Sony Shows Microsoft It Means Business @ E3
Sony took no prisoners during its media briefing on Monday, opening the show with a cinematic trailer telling the story behind the upcoming game, Destiny, from former Halo developer Bungie. The company also announced that Destiny will arrive first on the PlayStation consoles, with a beta arriving on July 17. The game ships on September 9.
Wow, what an opening.
Sony introduced a wide range of new titles, original content and hardware during its press event, showing Microsoft that it has no plans to relinquish its lead on the market. One of the heavy hitters gracing the PlayStation 4 will be No Man's Sky, an open-world sci-fi title that seems to have no boundaries. Players will have their own unique planet, thus creating millions of inhabited worlds that players can explore.
Among the new titles showcased during the press event include Battlefield Hardline, Magicka 2, LittleBigPlanet 3, Bloodborne (2015), and Let It Die. There's also Dead Island 2, Mortal Kombat X, a remastered version of The Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain, Grand Theft Auto 5 (this fall), Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Batman Arkham Knight and Minecraft.
Sony also introduced on Monday an exclusive Destiny bundle packing a custom Glacier White PlayStation 4, the Destiny game, and 30 days of PlayStation Plus. This $449 bundle will be available when the Destiny game hits store shelves on September 9.
PlayStation 4 owners will also have the opportunity to play Destiny's First Look Alpha. This alpha will begin on Thursday, June 12th, at 12:00pm PDT, and ends on Sunday, June 15, at 11:59pm PDT. To register for a chance to gain entry head here. You'll need a PSN ID and a PlayStation Plus subscription.
"Consumers selected to participate in the Alpha will receive their alpha code via an on-console message and an e-mail sent to the e-mail address associated with the PSN ID entered," states the FAQ. "Alpha codes will be delivered beginning @ 12 Noon PST."
Sony announced that later this year PlayStation 4 owners will be able to upload gameplay to their personal YouTube channels. Further, Sony announced that you'll have the ability to watch gameplay in real time, and even interact with a player's experience. Twitch and UStream logos appeared on screen during this part of the presentation.
The company also revealed that the PlayStation Now streaming service will go into open beta this July 31 on the PlayStation 4, followed by the PlayStation 3 and Vita after that, then select Sony televisions. This streaming games service will offer more than 100 PlayStation 3 games.
If that wasn't enough to announce, Sony also revealed that PlayStation TV is heading to America. It's a set-top-box that includes the controller, the HDMI cable, the memory card and a LEGO Movie voucher, all for $139; it can be purchased on its own for $99. The device is obviously out to compete with Amazon's Fire TV and Apple TV, offering streaming video and a gaming component in one simple solution.
Compared with Microsoft's E3 presentation, Sony seemingly covered more ground, revealing both software and hardware. Just like Microsoft, Sony is betting on AAA games like Batman Arkham Knight, LittleBigPlanet 3 and No Man's Sky to push even more hardware. Destiny will probably be the big bread winner until the game finally arrives on Xbox One.
Which company made the boldest opening moves this week, Microsoft or Sony? That's highly debatable until you throw in Grand Theft Auto 5 and Project Morpheus, which will be on display at E3 2014.
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Project Morpheus is going to be just as much of a gimmick as the Eye Toy and Kinnect. Great idea, very cool tech, but without mass user adoption there will be little support from developers. I would love for VR to become a real thing, but as much as it pains me, the technology simply does not exist to make it really happen yet. We need much higher than 1080p displays, and a minimum of 60Hz refresh with minimal latency. If a $500 GPU cannot push that kind of fps and resolution out properly yet, then there is no way that these toy consoles are going to put out a product that will be any good.
Project Morpheus is going to be just as much of a gimmick as the Eye Toy and Kinnect. Great idea, very cool tech, but without mass user adoption there will be little support from developers. I would love for VR to become a real thing, but as much as it pains me, the technology simply does not exist to make it really happen yet. We need much higher than 1080p displays, and a minimum of 60Hz refresh with minimal latency. If a $500 GPU cannot push that kind of fps and resolution out properly yet, then there is no way that these toy consoles are going to put out a product that will be any good.
