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And by festivities, I mean Hunger Games-style console war bloodbath.
With each of the Big Three consoles in the eighth-gen arena (at least in name), we can finally pit them against each other to find who’s currently the greatest. Reviewing the successes and failures of the already-released Wii U would be a long post, but I’ll leave that to someone who owns one. On the other hand, the PS4 and XBox One will be direct competitors in the coming year and are at a similar stage in the (pre-)release process. Since we have but the two presentations to critique, the question must be asked: who did it better? Did Microsoft or Sony present the better vision for the future of console gaming?
I watched both companies’ events to determine which unveiling presentation came out on top. To be clear, I’m only dissecting the presentations themselves: people can make their own judgements about other disseminated info.
The Message
PS4 - Sony wants to make more than a game console. They seek to fabricate an all-encompassing gaming universe with the PS4 as its life-giving sun. To hammer in this point, the presentation began with a video that established the PS4 as the frontline of the “war against reality” in which imagination is our foremost weapon. So yeah. A set of values formed their overarching theme: simple, immediate, social, integrated, and personalized. The PS4′s aims to immediately provide the gamer with anything they require for a perfect gaming experience. The PS4 employs powerful system specs (for a console), Gaikai cloud technology (they were very proud of this), and a host of other technical and design feats to pull this off. In addition to this core concept, Sony made amends for their mistakes with the challenging PS3 architecture, which made developing for the console difficult at the very least. Instead of promoting a powerful but painfully unique architecture, Sony asked developers what they needed in a console and used that information to manufacture a system on which it is fun to play and make games. It was a high-minded presentation, and presenters leveraged poetic imagery, lofty concepts, and inspiring slogans (“The Creative Console”) to assert that the PS4 was the only choice for gaming lovers.
XBox One - Microsoft also espoused an all-in-one system that unifies many aspects of entertainment in a single piece of hardware. However, their consolidated system was not exclusively for gaming entertainment, but for all forms of media, from movies to music to live television. The essential question posed by the presentation was “What if a single device could provide all of your entertainment?” and they answered that question with the various new services and features of the XBox One. Microsoft’s spokespeople discussed all of the technological achievements of the XBO and how each of them will bring your devices and media closer than ever before. Yet demonstrations and information about gaming was surprisingly absent in the midst of the technological excitement. We received information about live TV, integrated Skype, fantasy football advancements, ESPN partnerships, and even a Halo TV series directed by Steven Spielberg, but very little about games themselves. XBox One’s reveal clearly illustrated Microsoft’s concept of technological unity in the living room… it just didn’t highlight the gaming portion of it.
The Hardware
PS4 - Having impressive displayed specs, a multitude of tech demos, and many excited creators on stage was nice and all, but THERE WAS NO CONSOLE AT SONY’S CONSOLE REVEAL EVENT. Whatever was playing the role of the PS4 during the show was clearly not the final model, or else they would have shown it to the people that came to see it. That’s like not showing up for your own birthday party. Poorly played. The system certainly looks cool and powerful, but not having it visible during the trailers and demos was disconcerting. On the other hand, the new Dualshock 4 controller made an appearance and sported some super-cool features. I’m sure the touchscreen portion will make the most headlines, but I’m far more excited about the Share button, which could usher in a new age of streaming and content creation for console owners.
XBox One - The XBox One arrived on stage mere minutes after the exhibition began, followed immediately by a video detailing its sleek edges and futuristic design* (oohlala). Each XBox One comes with the latest Kinect as well, which is now an essential piece of hardware for the console. The XBO’s system specs were touted with pride, but the coolest part of the conference was the Minority Report-style control empowered by the console’s onboard speed and integrated Kinect. A simple “XBox On” turned on its power, swipes, pulls, and pushes moved everything on screen, and each entertainment mode took mere seconds to display on screen once prompted. It’s naive to think that this incredibly important ceremony wasn’t meticulously planned to showcase everything perfectly, but if the XBox One actually does work as demonstrated, it’ll be the coolest piece of gaming tech on the market.
