This year’s E3 was a special one. It’s not every year that new consoles get shown off along with the new games. Microsoft and Sony brought the hardware while developers like Sucker Punch and Ubisoft brought amazing games such as Infamous: Second Son and Tom Clancy’s The Division.

Those two games were the cream of the crop at this years convention, being gorgeous and innovative in terms of gameplay. Close runner-up’s were Bungie’s new sci-fi multiplayer shooter Destiny, as well as Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XV. Destiny looks like a whole new animal different from their previous Halo games. Instead of blasting Covenant, you blast multiple kinds of bad guys all while collecting cool space loot. The uniqueness of the look of the game really draws me in and the idea of traversing multiple planets with friends is an exciting thought. Final Fantasy XV looks photorealistic at times while encapsulating gameplay that was in the Kingdom Hearts series.

On a different note, I’ve been following games for over a decade and have been watching E3 every year for at least half of one. I was shocked at a few things that happened at this convention. Those things being the lack of gameplay during the press conferences, Final Fantasy XV, and Microsoft’s PR department.

I watched all the conferences. Microsoft’s, EA’s, Ubisoft’s, and Sony’s, I watched them all, and in all of them there wasn’t much gameplay shown. Most of what was shown were trailers that either used in-engine graphics or CGI. Games that have been in development for a while such as Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs, or Dice’s Battlefield 4 had extensively showed off their gameplay while other games such as Kojima Production’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which was originally announced in August as Metal Gear: Ground Zeroes, had little gameplay actually shown. The newly announced Square Enix game Kingdom Hearts III did show gameplay, but it only showed the character Sora run around while enemies chase him. This worries me, because lack of gameplay shown even at such a huge event like E3 means that they aren’t close to being ready for a while. On the other hand, what was shown in trailers or in little pieces of gameplay does have me excited.

Speaking of lack of gameplay, seeing that Final Fantasy XV was in production during the Sony conference was a shock, because it was originally shown as Final Fantasy Versus XIII back at E3 over a half-decade ago and was presumably dead. Since that E3 not a single videogame media outlet had seen the game or played much if any of it in person. It had even been announced as dead by the developer Square Enix, but then they came back to say it was still in development. Usually games that are in development for this long get trashed, because of how much money they cost to produce, and seven years is a long time. I’m happy that it is still in production and am excited to eventually get my hands on it someday, but never in a million years would I have thought that game was alive prior to the conference at E3.

The last thing that surprised me was the way Microsoft conducted themselves at E3 after the media backlash that followed their Xbox One reveal event. Media outlets and fanboys for Sony and even Microsoft jumped on Microsoft for not only how they nearly completely ignored games during the reveal event months earlier, but for how the new Xbox won’t allow used games without you repurchasing it, and how it has to be online at least once a day. Not everyone has Internet and not everyone has $60 to purchase a new game which is why buying a used game is such viable option. Microsoft’s answer to this at E3 was simply this, if you don’t have Internet, but want to play games then we already have a console for you, the Xbox 360. In essence that equates down to if you don’t have Internet, then you can’t play the new cool games on our new console. How is it a smart PR move to stick it to people who find your console interesting yet don’t have Internet or the money to pay for brand new games? Also, it isn’t a smart move to only show a handful of Xbox One-only titles when they aren’t name brands of your Xbox franchise. If Microsoft had said Halo 5 by 343 Studios was a launch title, and Activison’s Call of Duty: Ghosts was Xbox-only or something along those lines, then the media would have gone bonkers and all the bad press would go away, but Microsoft didn’t make any positive bold moves and they have Capcom’s zombie game Dead Rising 3 as a launch title.

Personally I love how Sony took shots at Microsoft over used games, sharing games, and having to be connected to the Internet. Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Jack Tretton took pot shots at Microsoft during Sony’s conference, saying with a smile after each word that the PS4 can play used games, you can freely share games with whoever you want on the PS4, and the PS4 does not have to be connected to the Internet for your games to work properly. Sony even made a Youtube video featuring Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida showing how the PS4 shares games with him, simply smiling at the camera and handing a game to the guy.

Where Microsoft has positioned the Xbox One as an entertainment console for TV and Call of Duty at a $499.99 price point, Sony has positioned the PS4 for gamers and people who love games with a console at a $399.99 price point.

According to an article on IGN.com, the PS4 is outselling the Xbox One in pre-orders by a three to two ratio. Also according to a poll on IGN.com, 80% of the 300,000 people who took it said that Sony won E3 with 12% saying Microsoft had won. That is a landslide in Sony’s favor, and with only two major game events left, Microsoft has limited time to change gamers’ minds before the launch of the Xbox One in November. They really only have one convention left, because the Xbox 360 isn’t sold in Japan anymore, so I presume there will be little to no presence at the Tokyo Game Show in September since there is no market for it in Japan.

If I was to buy a console I would buy the PS4, not only because of how Sony has positioned it as the gamer’s console as well as its new features, but because of the exclusives such as Infamous: Second Son, Killzone: Shadow Fall by Guerrilla Games, and Knack from Sony’s Japan Studios. Infamous: Second Son is the game of the show at E3 in my eyes, because of how visually stunning it is and how fun the gameplay and characters look. Where Activision is adding a dog to its Call of Duty franchise, Sucker Punch is adding a new character to its Infamous franchise that not only has smoke powers which, take my word for it or watch the trailer, allows the character to do new and cool things, but the character also has the ability to absorb powers from other people you meet throughout the game.

When it comes down to it, Sony did win E3 and Microsoft seems to have lost its way. Usually E3 means nothing to the general public aside from it being a giant nerd convention for things that people’s boyfriends and children put many hours into day after day. This year’s E3, however, will have ramifications that will be seen for years to come. The gaming population of the world could very well say, “Hey, we want to share our games with our friends and not have to turn on my console every day for it to work,” and then the PS4 outsells the Xbox One. The Xbox 360 has almost become a staple in homes in America, whereas the PS3 was always priced too high for consumers to rapidly pick it up. Microsoft branded the Xbox 360 as the place to play Call of Duty, which is the world’s hottest gaming franchise in history, so they know what they are doing, but it will remain to be seen if Microsoft can ride Call of Duty’s coat tails into another sunset filled with vast amounts of money.

It is hard to say how things will pan out with many months and a couple of game conventions between now and the release of the next generation of consoles. One thing is for certain though and that is the public has spoken on which console it likes so far with the PS4, which is already sold out for presale on Amazon.com.