How Did You Think The Media Covered E3 for Xbox and PS4?

[jlzimmerman]

While I own a 360, I am not anti-PS4. Strong competition is good for the consumer. With that said, did anyone else notice the bias (shocker) toward Sony yesterday? While Engadget stated in an article that the games being released for the XBOne later this year was "a massive list" they still played down the announcements. There were 5 articles related to XBOne's E3 compared to 13 articles related to PS4's E3, at the time I went to bed at 11PM.

Perhaps it's attributed to XBOne taking the stage first? This would support other comments I've read on here that Microsoft needs to jockey E3 to NOT be the first one on stage every year. Or perhaps it's the typical, biased drum the media unremittingly beat again Microsoft.

There was another site (geek.com maybe, I don't remember) bragging how XBOne practically has no exclusives coming and how the PS4 has Destiny coming first. How did they miss the numerous titles "coming first" to XBOne? And honestly, I couldn't care less about the "coming first" or "beta first" or DLC exclusives to any particular console. It waters down the excitement, IMO. What happened to the game is released on X date? No betas. No DLC if per-ordered on XYZ console. No exclusive maps. It's stupid. Stop buying into it so Publishers stop pushing it. Ok, I'm getting away from the topic.....

Some sites totally ignored the almost two dozen announcements by Microsoft. CNET (oh God, why do I still go there?) has an article stating Microsoft plays it safe, maybe too safe, at E3 - CNET. WAT?? I had to make a comment here because I was blown away by the complete apathy towards XBOne announcing over a dozen games. Will the madness ever end?

PS - I miss you, Nintendo.

 

[ncxcstud]

Yeah, I think there is a bias towards Sony and against MS at the moment.

I think most of the articles written for/during Sony's conference were for multi-platform news - GTAV, No Man's Sky (console exclusive debut), MGS5, etc...

I liked MS conference mostly because there was a minimal of talking. Sony's dragged - hard - in the second half. There was some good news out of it, and as a MS fan I had to roll my eyes with a few of the digs that Sony threw towards MS (though, I get it... I'm more a humble leader type...)

 

[TheJoester09]

What bothers me is that last year, the criticism was that MS focussed too much on the non-gamer stuff, and not enough on the games. Fast forward to this year, and MS is now "playing it safe" by only discussing games, while Sony gets praised for announcing hardware and non-gaming content.

I just read an article from WJS:

"Microsoft was focusing on games and nothing else, while Sony also talked about movie and TV shows in the works, along with some hardware. The Sony PlayStation TV console is coming to the U.S. later in the year, after its successful launch in Japan last year, and owners will be able to stream games to their connected TV from the PS4.

Forbes gave its take in this headline: 'Sony Wins E3, by a nose'. 'Microsoft was trying to redefine itself, playing it safe and trying to make it through the day without becoming an object of derision. Sony, on the other hand, was just enjoying being Sony,' said Forbes."

MS just can't win.

 

[TonyDedrick]

I have to admit I have yet to finish watching Sony's press conference. However, I do think MS played it safe. Doesn't necessarily mean the content wasn't exciting (or at least the stuff that wasn't a FPS was personally). I just think it was a reaction to the criticism they got from last year. That much was clear as they kept reiterating focusing on games and gamers

 

[Keith Wallace]

Oh, it's terrible. When I was on Engadget, they had more EA articles than Microsoft ones. They had articles about EA's unannounced games, yet barely a peep about Microsoft's stuff. They gave YouTune on PS4 an article all its own...hasn't that been on the One for a while?

Saw a BGR article linked on Yahoo about how Sony won E3 because they talked about more than games, while that's all Microsoft focused on.

It's like, what the hell was 2013, where everyone dumped on Microsft for talking TV and such, while Sony was praised for the games? Really, they're praising Sony for announcing stuff Microsoft already did last year. They get praised for TV features not even on-par with Microsoft's, while people call Microsoft's all-games stuff ho-hum and boring. It's like the major headline goal for E3 is to see what Microsoft does, and praise ANYTHING else.

