Microsoft made some news today with their conference at Gamescom 2015 but perhaps the biggest splash was the absence of Sony from a showcase of their own.
The company behind the Playstation 4 is sitting at a roughly 2-1 sales advantage over the Xbox One and Despite titles ranging from Halo 5: Guardians to Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Sony seems not to worry much about Microsoft.
While some see this as overconfidence, Sony sees this as a strength in silence strategy as they believe they have unloaded their big guns at E3 and as such, they have nothing further to say at this time as what they said and showed spoke volumes as far as their fans are concerned.
Some say that it was too close to E3 and focus on the upcoming Paris Game show and Tokyo game show where Sony will be present, and others would point to another PlayStation Experience in Las Vegas. While this is all fine and good and Sony will crush it in their back yard in Japan, I would note how Microsoft is a growing presence at Comic Con and other shows where Sony has deemed not necessary to have a large presence at. Is it a move of necessity for Microsoft to close the sales gap? Probably, but one may ask why Sony would want to give them any opportunity at all.
Xbox Supporters will tout how Sony does not have any AAA exclusives of note going into yet another Holiday Season, but with marketing deals in place for Star Wars Battlefront, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, and Disney Infinity 3.0, not to mention Destiny, does it sound to unreasonable that Sony will have the possibilities of PS4 bundles, content, and marketing push around the valuable Holiday season that they will use to push home the pending No Mans Land, The Last Guardian and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, not to mention to The Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection and Street Fighter 5.
Sony has endured one holiday season that was light on exclusives and seems to believe that they can go through another one powered by their current and pending lineup, as well as their new business partnerships.
It will be very interesting to see what Sony has to show at PAX Prime as while it is not a convention for showcases and announcements, it is a great place to show off your stuff to the fans as that is what has buoyed and maintained the success of the Playstation 4 to date.
We will be on hand to cover PAX Prime and it remains to be seen if Sony dropped the microphone at E3 and as such is operating in strength in silence mode, or will overconfidence allow Microsoft and The Xbox One to close the gap?
who cares?….anyone who takes anything from e3 or gamescom or any other trade show at face value in 2015 is automatically a moron
So why do companies spend heavily to attend, promote, and reveal at trade shows? Easy as they want anf need people to talk about it and if people did not care, they would not do it.
Come on, man. Sony’s lack of a conference has been explained: E3 was a week later, and Gamescom was a week earlier, making the two too close together. You can argue “Microsoft did it,” but they didn’t exactly have much in the way of exciting news to show. In fact had it not been for them skimping on games for E3, they’d have had almost nothing.
Finally, it’s not as if they had ZERO presence there. They had more booth space than anyone else. Why is this important? Well, Gamescom is open to the public, and has more attendees than any other gaming conference; by contrast, the press conferences are open to the press and a few lucky fans. Sure, there’s streaming the event, but having the content on hand for thousands to play makes a much larger impression, ESPECIALLY when those people go on and tell their friends.
Not having a conference is strategic for Sony, but it’s neither of the things you suggest.
That too soon line is a crock as it was not too soon for Microsof. They determined Gamescom was not important enough.
“Not too soon” doesn’t mean Sony had nothing to show at Gamescom, if they chose to attend.
Rather it means Microsoft don’t have another conference for 10 months, 10 months in which Sony have three major, streamed, conferences in Europe, US and Japan.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if next year Microsoft switch their Gamescom conference to Paris. It’s far better to have shows spread throughout the year, rather than two months in the summer.
How do you determine that? Because Microsoft showed up and didn’t have all that much more to show than they have since E3 last year? There were, what? Two new games showed off, and gameplay for titles we’ve known about since before the XB1 released, or ones that were revealed not too long ago.
Hardly the impressive showing a lot of people claim it to be.
YOU have made your decision on what Sony’s lack of a conference meant, and that seems to be wholly dependent upon the sole fact that Microsoft appeared at all. Any other truths, any other conditions or contingencies don’t seem to matter in your mind.
No matter how you look at it, that’s a pretty piss-poor mentality to have.
because there are alot of morons in the world of course ; )
You can’t show what you don’t have.
A 2-1 sales lead, hardware that is more powerful, and a lineup that at E3 outshone Microsoft’s offerings according to most of the press who covered it. I Would say they have shown plenty as have their growing fan base.
Is that why they’ll have showings at three more conferences?
It’s No Man’s Sky, not No Man’s Land, as an fyi. And you mention the show’s Sony has coming up….Paris, Tokyo, and the Playstation Experience. I expect Sony to save perhaps one or two of their numerous incoming 1st party reveals from some of their stellar studios (Sucker Punch, Santa Monica, Quantic Dream-technically not first party but only release for Sony, Polyphony, etc. etc.) for the playstation experience. It’s perfect timing for them, right before Christmas when purchasing decisions are made…they’ve already showed some big AAA’s for 2016, including Uncharted, Dreams, Horizon Zero Dawn, and The Last Guardian…they’ve also got huge indies like Rime, The Tomorrow Children, No Man’s Sky, Wild, Alienation, etc. etc….Sony has it on lock. They literally have so many games available, and on the way, it’s a pretty special time right now.
Microsoft and Nintendo are also looking good for 2016, so I expect 2016 to be a legendary year for gaming…one that may be talked about for a very long time. I’m hoping, anyway.
$0N¥ = lies, overhype and underdeliver.
WEAKNESS AWAITS!
Considering they have a more powerful system and more third party developers to go with a 2-1 sales lead. I think many would not agree with this. Now MS is a master of overhype.
Interesting to see you talking about PAX Prime, yet ignoring Paris Games Week. This is the second biggest games show in Europe with 300k visitors, at it Sony will have a 90 minute conference with AAA reveals and more details on Dream, Horizon etc.
The above takes place in October, before that Sony have TGS, an increasingly important show for the console maker as they look to re-establish consoles in Japan with Final Fantasy, Persona, Dragon Quest, Grab Turismo etc. Again we can expect a 90 minute show with AAA reveals from Sony Japan and local developers.
Finally we have PSX in December, another huge PlayStation dedicated conference and live show.
To my reckoning that means Sony will have three major streamed conferences
to one, post E3.
You are assuming Microsoft does not have others as well though.
Not really.
It just makes more sense to have your content spread more evenly throughout the year than all of it crammed between June and August. Now we have GDC at the beginning, E3 at middle, and Paris at late, it just makes more sense.
TGS is not for westerners, it’s all about the east.
Considering that the Xbox One does not sell well in Japan at all it is a slam dunk for them.