I'd hate to agree with you, but you are probably right. My short experience with occulus was mindblowing but very uncomfortable. I love rollercoasters and all sorts of things that do nastiness to people's guts, but it felt like my entire body was rejecting the occulus. Headaches and motion sickness. My friend who was letting me sample his said that it took some time but he had been used to it by then. Enthusiasts might be willing to power through for a glimpse at the future, but most people would rather just use a screen, without the discomfort.
But anyways, Destiny looks awesome
That being said, I think the "aged" gamers felt sold out by MS and in all honesty went back to PC gaming. Especially since you can stream from 1 machine to any other machine (Linux and Mac included) without even having a GPU worth writing home about (aka an intel "GPU"). I've been streaming WatchDogs and Skyrim from STEAM on my powerful PC (still more powerful than XBOXONE or PS4 and is years old). My SLI GTX 460 SE's have been doing great. All on my big TV, with a XBOX 360 / XBOX ONE controller and no need to pay the tax of the console being outdated in 2 years, but having to wait another 6 years for the next one. This will be the last version of console before everything heads to the cloud IMO. Hell my OUYA plays games from OnLive that look great and that thing isn't powerful (the OUYA) by any means.
After watching both MSFT's and Sony's E3's, i came away impressed more by microsoft's. Microsoft just has more AAA Developer's on board. virtually all of the big hitters have DLC coming first to Xbox, although i dont really care about it that much. Console DLC is expensive and comes out to late, after i've lost interest in the game all together.
I have to say, after all the hype, my xbox one gets used everyday because of the simple fact it integrates into my DirecTV setup. my PS4 sits idle until a exclusive title hits. Most of the games so far have been on PC as well, and my PC will always get the pick over the consoles so long as the game is available.
The success of the Xbox 360 is paying dividends to the Xbox One in regards to AAA title exclusivity. PS4 will catch up over the years, but the PS3's lackluster platform has done damage to the PS4.
Project Morpheus is going to be just as much of a gimmick as the Eye Toy and Kinnect. Great idea, very cool tech, but without mass user adoption there will be little support from developers. I would love for VR to become a real thing, but as much as it pains me, the technology simply does not exist to make it really happen yet. We need much higher than 1080p displays, and a minimum of 60Hz refresh with minimal latency. If a $500 GPU cannot push that kind of fps and resolution out properly yet, then there is no way that these toy consoles are going to put out a product that will be any good.
I hope I haven't misread what you meant, but a £150 GPU can run most games at 1080p 60fps. My £340 R9 290 can run some games at 4k 60fps and certainly can run 1440p at 60fps and 1080p at 120fps. I doubted the ability of the PS4 when it first launched. I don't own one (I have a crossfire R9 290 PC setup) but my brother and my girlfriend do, and I'm impressed by what they can manage. I've read nothing but positive things about things about the 1080p oculus rift, so I'm sure console games that are used to having 720p most of the time wont mind.
I am very disappointed about bungie. Microsoft made them the big company they are. Without Microsoft the very first Halo would have been an absolute flop. I wonder where so much hate comes from ... and Sony bragging about 15 Minutes with Destiny, just because they get it 7 days earlier? WOAH! Both of them should be ashamed about what they are doing there.
Respect for the opening of Microsoft, praising SONY AND NINTENDO for pushing the gaming sector with microsoft together. While Sony was only firing shots at microsoft and spreading hate, microsoft was kind and generous towards sony and nintendo.
Stop the console war! There is nothing less important in this world. Good Microsoft can see that.
Both had 2-3 good exclusives, not one game more.
Last year everyone praised Sony "yeah, GAMES ONLY! Sony wins" ... this year? "GAMES ONLY? Microsoft fails" ... hypocrites ...
