Earlier this week the biggest event in the gaming calendar took place, in the form of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2013. Every year the show is a pretty big affair, with game developers from around the world converging on LA, to pitch and discuss their upcoming releases/projects but this year was just that bit bigger. Even if you don't play videos games that often, it's highly likely that you'll be aware that this year marks the start of the next console war, as both Sony and Microsoft are due to launch new products later this year. We learnt very little about the new PS4 at Sony's February press conference but one could argue it was still better than Microsoft's first press release on the Xbox One in May. Anyway, on the opening day of E3 2013 both companies revealed further details on their new game consoles and one of the main new pieces of information was the launch price of their units. I've provided a brief summary of what Sony talked about at E3 regarding the PS4 including their proposed launch price and I've also embedded the video, just in case you fancy watching the whole thing yourself.
Sony opened up with a segment on the soon-to-be two year old PS Vita (their latest hand held gaming device) and they were very keen to emphasise that the PS Vita will continue to be heavily supported over the coming years, with plenty of new games to be released. Further more, Sony have now started to market the PS Vita as the "ultimate companion device for the PS4" and as we saw earlier this year in February, the PS Vita does seem to be able to work seamlessly with the PS4. It can act as a portable screen for when gaming in other locations around the house and can also be used as a more interactive controller for when you're on the PS4 itself. The next part of the conference was Sony finally showing the whole world what the console looks like, it looks as though they decided to move away from their original PS3 designs and take a step back towards how the PS2 looked. Not a bad decision in my book, while I thought the original PS3's looked good, there's something to be said about straight edges and a matt finish. It's not just the look of the PS4, which has changed dramatically from the PS3, Sony have also made their new console more environmentally ergonomic for the consumer, that is to say you can once again have the console standing up or lying down, like it was with the PS2. I guess if you wanted to, you could place light objects on top of your PS4, I know some people didn't like the fact the PS3 had to be more or less stand alone but to be honest for the sake of keeping the PS4 cool, I'd probably advise against it anyway.
The next big piece of information revealed by Sony about the PS4, was their stance on the used game situation. Over the last few months, rumours have been rife that there would be all sorts of stringent protocols, preventing you from lending games to a friend/family member and maybe not even being able to freely sell them on after you've completed them, amongst many others. Clearly the company is empathetic with it's customers and has been listening to concerns, whether or not they had other plans earlier in the year, Sony confirmed at E3 that their position on used games (disc based), has not and will not change with the release of the PS4. I watched the press conference in full and you should've heard the cheers that erupted in the room when this information was divulged, I honestly didn't realise that people felt so passionately about the issue but truth be told, I'm very glad that this point was chalked up for the consumer. The next couple points aren't set in stone but we're provided some preliminary information about them, the first is regarding the PS+ service, something that wasn't expected but very nice to hear, was that any new and existing PS+ subscriptions will continue to apply, even if/when you make the move from PS3 to PS4. The next point was regarding Sony's cloud gaming service, Gaikai, this was mentioned slightly more briefly at E3 than it was in February but the main thing to note was that it's expected to become fully operational in 2014, though initially only in the US.
Then came the grand finale, the official launch price announcement for the PlayStation 4 console, if you thought the crowd loved the news on the used games policy, you should've heard them after the launch price was disclosed. I predicted a reasonable figure because A) it's common knowledge that a lot of people were put off by Sony's PS3 launch price and B) unlike Microsoft's Xbox One, the PS4 is first and foremost a dedicated gaming machine with less additional costly and unwanted features. Anyway, *drum roll*, the PS4 will launch at...
£349 (Pound Sterling) - $399 (US Dollar) - €399 (Euro)
This final announcement rounded up Sony's time on stage and I don't think they could've left the crowd any more (legitimately) buzzing, bear in mind also that Microsoft had their press conference earlier in the day, so everyone had hard figures to compare (£80/$100/€100 cheaper than Xbox One). I think it's safe to say that PlayStation definitely had a good show at E3 2013 and as long as they make good on their pitch, I can see this games console war starting off with Sony having the advantage. One last thing before I finish up, it wasn't discussed on stage but if you're interested in seeing what the PS4's menu system looks like and how some of the features operate, there's a trailer at the very end of the video I linked and I have to say, it looks pretty slick.
Any thoughts on Sony at E3? What do you think of the PS4 launch price? Let me know below :)
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