Xbox or Epic: Who Wore It Better? Ok, ok.. this isn’t exactly the vaunted “Xbox VS PlayStation” conference clash the way we may have expected, nor was this exactly everything both companies have prepared to show us over the next few weeks. However, with how much Epic name dropped PlayStation all throughout its presentation, it may as well have been a little appetizer of what to expect from Sony and Microsoft. Each walked out onto the catwalk, followed by their faithful entourage, and each gave us their trademark Blue Steel. So, who wore “Next-Gen” better?

 

Todd Eggleston:

Is this even a question? The one and only question a person needs to ask themselves during these reveals these next couple months is: “Did this get me hyped for a XsX/PS5?” Today, that answer is undoubtedly a yes. Last week? Yeah.. that’s a big no.

Xbox gave a very solid, E3 style, “Relatively Unknown Third Party AA Games” event. Intentionally or unintentionally, that was NOT the expectation people had going in. An avid fan will defend this as, “that isn’t what they said!” but really, even they know. On the plus side, we’ve got E3-style trailers for decent enough AA games that I would definitely play. The minus, none of these games screamed “next-gen”. I wouldn’t even be excited for these titles if they came out on current gen next month. Happy? Yes. Excited? No.

Summer Game Fest and Epic showed us the brand new Unreal Engine V, playing a tech demo on a PlayStation 5. Yes, a tech demo. I know, I know. Don’t confuse it with me expecting this day one on PS5. I am not. But this was our first look at what can be played on XsX and what can be played on PS5 (Granted, not exclusively, but I can only go by what I have seen and on what). And the latter had my hyped! This is what I want to see when am thirsty for next-gen. The game reveals will come, even ones I won’t buy, but Epic got me excited again after Xbox made me question if I even wanted next-gen to come soon. So, Xbox or Epic – Who Wore It Better? Like I began with, is this even a question?

 

Jordan Hawes:

I’ll be up front in saying that the marketing for the Inside Xbox show was a failure. They promised a first look at next-gen gameplay and we got a bunch of gameplay trailers and announcement trailers. They set up a false sense of what to expect, but this Epic tech demo did the same thing in reverse.

What we got from Xbox were trailers of actual launch titles of games we will be playing soon, and what some of your options will be if you decide to buy a PS5 or Series X at launch. These were tangible titles and a realistic look of what cross gen and launch titles will look like. It wasn’t some sizzle reel tech demo that sets expectations way too high. Remember PS4 The Dark Sorcerer tech demo? Remember the UE4 Infiltrator tech demo?

I’m not saying tech demos are bad or you shouldn’t be excited about the tech being displayed, but when we are talking about setting false expectations, that is what tech demos do. You won’t be seeing anything like that demo when you buy your PS5 or Series X this holiday. I would have rather had them show off an actual upcoming title that gave me an actual look of what to expect rather than what we may get three or so years from now. Plus, aren’t we all about seeing games, games, games? We didn’t see a single one today. If all you wanted to see was beautiful tech demo graphics, PC has plenty of those that shows this tech.

Remember, this was a demo on PS5 running under crafted areas to show off tech. It has no actual world or AI or enemies or combat, and it was still running 1440p and 30fps. Just keep that in mind before being upset about actual launch or cross gen games not hitting these visuals or 60fps performance.