E3 from Abroad: Conference Wrap Up: Microsoft

So much action. So much drama. So much excitement. This year's E3 has been one of the most exciting in recent memory. From big announcements, company wide goof ups and one of the biggest one sided thrashing I have ever seen from a company before, E3 2013 was one for the history books and helped to bring in all the excitement that a next generation  of games should.

Despite Nintendo not holding their own conference this year, Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft and EA held their own regular conferences with new games and some surprising announcements for new consoles. There's a lot on my mind to talk about, and as a gamer still intensely interested in what the industry can produce. So let's go in order, starting with...

Microsoft aka M$

Microsoft and the Xbox One already had the burden of heavy criticism from the gaming community for its strong anti consumer policies and stronger focus on a complete multimedia experience rather than a focus primarily on games. Combined with privacy concerns with their Kinect device and sense of vagueness surrounding many of their more controversial choices, most of which involved the use of registering your games, their promise to focus "just on games" for E3 was a wise choice.

Their conference started out strong with a preview of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and the confirmation that it would appear on a next generation console. Shortly afterwards, the one game people have been clamoring for from Rare made a short appearance. Killer Instinct was coming back and was going to be an exclusive on Xbox One. The conference was off to a strong start.

As for the rest of the conference, it was what I expected. There were quite a few games that grabbed my attention, however quite a few I admittedly already knew about. Max and the Curse of Brotherhood looked like a cute and cartoony Limbo-esque platformer. Short glimpses at titles like Quantum Break and D4 looked interesting and showed that Microsoft was trying hard not to make this a shooter and sports heavy console. Later on in the show, the late glimpses at Dead Rising 3 (which is allegedly a Xbox One exclusive), Crimson Dragon and The Witcher 3 also looked great to me. Even shooter games which allegedly the gaming community is burnt out on looked interesting. Take away my "hardcore" gaming card if you have to, but I still enjoy FPS's to an extent. I'm looking forward to playing Battlefield 4 both single and multiplayer and despite some issues I had with the previous game, a short glimpse at Halo 5 was welcome. I still like Halo. I still play the games primarily for the single player experience over multiplayer. If you're still reading by now, I'm sure your head just exploded.

The game that really stood out in my mind though was Titanfall. At first it looked like a typical COD style FPS. However once they showed that you could enter GIANT FREAKING MECHS and battle both soldiers and mechs my interest shot to eleven. As a life long fan of nearly anything mecha, a smooth playing FPS in which humans and mechs battle it out  brings back fond memories of PC game SHOGO and the mecha anime I watched as a kid, while Titanforce may scream COD rip off to many, to me it looked like the game I wanted since I was a little boy playing with his Transformers toys.

So overall, the conference to me wasn't that bad. It didn't exceed expectations. There were some surprises, the appearance of an Insomniac game was unexpected and well, I really didn't expect Killer Instinct to come back, but everything else was standard "Xbox audience" games, and to me that's ok. I never really fell into the camp of playing games only because they show off how "hardcore" you are. I follow the simple rule of playing what I like and enjoy. That's it. It's worked incredibly well for me so far.

So while I didn't have major issues with the Microsoft conference overall, I won't be buying an Xbox One anytime soon. It still comes back to their strong anti consumer policies and being restricted to how you play. For me, honestly, it would most likely not even affect me severely. I live in a location with fast internet and would most likely always have it connected. However, their discrimination on used games, the 24 hour certification policy and tying games to your account seems like more trouble than its worth. When a majority of games are available on other consoles that don't require you to jump through hoops to play, why even bother?

I would miss out on a few exclusives, but I'm not a teenager anymore. I've come to the point where I can live without playing a game for a great deal of time, if at all. Life and other things tend to get in the way of gaming and I'm ok with that. If anything, I can pick up the console a few years later when the price drops or an enticing bundle comes around.

There's a lot of hate on the Xbox One from pretty much everyone in the gaming community. I cannot recall the last time I saw people so viciously against a company. In some ways, this comes across as typical internet reaction where subtlety goes out the window in exchange for loud and obnoxious hate. In another way, I'm kind of happy to see this. It shows that consumers won't take these draconian policies lying down and are more than willing to voice their opinion when it comes to playing games and how much control they have over the product they buy and supposedly own.

However, I can't help but wonder if its too late for Microsoft to go back on some of their policies. To do some sort of damage control and try to regain some favor with the legions of gamers they have shunned.

I also can't help but wonder if their intended audience even cares or is aware that these policies exist. Does that fraternity brother who games with his bros even care that someone can't borrow his game as long as he can play what he likes? Does the middle age dad with an NFL pass who watches UFC on the weekends care that his Kinect will always be on and watching him? It seems like Microsoft is betting heavily that their target audience won't mind and in a way, that's a sad sign that the gamers who were there since the original Xbox (the real Xbox One) aren't the targeted audience.

If this is the case, the term "entertainment machine" is truly appropriate. Entertainment is all encompassing with games only being one part of that. Microsoft has to be aware of the backlash from the community, and the fact that they continue to stick to their guns proves that they are completely behind their ideas and if a majority of so called "hardcore" games buy a PS4 instead, it doesn't matter. Their core audience, the casual consumer will continue to support the brand they know well. Judging from the number of 360's in living rooms now, maybe they're right.

Either way, to me  Xbox One's policies are its biggest hurdles for me. even if their conference was stellar and had something for every kind of gamer under the sun, it would have made little difference. The ones who are aware and the ones who care know how restrictive and awful DRM is still wouldn't be swayed. When your entire console is built around this concept and two of your competitors offer less restrictions ( and arguably better game selections) once again, why bother?

The answer? They won't but Microsoft is banking on the fact that many will.Whether those will be enough to score a victory for them this generation will be the real spectacle to watch. It's all become a battle of gamers vs casuals. A fight that slowly started to form last generation and thanks to Microsoft should reach a fever point in the coming months prior to launch.