How Sony stole Microsoft's thunder at Gamescom this year

Sony dominated the conversation at Gamescom this year thanks its purchase of Insomniac Games, Death Stranding, Erica, and more.

[CP_Company]

m$, who?

[VenomUK]

The article actually makes some good points. If we recall back to just over a week ago there was some anticipation at the Inside Xbox Live show and jokey comments online that Sony would again be sidelined. As it happened there were no megatons, it was awkwardly presented and then the deliberately timed news of the Insomniac purchase stole the whole day and week and Sony wasn't even on a stage!

[VenomUK]

Don't get me wrong, MS did have some cool news like the new additions to game pass including Age of Empires, Devil May Cry 5 and Kingdom Come Deliverance and they showed off the Destiny 2 and Metro dlc. However, the Insomniac news dominated last week and it also created a sense of anticipation for the PS5 because the Sony PR statement indirectly alluded to a new Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank game.

[UltraNova]

In all honesty Gamescom was a borefest. The only exciting piece of news was Sony buying Insomniac. Think about it, the most exciting thing about a gaming conference wasn't about games but of a business move...this is what we get when there are so many conferences each year.

[KickSpinFilter]

But even during E3 Sony stole MS thunder by doing a little article with Wired magazine about PS5. And a video of Death Stranding a week before. Other than Cyberpunk 2077 Reeves surprise (a multi-platform game) did MS really have any big Bomb Drop....Nope not really.

[Max_Eckhardt]

I think they make controllers... lots and lots of controllers.

[Hedstrom]

Lol!

[darthv72]

Have you seen all the PS4 controllers lately...? Some are pretty impressive.

[pinkcrocodile75]

I bought my fella the new 500 million ps4 controller as an early birthday present and it's gorgeous. That said it's not as good as the elite.

As for who the media liked more, I have more interest in my last sh!t. Money talks, bullshit walks.

Till it's in my hands I don't care.

[EliteComments123]

LOL

[RizBiz]

In their defence, the accessibility controller is pretty neat.

[Broomfondle]

And Avatars. Don't forget the cool Avatars.

[neutralgamer1992]

What thunder though is the question. Game pass, Power of DA cloud, digital only Xbox one, 50-60 million behind ps4, only talking this whole gem without showing much? Or another gears game after which will come another forza and halo

Stop this nonsense. Ms needs to step up and show up before there is even talk of competition. Even last Gen they launched early knowing they couldn't compete with ps3 and clearly Xbox 360 wasn't ready to be launched. Even than early start meant ps3 outsold the Xbox360

[Juusterey]

nobody had thunder at gamescom

[scoot_n_loot]

This was my thought as well. MS' show was weak at best. Sony didn't show up at E3 so it's no surprise they had more to talk about.

[Jon_Targaryen]

Be careful, fanboys dont take likely to your obvious correct statement.

[neutralgamer1992]

Maybe ms should have skipped too instead of showing only CGI like it's 2005

Without attending E3 Sony made a bigger impact and that's all there is to it

[scoot_n_loot]

if you say so

[Automatic79]

What Thunder Gamescom was great.

[Atom666]

Apparently Geoff Keighley holograms set the internet ablaze.

I'm not being snarky; that's literally a line from the article.

The biggest news story was the Insomniac deal, which dwarfs game discussions. That's true of both Death Stranding and Gears 5, though.

I thought Gamescom had plenty of good announcements. Wish we would have gotten a Nintendo direct in there and maybe some more 2020 talk, but that'll probably wait until next year.

This article is just aimed at getting the fanboys all riled up.

[senorfartcushion]

This entire site is aimed at getting ms fanboys riled up.

[Automatic79]

Well said. Fanboys love click bait.

[Silly gameAr]

There's been plenty of clickbait all week. People went after Death Stranding for those hits RELENTLESSLY. The best thing to do, if it bothers you so much, is to ignore the clickbait bullshit. It makes the site so much better when you actually look for news instead of trash opinion pieces and bs to get fanboys riled up.

[DaDrunkenJester]

Did you hear how the audience cheered when Norman started pissing? I was so confused why anyone was cheering for that gameplay reveal... it was terrible. And Geoff is sort of a joke/punching bag, I doubt that hologram "set the internet ablaze".

[ApocalypseShadow]

This is how Sony did it
https://youtu.be/6wqcni74cM...
That's all it took to rain on their competitor's parade.

[The Wood]

Lol. . . .I was thinking something was going to happen. . . . . . . Then I re read your comment and it clicked. . . . 'I'm tired' lol

[sushimama]

That's not hard. Sony can sneeze and the games media run to feel the mist.

[InUrFoxHole]

Quick the troll battle is dying down! Throw them some meat!!! Enjoy trolls

[Imortus_san]

There is allways damage control in every event Sony's not in.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

How can you steal something that's not there?

[bluefox755]

What thunder?

[DeadManMMX]

I’m pretty excited about Gears. I’m pretty excited about the additions to game pass. Especially Kingdom Come, DMC5 and AOE. The Insomniac announcement didn’t mean much to me because 80% of Insomniacs games were on PlayStation and they showed no indication that was changing. The acquisition made sense but I didn’t feel like it was a bomb. We already knew their next big game would be on PlayStation. So to me it was just like cool. Finally. It was far from the news of show. More like a foregone conclusion.

[Poopmist]

Yeah the Insomniac purchase was on the same level as MS buying the forza horizon devs. Not really a huge surprise. If Sony bought the Ori dev or something it would've been a surprise.

