Nerds had a big day today...

Jesus.

After 5 press conferences, (and some good natured banter) it's safe to say the gaming and tech worlds had big info dumps today: new hardware and software, pricing announcements, previews, embarrassments, and even a few technical hiccups.  This is the time of year when the next year and a half (not to mention the holiday season) start to take shape.  Apple's annual presentation kicking off the WorldWide Developers Conference started just as Microsoft was beginning their E3 press conference, which may or may not have been an attempt on Apple's part to take away their thunder, but too many eyes were on Microsoft today, wanting to see if they could make up for their seriously lackluster unveiling of their new Xbox One console.  For simplicity's sake, I'll start alpahabetically, because this is my blog dammit shut up.

Apple 

Apple had a slew of things to go over, but the biggest were most likely the redesigned Mac Pro and iOS 7.  The Mac Pro redesign looks great, and the power it's looking to pack is indeed impressive, but since it's a fall release, there wasn't much in the way of solid information about it.  No specifics on specs, no price point; just a good look at the chassis and some general info about the processors and graphics units, along with some neat tidbits involving Thunderbolt 2 and multiple displays.  Reactions to this have been expectedly mixed, but most folk seem to like the general design.  It doesn't leave much room for expandability (though it IS upgradeable, just with custom hardware), but folks in the "pro" space don't need to "upgrade" their machines every year; the smart folks buy a seriously overpowered machine, designed to last several years down the road.  Plus, with those Thunderbolt ports, I think it's designed more for external expansion (hard drives and the like) rather than internal expansion (graphics cards, etc.).  It'll be interesting to see how reactions change as more info comes to light later this year.

iOS 7, however, is getting even harsher divides.  It seems you either love it or hate it.  Personally, I'm a fan of cleaner, flatter interfaces.  Interface clutter is a big pet peeve of mine (which is why I don't typically play MMOs) but Apple did a pretty neat job of throwing all the commonly used stuff in easy-to-reach places, while getting rid of most of the skeuomorphic aspects, giving a more "smoked glass" look to the interface.  Some complainers have whined about how they "stole the look from Android;" I've had the opportunity to use a few different variations of Android devices - none of them have looked even close to this new design.  I'm betting it'll pop up a lot later this year, though.  Basically, it's a moderate redesign, keeping most of the core functionality while bringing a new visual flair and theme to the new generations of devices to come.  To me, it's fairly striking, and the forthcoming functionality that comes with it will be useful.  Haters gonna hate.

Microsoft 

Last Thursday, Microsoft unceremoniously dumped a bunch of severely unflattering info about the Xbox One's policies regarding used games, rentals/lendings, online DRM, family access, and other such things.  As such, the internet went kind of berserk, and probably rightfully so.  The policies basically come down to this: you don't own the games you buy anymore, and we'll be checking on you daily to make sure you remember that.  When you buy a disc-based game, you are not buying the game itself, you are buying permission to play it on a certain number of accounts, with restrictions.  There were many (more consumer-friendly) options available to essentially accomplish the same thing, but they were ignored, for whatever reason.  This new info, paired with the reveal a couple weeks prior, left a bad taste in gamers' mouths, and as such, many were looking to the E3 conference today for actual information on games, as well as pricing and release dates.

They weren't disappointed... with the games.  For the most part.

The cap of it all was the $500 price point, which is what the PlayStation 3 launched at all those years ago, and it didn't work.  One thinks that their reasoning behind it is based on the "it does cool things with your cable box" thing; a feature that the majority of gamers don't really want, despite the potential usefulness of the features themselves.  The reaction got bad enough that an executive got snippy during a BBC interview after the conference, when asked about the high price point and the slew of limits placed on the users.

Most of the games did indeed look pretty good; Titanfall and Below in particular were quite interesting, and many of the exclusives revealed looked fairly decent.  I was quite surprised that Metal Gear Solid V might end up being a "next-gen" exclusive, at least for now.  But the color of the restrictions placed on it's users and the high initial price point are tough pills to swallow for many people.

Sony

Sony was kind of in the opposite position than Microsoft for this E3; with only a controller revealed back in February, their last event concerning about the PlayStation 4 was focused mainly on games rather than hardware features.  This time around they had to discuss the hardware in more detail (along with actually showing the console itself), as well as talk about games and policies.  There were worries that the conference would get a little buried in jargon, but thankfully not only did games get a great amount of attention, so did the console itself.

Physically, I'm a little torn on the design; it's nice enough, but possibly a bit too similar to the Xbox One's design theme; basically, they're both black boxes that'll sit on your shelf or entertainment center.  Nothing inherently wrong with that, I was just hoping for something that could stand out a little more.

The games they showed ran the full gamut: from big triple-A titles like Watch_Dogs, Assassin's Creed 4, and Destiny; to a wide range of indie titles like Don't Starve, Transistor, and Octodad.  They didn't have a large number of titles to show overall - due to having to discuss the system itself a bit - but all were overshadowed by the last couple announcements.

Saving the best for (mostly) last, they went on record in front of hundreds of live people and several thousand streaming online that there would be NO restrictions on disc-based used games, NO restrictions on "lending" or renting disc-based games, and NO online DRM check-ins.  Also, it would be priced at $400.   Whereas Microsoft's pricing announcements were met with a few "boos," Sony got a standing ovation.  Sony went out of their way to not only ensure that a customer's ownership rights for physical-based games would be protected, but to actually encourage the resale of games.  For the time being, Sony has "won" this year's E3.


A few other conferences went out, most notably EA and Ubisoft.  Good things were shown there; The Division was a big highlight, as well as the Trials Fusion/Frontiers reveal.  That being said, there's still a full week of E3 to go, and I'm sure one or two things will show up there that no one expects.  Here's hoping.