E3 2015– Trading places.

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Microsoft uses the ecosystem to take the initiative.

• After failing to excite at E3 in 2014 and being soundly thrashed in 2013, Microsoft has finally taken the initiative from Sony by taking Xbox places where Sony will really struggle to follow.
• Microsoft’s announcements this year are all about using the assets it has within the ecosystem to make the platform more appealing to users rather than just competing on games, specification and price.
• Microsoft’s co-operation with Oculus, upgrades to the user experience, a version of Minecraft on the augmented reality platform, HoloLens, the ability to play old Xbox 360 games on Xbox One and some cool new games grabbed a lot of attention.
• A lot of this will be very hard for Sony to emulate.
• This is because I think that Microsoft has embraced and understood the ecosystem concept whereas Sony seems to be going in the opposite direction.
• Furthermore when one compares the user experiences of the two devices, Microsoft comes out streets ahead of Sony and sometime in the near future this is going to matter.
• People have purchased the PlayStation 4 in much greater volumes than the Xbox One mainly because Microsoft made it very easy for Sony to make its platform more appealing.
• At the time of launch, PlayStation 4 offered a more powerful gaming experience at a lower price and Sony cleverly capitalised on Microsoft’s PR blunders and made sure that the PlayStation 4 was what gamers wanted.
• However, in the last 18 months the playing field has begun to shift.
• Consoles are becoming more than just gaming devices and the ability to make them part of a wider family of devices opens them up to new use cases that will increase their appeal to users.
• This is something that Microsoft understands that it really has to conquer and when it comes to the user experience and software, Sony is a soft target.
• On the Xbox One, Microsoft offers a fun user experience that makes the user want to look around and explore and find out what else the box is capable of doing.
• By contrast, Sony’s user experience is bare bones, clearly designed by engineers, and is more frustrating than it is fun.
• The only thing that a user wants to do when he turns on the device is start playing a game.
• This has to change if Sony wants to have any chance of competing against Microsoft in the next generation of gaming devices.
• Its announcements this year were focused around exclusive games and an a la carte streaming TV service but there was very little that related to other devices, use cases or ecosystem.
• Sony has compounded its problems by carving up its assets into separate legal entities which does make them more nimble and flexible, but also raises the spectre of returning to the old silo mentality that will make it very difficult for Sony to succeed in consumer electronics.
• Sony has a lot of the assets needed to succeed in creating a vibrant, profitable and desirable ecosystem around the PlayStation (its strongest asset) but it must move soon to address the space properly.
• Sony emphatically won the first battle against Microsoft but it is at risk of losing the war.
• Microsoft and Google remain my top choices in the ecosystem but I still have some hope that Sony can make it.
• Either way it is the only Japanese consumer electronics company with any real hope of making a splash in this space.