As I have said many times prior I find the notion of a company winning or losing a convention silly as the final proof is when the final sales numbers and reception for a product comes down the road.
Many have bashed Microsoft the past few years due to frequent shortcomings or issues with past conferences since the announcement of the Xbox One system.
At E3 2016 howwever, Microsoft gave a very effective, exciting, and polished presentation that showed many great looking titles and hardware.
The company showed off customized controllers, the slim version of the Xbox One, and the enhanced and more powerful Xbox One S which will be on the market in 2017.
As impressive as those announcements would be in and of themselve, the games that will be played on the systems is where Microsoft really shined.
New entries in the FORZA and Halo Wars series were well received as was the very impressive gameplay trailers for Gears of War 4 and Scalebound.
Dead Rising 4, ReCore, State of Decay 2, and new content for Killer Instinct weer very impressive as were the rumors of a new Halo game and third party content that was coming from multiple publishers.
What I found interesting was the notion that cross play between Xbox One and Windows systems were planned as this appeals to me to know that many of the exclusives will be available for my PC whcih is how I prefer to play the games.
To me this showed Microsoft embracing the PC players in a way they have often only paid lip service to. No longer is it a case of if you want to play our games, buy a console, it is now a case of being able to play their games on a system that most appeals to gamers.
I have wondered how the slim unit will sell with the knowledge that a more powerful system will follow, but Microsoft has embraced giving gamers a level of choice that they have not had from them in recent years.
The games and hardware looked great and it will be inetresting to see what the company has in store for 2017 and beyond.