* it’s a box
The Software
PS4 – Along with Sony’s promises of perfection for gamers and developers came a slew of guests who testified to the awesomeness in the works for the upcoming console’s launch. Ten games were mentioned by name at the event, while other studios showed off engine demos and trailers, ensuring the viewers that their own contributions to the PS4 library were on the way. The only core Sony franchises represented were Killzone and inFAMOUS, but the trailers (or frightening intros) were rather stale. Far more interesting were Jonathan Blow’s The Witness, a colorful, Myst-like adventure with an absolutely inscrutable gameplay mechanic (probably on purpose) and Knack, a 3D action-platformer that appeared to be a cross between Wall-E and Jak & Daxter. Existing IPs also crowded under the Sony umbrella, including Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs, Blizzard’s Diablo 3, and Bungie’s Destiny. The games didn’t seem especially exciting or new overall, but they were many, varied, and there.
XBox One - At the reveal event for the XBox One gaming console, it’d be generous to say a fourth of the time was spent talking about games. As previously mentioned, Microsoft’s focus was geared towards presenting their “unified media system” instead of their “games console.” So let’s see… There were four sports games from EA: Madden, FIFA, UFC, and whatever the basketball one is. There was a mini-clip of Forza 5. There was a similarly short but abundantly more confusing trailer for Quantum Break, a new IP from creators of Max Payne and Alan Wake. And there was a gameplay-light ten minutes dedicated to Call of Duty: Ghosts. Sooooooooooo yeah, underwhelming. They did promise fifteen launch titles (eight of which are new IPs), which is good because the overall lack of attention to gaming made it seem like they weren’t really sure why most people bought an XBox in the first place. Hopefully E3 will be more game-oriented for XBO because otherwise it simply won’t appeal to their core audience.
The Presentations
PS4 - PlayStation has this weird reputation as the “brainy console” (at best) or perhaps the “pretentious console” (at worst). This is partially because XBox has a firm grip on the Call of Dutys, the sports franchises, and the frat-house games, but Sony has also developed this air of sophistication resembling that of an picky artist. Their presentation was very serious, and many of the presenters seemed to be in love with a Platonic ideal of gaming. In this quasi-religious atmosphere, most of the speakers came off like mad scientists, which was amusing and encouraging when it wasn’t vaguely creepy. More than anything, you could tell that everyone present loved games with every fiber of their being. On the production side, while the stage’s screens were awesome, the crowd always sounded small and unenthused. Nothing’s more sad than when someone believes they’re making a world-changing proclamation and there’s barely any applause. The presentation was also two hours long, which is a damn long time to watch a lecture, even if it’s about video games. Plus, it was two hours with not a single female presenter, a stupid and offensive choice which resulted in a well-deserved bashing courtesy of the internet. As far as presentations go, it could have been much better.
XBox One - True to it’s more casual “personality,” the XBox One demonstration was one part rock concert and one part buddy showing you a new toy. Everything crammed into their hour of content screamed “HOW COOL IS THIS BRO?” which worked out pretty well since no one actually said that. The presentation auditorium was stunning, covered with screens glowing green and speakers blasting the familiar beeps and boops that XBox owners know so well. Also, the XBox One presentation either had a far larger audience, a far more enthusiastic audience, or a far better-mic’ed audience because that crowd emitted much more noise than Sony’s. Probably noticing the ire of the internet, Microsoft ensured that two female speakers took the stage, but it’s hard to tell whether they had been planning that the whole time (if so, good) or called them in after Sony fucked up (in which case *frowny face*). Either way, everyone was well-spoken and enthusiastic about their product. The XBox One presentation droned less and gave the audience a constant stream of stuff to be psyched about before ending after a quick hour. This well-executed display possessed a ton of persuasive power.
Final Verdict
After watching both presentations back-to-back, the XBox One reveal appared to be superior. Their crowd cheered more, their features looked more impressive and groundbreaking, and their announcements shocked with their magnitude (HALO TV SERIES WITH SPIELBERG WAT). They had their system there. However, after some thought I realized that it didn’t do anything for me as a gamer. Sure, I’d love to stream TV through my console and swipe between my various media (Minority Report OS ftw), but that’s not why I buy an XBox. I buy it for the games. Despite the proselytizing tone and lackluster applause and unfortunate sexism and unnecessary length, the PS4 unveiling cared first and foremost about one thing: the games. They want gamers to have fun and game-makers to prosper. And that’s everything we should really want from a gaming console, next gen or otherwise. Microsoft will have their chance to redeem themselves with gamers at E3 (and I hope they will), but for now, the PS4 takes the first victory in the eighth generation of console wars.
Shots fired.
You can read this article and many other articles and reviews and rants at the N3rd Dimension.
