The Calm Before the Storm

It’s Monday morning, the Monday morning and I’m as pumped as the rest of you. E3 starts later today, and with what’s been going on over the last couple of weeks there’s an added layer of spice.

Microsoft are heading into this one with an impossible task. As expected, news of an always-online console and strict DRM practices didn’t go down too well with the people that put (let’s be honest) Microsoft in the position they are today.

Maybe it was an idea to get all the bad messaging out ahead of the game reveals that seem nailed-on for their conference later today. But we’re a fickle bunch, and if Microsoft dedicate every second of that media briefing to games then the majority of the protesters will get used to the restrictions and learn to live with it.

Talk of Respawn’s new title is exciting and very similar to Destiny from what I’ve heard. I can see this whole “drop-in/drop-out” co-op play becoming quite the trend this generation the same way modern military shooters were last time around. With new consoles naturally gravitating towards the cloud more and more it makes sense to build these immersive worlds around the damn thing. So, I’m interested in hearing more about how that’s going to work.

In the wake of Microsoft’s new policies, it seems the cool thing to do is hop on board the Sony train, as if they’re going to be this free-loving console for the people – ain’t gonna happen! If you thought the fallout from last Thursday’s news was bad, wait and see the reaction when people realise that Sony are running that train into the same DRM-walled garden Microsoft has built around the Xbox One.

In the end, it’s a case of EA, Activision and Ubisoft dictating play. They want to control used game sales, rentals etc. Microsoft needs them and therefore have given them the tools to do so, and I can’t think for one moment that Sony won’t have to do the same.

I guess with the state of things I find myself silently rooting for Nintendo. I’ve given them a fair amount of stick over the last 12 months, all of which I still stand by. But when things are so fucked up elsewhere, you can’t help but cheer on an old friend.

It was interesting to see how Microsoft's job at E3 has shifted from just being about announcing stuff to also being able damage control for all their pre-E3 announcements. Hopefully they can make the best of a bad situation and show off some genuinely exciting games. I think whatever way this goes down, it's going to be entertaining.

Microsoft will really have to pull out all stops this E3. People will put up with the always on-line and the DRM, but Microsoft just needs to give them a reason to. That reason is games, but with the complete disregard for indie developers and those rumours about Microsoft's internal developers having trouble, they might have some issues.

At this point Sony is already looking like the winner. Given they've confirmed there won't be always online, it's likely that their DRM will be something like an on-disk check to see if the thing's real, regardless of who owns it.

Nintendo will will need to do something amazing to grab headlines, not just a repeat of what they've done so far. What's more they really need to clear up their message.

Having said all that, this E3 will be interesting, but it's also mostly known unknowns, I'm really looking forward to next year's E3, where we'll start to see some non-launch games.

I got a tab ready with all the "leaked" announcements from a week back just to see if any more (or all of them) are true.

http://plug.dj/bombshelter/ Pre E3 partaaaay?

What calm? It has been nothing less than a shitstorm leading all the way up to this. Tensions are so high over the "fate" of videogames as we know it that most people will come away completely dissatisfied as none of their, by now, completely bloated expectations are met. Microsoft would literally need to bring out Jesus onto the stage, holding the Xbox controller and saying "it will be alright children, I have seen the future and Halo is pretty rad."

I'll hear about it when I wake up as I'm going to sleep now. The only way the Microsoft conference will make me happy is if they back peddle on all the anti consumer policies.

I am truly hoping that Sony comes out against these Microsoft policies. The nightmare scenario is them confirming that they are doing all of it too.