So it dawned on me today that Microsoft and Sony are in vastly different shape headed into E3. Microsoft has hardware to talk about with the Scorpio, but they have almost no announced games. Sony on the other hand almost has too many announced games coming from first party. I've compiled a list:

Microsoft's Announced Games

- Sea of Thieves (2017 or more likely 2018).

- Crackdown 3 (2017 - Scoprio launch?)

- State of Decay 2 (2017)

As far as I can tell that's the list. Forza Motorsport 7 is a likely bet... but outside of that? Halo 6? Gears 5?

Sony's Announced Games

- Uncharted Lost Legacy (8/22/17)

- Gran Turismo Sport (2017)

- Knack 2 (2017)

- Dreams (2017)

- Days Gone (???)

- Death Stranding (???)

- Detroit (???)

- God of War (2018)

- Spiderman (???)

- Last of Us Part 2 (???)

So what do you guys think? Am I making a big deal out of nothing, or do you think Microsoft has a uphill battle ahead of E3?

This I think is the biggest uphill battle Xbox has going into E3. The Scorpio looks impressive, but like 4k TVs the content is what matters and what will convince people to buy it. I'm almost half expecting some secret Valve deal where they'll announce they turned the Scorpio into a Steambox. I really think it'll take something like that or a bunch of nice exclusives to really push out Scorpios.

E3 is still a big stage despite the pullouts, and the public presence this year makes me hope that there are some hidden gems lined up. The lack of leaks and public announcements actually give me some hope for something really big.

I know I'm in the very tiny minority but I'm way more excited for the Ms lineup. Sea of Thieves is a great concept and could be an awesome game if they nail the gameplay.

State of Decay is my favorite janky mess of a game from last gen. State of Decay 2 is probably my most anticipated game going into e3.

Crackdown is always good dumb co-op fun but I'm extremely cautious since it's been dormant for years.

On Sony's side its just a bunch of games that don't interest me. Didn't like UC4, don't like racing sims, have no real interest in Dreams Days Gone looked bad last year, Death Stranding doesn't exist and I'm not a fan of David Cage.

That leaves Spiderman, which we've seen nothing of but is the only game I'm hyped for from Sony. TLOU2 I'm sure will be great but it's one of those games I'm not going to get excited for until I play because it's kind of a known quantity. Also a little bummed they're keeping Joel and Ellie around. I have 0 love for the GOW series but this is such a drastic departure that it could be real interesting. That said, it still stars one of the 5 worst video game characters ever made so that kinda sucks.

I suspect that Microsoft's angle of attack for the Scorpio is going to be the multiplat front. Sure, they will show off Forza in 4K at this E3 and maybe Halo 6(?, sorry have no idea where the franchise is right now) in 4K next E3, but that's not going to be their focus. They know that when it comes to exclusivity they have to significantly invest at this point for what might be very little gain, and they seem to have dropped the idea altogether with the PC shenanigans. It's also worth remembering that most of the time exclusives, even if they are critical darlings, do not dominate sales charts, the multiplats do (Wildlands was the best seller in March, and think about what it was up against there).

It's also become clear that Microsoft Games seems to have real trouble communicating with the developers they bring on for 1st party projects and probably respecting creative/professional boundaries (that 2nd half of my statement is just pure speculation on my part). However, if they can establish their high-tech box as being better than the other high-tech box for playing multiplatform games on, they might be able to significantly boost sales. The main issue with this strategy is that it is almost entirely reliant on developers/publishers giving enough of a shit to develop versions of the game for the Scorpio. Also, unlike Sony, Microsoft seems to have very little by the way of marketing deals with 3rd party games, such as how Sony has with Destiny and the Batman games back when they were coming out.

Recall that with the last gen the 360 was almost always what most publications were playing/reviewing multiplatform games, and how that dynamic swapped to the PS4. I suspect that Microsoft wants a return to those days.

Pricing could be a big deal for the Scorpio. Right now the Pro sits at around 560 AUD here, effectively a bit cheaper if you consider the fact that most of the retailers here are putting in bundles with games a lot of the time for the same price. Scorpio will be more expensive, but anything 600+ will be a tough sell. Hovering around 700 AUD will be a real problem.

