And so it arrives! It's the time of year that gamers look forward to almost as much as they look forward to Christmas in many cases; it's the Electronic Entertainment Expo, when the biggest names talk about the biggest games and just what's going to come out when, what it will look like, and what some of the stuff that's just barely in the works is going to be in the coming year. This was a big day for Microsoft in particular, an event that some suggested might well have proven to be make-or-break for the company, and from the looks of things, “make” might well be the best descriptor here.
Naturally, Microsoft had plenty to show off in terms of games. Perhaps one of the biggest was “Scalebound,” a game that looked like a weird combination of fantasy and sci-fi action featuring dragons, even bigger dragons, and Beats headphones. “Phantom Dust,” meanwhile, caught some major attention of its own, representing the revival of what was referred to as a “cult classic” on the original Xbox. “Sunset Overdrive,” “Dragon Age: Inquisition,” “The Witcher 3” and even a new round of “Crackdown” got plenty of attention. The indie games were positively staggering this year and presented easily four or five that I was dying to get in on, from "Hellraid" to "Plague Inc" to "White Night" and beyond.
But what may well have been the biggest point of order about the Microsoft press conference was that precious little mention was made of its television capabilities, or of its sports connections. No, the Microsoft presser today seemed to be all about the games, and this represented the biggest point of order about the whole affair. Whether it was “Inside” from Playdead, the possibility of a new Mass Effect, or any of a host of others, games, games and more games was the thrust of Microsoft's show, and that was what a lot of people were likely most eager to hear about.
This is what Microsoft truly needed to bring out at E3. There are still, from current reports, plenty of fence-sitters out there unsure about what route to go in terms of the next generation of console, whether it's the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4 that will seize allegiance in the months and years to come in this round of the console wars. Naturally, Microsoft is somewhat behind the eight-ball on this one. Not only does Sony have yet to go around, but Microsoft has put up its biggest call. Now the two are on fairly even footing, but as of right now, it's Sony's game to lose going into E3; Microsoft learned plenty from last year, and Sony will score no easy wins here. The rest of E3 will go a long way toward determining just who has the advantage into the rest of the year. Microsoft made a good showing, but it was pretty far behind Sony as it was.
