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Gamed: Sony makes news by promising to make more news

Ryan Fleming
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PlayStation 4 Press Conference

So far, Sony has had a masterful year when it comes to the reveal of the PlayStation 4.  The February unveiling gave them a three month headstart on Microsoft, and more than that, it let Sony dictate what they wanted to reveal and when.  By coming out first, they essentially did so with a smile and a wink, telling us “sure we don’t have many details yet, but come on you guys, we still have months!” And it worked too. Sony showed some of the tech specs, so it got a pass on a lot of the details. Microsoft, however, was not so fortunate.

Like that
Like that

When the Xbox One was revealed, it was late enough that MS needed a more complete picture than Sony did. Unfortunately, many of those details were received with the grace of Lindsay Lohan. And not current train-wreck Lohan who just appeared in the film The Canyons, but the cracked-out looking Lohan from a few years ago when she looked like a “Faces of meth” subject. Sony looked on with the smug satisfaction of someone that hates baseball and just heard about Alex Rodriguez and Miguel Tejada. (You either know exactly what I’m talking about or you will never care.)

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Sony one-upped Microsoft as many times as it could.  Lower price? Check. No DRM restrictions? Check. No used game limitations? Check. Sony’s E3 conference played out like watching Mike Tyson beat up Andy Dick. It was beautiful. And painful.

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Microsoft has done an excellent job of closing the gap over the last few months, and you have to credit them for keeping the Xbox One in the news cycle. Sure, a lot of that is because of unpopular policies being reversed, but there have been a lot more Xbox One stories recently than PS4, and like the old saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad press.

Still, Sony knows all the right nipples to twist when it comes to getting media coverage. On its blog this week, Sony announced that it would be outing is “release plans” about the PS4 during its Gamescom conference on August 20. Basically the news today is that Sony is planning on making news on Tuesday.

The obvious reading of that is that we’ll get a release date.  Huzzah!  Of course, if that happens it would mean Microsoft has the right to set their release date to benefit the Xbox One. So whatever date Sony announces, expect the Xbox One a few days earlier, because suck it Sony, that’s why.

Hot Coffee and News

Resident Evil 7 will not be like Resident Evil 6, mercifully

RE6When your game sells 5 million copies and it is still deemed a failure, then it’s probably time to go back to the drawing board. Then burn that board, and maybe bury the ashes, too, just to be safe. Or in the case of a long-running series like Resident Evil, you can just go back to what made the game work in the first place. In a recent interview, Capcom’s former marketing boss said that Capcom listened to the fans, and Resident Evil 7 will focus more on survival horror.

Assassin’s Creed movie script undergoing rewrites by guy that wrote a movie about a big dog

ACSo far the news coming from the Assassin’s Creed film has been encouraging despite the history of video game movies. It’s not even worth recapping the terrible history of video game adaptations to film, and if you are a fan of gaming you’ve probably had your heart broken at least once by a bad adaptation.  But with the AC movie, things were looking good. Michael Fassbender is starring and producing, Ubisoft is handling the production itself, and English playwright Michael Lesslie was hired to write it. So the news that another screenwriter has been hired to do rewrites isn’t particularly good news. Especially when that writer turns out to be the guy that wrote Marley & Me.

Microsoft has an exclusive coming at Gamescom

xbox-one-event-simple-instant-completeAs mentioned above, Gamescom is coming this week, and Microsoft is planning a special reveal for it. There have been surprisingly few leaks on it, and the only clue Microsoft has given is that it will be a “unique exclusive.” There has already been a lot of speculation about what it could be, but we’ll have to wait for the Microsoft press conference to find out.  If you have an idea though, sound off in the comments below.

Got an idea about what Microsoft has planned?  Want to just wildly speculate? Sneak King 2?  Comment below and follow me on twitter @RyanFlemingPDX.

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Ryan Fleming
Ryan Fleming
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…
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