Rather, I would argue that the Xbox brand’s biggest loss this generation is that of mindshare. Last generation, the Xbox brand enjoyed the status of being the “default” gaming brand, at least in the anglosphere; this generation, while the Xbox saw a lot of discussion and discourse surrounding it early on, by 2017, the Xbox had sort of faded out of the ongoing discussion about games and the industry. There was no reason to talk about it – while PS4 and Switch got highly acclaimed, generation defining games on a monthly basis, and were setting sales records regularly, there was nothing to discuss on the Xbox front. Exclusives either underperformed or got delayed, or in some cases canceled, and the sales performance of the system was declining at an alarming, albeit predictable, rate. The PS4 and the Switch were exciting systems, and kept themselves in the public eye by constantly introducing new things to discuss or look forward to; the Xbox One, not so much.

To Microsoft’s credit, they have worked on reversing this problem, like with so many of their other problems this generation, as well. One reason that PS4 and Switch managed to constantly stay relevant and fresh was that Nintendo and Sony have mastered the art of dominating the press cycle. Sony has multiple major conferences a year (E3, TGS, Paris Games Week, and PlayStation Experience), while Nintendo has E3, plus a Nintendo Direct every couple of months, and they also always have some announcements at TGA every year. This means that there’s always something new to discuss with those two brands. Microsoft, in 2017, only had E3, and… that was it, really. So the only time we got anything new to discuss for Xbox was at E3 every year, and even then, Microsoft would get drowned out by Nintendo and PlayStation, who frankly are generally better at E3 shows than Microsoft is.

Since then, however, Microsoft has started the Inside Xbox series, which averages an episode a month, with multiple smaller scale announcements (such as additions to Game Pass or the backward compatibility program on Xbox, or updates for games that are already out). While an Inside Xbox does not have the profile of a Nintendo Direct, it at the very least allows Microsoft to put out news on a regular basis for its users, and lets the Xbox brand have a reason to stay in the news cycle.

But the more important change Microsoft made was X0 – like with Inside Xbox, Microsoft chose to revive their in-house conferences as well, with X018 last year being the stage for a major announcement. While X018 in and of itself didn’t actually have much of note otherwise, it was still something that allowed Microsoft and Xbox mindshare – especially coming as it did in the absence of PlayStation Experience, which Sony chose to not hold last year, giving Microsoft the chance to dominate the end of the year news cycle entirely.

That battle for mindshare is something Xbox has generally continued to do well in all this year so far. A large part of that has to do with Sony’s silence this year – they haven’t actually released many major games this year, nor made any major new announcements, nor attended any major trade shows – they even skipped out on E3 this year. Outside of a surprise acknowledgement of the existence of the PS5, and what that console may entail, Sony have mostly been silent. This has allowed Microsoft to have the stage all to itself, something that they have taken due advantage of with regular Inside Xbox streams, and showings at E3 and Gamescom so far. And that brings us to X019.

Microsoft has confirmed X019 will be happening this year too, and, given that Sony is presumably not actually doing PlayStation Experience this year – though for all we know, they may actually decide to do it, and use it as the venue to announce the PlayStation 5 – this allows Microsoft to keep themselves in conversation again. This is important because a large part of whether or not a customer will choose to buy into your brand (beyond the already converted faithful, at any rate) has to do with how viable they feel the brand is. If, for instance, someone feels that a new console is less likely to get some of the best games of the generation, or is less likely to actually sell well, and therefore more likely to miss out on great games, then they will be less compelled to buy said console. Keeping your console in the news cycle with a stream of new game announcements, or press releases about its performance, is an easy way to sidestep both those problems, and something Sony and Nintendo did admirably with the PS4 and Switch, and that Microsoft is now doing with Inside Xbox and X0.

It doesn’t even matter that they’re not doing that great a job with these shows – most people find Inside Xbox boring, and found X018 to be a waste of time, after all – because it is something to talk about. Of course, in an ideal world, Microsoft would be doing as good a job with their shows as Nintendo does with the Nintendo Direct series, so that there’s a lot to talk about, and it’s positive, but given that we are on then tail end of a generation where Xbox has been on the backfoot all along, I get why they don’t have as much to talk about. After all, do you remember how dismal Nintendo Direct presentations were in 2015 and 2016, as Nintendo wound their support for Wii U down, but couldn’t yet talk about their plans for the Switch?

Just being in the news cycle is good enough, and X019, when it happens later this year, will let Microsoft continue to do that, and let them continue to put a foot forward in the battle for mindshare, real estate that is otherwise handily governed by PlayStation and Nintendo. Hopefully, Microsoft will also have an actual good show with meaningful content this time around – so that not only do we have a reason to talk about them, but the reason also ends up being good.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Microsoft is bringing back X0 this year, while Nintendo continues to roll out Nintendo Direct presentations to keep the pace of announcements going, but it looks like, for the first time in a few years, Sony will not be hosting a PlayStation Experience event this year.

