E3 is far outweighing the number of Xbox 360 or X1 exclusive titles. In fact, the only big exclusive series I can think of off the top of my head for the Xbox are Halo and Gears of War, both of which have been huge letdowns recently. And don’t blame the Xbox 360’s hardware, Halo: Combat Evolved and the first Gears of War were both amazing games with the same or lesser technology. But if it comes down to Halo 5 or Beyond: Two Souls, I know which way I’m going to go. I am simply concerned that Microsoft is going to forget about its gaming audience in favor of the other audiences it doesn’t have. I don’t want gamers to be taken for granted, because there is stiff competition from other sources. The Wii U may currently be a complete failure, but Sony is definitely going to learn from the ups and downs of the PS3. While Microsoft is busy wooing the families and casual audience with its fun, family-friendly Kinect and cable TV hookups, its core audience is more than willing to jump ship for something else. Considering how expensive consoles are going to be and how many of the biggest games are going to be available on multiple consoles, this is precisely the time to do it. And don’t forget that Microsoft already has stiff competition from its PC gaming audience. The expense of the gaming PC has kept most users away, but when the hardcore gamers start looking for something else they’re going to be surprised by how easy it is and how cost-efficient it is to jump on a gaming PC. My gaming PC has allowed me to save thousands of dollars via Steam sales, and that doesn’t count the amount of non-gaming work I do on it. It is just as likely that I will forgo a new console completely for a while and still remain able to complete my work with just the titles that come out for the PC. There are plenty of options currently on the market. As I have said before, we should definitely wait to see what comes out at E3. But unless Microsoft’s exclusive titles are something wondrous that can completely change my mind, I’m leaning heavily towards getting a PS4.
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The Legendary Carmine
Andrew Clayton (a.k.a. The Legendary Carmine) is SSG's Executive Editor. He toils at the stone to make sure this site brings its readers valuable content on a daily basis. Like what we do? Want to see more? Donate to the site using the button below!
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