E3 may have come and gone, but there can be no doubt the aftershocks are still being felt. I won’t deny that Microsoft’s E3 showing helped me make my decision to return to the Xbox 360 scene after some 13 months away. Bottom line, Sony are promising the world but taking an eternity to deliver. We’re being promised Home, brainchild of the now departed Phil Harrison, as well as new franchises and exclusives to take the PlayStation brand forward. Right now, the PlayStation 3 remains nothing more than an affordable Blu-Ray player, and even that label is under scrutiny and severe threat with cheaper standalone players now on the market.
The Xbox 360’s trump card is and always has been Xbox Live, and the feeling of community around Microsoft’s console cannot be underestimated. When you switch on your console and sign into Live you’re instantly connected with others and able to share content, play games, and chat via text, voice, and video. The PlayStation 3, in comparison, is a very lonely experience. When signing into the PlayStation Network you’re greeted with a very basic interface with basic avatars and even more basic ‘Gamercards’. The latest firmware update promised Xbox Live like features, but all we’ve seen as a result is a giant leap in the sale numbers of Super Stardust HD as users desperately try to collect ‘Trophies’ (read ‘Achievements’ but 12 months too late) and justify the update.
This might sound like a lot of bitching about the PlayStation 3, but I left the Xbox 360 scene simply because of the unreliability issues, not the lack of quality games or online service. There was another two major influences on my decision to ditch the PlayStation 3 and buy a Xbox 360 again. First was the launch of the 60GB Falcon chipset Premium with a £199 price point, featuring the removal of the bottom-side RAM chips while doubling the top-side memory, resulting in less heat building up and warping the motherboard. Secondly was that Sony were preparing the 80GB PlayStation 3. Now, while my model was the 60GB launch system with full Backwards Compatibility, the release of another SKU would have seen the value of my 60GB fall further. With these two factors taken into consideration, along with the showings by both firms at E3, I decided to cash in and promptly took up Blockbuster’s offer of £250 trade-in.
The Final Fantasy XIII announcement was massive, let’s not underestimate it in any way, shape, or form. As I said on this very blog when it was more PS3 focused, it doesn’t make any difference to PS3 users because the game is still being developed for Sony’s console first then being ported to the 360 and at the end of the day, for PS3 gamers, nothing has changed. For the Xbox 360 community and more importantly the Xbox 360 brand, it’s massive. Sony’s only ‘real’ exclusive remains Metal Gear Solid 4, which I doubt we’ll ever see on 360 due to it generating massive system sales on it’s own as well as filling an entire Blu-Ray disc and having in-game jibes at multi-disc software. However, the list of ex-PlayStation only titles appearing on Xbox 360 continues to grow and Final Fantasy is a massive addition, sitting proudly alongside the likes of Grand Theft Auto, Devil May Cry, and Pro Evolution Soccer. Meanwhile, Microsoft can boast a superior collection of exclusive franchises that are going absolutely nowhere in Gears of War, Halo, and Fable.
It wasn’t just games for the hardcore 360 users that took centre stage at E3 though. Microsoft unveiled a sequel to last years Buzz rival, Scene It with Scene It: Box Office Smash. They also announced titles to counter Sony’s own lifestyle games with Lips and You’re In The Movies, which are the Redmond firms take on SingStar and EyeToy respectively. Microsoft’s aim is clearly to bring more casual gamers to the Xbox 360 and with lifestyle games they’ll give the system a chance, but it all depends on whether they can shake the hardcore gamer image they’ve built up over almost two generations.
Microsoft’s E3 showing wasn’t only about games, although software did continue to take centre stage with the unveiling of the new ‘Xbox Experience’, a brand new Dashboard update designed to evolve the console and provide a completely fresh and innovative experience. To help with this Microsoft announced ‘Avatars’, which on the face of things appears to be a rip off of Nintendo’s ‘Mii’s’ on the Wii, but the truth is that they’re far more in depth and feature a whole host of editing options to ensure you’re uniquely represented within the Live community. As well as being visible to your Friend List via your Avatar, you can also take your Avatar in-game with titles that support it, the first of which being Scene It: Box Office Smash. As innovative as this it, with the 360 about to become the first consumer electronic device reinvented via a simple software update, it also represents a risk in that hardcore users are comfortable with the current ‘Blades’ system and may not appreciate the change to a more ‘casual’ and user friendly experience. The blades will remain implemented and will be accessed via the Guide Button, basically becoming the new ‘Guide’, but that may not be enough to satisfy those not happy to see the Xbox 360 attempt to appeal to those of a more casual gaming persuasion.
All in all, Microsoft won E3 at a canter. People say Sony had a ‘competent’ show, but being honest I think they showed more big screen Bravia’s than they did big name software. Titles like MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and WipEout HD were more noticeable by their absence than anything actually shown on the 70+ screens in their stage set-up. Some say Sony played it safe, allowing Microsoft to exhaust their big announcements as the Japanese firm geared up for Leipzig and then the Toyko Game Show, but it could be argued that Microsoft delivered the killer blow at E3 by taking Final Fantasy to 360.
The PlayStation brand is powerful and it was cool (yes, “WAS”), but it now comes across as a brand run by a firm with it’s head stuck in the sand, refusing to look around and witness what’s going on round about it. Kaz Hirai’s view that Sony need not pay for console exclusivity sums up now arrogant they’ve become while Microsoft continue to act like the Sony who first entered the console market in 1994/95. They want to innovate, they want to provide, and they will use every available method of taking marketshare from their rivals which means paying out for big name exclusives and creating in-house First Party franchises that people will want to buy a console just to own. That’s what Microsoft done for me, and right now I couldn’t be happier at being back on Live.
See you online.
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