Speaking in a PS Blogcast, Sony Interactive Entertainment America’s head Shawn Layden confirmed that the company won’t be holding the widely anticipated event this year, citing Sony not having enough to show to meet fans’ expectations and hype.

“Now that we have Spider-Man out the door, we’re looking down in 2019 to games like Dreams and Days Gone but we wouldn’t have enough to bring people altogether in some location in North America to have that event. We don’t want to set expectations really high and then not deliver on it,” he said.

To be fair, PlayStation Experience last year really disappointed almost everyone thanks to a tepid format and a complete lack of meaningful new announcements… or any announcements, really. I can hardly blame Sony for not wanting to go through that if they don’t have enough to show anymore at this point. That said, it does seem to indicate that Sony’s internal development teams may have moved on to the PS5 at this point— since, obviously, they’re working on something, and if they’re working on PS5 games, Sony can’t show them off, not before first revealing the PS5 anyway.

Though it’s focused on bringing The Last of Us: Part 2 to life, Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series is still a very strong franchise for Sony Interactive Entertainment. At PlayStation Experience over the weekend (via PushSquare), Naughty Dog revealed during its 10th anniversary panel for Uncharted that the series has sold 41.7 million units till date.

This includes all games in the series along with Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, a remaster of the first three games on PlayStation 3. We already know that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End sold 8.7 million copies as of December 2016. We’re not completely sure of sales numbers for Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, released in August this year, but it did have a strong debut in the United Kingdom.

It’s more than likely that these sales numbers cover bundles as well which Sony made a killing with in its last Black Friday weekend sale. Regardless, the Uncharted series has done incredibly well for Sony in terms of critical and commercial reception.

Interestingly enough, there has been one area where Sony has sort of faltered this year, which has been their live shows and conferences. Sony is supposed to be the master of these, using these to rally its fanbase and generate hype for games that are often years away from release. However, this year, they’ve failed on that account multiple times- while I personally enjoyed their E3 showing, it appears I am in a very small minority there, given that most fans didn’t appreciate the lack of big new announcements or concrete release dates. Sony skipped Gamescom, had a scattershot and frankly confused showing at the Tokyo Games Show, had a relatively better, but still standard, conference at Paris Games Week, all of it leading to the PlayStation Experience.

"Interestingly enough, there has been one area where Sony has sort of faltered this year, which has been their live shows and conferences."

The PlayStation Experience was something Sony started a few years ago, as an annual show and event dedicated to PlayStation, and PlayStation alone. Over the last few years, it has grown in stature and esteem, with major third and first party games, including the hugely anticipated The Last of Us Part 2, being announced for the very first time at the event. All of which is to say, Sony has conditioned its fanbase to expect big things at the PlayStation Experience. And while Sony initially made it very clear that this year’s event was going to be a smaller scale event, posts made on the PlayStation Blog some time ago explicitly teasing surprises and new announcements got players fired up again- at worst, Sony wouldn’t announce something on the scale of The Last of Us again, but they could still show off some cool new stuff regardless, right? Or hell, there are so many Sony games in the pipeline right now – Days Gone, Spider-Man, The Last of Us, Ghosts of Tsushima – if nothing else, we could at least expect release dates and new trailers and footage for some of them, right?

Even on a diminished scale of expectations such as that, Sony completely and utterly failed last night. While they pulled out some of their games on stage again, we got no new footage, no new announcements regarding release dates or even windows. Major titles like Spider-Man were conspicuous by their absence. Most games had the same footage from Paris Gams Week or E3 regurgitated again. The biggest new announcement Sony had was a MediEvil remaster, which is truly great- but did they have such a long event that they livestreamed for that?

Worse still was the format Sony chose- eschewing their large scale keynotes, their event last night was more of a talk show, discussing games in development directly with developers. This is, conceptually, a fantastic format, and the kind of thing that can give us insight into what goes into the development of our favorite PlayStation games. Except Sony completely bungled this, too- the hosts seem disinterested, the pacing was entirely out of sync, and we didn’t actually learn anything new from what was said.

"So, for those keeping count: terribly executed format, little in the way of new announcements, no new footage for already announced games, no new release dates announced or confirmed. This brings me back to- exactly why did Sony feel it was necessary to have a showing at all?"

So, for those keeping count: terribly executed format, little in the way of new announcements, no new footage for already announced games, no new release dates announced or confirmed. This brings me back to- exactly why did Sony feel it was necessary to have a showing at all? They could just as well have held PSX with the actual show floor, panels, and the like, without having a ‘main event’. People would have been disappointed, but I honestly feel it would have gone down better than last night’s showing did.

