25 years from now, on the brink of the next-next-gen, people will be asking one another in hushed tones "I wonder if so-and-so will pull a Sony like they did with the PS4..." History was made yesterday, and it's for a very simple reason: gamers won. For the first time in years, a multi-billion dollar company paid attention to the heart's desire of gamers everywhere. Plenty of fantastic games were shown, but that didn't matter.
It didn't matter because, due to the Microsoft PR whirlwind that began earlier this year and spun out of control three weeks ago at the Xbox One reveal, gamers were afraid of E3 for the first time in a long time. Many of the gamers who tuned in to the conferences weren't waiting to hear "new Halo" or "new Uncharted" or "new Battlefield". Their ears were perked for other phrases like "online required" and "camera required" and "no used games" and "599 dollars". Though Microsoft haphazardly tried to assure us over the last few weeks that E3 was going to be "all about the games", sadly, E3 was not all about the games. Looming, unanswered questions prevented gamers from getting excited for any announcements before they knew the real deal regarding the next-gen of DRM.
Nintendo had their own failing, of sorts. Their console, the Wii-U, has received its own bad batch of press over the last few weeks, although nothing as bad as what Microsoft dealt with. Whether it was snarky comments about development on the Wii-U from EA employees or the utter lack of videogame releases, Nintendo also had something to answer this E3: where are the games? And instead of answering our fears, Nintendo simply said "here are some Nintendo games you all knew were coming anyway". Now, I don't want to downplay the announcements Nintendo made. Personally, I am on the Hype Bullet-Train for games like Mario 4p Meow Meow, Donkey Kong: Part 2, Xeno-Robots, F-Zero: Mushroom Kingdom, and - FINALLY! - a new Smash Bros game. However, similar to Microsoft, Nintendo sort of did their own thing without addressing the concerns of Nintendo fans. Where are the games? In an interview, Reggie Fils-Aime kept (awkwardly) trying to convince us that first-party games would be enough to please potential buyers. Maybe, or maybe not. But instead of addressing the glaring lack of third-party software, Nintendo tried to shuffle us away from the man behind the curtain. They didn't even take a stand and say "look, our games outsell third party games by a landslide. If third parties want to join the Wii-U ecosystem, they are welcome to do so, but until then, they're the ones who are abandoning profit". Boom! That would've been awesome.
That's why Sony won. Sony spoke to gamers. It wasn't just the $399 announcement. It wasn't just the no-used-game-restriction announcement. It was the fact that someone in the game industry finally listened to the gamers and put their foot down on an issue that has been spiraling out of control ever since the first Horse Armor showed up as downloadable content. Did Sony have the best showing of games? Eh, it was okay. People who said they "didn't show off anything new" clearly didn't watch the show, but I don't think Sony won simply for showing off an overwhelming number of exclusives, because they didn't do that. Sony knew that - because of all the negative PR surrounding the Xbox One - to leave questions unanswered would only raise more doubts and make gamers more nervous.
There were people like me who were willing to swear off the next-gen entirely due to these DRM restrictions and online and camera requirements. If you think I'm flip-flopping, I'll link you to my own comments made prior to E3: http://n4g.com/news/1274646... , http://n4g.com/news/1274613... , and http://n4g.com/news/1273815... .
Sony didn't win because they showed off way more exclusives or way better graphics. They didn't win simply because they announced a better price-point. They won because they proved they've been listening, not just over the last few months, but during the entire 7th generation. They've been learning from their mistakes, and that's the sort of game company we need right now. We need a company that will set aside its pride, admit its mistakes, and really put in the effort to earn our money.
People like me were cheering "Sony! Sony!" along with the crowd because I was glad I would now be able to participate in the next-gen of consoles. I refused to tolerate online-required and used-game restrictions, and so I thought Sony and Microsoft would be pushing me out of the market by making bad decisions. Instead, Sony made it so that I can build up a sizable next-gen library and enjoy it forever, just like I can with every other console I currently own.
Every E3, I hear the same phrase "gamers won!" It's a phrase meant to diffuse the console war arguments that inevitably spring up during E3. If gamers won this time around, it's because someone stood up for them. It wouldn't have mattered if it was Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, or PopCap Games. SOMEone needed to finally speak up, and Sony was the smart one to do it.
The Honkai Star Rail 2.2 banners introduce Robin and Boothill, alongside returning faces Topaz and Fu Xuan to HoYo's space fantasy RPG on PS5.
Available right now on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and PC is the latest from a prolific KEMCO team - Horrific Xanatorium; a horror Visual Novel
Gary Green said: You’ll be forgiven if you haven’t heard of the Ar Tonelico trilogy. The previous two games arrived so late in the PS2’s life-cycle that they simply went unnoticed. While most were tinkering with their shiny new PS3s, Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia and Ar Tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica were being ‘returned to sender’ by your local Game stores. Luckily, you won’t need to have played them to understand and appreciate this third and final chapter, Qoga (pronounced k-yoga) tells the story of a racial war between humans and Reyvateils, a breed of biologically produced female cyborgs capable of reproduction, while still having a digital mind.
Oh my god. I kinda wish this would get a remaster on PS5, it would be awesome. One of my favorite games on PS3.
That and 3D Dot Game Heroes. It's a shame that some stuff is stuck on PS3.
Ar Tonelico 3 is good I still prefer the first AT game. The music is solid in all the games and Akiko Shikata is a very talented singer bringing life to the game. Only annoying part is well I find is Saki I always choose Finnel or Tyria. KOEI so needs to HD remaster the franchise along with Ar Nosurge and Ciel Nosurge since it never came to North America. I would day one the Ar Toneliceo games and Ar Nosurge if they were remastered.
I still have the limited edition of Qoga unopened. Unfortunately it never went up in value like I had hoped all these years.
Used to own all these quirky JRPG on ps3 good times. Wish I would have kept them all
Can't really disagree with your points at all. Superb blog, as usual.
Oh thanks for directing me here, great blog man. Can't help but agree with you. Nintendo had a solid showing but they needed that one big absolutely surprising exclusive that no one would see coming and they didn't do that. And what you said about what Reggie should say concerning third parties, that would've been great.
You are absolutely spot on about why Sony won, it was because they showed that they have indeed been listening to us.
Overall though this E3 is one of the best in years in terms of the games that were shown off and I'm just glad that no matter the platform, pretty much everyone has something to look forward to.
tl;dr
Blah blah, Sony, blah blah Nintendo, Microsoft sucks. How expected. These blogs are no longer quality content, they're just entries into the contest to win the prize money N4g has been giving lately.
Great blog, Sony said all this back in February though, Xbox fans were just going damage control crazy, trying to claim everything negative about the Xbox One was going to happen to the PS4 as well.
I've known this wasn't the case for months and repeated it over and over again. There was even an old article stating this fact posted on here so people would remember but it changed from Approved to Failed because it was old.
Sony has been listening and have been very vocal in their replies to us. For me, this was expected, but I was still in amazement at how they presented the information at the conference. Rubbing Microsofts face in it big time made it one of the greatest E3 moments of all time.
All that excitement for things that have been standard practice for years. lol
Good blog. However, I believe they won because they are doing things that the Xbox One won't allow you to do.
However, I believe that multi-platform releases will have some sort of additional DRM attached to them, leaving it up to the publishers to decide whether or not to add that crap.
Don't wish to urinate on the parade, but I don't think we should all hold hands just yet. At least Sony games won't have DRM I guess.