Now that 2011's E3 has come to a close, I finally have time to reflect upon Sony's PlayStation-centric press conference from Monday. As I noted on Twitter, after analyzing the live blog I wrote during the conference, I concluded that Sony won E3. It's not to say that the other press conferences and showings weren't strong in their own right, but it is to say that Sony seems to be interested in appealing most to the hardcore, dedicated gamer. That point is hard to dispute.
Obviously, the 1,000-pound gorilla in the room at the Sony press conference was the lengthy PlayStation Network outage that has only recently run its course. And smartly, Sony Computer Entertainment of America's president and CEO Jack Tretton discussed the outage immediately upon arriving on stage to begin the conference. In earnest, Tretton "personally" apologized for "any anxiety" caused to gamers by the outage. It was a nice touch, and the best possible way to kick things off. Indeed, cutting right into the PSN outage immediately exorcised that demon and allowed Tretton and others from Sony to work their way more into the nitty-gritty of PlayStation's showing at this year's E3. (And as someone who wrote a great deal about the PlayStation Network outage and how I think it was initially mishandled, I appreciated Tretton's good-natured jab at the media.)
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is Beautiful
As Tretton noted, 2010 was the strongest year yet for PlayStation 3. And even with the PSN outage, PS3's performance is so far on track to eclipse its 2010 numbers as 2011 races towards its second half. This is no doubt exciting news for Sony, but it also brought to mind something I've often thought about, something that I feel Sony has neglected to take full advantage of. And that something is the fact that the strength of PS3's numbers are often conveyed out of context. I am confused why Sony never delves deeper into this fact when talking about PlayStation 3 sales, and was especially surprised it wasn't brought up this year as worldwide sales parity develops between PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Here's what I mean. Microsoft last reported Xbox 360 sales earlier this month at 55 million, while Sony last reported sales for PlayStation 3 this past March at 50 million. Since their respective November release dates were a year apart,
Xbox 360 has been on the market for 66 months, PlayStation 3 for 54 months. Thus, Sony is averaging nearly 926,000 PS3s sold worldwide each month compared to Xbox 360's monthly average of 833,000. This isn't a point Sony has ever nailed home, and it's a missed opportunity for the company to show that its sales situation isn't as dire as it's often perceived to be.
But that missed opportunity aside, there were two primary, overwhelming strengths to Sony's conference: exclusive games and the major reveal of its successor to the PSP, the PlayStation Vita. Sure, there were other reveals -- including an affordable (albeit small) 3D television and a cheap pair of 3D glasses -- but the PlayStation brand's strength rests in its exclusive content, and between that content and a successful reveal of everything Vita has in store, it's hard not to give Sony credit for delivering this year's winning press conference performance on those facts alone.
Sly 4 is just one of many upcoming Sony exclusives.
From
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and
Resistance 3 to
Starhawk and
Sly Cooper 4, Sony stressed experiences that can only be had on its platform. It's true that there were few actual surprises (at least in terms of PlayStation 3 software), but all of these exclusives are what's truly exciting for those that own a PS3. There were nearly a dozen PlayStation 3 exclusives in total shown at the conference
(including the awesome LittleBigPlanet 2 Move-enabled DLC and a couple of much-anticipated HD collections), a staggering amount of games. Other upcoming and much-anticipated exclusives, such as
Twisted Metal and
The Last Guardian, weren't even mentioned in passing. Now that's a deep roster of exclusives.
Then, there was the reveal of Vita. Sure, the name is pretty bad, but then again, I suspect it will grow on us as we start throwing the terms "Vita" and "PSV" around. To me, it seems that Sony has preemptively learned from the mistakes Nintendo made when the Nintendo 3DS launched in that there was no compelling games for people to play. While uncertain terms like "launch window" are being used to describe the slew of titles we saw at this year's E3 on Vita, the fact is that Sony isn't trying to sell Vita on the mere fact that it's the successor to the PSP. In addition to all of its non-gaming functionality, Trophy-earning possibilities and more, there will be compelling titles ready around the time Vita comes out late this year, and there's cause to be really excited for many of them, including Super Stardust Delta, Uncharted: Golden Abyss andLittleBigPlanet. Again, all exclusives.
Introducing the Sony Vita
To be certain, I was skeptical of Vita's potential. I owned a PSP and I enjoyed it, but while it was wildly successful in terms of units sold, there simply was a lack of interesting software late in its life. But I've played Vita. I've held it. I've experienced a PS3-quality Uncharted on Vita. I played an untouched ModNation Racers track created on PlayStation 3 using a Vita. I saw a Super Stardust experience indistinguishable from what's on PSN. And I'm now a believer.
Sony also nailed the price point of the Vita. And I mean nailed. $250 for a wi-fi enabled unit or a mere $50 more for a 3G-enabled PSV makes this handheld extremely competitive. At $250, it's the same price as a Nintendo 3DS. And after hearing from a slew of readers on My IGN, Twitter and Facebook, I know that it's making people think twice about which handheld they want. Something tells me that's exactly what Sony intended. Sure, the AT&T announcement was disappointing and underwhelming (and also revealed the bush-league attitude of several people in attendance as they laughed and booed), but that's not a relevant concern to me. I'm going for the $250 model myself.
Clearly, when taken as a whole, Sony won this year's E3 in terms of providing games to gamers. Sure, there's anticipation and excitement for what Microsoft is doing with Xbox 360, and rightfully so. That's a console that's becoming the go-to entertainment machine, with a smattering of games, exclusive entertainment opportunities, and more. And then there's Nintendo, with a more nebulous future with the 3DS and Wii U that's still full of potential. But if you're a gamer -- and I am indeed a gamer -- it's hard to deny the facts. The games were with Sony this year, and games are what I get most excited about.
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/117/1175199p1.html
