PS 4 and PC Dominate As The Demo Platforms Of Choice Again At E3 2015

As I was covering the 20-15 E3 Expo in Los Angeles, like many gamers I was looking forward to seeing what the latest and greatest from the top developers in the industry. This year we had more hands on opportunities with releases that were a ways out than in the past but the one thing that kept coming up again and again was that the PS4 was the system of choice for demonstrations.

EA had Star Wars Battlefront on a PS4 which considering their marketing deal was not that big of a surprise, but they also had the latest Need For Speed Game running on a PS4 as well. I was handed an Xbox One control for our time with Plants Vs Zombies : Garden Warfare 2 and noted that it was a PC that was running the game.

This continued for Disney Infinity 3.0, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Guitar Hero Live, and countless other demos we tried during our coverage. The only time we saw a game playing on an Xbox One outside of the Microsoft area was Rock Band 4. Every other title we saw was running on a PC, but more often than not a PS 4.

Star Wars Battlefront and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, can be expected due to their marketing deals with Sony, but it became clear that more and more developers have moved to Sony as their console of choice for demos. It appeared that Bandai Namco was showing Dark Souls 3 on an Xbox One but this was not the case and on the demo floor, the company had PS4 systems all over.

Last year I had noticed a shift but for now it seems as if the PS4 is the majority system of choice to demo on with a PC being secondary. While Microsoft had their best showing at E3 in recent years, it seems as if like many gamers, developers have made their preference known for showing off their games.

With a 2-1 sales advantage it is likely a mix of numbers as well as the perceived better performance which has caused this but as a gamer who remembers when most demos were done on an Xbox 360, it does show a real changing of the guards amongst many developers.