Sony, 
already plenty busy with one upcoming hardware launch, is doubling down.
During its annual pre-Tokyo Games Show press conference on Monday, the company unveiled a new device called PlayStation Vita TV, a ‘microconsole’ that will allow you to play PlayStation Vita games on your TV and will let PS4 owners stream games to other TVs in the house.
Three 
months ago, Sony made a big splash at E3 touting the PlayStation 4 to the world. At the same time, though, it was already laying the groundwork for another notable consumer technology venture.
As media and buyers got hands on time with the upcoming console and debated the WWE-like theatrics of the Sony and Microsoft press conferences, the company was holding top secret meetings with developers and publishers, showing off a virtual reality headset for the PS4 and drumming up support for it.
Want 
a PlayStation 4? Get ready to take a Friday off this November.
Sony has announced that its next-generation system will go on sale November 15 in North America and in Europe on November 29 — and it’s going to have a lot of retail support.
Chris 
Morris notes that “the embankment Microsoft faces is a lot smaller than it was a short time ago”
Coming out of E3, the momentum for the next generation was clearly on Sony’s side. Microsoft, through a series of unpopular decisions and confusing, conflicting public statements, was quickly wearing down the goodwill it had built up with the Xbox 360 – at least among core gamers.
Within a week of the industry trade show’s close, though, Microsoft started making changes – big ones – to win back the doubters, reversing its DRM and used game policies. Last week, those changes continued as the company changed its mind on indie game self-publishing. And with an estimated four months or so before the Xbox One hits shelves, who knows if Microsoft is finished?
Forget 
about reading facial expressions – the Next Big Thing in console gaming is…sweat?
Almost, according to Mark Cerny, lead system architect for Sony’s next-generation console. Cerny says one of the early designs of the DualShock 4 controller measured ‘skin conductivty’ — or, in more colloquial terms, sweat — to detect a player’s emotions.
Video 
game publishers and developers have spent the better part of this week at E3 trying to wow the often-jaded gamer with new installments of favorite franchises, games they’ve never heard of before and plenty of sizzle reels.
They’ve done a pretty good job, too, judging by feedback on gaming forums.
The 
video-game industry’s annual E3 trade show is much like a carnival. And to get a true sense of the barely controlled chaos, you need to look past the game booths and crowded show floor.
This year, Nintendo offered people who were unable to attend the show (which is the vast majority of the gaming population) the opportunity to play demos of the unreleased games at more than 100 Best Buy locations around the country. That gave fans a bite of the smorgasbord.
E3 is a constantly moving, nearly organic being. Capturing all of the show’s eccentricities is impossible, but here are a few snapshots of the industry’s annual party-trade show.
The 
PlayStation 4 represents more than just the next generation of gaming for Sony. It could be the flag bearer for the next generation of the 67-year-old company itself.
Sony CEO Kaz Hirai (who formerly ran the PlayStation division) has made it clear that he sees the console as one of the tentpole units that will lead the company back to prosperity. And early indications are that it plans to do that by changing the closed gate philosophy Sony has clung to for so long.
Microsoft 
spent over an hour and a half showcasing the Xbox One and the many games that will launch with the new console—but only one moment made the entire crowd gasp.
Phil Spencer, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, announced Monday that Microsoft’s next generation console would be available in November—at a price of $499. And almost immediately, the air went out of the room.
Game. 
Set. Match?
Sony did something very un-Sony like at its E3 press conference this year: it went into ferocious attack mode, identifying every one of the Xbox One’s perceived weaknesses and exploiting them.
And in the process, it earned some new fans. Lots of them.
Chris Morris: Journalist 