Though I'll never get one, I am real interested in seeing how Microsoft does decide to spin the Scorpio this E3. There already is a device that can theoretically play most multiplats in the best possible way, and that's the Personal Computer. With Microsoft opening most of their library up to the PC market, it's difficult to tell who the Scorpio is even for. For all we know, Scorpio is actually a next-gen machine that just happens to have full backwards compatibility with Xbox One games, and in a year or two we'll be seeing the advent of Scorpio exclusive games. It certainly is powerful enough compared to the One for that to be the case.

If Microsoft had not cancelled scalebound and the phantom dust remake they'd certainly have a bit more going on this year... for better or worse. I hope Microsoft has a lot up their sleeve because they continue to have a really big software problem.

Sony definitely has the bigger long term line-up, though some of those games may be a two or more years off. Microsoft's lineup seems almost entirely due either this year, or early next year, and their slate beyond that is pretty unknown (aside from the easily guessable Halo, Gears and Forza). Microsoft mentioned they don't want to announce games super far out anymore, and while that could easily be a smokescreen for the fact their line-up post 2017 is nonexistent, I'm inclined to believe them, if for no other reason than it helps them avoid another Scalebound situation where a game is announced for years and then canceled.

It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft manages to pull anything out of thin air, and if how much Sony relies on their already announced line-up.

I can honestly say that even though I own every current system I am the most excited for Sony. I want hard release dates announced but I have a feeling God of War and Detroit will be 2018 releases. I hope Spider-Man is this year as I want good superhero games and we really don't get those that often. I have little faith in Microsoft's games but I hope they can change my mind. I also want Nintendo to prove to me they will make my Switch have more than 3 titles.

I expect some titles to be announced with the scorpio and whatever vr thing they release with it.

@whitegreyblack: would they though? PD was an extremely niche game that no one's heard about. Scalebound never looked good at any showing and the most interest it ever got was after it was canceled. Same with Fable Legends, another game that people showed 0 interest in. I don't think they should release a game just to release one, that's why they're in the situation they're in now. They've tried a lot of different things this gen, the problem is that most of it has just been mediocre to good.

I think it means Microsoft'll probably have a boatload of stuff to annouce. Or at least I hope they do.

I can't imagine Sony would get up there and just show mostly announced games. Maybe God of War if there's some new mechanic or system to show off, followed by a release date. Things like Days Gone, Detroit, Uncharted 4 expansion, and Knack 2 I figure would get some massive screen of logos love, as well as some trailer/montage spots. Spider-man stage demo, Last of Us proper trailer, and the rest probably new stuff?

@adequatelyprepared : was going to write something similar, but you worded it better already :)

Microsoft is creating a bigger presence on PC and wants to be the box in your livingroom for all those games.

Sony has no PC presence to compete with Microsoft on that front. Sure, their exclusives are often real good, but once people have 50+ games on the windows store, some of which might become their dota / csgo / overwatch type of game, will they still choose for Sony's walled garden over a box that plays the games they own and play on PC and Xbox already? While GFWL was a trashfire, i feel like they treated it as a sidething at that time, while now it seems to be their main pathway forwards. It might take a while, but eventually the Windows Store will be a reasonably well functioning platform i imagine.

That said, i wonder what happens if boxset type PC's get even cheaper. Will people eventually give up on Xbox as well and buy their own small formfactor gamepc's? I guess even in that case, Microsoft is able to get some money out of those users by offering more and more games via the Windows Store. Real interested what moves Sony is going to make in the next 5 years.

Microsoft should just make Sunset Overdrive 2 and Ryse 2. I realize neither of those games set the world on fire, but Sunset Overdrive was critically acclaimed and Ryse was fine for a launch game. If Sony can make Knack 2 then Microsoft can make Ryse 2. Microsoft can't launch IP this generation so it should go back to its two most successful properties rather than trying to put out yet another one and done game.

Sunset Overdrive was a great game. It deserves another iteration. And Ryse was reasonably fun and could be built upon.

