Editorial: Sony Cannot Rest On Their Laurels At E3

Sony has to be pretty pleased with themselves. Not only is the PlayStation 4 still nearly impossible to find on shelves 6 months after its launch, it’s pretty soundly thrashing the Xbox One in sales, with a lead that only seems to be growing and not even huge games like Titanfall can seem to close that gap.

So Sony can just do the usual song and dance this year, right? Tout sales numbers, throw up a couple of trailers about Uncharted and maybe a new God of War or one of their other franchises and call it day?

Not so fast. Microsoft isn’t throwing up their hands here and going, “Oh well, our sales numbers are far outpacing our previous console, that’s good enough.” Now removed from the noise of DRM and some key changes in personnel, along with a new promise to bring games rather than hype to E3, they are actually pretty well poised to bring momentum back in their favor. Hell, all they may need is a price drop, with or without the Kinect.

Sony has no “No DRM, $400” bomb to drop to rally people. If you look back at last year’s press conference, it was lacking in excitement until those announcements, and that was pretty much at the end. That means they need games, and it better be something worth waiting for, because I find it hard to believe anything new at E3 is going to be coming this year. This year, as far as exclusives, there is basically The Order: 1886 and that’s pretty much it. If Microsoft has price parity, what’s motivating anyone to buy a PS4 over an Xbox One at that point?

Maybe Sony knows this and really wants to have a killer show this year, but history isn’t really on their side. I can’t honestly remember the last Sony press conference that was genuinely exciting with plenty of exclusives and genuine surprises. Mostly it’s just them fumbling through bland or downright awkward presentations.

As I said, Sony is probably aware of this, whether they really pull it together to counter whatever Microsoft has on hand at E3 is another matter entirely. I want Sony to have a fantastic E3. I want Microsoft to blow us away. Hell, I want Nintendo to do something, anything to salvage the Wii U on some level. Everyone bringing their A game to E3 is what everyone needs. But Sony needs it most of all if they want to really keep their momentum heading out of it E3 if they don’t want Microsoft to massively narrow and possibly take over the lead they hold now.

What do you think, GameSided readers? Has Sony got something (or several somethings) ready for E3 that will keep the momentum going? Or is this E3 where Microsoft will get their groove back and take the lead? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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