11 Major Rivalries That Changed Video Game History

3. Microsoft Vs. Sony

The face-off: Xbox One or PS4? Until last year this one was just plodding along, and then we had that E3 press conference. Talk about rekindling some old flames, Microsoft's mainstream drubbing is one for the history books; a real 'mic-drop' of a statement from rivals Sony that still appears to have won them the console war before it even got going. The facts of the matter are that Microsoft's unveiling of the Xbox One was received with a gigantic "Are you serious!?" reaction from the mainstream gaming press, as they attempted to force their voice-activated camera technology upon a demographic who really just wanted to play some games. This came after an entire generation of Sony trailing behind Microsoft's previous 360, so when they saw an opportunity to capitalise on their main rival's mistake, they took it - with flying, star-spangled, glittery-firework-bordered colours. You see it wasn't just the Kinect voice-tech people had a problem with, it was the fact that Microsoft were attempting to do away with physical copies of games, ushering in the all-digital future that terrifies and excites people almost equally. They wanted to charge various fees if you would attempt to trade them in, or give them to a friend within a certain time period, setting themselves up so perfectly that come the E3 press conference the expectation was that Sony were going to follow suit and join in this 'vision' of the future. Instead they laid the hammer down Thor-style, announcing that would not be the case whatsoever, proceeding to systematically going through the previous announcements that everyone was hating and confirming the PS4 would be doing nothing of the sort, thereby receiving the biggest cheers there's ever been at a professional game conference in quite some time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ-To7WJyWs