Top 10 Things We Learned At E3 2016
6. Sony still can’t get the balance right
What a fantastic showing from Sony this year! Loads of brilliant looking sequels, new IPs and VR footage coupled with the resurgence of Crash Bandicoot and the epic orchestral soundtrack to it all, which I mentioned earlier.
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole show but once I’d slept on it and had a chance to think, I realised that I’d not seen any mention of the rumoured new console, nor any information about the PlayStation Network, PlayStation Plus or anything (apart from games) that I don’t already know about. VR had a good great showing and I’m now pretty certain I’ll be picking one up and again, the games looked absolutely mind-blowing. I’m really looking forward to seeing Insomniac’s interpretation of Spiderman, but it shows that Sony seem unable to get the right amount of everything in their conferences.
Undoubtedly they’ve learnt lessons like people aren’t that impressed by seeing “giant enemy crabs” in “historically accurate” games, nor are they impressed by $599 price tags for new consoles. I just felt that a little more variety would have livened things up. While Shawn Layden did a good job of hosting, it just seemed like he could have done better with a little back and forth from someone like Shuhei Yoshida, who fans associate less with the business side of Sony and more with the fun of the games.
Couple that with some details of something, anything about Plus or the PSN and I think that could’ve been the cherry on top of this otherwise very sweet show.
5. Microsoft are desperate to catch up to Sony
I don’t know if you saw it, but Microsoft held a pretty strong conference. In fact many people were thinking how tough it would be for Sony to top it (though top it they did). There was much excitement around some of the announcements like Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 but instead of sharing it, the spotlight seems the have remained on the announcement of two new consoles: the Xbox One S and the Xbox Scorpio.
The Xbox One S is said to be 40% smaller and measurably quieter with 4K upscaling and is set to release in August 2016, where the Scorpio is being touted as their mid-generation upgrade and will include native 4K support among many other hardware revisions.
Sony didn’t show any new hardware at its conference (something I’ve already mentioned) and I don’t know if that is wise or not; after all they could be saving something for a reveal at GamesCom, GDC, TGS or more likely their own PlayStation Experience at the end of the year. I suppose time will tell. What I do know, is that to see new Xbox tech quite this early was jarring for some fans as they have only recently parted with hundreds of dollars or pounds to get a regular console; even if they bought it at launch that was less than three years ago.
This quick refresh of their console shows, I believe, some regret over the original and an amount of desperation to catch up with Sony’s sizzling sales figures. But then I’ve been wrong before.
