Xbox One Vs PS4 E3 2015: Console Wars? Consoles Bore With Stale Lineups

With E3 2015 coming up on June 16, it’s hard not to begin dusting off the old Xbox One vs PS4 debates. After all, this showdown has more or less defined E3 for two years now. In 2013 all eyes were on the hardware as fans chose sides and debated the merits of DDR3 and GDDR5 memory as though they knew what that meant. 2014 saw two companies unveil game lineups that offered little in the way of blockbuster exclusives.

Unfortunately, this year’s E3 looks to be more of the same. As this console generation limps into its third year we’re not seeing the innovation, gameplay or value many fans were hoping for when these systems launched two years ago. In fact, the Xbox One vs PS4 debate hardly seems worth having anymore given the amount of crossover titles.

Consumer enthusiasm seems to be at an all-time low, with longtime gamers fed up with seemingly endless amounts of DLC and day-one launch issues. It says a lot about the current state of gaming when The Witcher 3 stands out not just because its good, but because it shipped without some frustrating online component that made the game a burden to run on launch day.

Yet, as we head into E3 2015 it appears the Xbox One vs PS4 debate will once again settle around a pathetic number of console exclusives, many of which are sequels or reboots. Let’s examine this tepid gamescape and see who the “winner” will be, because from the looks of things it certainly won’t be us gamers.

Xbox One vs PS4 E3 2015: Microsoft Stuck In The Past

Microsoft’s Phil Spencer took to twitter recently to tout the first-party showcase he’ll be unveiling at E3 2015.

On the surface, that’s an exciting tweet for Xbox fans like myself. My Xbox One is basically just a GTA Online heist machine at this point, as I opted to get The Witcher 3 on PC since it was $6 cheaper AND available five hours earlier than the midnight console releases. But PC masterrace things aside, the Xbox One lineup at E3 2015 is heavy on first-party love but also very light on innovation and originality.

Based on its site lineup, we know we’re going to see first-party stalwarts Halo 5, Forza 6 and Fable: Legends. Other exclusives include Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War 4 and Crackdown. Notice a trend there? Every single big exclusive is from a franchise that saw its heyday years ago. The Tomb Raider reboot is clearly the strongest modern franchise on the list but its exclusivity is likely just semantics as it will eventually find its way to PS4 post-holiday.

Halo 5 should’ve been a slam dunk-grand slam-hat trick-turkey-ace-bulls eye but the horrific botch job of Halo: the Master Chief collection sucked all the oxygen out of the hype room for Halo fans. Last year while we were debating the Xbox One vs PS4 E3 lineups it seemed like the Master Chief strategy was perfect for Microsoft. Release the collection and give fans tons of fun multiplayer halo action to enjoy in 2015 and then release Halo 5 and make bank.

Instead, literally the opposite has happened. Not only was the Master Chief collection a massive failure but fans who would normally be excited for Halo 5 are wary. Several die-hard Halo fans I know canceled their pre-orders and plan on waiting months after the release to make a purchase. What does it say about this console generation when fans of a brand’s biggest franchise aren’t confident the game will even work? When was the last time you thought “gee I hope this Mario game works ok.”? The answer is never.

Notice all the high numbers, too. Forza 6. Halo 5. Gears of War 4. Fable is on its fourth iteration, too. Where’s the new IP that’s supposed to energize a new fanbase? These endless sequels only excite the fans tripping on their own nostalgia. Odds are if you love Halo, Gears, Fable and Forza you already have an Xbox One. And, even worse for Microsoft, if you don’t care about Halo, Gears, Fable and Forza there’s not a of E3 exclusivity to entice you to buy one. It is, truly, just more of the same.

Sadly, Microsoft has an early lead in the Xbox One vs PS4 E3 2015 lineup debate because, well, Sony is doing even less.

Xbox One vs PS4 E3 2015: Sony Exclusives “A Little Sparse”

Those quotes are no exaggeration. Sony Computer Entertainment president and global CEO Andrew House told an investor conference that “our first-party lineup is a little sparse this year.” According to IGN, the only exclusives anticipated so far are Uncharted 4, Persona 5 and Until Dawn. Only Uncharted is a first-party title. So “a little sparse” is quite the understatement.

Again, check the numbers. Uncharted 4. The fourth installment of a franchise that is losing its identity. Several crucial Naughty Dog devs left the company already, and the style of the game has been copied time and time again. How many third-person, over-the-shoulder action titles can come out for one console? Much like the FPS boom on Xbox following Halo’s success, plenty of Sony titles have adopted the cinematic style and mechanics of the Uncharted series. For good reason, the franchise is among the best in gaming. But what does it mean for fans who are hungry for something new?

Nothing.

The brightest spot on the radar for Sony will almost certainly be No Man’s Sky, the open-world space epic that has received heaps of serious press. The New Yorker, Wired and The MIT Technology Review have published pieces on the game. But a lot of things remain unknown about the game, including the release. When stacking up titles for the Xbox One vs PS4 E3 2015 debate it’s tough to count one that, at best, comes out next year and, at worst, comes out never.

Like microsoft, I’m sure Sony will have a few surprises for us at E3 2015. And by surprises I mean god awful DLC and so-called “exclusives.”

Xbox One vs PS4 E3 2015: Gamers Never Win

The sad truth about E3 2015 will be that fans get treated to two separate press events full of cross-over titles that make the Xbox One vs PS4 debate about as relevant as Coke vs Pepsi. The word exclusive doesn’t mean what it used to. An exclusive game used to be one that would only be available on a given platform.

With publishers now worried about shareholder returns above all else, virtually no AAA studio wants a console exclusive release. Why cut your audience in half? Instead, we’ll hear about “timed” exclusives and “console firsts” and lots of other PR speak that basically translate to “we want you to get so excited about this piece of additional content we hope you forget the other guys get it two months later.”

What’s especially disheartening about this trend is it undercuts games that should genuinely excite us. Know that Fallout 4 announcement we’ve been dreaming of for years? It’s gonna be a lot less exciting if Microsoft and/or Sony announce “console first exclusive timed DLC.” Think Battlefront won’t be a clusterfuck of console exclusive maps, characters and missions? Think again.

When it comes to the Xbox One vs PS4 debate it's clear the longer the debate goes on there is no clear winner, only one clear loser: gamers hoping for something new from this generation of consoles.