The DeanBeat: At Europe's E3, Microsoft gets a second chance, and Sony gets to tease Microsoft again

This week at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, Microsoft got a chance for a redo in the video game marketing wars. Scoring points against competitors like Sony is important because consumers will spend their money based on who carries the best consumer-friendly message.

In that respect, this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was one that Microsoft would love to forget. It unveiled a bunch of games for its upcoming Xbox One console only to be upstaged by Sony’s PlayStation 4, which is expected to be faster and will cost $100 less. Consumers hated Microsoft’s initial policies around used games, always-connected hardware, and Kinect privacy policies. Sony had a more consumer-friendly stance on those issues that Microsoft had to adopt. From afar, I watched the events unfold via webcasts and took my own guesses as to who was winning over the 300,000 consumers attending Gamescom. My impression is that Sony appears to be moving ahead of Microsoft in making progress with its console, a lead that it has held since it introduced the PS4 in February while Microsoft waited until May. But Microsoft swings the balance back in its favor with one or two better games.