by Patrick MifflinSony headlined the Monday night festivities at E3 2014. After coming off of a PS4 launch that can only be referred to as historic, E3 gave us a glimpse of what Sony had in store for their next tricks. Were we impressed?
Our staff chimes in.
Danreb Victorio, Managing Editor
While I’m glad that Sony didn’t spend any time gloating over the fact that they’re #1 around the world right now, there really wasn’t much to this presentation. Yes LittleBigPlanet 3, Bloodborne, and The Order were a few bright spots, but Sony didn’t really show off a big exclusive that’ll come in the fall.
Instead, they boasted exclusive features for multiplatform titles and talked this and that about PlayStation Now and PlayStation TV. If it weren’t for the Uncharted teaser at the end, I would’ve called this presser garbage.
The highlight for me? Definitely the announcement of a Grim Fandango remake, despite the screw-ups with the AV. I have a ton of friends with event services and logistics backgrounds, so the technical part of Sony’s conference was flatout laughable. Oh yeah, The Last Guardian didn’t make it again. Called it.
Filippo Dinolfo, Senior Editor
Sony started off fairly well, showing a good variety of games. Entwined, No Man’s Sky, and Bloodborne all looked really good. Then they hit a section in the middle where they just derailed themselves and pretty much lost me. This was by no means their worst showing at E3, but it really didn’t compare to the tight, game-filled bonanza that Microsoft started us off with.
Alex Quevedo, Senior Editor
I enjoyed Sony’s presser enough, though I’ll admit I was more into the Stanley Cup finals I had playing alongside it. They had a solid list of games to show, such as Bloodborne, LittleBigPlanet3 and the exclusives like Uncharted, but nothing showed an immediate need to grab a PS4 if you don’t already have one. I was surprised at how much they focused on TV and movies, considering how much they touted “we’re games games games” over Microsoft’s overall media approach in the past. I didn’t care for much of that content, but Powers could be cool. Oh and I guess one last thing: how the help did the elephant in the Far Cry 4 trailer not die when it was in the middle of an explosion?
Patrick Mifflin, Associate Editor
To pinpoint what went wrong with Sony’s show, you have to take another look at Microsoft’s. Microsoft treated us to a headlong litany of game after game after game, almost all of which were unannounced or otherwise had little known about them. In comparison, Sony wasted a ton of their time on stuff we already knew about, and most egregiously after last year, things that weren’t even games, like the camera (accompanied by another jab at Microsoft that came off as more douchey than clever), TV shows, and movies.
It would have been nice that we got segments on PlayStation Now and PlayStation (Vita) TV, had said segments included any actual important information, like PSNow’s business model or whether or not the TV’s current shameful compatibility list will be addressed before it launches stateside, but nothing of the sort was mentioned. It’s not that nothing appealed to me out of what they had on hand (LittleBigPlanet 3, Bloodborne, No Man’s Sky), but I certainly didn’t feel I was being addressed as directly as I was during the Microsoft show.
Parting thought: How much time could have been saved if Sony had cut anything non-exclusive or non-gaming from the show?
Josh Schwartzman, Staff Writer
“Sony came out throwing punches at Microsoft, showcasing new “add-ons” as they put it such as the new camera and Project Morpheus VR. However the announcement of PlayStation TV had many talking, as it allows gamers the ability to play over 1000 titles dating back all the way to the original PlayStation.
Speaking of games, Sony brought tons to show off, including the impressive No Man’s Sky, The Order: 1886, and LittleBigPlanet 3. Plus an exclusive remake of Grim Fandango is quite possibly one of the biggest surprises yet at E3. An announcement of Uncharted 4 at the end really has me excited to add more games to my PS4 collection going into 2015.”