5 Critical Mistakes Microsoft Made During Their E3 2017 Conference

Lackluster First-Party Offerings

With the Xbox One X (formerly Project Scorpio) getting its full unveiling during Microsoft’s E3 2017 conference, the pressure was on for the company to really sell it to players. Sure, it’s the most powerful console in the world, but power means nothing if you’ve got no exclusives to really show it off. Now, we’re not saying that Microsoft had no first-party exclusives on show, but there was nothing special or particularly new that really showcased the power and potential of the One X.

Sure, Crackdown 3 will bring its cloud-powered multiplayer mayhem to the table, but it was always going to be coming to the Xbox One, and let’s be real, it kinda looked subpar in its gameplay trailer. Compared to the likes of Anthem and Metro Exodus, Crackdown 3 looked a little dated and lacking polish. Sea of Thieves showed up, but again, it’s been at the past few Microsoft shows and we’re still no closer to a confirmed release date. As for Forza Motorsport 7, there’s no disputing that it’s going to look great on the One X, but it was pretty much known that we were going to see it show up at E3 2017.

Ultimately, Microsoft didn’t bring a hot new first-party exclusive to really wow fans and get them excited. It’s the same stuff we’ve been seeing for years now (especially you, Sea of Thieves).

Few New Exclusives and Some Absences

Whether or not you found these aforementioned titles particularly exciting, it cannot be refuted that there were few new exclusives to back them up. With such a scarce lineup of exclusives for the rest of 2017, Microsoft could really have done with some exciting new titles to bolster the likes of Crackdown 3 and Cuphead. Ori and the Will of the Wisp got announced, but it’s not due to release until 2018 and Sea of Thieves once again got pushed back.

Top that off with the fact that the likes of Below didn’t make an appearance, as well as 343 Industries not making an announcement after teasing some form of Halo content at E3 just last month and many fans will likely come away without the justification needed to splash out $500 on an Xbox One X.

Going First

For quite some time, Microsoft has had its conferences on the Monday morning before Sony’s. In the past couple of years, Sony has had some incredible conferences which, unfortunately, left Microsoft’s offerings looking a little lackluster. This year, with the Xbox One X’s official unveiling, Microsoft opted to move their showcase forward a day. It may not seem like much, but it was likely to make the Xbox One X the talk of the town for a whole day before Sony dropped their announcements and had the chance to overshadow the “most powerful console in the world.”

Yet, going first hasn’t worked out for Microsoft in the past and simply buying more time in the spotlight hasn’t alleviated this issue. If anything, it’s just given Sony more time to make any last-minute adjustments to their conference in order to be crowned the king of E3 for the third year running. Rather than trying to distance themselves from the competition’s announcements, Microsoft should be looking to compete with their own blockbuster reveals and fresh IPs to really put the pressure on Sony.

Xbox One X’s Price Point

One of the major reveals that players knew would be coming in Microsoft’s E3 2017 conference was the Xbox One X’s price point. With Xbox executives like Phil Spencer and Aaron Greenberg previously stoking speculation over exactly how much the One X would cost, players were unsure how it’d stack up compared to the Pro. Well, turns out it’ll cost more. Quite a bit more, too.

At $499.99, the Xbox One X is $100 more than Sony’s PS4 Pro. Now, granted, you’re looking at a more powerful console capable of running games at a native 4K resolution, but whether or not the difference between upscaled and native 4K is worth an extra $100 is questionable. Unless the One X has way more substantial third-party support than the PS4 Pro with enhanced framerates and this stunning resolution, it may have just priced itself out of the race.

Play Anywhere’s Double-Edged Sword Issue

Back at Microsoft’s E3 conference last year, the company revealed Xbox Play Anywhere. A service that meant all first-party titles would now be coming to the PC alongside the Xbox One, and purchasing any of the titles digitally on one platform would get you a copy of the other. It’s a great announcement for PC players who have long been wishing to play the Xbox’s library of exclusive titles, but it’s seriously damaged the value of the family of Xbox systems.

If you’ve got a gaming PC, why would you drop money on an Xbox One now that it literally has no titles you can’t play on your more versatile PC platform? It means that PS4 owners who have a PC no longer feel like they’re missing out on a vast library of exclusives, while Xbox fans still don’t have access to titles like Horizon Zero Dawn, Persona 5, or Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, to name just a few of 2017’s exclusives. When you’re trying to promote “the most powerful console in the world,” having the entire library available on PC (which has the potential to be more powerful than the One X) makes it way less enticing.

Microsoft may have opened its library of exclusives up to a larger audience with Play Anywhere, but in the process, they’ve made their consoles seem insignificant and somewhat redundant.