At E3, Sony Attempts to Keep Its Edge Over Xbox

Destiny. Image: Courtesy of Sony

Closing out a day full of press conferences at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Sony spent its time telling players that, whatever their game of choice, they’ll be able to play it earlier or with more content on PlayStation platforms.

Truly exclusive games are a rarer thing today than they have been in the past; with game costs rising, most developers and publishers want to go multiplatform to make as much money as possible. But platform holders want to be able to stress that they’ve got something that the other guy doesn’t. So we’re seeing the battle over partial exclusives: Maybe the game gets exclusive downloadable content on one platform, or releases first there.

Microsoft has had this concept locked up for the Call of Duty series for some time, ensuring that the map packs and other content come to Xbox first, and the new version for Xbox One will be no exception, it said earlier today. But what Sony lacks on the Call of Duty front, it’s aggressively trying to nail down for any other game it can.

At its E3 press conference, it noted that, among other advantages, PlayStation 4 owners will get to play the first-look alpha version of Destiny, the new game from the creator of Halo, starting this Thursday, then get into the game’s beta first on July 17. If Ubisoft’s upcoming Far Cry 4 is more your speed, you can invite your PS4 friends to play cooperatively with you — even if they don’t own the game.

The new version of Blizzard’s Diablo III on PlayStation will include a dungeon themed after Sony’s game The Last of Us. The upcoming Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes will have a special edition only on PlayStation platforms and a 30-day exclusive on the Incredible Hulk character. Batman: Arkham Knight will have exclusive PlayStation levels as well.

And — amazing news for nerds like me — Tim Schafer’s classic adventure game Grim Fandango (now owned by Disney after its purchase of LucasArts) will be making a return, on PlayStation 4 first. Those were just a few of the announcements in that vein.

Sony Computer Entertainment America’s new CEO Shawn Layden took the stage, a touch less practiced than the company’s old hands like Andrew House and Shuhei Yoshida, to make some announcements regarding new PlayStation services. PlayStation Now, the company’s streaming-games service, will go into open beta on PlayStation 4 in July. Over 100 games from many third-party publishers will be available to stream, and Layden said the publishers would be experimenting with a variety of “rental durations” and prices. So it’s still up in the air as to what games on demand will cost.

PlayStation Vita TV, a console version of Sony’s handheld system, will also come to the West this fall for $99. Layden stressed that the machine, to be called PlayStation TV in the U.S., can be used to play PlayStation 4 games on a second television or stream PlayStation Now games, as well as play PlayStation Vita software on the television.

Sony did also announce many actual exclusive games. Suda 51 (Killer Is Dead) is creating a new horror game for PlayStation 4 called Let It Die; From Software (Dark Souls) has a new game called Bloodborne, and Sony is creating a PS4 version of its make-your-own-levels series LittleBigPlanet. The PS4 version will be able to play, with enhanced graphics, every LittleBigPlanet level that’s been created so far for PlayStation 3.

Grand Theft Auto V will also come to PlayStation 4 in the fall, and Sony said you’d be able to transfer over your progress in GTA Online from either the PS3 version or the Xbox 360 version.

And, expected though it may have been, Sony closed out the show with footage of the new Uncharted game for PlayStation 4.