Exclusives
What disappointed me most about Sony was not the quality of games, the graphics or the console itself. It was the lack of good exclusives, and it was glaring. They kept fans of their own franchises happy with Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts and tried to take a chunk out of the Halo audience with Bungie's 'Destiny' but did not have any huge exclusivity deals. Arkham Origins has an exclusive...costume. The Walking Dead 400 Days has exclusive... Vita port. Elder Scrolls Online has an exclusive...beta. Watch Dogs has an exclusive... extra hour. Grand Theft Auto V exclusive...console bundle. The fact is if any of these games had been announced as PlayStation exclusives it would have been a sensational knockout punch, but it never appeared. The Order: 1886 aside, almost all of the best games from the Sony show will also be available on Xbox One where as next-gen Forza and Halo will be Xbox exclusive as expected, so will Minecraft, Killer Instinct and Dead Rising 3. Not universally huge games but they all have a large, loyal fan base that will certainly have had their heads turned.
Online Services
What was slipped in quietly during the tribal climax of the Sony show, hidden in the praising of the PS plus service, was that Sony would begin charging a fee for online multiplayer games that will be around $5 per month which matches the cost of Xbox Gold's $60 per year pricing. I cannot see any reason to complain about this as online gaming is a huge and rising sector and the upkeep and running of the required amount of servers is far from cheap, in fact it is quite incredible that Sony managed to last the entire life of the PS3 without charging for it but, in choosing my next console, the fact both online services cost the same removes one of the biggest perks Sony has held in this current generation. Towards the end of their presentation Microsoft briefly mentioned shared Gold accounts. Coupled with their already announced plans to share games and saves with up to 10 friends and family members, sharing multiplayer privileges with family without the need to be signed in could prove to be very successful once people can really see what is on offer. It will help make the Xbox appeal to households with multiple users on one console or multiple consoles in the house. All the fine details are yet to drop as it is still very early days, but the pricing of multiplayer could become a large battleground as both companies try to get their console on people's Christmas lists this winter.
Controller
Although the PlayStation controller is legendary, for me, the Xbox Controller is the best console control ever made. Sony is aware that many people consider this a large factor in choosing their next console and they responded admirably by thickening up the grips in the design of the PS4 controller to try and find a middle ground. The design they have come up with looks fantastic. Between those adjustments and the changes made by Microsoft I cannot be sure on which controller I will prefer until I have a chance to sit down hands on and test them out. This is yet another area that is too close to call but I find myself leaning towards the Xbox.