Road to E3 '14: Sony and the King - PlayStation

DISCLAIMER: This is the FINAL of my 3-PART SERIES, that I will be writing throughout this week; all dedicated to the Grande, upcoming event, simply dubbed "E3". All content in the following blog post is the sole personal opinion of the user, simply dubbed "AKR".

Yes - it's THAT time of year again; the great celebration for Gamers everywhere! The biggest, and best event for all things Gaming; is all but just a week away. All the major announcements will be made here - and this year, it's looking to be quite interesting. New “next-gen” titles will be announced/fully revealed, and the foreseeable future of all 3 “next-gen” systems, will be mapped out in just 3 short days. Indeed, this will be quite the show.

Today, we’ll be looking at Sony and the “King” – the PlayStation 4.

THE PAST:

Sony has been an entertainment-giant for eons. In your lifetime; you've probably owned at least ONE product made by Sony. From headphones, to TVs, and everything in between – Sony has dipped their hands in; and in the mid 90’s – they were prepared to enter yet another sector of the entertainment industry - video game consoles.

At first – Sony decided to play it safe with this new experiment and decided to pin heads together with the, at the time, superior gaming giant and their national fellowman - Nintendo. Their project was to create a disc-based system that abandoned the traditional cartridge format, in favor of having bigger and better games. Somewhere down the line – the pair had a bad fallout. This was probably the gravest mistake Nintendo has ever made in the 30+ years they've been in the gaming business. On the flip-side; this was probably one of the best events that has ever happened to Sony.

Emerging from the incident – Sony decided to take matters into their own hands and take their now single-parent baby and raise it themselves. This became the “PlayStation” or simply, “PSX”. PSX went on to light up sales charts and gave birth too many great franchises. This sent the other console makers into a frenzy to create their own worthy competitors and defeat this new foe. Unfortunately for them – that didn't happen, as Sony’s PlayStation brand continued rising to new heights. Developers and gamers alike had already began falling in love – and this is a love that just kept growing and spreading.

Sony followed up with the PlayStation 2 – which has the grand title of being the best-selling home console to date. The thing was so popular; it not only out-lived its main 6th-generation competitors – but it managed to find its way continually selling on into the 7th-generation market – getting the same games its own successor and other competitors were getting. Unfortunately, PS3 didn't quite fully live up to the legacy that the PS2 left behind – but it still managed to do quite well, with millions of gamers and several developers continually pledging their love for the “PS” brand. Indeed – Sony has built themselves quite the empire.

THEIR CURRENT STATUS:

Riding off of the sub-success of the PS3 and the still relevant legacy of the PS2 – Sony’s current baby, the PS4, took everything the PS2 did right and enhanced it and took everything the PS3 did wrong, and did the opposite.

In all, Sony has created the perfect mixture of a developer and gamer-friendly console; a creation that has already sold to over 7+ million consumers worldwide in just 7 months – and has countless of “next-gen” titles lined up for release. With that being the case; it’s no wonder why the gamer nation is hailing this thing as if it were the Holy Grail.

While the company itself may have been in the financial red-zone for quite some time now – the PlayStation brand is still going strong. The PS4, along with a few other improving sectors of Sony – may very well help take the entertainment-giant back to substantial financial ground. But let’s forget those other sectors right now.

As already said – the PS4 is doing quite fine; the best out of three, to be exact. Developers love it – as well as gamers. So then, what does Sony have to worry about? They already have E3 in the bag, don’t they?

WHAT E3 MEANS FOR THEM:

Well, yes and no.

While the PS4 may be riding high – that doesn't mean it’s untouchable. As outlandish as a thought like that seems – we need to be realistic. This generation is still quite young – meaning that there are many turns that can and will happen to change the outlook of everything we currently see happening. When you’re on top, there’s only one direction you can go – down. Since you’ve already gained everything – the only thing you can do is keep it or lose it. With that being the case – what this E3 means for Sony, is to keep the “King” in power. They need to keep that crown on his head, or he could end up becoming the Royal Jester. For months, they've been proudly declaring the “Greatness” of PS4. What Sony needs to do is supercharge that “greatness”. Turn it into EPICNESS if you will!

Microsoft has already made quite the move in notching down the price-tag of the XBOX One. That eliminates one of the strongest powers the PS4 had against its closest competitor. On top of that; MS does have quite a few exclusives up their sleeves, such as Sunset Overdrive, HALO, Gears, and Forza - and if they keep snatching up new ones, like they did with Titanfall - Sony will have to make sure to further push their efforts to continually get developers on their side of the fence.

Multiplats have proven to do better on PlayStation, both sales-wise and graphics-wise – but exclusives are where it’s at. Sony needs to show off as much as exclusives as they can; even if it’s DLC. Even Nintendo poses a threat. Just last week, the Wii U outsold the PS4 in Japan, thanks to Mario Kart 8. Not many multiplats are making it to Nintendo’s system – but it’s the exclusives that have time-&-again over the years, proven to set Nintendo rocketing to new heights. If they can keep that momentum going – the Wii U may very well catch-up the PS4 in even more regions.

With that said – Sony needs to continue to show their current supporters why they need to continue rooting for the great PS empire – as well as convincing even more who are still on the fence, or who probably already belong to another camp – why they need to experience the “Greatness”. If they’re able to throw enough weight around – you better believe the PS2 may very well shine again through the PS4.