 

[Keith Wallace]

By the way, what does it say about US that we're complaining about the media coverage, but an E3 thread isn't even in this forum?

 

[ncxcstud]

By the way, what does it say about US that we're complaining about the media coverage, but an E3 thread isn't even in this forum?

I fixed that

 

[HeyCori]

I gotta give it to Microsoft by a mile. Even if you didn't like Microsoft's games/announcements, the actual presentation was far superior. Microsoft was streamlined, focused, highlighted the games and made sure presentations were quick and to the point. It all had a great flow and was entertaining from beginning to the end.

Sony was nearly the complete opposite. Presenters rambled, game announcements were sandwiched between TV shows and accessories, nothing really flowed together and ultimately the Sony conference felt like it dragged on forever. It was laughably bad by the end. Sony had a lot of content to show but most of it was either multi-platform, beta, accessory or TV related. Sony showcased the upcoming TV show Powers with concept art. Seriously? Concept art! That's like the beta of a beta. It doesn't belong on stage and I don't need Brian lol character development Bendis presenting it.

Yes, I do feel that the media would have lambasted Microsoft had they focused on TV shows, accessories and multi-platform games. Yet, Sony is getting a complete pass. This E3 only proved that Sony is also going for the all-in-one entertainment system, the same as Microsoft, but clearly the two aren't being judged equally.

 

[Keith Wallace]

The problem for Microsoft's games, though, was the lack of information. What is Scalebound? What is Phantom Dust (and why is it worth a remake)? How big is Horizon 2? The stuff we knew was either Halo, Sunset Overdrive, or multi-platform (Evolve, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty). Even the indie stuff was like "here are 2 indie games, and then we're going to have others." We got no real information. They focused on quantity of games over quality of information, sadly.

 

[HeyCori]

The problem for Microsoft's games, though, was the lack of information. What is Scalebound? What is Phantom Dust (and why is it worth a remake)? How big is Horizon 2? The stuff we knew was either Halo, Sunset Overdrive, or multi-platform (Evolve, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty). Even the indie stuff was like "here are 2 indie games, and then we're going to have others." We got no real information. They focused on quantity of games over quality of information, sadly.

That's the same criticism you could give to Sony's conference. What's Bloodbone? Where were the details about Uncharted? Why should I care about a Grim Fandango remake if they're not going to show it? The problems you mention weren't unique to Microsoft.

 

[Keith Wallace]

I agree. I didn't watch Sony though, because I don't care about the PS4--and it wasn't on Spyke. I didn't feel like looking for the stream once the time came, went to Target instead (got Zoo Tycoon for $11 and spent $10 on games to trade in for about $35 at Best Buy, haha).

I mostly just mean that Microsoft had a lot of neat stuff, but not much on any of it. I guess Sony won out in the sense that they didn't just pummel you with unknowns; that's where the "other stuff" presentations helped them. I still think praising Sony for what Microsoft already did is dumb, but I can see where some of the weakness in E3 was for them. However, that was E3-wide. Ubisoft is the only one who really showed off a lot of gameplay; EA gave useless trailers and words, nothing substantial beyond Battlefield.

 

[testement]

Got to agree I thought the Microsoft E3 was very good without execs after exec talking rubbish after every video.
And how the media are saying Sony won cause they showed new hardware,
PlayStation TV (a Vita in a box) and a white PS4.
I would've said Nintendo had the best showing followed by Microsoft then Sony third.
Looks like I'm not one of the cool kids anymore :grin:

 

[Jas00555]

hmm.... I'm not so sure its right to criticize CNET for this. I mean, this article looks pretty fair

http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-and-sony-battle-via-press-event-at-e3-2014/

The only bias I see from CNET is from Jeff Backalar, most of the other writers are pretty fair.

 

[Keith Wallace]

I just don't see the point of Nintendo's E3. IMO, those are all likely to be late-2015 releases, meaning we'd just see them at E3 next year anyway.

 

[Jas00555]

IMO, I think that Microsoft won this round. I mean, look at their 2014 releases....

