Sony
Sony today showed that press conferences can indeed become a game of two halfs. The first hour they were a little slow, a little tepid and it lacked a certain amount of energy. The second hour was ruthless, uncompromising and incredibly tight. While it is not rare for Sony and Microsoft to throw a few under the table jabs to the ribs at one another, this was about as public a beatdown as you could have. When Jack Tretton got up on stage and pulled up the slide saying that the Playstation 4 will support used games and not have any DRM, the arena erupted. It was by far the biggest applause of the day, attracting some people to stand and clap, forcing Tretton to stand on stage, with a knowing smile, that he had just drawn a very definite line in the sand. Oh, and in case you you didn't think this showing was subtle enough, take a look at this video from Sony. Ouch that smarts. Sony have taken a real grip on this "console war", and as someone who has tried to stay even and see it from Microsoft's side, it is hard to see how they could possibly sell more units than Sony now. They have clearly opened a rift between themselves and Microsoft, but also one that is more important than just "Xbox" and "Playstation". Microsoft have a bunch of great exclusives and that is because they have buddied up with major publishers. This could be a coming of will of "publisher" and "consumer". Sony clearly believe in siding with consumers and being an open platform, where as Microsoft is more about control and restriction. Microsoft may have more games that could "sell well", but the PS4 is just looking like a hands down more appealing package. Can a better service overcome "sellable" games in the long run? We are going to find out. Also, don't forget them indie games. Sony showed off some great looking indie games and they are an open platform for new developers to publish on. Indie games are going to play a big part in the future of the medium, and positioning themselves in a more attractive position to developers has me just as excited as anything Microsoft showed. That is all for today folks, but join me tomorrow as I finally get onto the showroom floor and play some of them games. Follow me on Twitter for my up to the minute reactions or just wait for me to preview the games in due time.