Wednesday, June 4, 2014

The State of PlayStation Pre-E3

E3 is only a few days away and rumors are already buzzing.  This time last year was exciting as both Sony and Microsoft were announcing new gaming systems and the wait was soon to be over for people clamoring for something new.  Then E3 came and both Sony and Microsoft came out of E3 in completely different positions.  Sony killed the press conference and gained momentum that would lead to it being the number one next gen console by a landslide.  While Microsoft nearly killed themselves with a horrible showing that only told Xbox fans that they were not being listened to.  Microsoft of course changed a lot of the policies that had gamer's most angry, but the damage was done.

Fast forward to today and both systems are actually quite healthy, but the PS4 is that much more ahead, a few million to be more precise.  Everyone saw what E3 did to both Sony and Microsoft and thus all eyes are back on E3 to see if Sony can repeat, and if Microsoft can be redeemed.

With the PS4 still selling like hot cakes, it is interesting to look at why that might be, and whether it can sustain the huge lead that it already has.  Currently it seems as though the PS4 continues to sell solely based on word of mouth, the scarcity of the system, and overall value, but this can only sustain sales for so long.  The big system seller is of course the games.  Neither system has had a string of games that have screamed buy this system, but have mostly had decent games that owners of the system have liked rather than loved.  Infamous was a good game as far as appearances went, but the linear game play and story held it back from truly being titled a system seller.  Same goes for Microsoft and Titanfall, which also released on Xbox 360 and PC.  Again, it was a good game, but the fact that it was not Xbox One only hurt the system and the possible crowd it could have got to upgrade just for the game.  Besides these two games that were once labeled as system sellers before their release, both systems have kept pretty even with releases.


The only other thing the PS4 has had going for it has been the levels that it has been able to play multiplatform games compared to the Xbox.  Most multiplatform games play either the same or better on PS4 than they do on Xbox, which has led to PS4 having better numbers in sales regarding those multiplatform games.  

All of these things have contributed to the PS4’s lead, but that lead will not continue unless the PS4 is able to bring some excitement going forward about games that are coming in the near future.  The same goes for Microsoft and the ability to build back their momentum with some good game announcements.  All eyes will be on E3 come next week, and it will definitely be a good one for gamer's a like.

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