PS4 And Xbox at E3

Ps4 and xbox at e3

In contrast to the Xbox show this morning, where Microsoft teased us with their new technology, Sony has chosen to show new games. However, there is definitely a new upgraded PS4 in the works (PS4 NEO), You just can't see it at this year's E3.

We put the question to Sony. "You have a new PlayStation, or an upgraded PlayStation 4, in the works, Why aren't we seeing that at E3 this year?"
They replied "It's really very simple. Just as was the case with PlayStation VR, we feel that it is important to show people the new hardware, the new platform, when we have the full range of experiences to take advantage of it. The high-end PS4 we are working on is an addition to the existing seven or eight years, and perhaps offer, in addition to the current PlayStation 4, something a little extra."

"Every single device will play the same content - is that the idea?"
"Yes every single device will play a standard version of a PlayStation 4 game. Then we will have the opportunity to have what we hope will be a large set of games that will also have this higher fidelity option."

So as far as PlayStation and Xbox are concerned, there might be more new machines on the horizon than console consumers might have Expected. That was Marc at Sony. So we have also heard from Microsoft. The other big hardware manufacturer, Nintendo, doesn't tend to make too much Noise At E3 these days.

They do have juggling fruit on their stand, so that is good, though. They also have this big new secret console in the works which is still secret, so they still won't show it to us.

They have, however, announced a new game, and that is the new Legend Of Zelda, called Breath Of The Wild. Here, your hero Link awakens after 100 years' hibernation to a vast landscape, all of which seems to be explorable. He's learned some new skills - he can now jump, climb and steal weapons.

The game will drop next year and it will run on the Wii U, and that new console, still codenamed NX. There you go - that is E3 2016, and I don't know about you guys, and a new PlayStation as well.

That's unusual, isn't it? You usually get one console from a manufacturer for the entire life-cycle. Well, it is an upgraded PlayStation 4, and a slimmer Xbox One, and a completely different machine in the shape of Project Scorpio. And it is a little bit confusing for consumers because, as you say, over the course of a console's life it is just one machine - it is locked, the hardware is locked, nice and simple for developers, and nice and simple for consumers.

This now, this space with several different machines there, some of them with higher specifications than others, it creates a little bit of confusion in the space and, for me, I don't quite understand what the strategy is there moving forward. Surely it has got to be VR, hasn't it? Surely, we need a box that can cope with VR and 4K? Well, that is the promise. That's the promise, isn't it? Of course next year VR is going to be coming.

You know, one thing I found quite interesting about those announcements, the press conferences on Monday, it is that Microsoft chose pretty much a couple of hours beforehand to make the announcement about buying LinkedIn for 29 billion, that is all you heard on the news, the second biggest technology purchase of all time.

I wonder if the folks at Xbox are a bit miffed about that, or if it was strategic to make sure Sony was never going to get the headline news that night. Pure speculation - totally allowed on the BBC. What were your stand out moments of E3 then? I have enjoyed seeing all the shared world gaming content we have going on at the moment. Really bringing us back to an era of gaming which is sort of group gaming, but unlike open world, shared world means you do not have to play with the great unwashed masses, you know, you can choose your gaming friends to play with. That can make it a bit more of a customised experience depending on your play style. And next year we now have these new consoles to play with, and a lot of VR content as well. Next year we should genuinely see some new machines.

They have been teased this year - we haven't been able to get our hands on them or play any games on them yet. Next year, there is a new machine from Nintendo, there is Scorpio, we should be seeing that next year, and of course the upgraded PS4 will be available for us to play. But that will have an effect, I think, on the games that we play on them. Absolutely.

New machines, to this extent, with VR, I think it means absolutely completely new games. None of this rinse-and-repeat Triple-A sequels, the same kind of gameplay. It is not so easy to move these big titles over to the VR experience so I hope we will see a whole new genre of games built from the ground up, specifically for VR, and that will be a very exciting time.

Good point. Great stuff. I hope you have enjoyed the show. How do you fancy going back to China next week? Yes? Good. Most of the stuff in there is made in China.

Well on that last note we say goodbye to E3. Yet again we have been sent home to do some real work and crack on with the code!