The standaout title for me is no mans sky, it looks amazing and really could be a gamechanger if its delivers on the promises. I don't think its a AAA title as suggested in this article though, its only a group of 6 developers from what i've read!
I just thought the article title is a bit fanboy-ish, but better than some I've seen.
I fail to see how having few exclusives presented on E3 is a fail when this generation was announced to not have much exclusives to begin with.
Like Blooborne, Uncharted 4, LBP3 right?
Sony on PS4: Order: 1886, Blooborne, Uncharted 4, LBP3, Let It Die, Driveclub, Deep Down
MS on X1: Quantum Break
List any 2-3 exclusive on a level of those Sony showed, any, i can see just one(and it was shown on previous E3)! Exclusive, not a multi that was simply shown on MS's presentetion.
The very fact that you wrote this line shows that you are an microshit fanboy. You can't accept that MS failed hard and that EVERY news site that have game section news have praised Sony presentetion and said how good it was especially with the lackluster MS' in comparission yet here you're writing...
Thats the kind of total fanboyism everyone hates.
Its a Fact, that 1-2 years ago everyone hyped Sony for "Games only" in the conference ... and THE SAME SITES now praise Sony for showing not only games and crapping on microsoft because they dont show any stolen gimick ...
But okay, i am a Fanboy for hating both conferences ... you are no fanboy at all for praising every faked "ingame" trailer from sony and telling us, that microsoft had only one good game ...
I hope I haven't misread what you meant, but a £150 GPU can run most games at 1080p 60fps. My £340 R9 290 can run some games at 4k 60fps and certainly can run 1440p at 60fps and 1080p at 120fps. I doubted the ability of the PS4 when it first launched. I don't own one (I have a crossfire R9 290 PC setup) but my brother and my girlfriend do, and I'm impressed by what they can manage. I've read nothing but positive things about things about the 1080p oculus rift, so I'm sure console games that are used to having 720p most of the time wont mind.
The issue is always "at what settings" and "with what games"
The R9 290 is a respectable card, but as you said, it can only push 4K/60 or 1440/60 on SOME games, with SOME settings. Certainly running 2 in xFire helps in that considerably, but consoles do not have that option, and even with the option on PC there are some games and settings where even that amount of hardware is simply not enough. They (consoles) have to be able to play EVERY game at their standard (mid to high) settings, and with low latency in order to pull this off. As found with the Rift, many games are playable at 1080p... but text is still blurry, and other details simply are not good enough at that resolution. So then you are asking hardware that can barely eek out 1080/60 to push out 1440/60? I just don't see that happening any time soon.
The other issue is consistency. Even my good 'ol GTX 570 can play most games acceptably on high settings, with mods, and at 1200p (though having some extra ram would help on newer titles)... but it is merely 'acceptably' which means that we are hitting 60fps most of the time, but when stuff starts happening and the scene gets crazy then it will happily drop down to 30fps for a bit. This is fine and considered normal on a display, but with an immersive headset these sub 60fps dips are unacceptable. Meaning that it not only looks choppy, but can cause nausea and headaches, which is beyond being merely 'not acceptable'. High end GPU tech is getting there... but it is simply not there yet for PCs, and you can forget about it on console where you cannot fit a single $250+ GPU, much less 2 of them.
In other words, hitting these specs some of the time, on some games, with some settings is not good enough. It must hit this spec with all (or at least most) games at good settings, as well as future titles (in the case of consoles 8+ years of new titles), and never drop significantly below that 60fps mark. I am a huge advocate of technology... but GPU tech is simply not here yet even on the higher and more expensive end of the spectrum. It certainly is not here on the budget and console end of things yet. But it will come to PCs in the next 5-10 years... and then to consoles in 10-20 years.
When the tech arrives I will be one of the first to jump on board and enjoy it, but at least for the near future it is (sadly) still a pipe dream.