E3 is over, maybe in more ways than one, but that could be an entirely different article. I’m here to analyze what I saw after watching the big two go head to head in entirely different fashions. We saw a tale of two platforms last week, and responses online are varied, interesting, inflammatory, and more. While my personal opinion is that Microsoft crushed it – many others believe that there was no comparison to what Sony put forth, and still yet some hold out hope that Zelda will be the sole reason to reinvest in another Nintendo console at launch. My hope here today is to shine a light on the seemingly less popular opinion that Microsoft had not just a great showing, but one that didn’t just pander to their audience, and instead gives owners or potential buyer’s faith that the behemoth has a solid course in the coming years.

Remember these are two large companies that don’t owe anyone anything. The bottom line is they’re selling products, making money, and glad to take yours.

Our boy Phil led off with what was honestly surprising – coming out and acknowledging not only that Xbox One S is a thing, but that it will release at $299, at an alleged 40% reduced footprint, and offer a few new features. It will not play your games better, get that garbage out of here because I don’t believe it and it wasn’t actually said by any Xbox rep. HDR is neat and all but if a game wasn’t made to take advantage of it, we might as well move right along. The new controller and overall reduction in size is exciting – it shows more than just Microsoft thinking about shoving games down the gullet, but that they’re investing R&D dollars into refining the platform. This will be a huge point later on when we get to the end of the Microsoft show, so I won’t beat it into the ground (not yet).

I’m not going to stop and chat about each game they showed here because you, dear reader, have the power to check out each show individually, and then blast your thoughts at me in the comment – instead, I want to focus on what these presentations did that was interesting.

Gears and Forza Horizon 3 began the now-infamous, and what I thought were TM Jeff Keighley, lead-ins of “EXCLUSIVE”. What’s more interesting is the outlandish claim that because games are coming to PC there is no reason to buy a console and they can’t call them exclusives. First off – they can call them exclusive because they’re not on a Sony platform. Second, sometimes on sites like this and in articles like this we forget that we aren’t the bigger picture. Generic Consumer A does not go out and say “I read on (insert latest gaming blog/site) that I should just build a PC for my son/daughter instead because there is no reason to buy these game boxes”. They hear “I want an Xbox/PlayStation” and they go out and buy that device. Exclusives, in general, are a pretty awful thing when you really look at it – the motivation there is purely business focused to force the purchase one way or the other. I know why it’s done, I just don’t like it. The fact that Microsoft is embracing (at least attempting more now than ever to) the PC platform is encouraging and extremely forward thinking.

As we go through a few more things we’re just going to skip ahead to the quick mentions of new features in Xbox Live;

• · Arena – Multiplayer/Competitive hotspot for tournament play
• · Cortana – voice activated assistant
• · Background Music
• · Looking for Group – Never raid or go into an Incursion alone, Division and Destiny players rejoice!

While Arena didn’t hit for me, I see the point and like the angle – why not have a home on the platform for the competitive stuff? Those that want to take their game up against their zip code, state, region, or whatever. Cortana is kind of cool and might help for things like responding to messages quickly or if anyone still uses snap (that’s still a feature right?). But there are other opportunities to ask things like “what’s the score of the Copa game on right now?” that might be able to be answered without having to remove yourself from the immersion of the game you’re in. Background music…I mean that’s just a long time coming and is honestly about damn time. Listening to Spotify on PS4 is a great feature, and it’ll surely be something I use with No Man’s Sky if the soundtrack doesn’t jive. Looking for Group also adds a feature that while it was somewhat present on Xbox 360 in the form of Beacons, it wasn’t adopted well due to the fact that it was basically introduced and you were left to run with it. As long as games can work in LFG in a way that does it all for you via the menu, or at least makes it intuitive, we’ll be in good shape.

Let’s jump to the finale. The Project Scorpio reveal was masterfully handled. They’re starting the conversation, being transparent, and introducing developers, publishers, consumers, and decision makers to what their vision for the next few years looks like. Whether or not you agree with iterative console designs and improving hardware a few years into a cycle or not, it seems like at least one platform is doing it for sure – while Sony either realigns or prepares a solid public-facing message. There were some serious missteps though, 6 Teraflops is a good number, but it’s also tough to really get the meaning of that measurement across in a quick marketing video so it’s probably left better unsaid. Dive into the Tflops and write speeds later – I’d rather just hear “most powerful console ever made” because that gets me interested.

Getting developers talking about the Scorpio also reveals that conversations are already in the works – the people crafting experiences for the new hardware already have the information and can direct workflow accordingly. It’s short-sighted to say “well developers are going to have to accommodate for a large swath of hardware” because of the fact that any developer going to PC already does – and yes there’s a point of obsolescence. You’re not playing The Witcher 3 on your Voodoo card – that does not happen on PC and it’s unrealistic to think it won’t happen at some point in the console space either.

