Verdict
E3 2017 is leaving us with an incredibly close call. Both companies had solid showings, but neither were as great as they really needed to be to get their points across. If we had to choose one though, Sony just slightly edges out Microsoft for two reasons. One being exclusives – Microsoft’s exclusive wording is as odd as ever, yet Sony showed clear, bonafide exclusives with stunning gameplay. They also didn’t have a console to sell, which let the focus be entirely on the games without any overcast.
Microsoft did a great job, don’t get us wrong. In fact, this is possibly their best showing in years. But, the fact that the Xbox One X was so central to the theme, many are left uncertain of why to bother outside of some graphical upgrades. There wasn’t enough exposition as to why games like Anthem or Assassin’s Creed Origins were better on Xbox One X outside of them being prettier. They also didn’t bring their strongest first-party IP to make Xbox a must-have console. The strongest games showed were third party and multi-platform titles which takes the edge off of them a bit, even if they are getting full 4K support.
I will say that both definitely dropped the ball on opportunities to really expand upon the biggest titles shown, which is sort of disheartening. However, it’s looking like the rest of 2017 and 2018 are certainly going to be exciting. We can’t wait to see more of what they have to show in the coming months.
