E3 2013 was decisively won by Sony’s PlayStation 4, followed by Nintendo’s Wii U, with Microsoft’s Xbox One taking a distant third as it heads through the exit door in the video game console war.
In the week leading up to E3, Microsoft positioned the Xbox One as an anti-consumer system that would strip paying customers of any ownership rights in regards to software, and even the console itself when Microsoft eventually shuts down their servers. This created the perfect opportunity for Sony to stand up for consumer rights in the high-end console market (Nintendo’s Wii U has that same issue covered on the lower-end) and they took it in a big way.
The PlayStation 4 is $100 cheaper than the Xbox One, it doesn’t pack in an unwanted NSA spy camera, customers have complete ownership over their physical software, the console will function forever in offline mode, it is region free (which is a huge plus for many military gamers stationed overseas), non-gaming services are not locked behind a paywall and it continues the outstanding $5 a month PlayStation Plus service.
The only negative announced at Sony’s E3 press conference is that they are restricting multiplayer to PS Plus subscribers, but the service offers so many benefits that it makes it hard to complain much about the decision.
Customers are the heart and soul of any industry, and companies who are arrogant enough to smack the hands that feed them are eventually taught a hard lesson. The current console market no longer seems big enough to support three players, and the Xbox One (as it was announced at E3 2013) has sealed Microsoft’s fate.
- Sony
- Nintendo
- Microsoft
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