I also hope that Cuphead and Below are actually ready to come out at this point. Those games were announced years ago and while quality takes time the one thing Microsoft does NOT need is a Last Guardian type situation.

Hopefully Moon Studios have some sort of follow up to Ori and the Blind Forest too. Whether that's Ori 2 or something else, that was another new IP Microsoft successfully launched this gen that they should build on.

Sony have always announced games way ahead of time, where as Microsoft usually focus in the upcoming two years.

Last year, Dead Rising 4, Forza Horizon 3 and Inside were announced for the first time at E3 and all of them came out in 2016. As far as I can recall, no Sony exclusives that were revealed at E3 last year have come out yet.

@mems1224 said:

Note in my post the words "they'd certainly have a bit more going on this year... for better or worse." These projects would not set the world on fire, but at least they'd have more to show. Personally, I thought Scalebound looked... okay-ish. Intriguing, at least.

I'm going to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt and expect them to have a bunch of unannounced stuff to excite people with at E3. They really ought to, if they want to win some hearts & minds. New hardware may not be getting people all that excited, at least those who saw the dearth of content in the first 2 years of the Xbox One & PS4 being available on the market.

INSIDE was actually revealed during Microsofts 2014 E3 conference.

Huh, you seem to be right. I totally remembered that the game was first announced last year.

I hear Sony does what Microsof..don't..

I'm mostly interested in the Scorpio because it's been a long time plan of mine to get one in order to complement my PlayStation in terms of exclusives. Of course I hope good games will be revealed as well. I might be in the minority here but I'm still a fan of Assassins Creed and am curious what they did to the formula (if anything).

Of course I'm also anticipating that hot HOT BELOW reveal. At this point they would NEED to say "and you can download it NOW" if they plan on saying anything about it at all.

That said nothing from the known commodities has me excited. I'm mostly anticipating all the reveals and announcements for games we don't know about. Last of Us was cool but I'm not chomping at the bits to play that again. Knack 2 though..

A Gaffer recently made a list of every game revealed at a conference till release from the past three years contrary to belief the above is not true. Source

- Days Gone (???)

I don't think I've heard anything about Days Done since last E3. I wonder how much time they give it this time around. It's got to at least show up in a montage.

We'll see what Microsoft look like after their E3.

That may be true. I don't have the time to dive into his/her methods too deeply, but at a quick glance the list of games this Gaffer provided doesn't include things like Shenmue 3, Deep Down, the Final Fantasy VII remake, or the Parappa the Rapper and Crash Bandicoot remakes.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. I'm finding Microsoft's press conference more fascinating this year mainly because their game library is a major question mark and they have what it takes to reveal some new, interesting games. Hopefully they don't play it safe and reveal games to ongoing franchises like Halo and Gears of War but rather push for more new IP's (which they have done with Quantum Break and Sunset Overdrive in years past).

Sony's first party library, however, is pretty strong and they might have a solid third party lineup to show off too. Games like COD:WWII, Far Cry 5 (Maybe?) and Crash N Sane Trilogy should make an appearance. Something also tells me we'll see a transition from Insomniac's Spider Man game to gameplay footage/character reveals for Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, like revealing Spider Man as playable character. The problem with Sony is that because their game lineup is so stacked, I feel they don't have much room for brand new game announcements this time around, but I could be wrong. People seem hopeful that Bloodborne 2 will be revealed at Sony's conference, so we'll see about that.

Anxious to see what Scorpio winds up being, along with the games announced. Finally seeing what Crackdown 3 is going to REALLY look like is the most exciting thing for me. That's about it as far as stuff that excites me.

State of Decay 2 has me seriously thinking about buying an S now that it's on sale.

I am super super excited for Crackdown and interested in Sea of Thieves; should make for fun PC games. State of Decay 2 also seems like a good time.

Other than that, the only other thing I have any interest in based on that list in the OP is Days Gone.

there are alot of ??? and 2018's. based on your list both will have 3 games in 2017. I like the sound of some of the games sony has said but we may not see some of that stuff for 2 years. I like a nice balance of it available today and sometime next year.