Because PSX is supposed to be the cap to Sony’s year, and set the tone for the coming one- and last night’s event was a terrible capstone to what has otherwise been a fantastic year. Yes, we know major games are coming- but when? And why have there not been many new announcements? Sony has been bringing the same set of games to events for the last few years now.

If Sony hadn’t spread out their announcements and reveals across four separate events this year, and instead focused on only one or two, it would have gone so much better for them. Imagine, for a minute, that Sony had skipped Paris Games Week- then this year at PSX, they would have been able to announce Ghosts of Tsushima, have had new trailers for Detroit and Spider-Man, among other things, and been able to end by showing another new Last of Us trailer- already a far better keynote than what we got.

"Sony cannot reasonably be expected to have megaton announcements across four different events every year. That’s fine. I understand that, and I am sure most of their fans do, too. But what Sony does need to do then is understand that there is no obligation for it to have four events a year either."

And I think that’s the main takeaway here. Sony cannot reasonably be expected to have megaton announcements across four different events every year. That’s fine. I understand that, and I am sure most of their fans do, too. But what Sony does need to do then is understand that there is no obligation for it to have four events a year either. Going forward, I am hoping that their poor showing last night, and fans’ general dissatisfaction with E3 this year, will inform how they approach these events- which is to say, have fewer events, and pack each of them with more new material. I think that is what will please fans the most in the long run.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to GamingBolt as an organization.

Sony had quite the showing at Paris Games Week when it unveiled a number of new titles and revisited other games like God of War, Detroit: Become Human and Spider-Man. Among the many games present, there were a few conspicuous absences like Media Molecule’s Dreams which is still very much in development.

Even if there was no information provided on the Little Big Planet developer’s next game, it seems we’ll learn more about it at PlayStation Experience. A recent PlayStation Blog post confirmed the same and also revealed that more information for Sucker Punch’s newly announced Ghost of Tsushima would be provided.

PlayStation Experience will take place on December 9th and 10th but the keynote presentation will happen on December 8th at 8 PM PST. You can expect SIE Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden to be present along with special guests. The show floor will be open to attendees after the presentation and there will be events like Gran Turismo Sport competitions, the Capcom Cup and much more.

Along with some of the bigger names, PlayStation Experience saw a number of other announcements that should keep fans busy when they eventually release.

These include remasters of games like PaRappa The Rapper, Patapon and Locoroco; a new Danganronpa; the return of the Ys series with Ys Origin; the announcement of YAGER’s Dreadnought being exclusive to the PS4 for its console release; a mysterious new adventure title called Vane; fighting game/MMO Absolver; and Nex Machina, the latest title to come from Housemarque of Resogun fame. That’s not including a ton of other indies (like Strafe) that were seen in passing.

And for all the PlayStation Vita players, you’ll be happy to know that some of these games will be heading to the handheld in the coming year.

What are your thoughts on PlayStation Experience this year? Let us know in the comments below, along with whether it was an improvement over last year.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that Sony has the best first party in the world – when they are able to sell an entire system on the basis of nothing but their own games, then I might be willing to concede that point – but I do think that their first party lineup is great nonetheless, and especially for the PS4. Three yeas have gone by since the PS4 launched, and Sony have arguably only launched four games on the system that were truly of note – Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Ratchet and Clank, Bloodborne, and inFamous: Second Son. So far, they have slacked, and basically given us one genuinely good game a year. However, the upcoming lineup for the console, especially in the wake of the just concluded PlayStation Experience keynote, looks incredible, and even if a lot of it ultimately does not stick, it demonstrates just how great Sony’s first party has truly become.

We have another new Uncharted in the form of The Lost Legacy, which is a standalone expansion for Uncharted 4; there are Dreams, Spider-Man, and Detroit: Become Human, none of which sadly got a berth at the PlayStation Experience today. There is Days Gone, the intriguing open world post apocalyptic action game by Sony Bend; and let’s not forget about all the Sony games that were showcased at the PSX keynote today, including Horizon: Zero Dawn, Knack 2, The Last Guardian, Gravity Rush 2, Patapon, LocoRoco, Parappa the Rapper, Gran Turismo: Sport, Wipeout Omega, and of course, the show stopping The Last of Us Part 2.

"The upcoming lineup for the console, especially in the wake of the just concluded PlayStation Experience keynote, looks incredible, and even if a lot of it ultimately does not stick, it demonstrates just how great Sony’s first party has truly become."

That right there is an incredible lineup- the games are varied, across different settings and genres, pushing different play styles, and targeting different demographics. There is no kind of gamer that wouldn’t be serviced by what Sony have in the works for the PS4, in combination with what already is out on the system. New installments in long running, blockbuster franchises, revivals of older, smaller franchises, new IP, experimental games, Japanese games, western games, that list has it all. Indeed, as far as first party support goes, Sony are lapping Microsoft several times over this generation, even with the latter making a concerted effort to shore up their own first party offerings.