PS4:
LBP3
The Last of Us: Remastered

X1:
Forza Horizon 2
Halo: MC Collection
Sunset Overdrive
Dance Central Spotlight
Fantasia
Project Spark

There are 3x as many exclusives coming this year for the Xbox compared to the PlayStation, and one of them is just a remasteded game that came out recently. I mean, sure Sony had some nice games, but most of them aren't even coming out until next year, and anything coming in 2015 kind of makes me less excited for it.

 

[kingkoopa09]

Microsoft won this hands down Sony didn't show me not a single curve ball much same games even further release. I love last of us bit once you beat it once or twice it kinda sits there, lb3 is nothing compared to what project spark already offers, and u must remember Microsoft did a lot of announcements before e3 to save time like all the new entertainment apps, plus we already get nearly biweekly updates thru beta, plus all the new exclusives coming this year and next year. Sony did a whole event on what two games everybody has know about since before ps4 dropped and the Destin info is ancient I yawned at the whole announcement. I guess if its not broke don't fix it says Sony

 

[TonyDedrick]

I just don't see the point of Nintendo's E3. IMO, those are all likely to be late-2015 releases, meaning we'd just see them at E3 next year anyway.

Seem to be an equal number of announcements from all three that isn't coming till 2015. I think a late 2015 release seems about accurate for Zelda and Star Fox. But back to your point on whether they should have shown these games based on their release year. Same could have been said about MS and Halo 5. We wont see that until late 2015. So should they not have showcased it?

 

[WanderingTraveler]

I just don't see the point of Nintendo's E3. IMO, those are all likely to be late-2015 releases, meaning we'd just see them at E3 next year anyway.

Finished watching it, and while they threw a lot of curveballs, they didn't exactly throw a lot to outdo the others.

And Nintendo E3 is all about the Wii U. Third parties are picking up the slack just fine on the 3DS anyway.

By the wat, I can now confidently say that no one won E3. I can only see Sony as a loser, and MS and Nintendo as joint winners. The latter because they did what they needed to do: Show people some incentive in buying the Wii U. The former because they actually got me interested in their lineup.

 

[TonyDedrick]

I gotta admit, Zelda was the only thing I was looking forward to from Nintendo. Not to say I wont be in line day one for the Ruby and Saphire remakes, and SSMB or that Yoshi: Woolly World didn't look amazing or fun. But I wanted to see Zelda and they didn't disappoint in at least teasing for something new. The open world look of it is exciting and it looks absolutely fabulous.

As for the MS, again it was a "play it safe" presentation. But I will say, Crackdown has maybe got me leaning more towards getting a Xbone when (or if) I only had to choose one or the other (the other being PS4).

 

[Keith Wallace]

Seem to be an equal number of announcements from all three that isn't coming till 2015. I think a late 2015 release seems about accurate for Zelda and Star Fox. But back to your point on whether they should have shown these games based on their release year. Same could have been said about MS and Halo 5. We wont see that until late 2015. So should they not have showcased it?

That MIGHT be the case (though I'd imagine the 2015 count was something like 6-4, in favor of Microsoft), but the problem is that EVERYTHING meaningful was announced as 2015 for Nintendo--and no one believes Zelda will make it before 2016. Like I said, that means that E3 2105 will likely be really redundant. Microsoft MIGHT have had about the same number of 2015 games announced as Nintendo, but the difference is in the fact that Nintendo put their 2015 games with only 2 or 3 2014 ones, while Microsoft threw out probably a dozen 2014 titles (before counting indie).

Nintendo's going to offer some great games, when they get to offering games. Microsoft's got the quantity on lock though, and a good deal of it looks high-quality as well. The main reason for that is third-party though, because I don't know if the Wii U is going to see games like Unity, The Crew, Siege, The Division, Hardline, Advanced Warfare, Madden, NHL, Dragon Age, and the rest of the mile-long list of games from devs abandoning the platform.

But, through all of my negative comments, remember this: I just got a Wii U, and I'll be picking up games because Nintendo still offers great experiences the others don't even try to compete with. My One doesn't offer things like Mario Party, Tropical Freeze, SSB, or Wooly World.