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

lol...

[chiefJohn117]

Didn't watch gamescom but it sounds like it was boring and filled with stuff we already knew about. There was no thunder stolen or any thunder to steal lol

[NarutoFox]

Wrong. Keep thinking that bud

[froy402]

(How Sony stole Microsoft's thunder at Gamescom this year). Let me guess without showing up or even saying anything. Jk

[DEEHULK88]

Insomniac was practically with them anyway.....so what the fk was so special about that? Similar to when MS bought the Forza Horizon company.

[MasterCornholio]

Not exactly because Insomniac tried to be a multiplatform developer the over the last few years. Playground games to my knowledge only made games for Xbox. So it's really a bit different.

If Sunset Overdrive went alot better for them I'm pretty sure they would still be independent and making games for Xbox.

[rainslacker]

The story of Sony and insomniac is a long one, and the history behind the studio, what the studio wanted, and how sony wanted to buy them several times but they said know is a sort of gaming folklore legend. Its intriguing, because people respect what insomniac wanted, they like the games that Sony publishes made by insomniac, and they like sony and want sony to improve.

It's not so much that it's a surprise, but more like you finally get something you've been hoping would happen. At least metaphorically, because the average gamer wouldn't have any real vested interest in the acquisition.

It would have been nice if insomniac had found more success with other publishers. I was rooting for them. But with fuze they bowed to EA pressure to change the game, and the marketing was god awful, although the game was decent. It got lost in the sea of other titles releasing at the time. With MS they had more potential, but I think MS dropped the ball on the marketing after the e3 before x1 launch. Started strong, but they relegated it to just another mid tier game, even though it's a lot of fun and IMO one of the best launch titles this gen.

Sony has always treated the games made by insomniac pretty well in the marketing department, and seems they hive the resources needed to make games, and if its true that Sony is allowing more creative freedom among their devs, then good things could come from insomniac. I'd also imagine the other ventures outside console gaming will continue on as normal, as they are a large studio whi makes vr, mobile, and pc games.

[OneLove]

The reach in here smells 😂😂

[Orionsangel]

What makes a gamer attack another console over the other?

You don't own both consoles? So you're protecting your one investment?

The company did you wrong years ago and you never got over it?

Console Wars have always seemed silly to me because I've always owned various consoles. As a gamer I wanna play everything I can. I don't wanna be left out.

https://youtu.be/SjOqsWIcQo...

[rainslacker]

All I care about is if my investment is taken care of. If that doesn't happen, I'll be critical of that console maker. The only other reason I may criticize is on more broad terms if it's a practice I feel is a bad direction for gaming or bad for consumers in general

[OB1Biker]

What thunder?
They didn't "steal' anything from Ms

[killswitch80]

I mean all they had to do was fart and they could of stole their thunder

[Tross]

The same way they do every year: by showing games.

[ILostMyMind]

What thunder Microsoft had?

[SyntheticForm]

Microsoft hasn't had what I'd call "thunder" the entire generation. Make some heavy hitters and you'll make some thunder - until then you're drizzle, while Sony is an absolute hurricane.

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

I mean Sony has been stealing MS thunder for many years.....MS is not on the same lvl as Sony and Nintendo when it comes to gaming. Not even close.

[WickedLester]

Don't you have to HAVE thunder to begin with before anyone can steal it?

[MTVBG]

That headline makes the bold assumption that Microsoft had any thunder to begin with

[rataranian]

MS has no thunder. They havent had any since the 360.

[Traecy]

Thunder??? LOL!!!

[Prem8tuaProcrastin8a]

By acquiring a company that has made nothing but exclusive ps games for the majority of its history? That's like saying that ms would of won E3 2017 by buying playground games alone and not turning up in any capacity. If you say ps has "won" something by buying/acquiring a studio, what did Xbox win by buying/acquiring a load of them? I remember when ppl said the reason Sony was ahead was because of resolutiongate, even though Xbox had more AAA games. It's funny how goalposts move.

[LordJamar]

Um gonna have to disagree with that Sony didn’t steal
Anything death stranding could be amazing or horrible at this point as for the studio they bought good I guess? Is like Microsoft buying the forza devs they were practically exclusive to them any way the rest is kinda meh honestly ya can’t win if your not there

[SyntheticForm]

Microsoft has Gears 5 while Sony has Death Stranding, The Last of Us 2, and Ghost of Tsushima.

Sony's been delivering games (mostly great) at a steady pace all generation, and they're outnumbering Microsoft 3-1 in the closeout.

Microsoft have delivered practically nothing all generation.

Hey dude, it's honest.

[LordJamar]

It’s like you didn’t read anything I said and just blindly defended Sony. I know what Sony has and done own one I know they have games coming who doesn’t know at this point? Chill man Sony will be the winner next gen you don’t need to be so scared of Microsoft you win the console war buddy no idea what you win but congratulations

[SyntheticForm]

Ha - you don't know me.

I'm not blindly defending anyone, nor am I "scared" (that's a good one) of Microsoft. Blind defense - hardly.

I'm not really "defending" anyone - I'm merely being honest about what's transpired this generation. I'm very honest and objective about 'everything' and people don't like that but that's their problem.

I have no agenda here, nor do I have 'friends' here, and nor am I a part of your "console war."

[battlegrog]

Of course, xbox next proper event is xo19 in November

[AK91]

Actually it was more that MS shot themselves in the foot by not understanding what gamers want................actual games.

[Broomfondle]

It would help of course if Microsoft actually had any thunder to steal in the first place.