If there are any complaints about Sony’s first party offerings – and there are some, all right – then they have more to do with Sony’s inability to actually get their games out when they promise them. It’s actually become a running joke, but no major Sony title for the PS4 so far has actually managed to release when it was promised to release- inFamous, DriveClub, The Order, Bloodborne, Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted 4, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Gran Turismo Sport, and The Last Guardian have all received delays, and there is no guarantee that this long list of great looking titles that we have been discussing so far won’t be similarly delayed too. This tempers my excitement a bit- I want to get excited for the new The Last of Us (and believe me, I truly am), but is there any point in getting restless with anticipation if the games aren’t going to be out until 2018 or 2019 at the earliest, even if Sony promise otherwise?

"If you have bought a PS4, at least, then you can be assured that Sony intends to support your purchase whole heartily- with all the might of one of the best, most truly impressive first party lineups that there is."

The other thing I do want to point out is that, as frightening as Sony’s first party support is, it is sadly all concentrated on the PS4. The PS Vita having been abandoned and left to die a premature death, its suffering prolonged by independent game developers and Japanese companies who refuse to let it go for some reason, is a running joke- but I was also surprised to see how little there was for the just launched PlayStation VR at the PlayStation Experience. I honestly expected Sony to spend some more time on their just launched $400 VR headset, maybe announce some flagship games for it- instead, they seem content to throw some ‘experiences’ at it, or smaller, indie games, with nothing on the system either justifying the purchase, or compelling others to invest it in. This is actually in line with a fear I had about the headset that I expressed earlier this year- Sony have been known to just leave their secondary and tertiary products out to die (remember the PSP? PS Move? PS Eyetoy? PS Vita?)- and it bums me out that with such a massive and impressive lineup of games and studios, they can’t spread out the love among all their systems equally. It is something that I feel Sony need to be called out on more.

But if you are a PS4 owner, then you have very little reason to complain- sure, Sony always delay their games, but the games do release, and when they do, they are almost always worth the wait. There is a frightening amount of stuff in the works for the PS4 at this very moment, and while it may come later than you expect, it will be incredible and possibly generation defining when it does finally all release. If you have bought a PS4, at least, then you can be assured that Sony intends to support your purchase whole heartily- with all the might of one of the best, most truly impressive first party lineups that there is.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Sony San Diego’s vaunted MLB The Show series will be returning next year with MLB The Show 17 launching on March 28th 2017 for PS4. You can check out the gameplay trailer below, which features decision making on the part of players, way too many emotes from the players (ah, the art of showboating) and more.

Watch till the end because we also get a peek at the game’s Retro Mode which takes the gameplay back to the good ol’ days of console baseball.

MLB The Show 17 will have two versions – the Standard Edition which retails for $59.99 and the MVP Edition which costs $69.99. The MVP Edition will include the Golden Season Starter Pack, 5000 in Stubs, 10 Standard Packs, 1 Sponsor Pack, 31 MLB PS4 themes and a limited steelbox as packaging.

What are your thoughts on the trailer? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more news and updates from PlayStation Experience.

All the hubbub surrounding PlayStation Experience may have made one forget but Sony’s oft-delayed exclusive The Last Guardian is releasing on December 6th. To remind you of this fact – and to squeeze out a few more tears in what’s inevitably going to be a tragic relationship – the company released a new trailer at PSX.

The trailer sees the boy and Trico, the guardian in question, dealing with soldiers and other obstacles. Society doesn’t seem to like Trico very much. Regardless, the two will work together, whether it’s crossing long gaps amidst crumbling ruins or pushing objects to and fro.

Will you be playing The Last Guardian, which is finally releasing after an almost decade’s worth of development (not to mention skipping PS3 and releasing for PS4)? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below along with your impressions of the trailer. There’s still more information to come from PlayStation Experience so stay tuned.

Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn was of course present at PlayStation Experience, which meant more gameplay of Aloy and her journey through the ruined world of humanity. The trailer didn’t tell us anything new – there are machines and they run this world now – but the visuals looked as compelling as always.

It was also worth nothing that Horizon: Zero Dawn was referred to as Sony’s next big “blockbuster franchise”. Such terms aren’t usually thrown around unless sequels are being implied but who knows? If the game is successful enough – and odds are it will be – then it could very well be Guerrilla’s next series for the coming years.

Horizon: Zero Dawn is out on February 28th 2017 for PS4. It will also support PlayStation 4 Pro and includes features like HDR lighting and higher resolutions. Are you looking forward to it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more news from PlayStation Experience.