This all served as a sort of lens to my feelings of the Microsoft event – I got excited. Not so much about the games, sure some looked really interesting and great, but more for the platform. It reassured me that the future of Xbox is indeed a future, not just focused on showing me glossy trailers for games because the internet clamors for “gamesgamesgames” at a press show.

Sony, on the other hand, had some seriously impressive stuff – God of War, for instance, looked great, like a real reimagining of the formula. Gone are the days of mindless button mashing – I do worry it’s going a little too much for The Last of Us/Tomb Raider copy/paste into a Nordic setting but we’re still a ways off with plenty of time for me to be proven wrong.

And that’s the thing.

We’re still some ways off from a lot of what Sony put out there.

Sony showed us a new God of War, Days Gone, Horizon Zero Dawn, Detroit: Becoming Human, Farpoint, Death Stranding, Spiderman – all of which have no release date mentions. While these are all interesting and cool looking, and certainly on my personal radar – I can’t help but feel that they were only in the show to hype the crowd and make it seem as though Sony had nothing but games constantly. In reality, we don’t have a lot to go on beyond the fact that games are coming and we have to trust they’ll make it to full release. Even Crash Bandicoot was announced, but not in the way you want him to be. How many of us are going to go pick up Skylanders just to scratch the Crash itch? The remasters are coming, and while that’s cool I’m not convinced they hold up in their own right. Sony left me feeling pandered to, simple as that. I got the distinct feeling of “you like games and VR, so here it is”. To be fair we did get dates on Last Guardian and PSVR itself but it just felt like the most exciting things were left at a “coming soon”.

I did enjoy Sony spending some time stating that between release and the end of the year there will be 50 “games” – if those end up counting things like a Star Wars or Batman mission then the count between games and what are basically tech demos starts to shrink, but the sheer number of possible experiences shows that Sony is committed to having content there for PSVR.

That isn’t enough for Sony as a platform holder though. What about PSN? Why does the PlayStation phone app give me a timeout error within the app itself when trying to read a message? Why is the store experience on the phone basically just a browser and on the console still slow and laggy? What’s next for PlayStation in the way of features? There are so many simple questions that need to be answered about the infrastructure that I came out of this conference thinking “wait but what about” that I wasn’t confident at all about much beyond some of the games that we *might get in 2017.

At first, I came out of Sony pretty excited, thinking this was one of the best E3 events ever – a point that I think still stands. After reflection, however, I’m still frustrated with the things I’m frustrated with Sony for. While Microsoft definitely didn’t execute flawlessly, they did show me the path to a better environment and ecosystem – something that at the end of Sony’s show I felt as though we’re going to deal with the PS4 and PSN just the way it is at least for another year. It was missing Shu, it was missing Boyes (are we done “building the list?”), it was missing the indie charm that garnered praise in years past. A live symphony was an incredible touch, and the showmanship displayed was superb, but when looking at a “state of the union” regarding the PlayStation brand I didn’t feel inspired or hopeful for the black box on my shelf.

The bottom line is that if Neo is in the works, and Sony plans to release it in 2017, they need to start the conversation with developers – which isn’t a big revelation – but they need to also warm consumers up to buying a new, more powerful console in the same way. The pitch has to be absolutely flawless. The case for early adopters or tech addicts (i.e. me) to get this new console has to now compete with a new Xbox project that we know is more powerful than anything out there now. When I think ahead to the year for Microsoft I see a few smart choices and some evolution. By talking about Scorpio now, they’re giving developers time to adapt and have things ready to take advantage of the new hardware day zero. If Neo comes out without a lead for developers, is less powerful than the Scorpio in a straight up, head-to-head comparison, and doesn’t boast a comparable or superior network platform we should all be seriously concerned about the decisions being made at Sony from the top down.

I’ll quickly wrap up some things that might already be clear, but I’m decidedly Xbox leaning. I’ve got a PS4, I’ll be picking up a PSVR, and I have plenty of friends on the PlayStation platform. I love it for what it is but my Xbox gets more of my time that isn’t dedicated to the PC, mostly because, as with Xbox 360, that’s where my buddies are. This is also got wordy, but try not to just get angry because that’s the initial response when someone criticizes anything you spent $400+ on.

I’m still very excited for the next year in gaming. However, now I’m excited to see how Microsoft implements their strategy, and if Sony starts to be more proactive. Even with a gigantic and nigh-insurmountable lead, Sony shouldn’t let off the gas. Hopefully you got the gist of my argument, and even if you disagree there’s a conversation and valid points that we can discuss, instead of a fanboy war over two of the largest companies out there.