E3 2015 has been a memorable event with all the developers and console manufacturers showing off what is in store from them for the big gaming platforms available today. There have been a lot of mixed reactions from the fans and players about the announcements that each developer and console manufacturer had in store.
One particular segment everyone at E3 talks about is the conferences from giants like Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and other big developers like Bethesda. This year there were some major announcements at E3. Sony announced the long-awaited "The Last Guardian" and also showed off new gameplay for it first-party title, Naughty Dog’s "Uncharted 4, A Thief’s End." Microsoft revealed new backward compatibility and revealed all new exclusives set to release this holiday season.
One practice that is usual after E3 week is that everyone decides on a “winner” who had the best press conference, and had the best games and announcements in their conference. This year, most of the people have crowned Microsoft as the winner. The reason for this has been the fact that Microsoft delivered a huge surprise by announcing backward compatibility with Xbox 360 for the Xbox One and also due to the fact that Xbox One has big exclusives coming this fall while The PlayStation 4 has all its exclusives coming next year.
This would have meant that Microsoft should have made massive sales in the month of June because of these big announcements and essentially should have blown the competition out of the park. The factor of backwards compatibility along with deep discounts offered on various retailers should effectively have made the case for Microsoft to take Sony by storm.
However, it looks like the actual results did not turn out as expected because Sony remains in a position to build its already massive lead. Recently, NPD (via GameSpot) released sales figures for June 2015, which showed that PlayStation 4 still sold more units than the Xbox One in the month. Despite all the big announcements and major exclusives releasing this holiday season, Microsoft’s console failed to move more units than the PlayStation 4 and this solidifies the fact that PlayStation 4 is indeed going to be the market leader this generation.
Sony said in a statement to GameSpot, that the overwhelming response in respect of sales in June is due to the Limited Edition PlayStation 4 "Batman Arkham Knight" bundle which went on sale in June for $450. Along with the Limited Edition, there was a standard PlayStation 4 edition also released for $400 which included a copy of Batman Arkham Knights in the price. The company also said that software sales for the month were led by PlayStation 4 and that the console continues to ace every month’s sale in the US and worldwide and will continue to do so.
What these sales figures and statements show is that Microsoft may have had pretty good announcements at E3 but did not manage to “win" E3, since the ultimate winner is the one with the most sales both in software and hardware. Judging by the results of June and May 2015, it clearly shows that the actual E3 2015 winner is Sony.
And with news such as "Call of Duty" moving its timed exclusivity deal to Sony’s platforms and the fact that most of the players are now choosing the PlayStation 4 for their multi-platform games, things are not looking good for Microsoft. Unless something close to a miracle turns the tables for Microsoft, it looks like Sony is going to be the undisputed winner for this generation’s remaining years. But there is a glimmer of hope for Microsoft. If it manages to achieve the intend results with DirectX 12. Then things might just take a turn.
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