Well damn. I knew Microsoft was going to hit hard at E3 2015, but I think it might have just rolled out its best press conference of all time. After a long period of bad PR moves and muted reactions from gamers, I think it's safe to say that Microsoft has turned things around: the Xbox One is finally… cool.
There were games aplenty at the show, which is always a good thing at an E3 conference, but it was less the AAA titles and more the bits around them that underlined Microsoft's strategy going forward: PC gaming in your living room.
Closing the gap
Finally, we had the big one: virtual reality. I think Microsoft's approach to VR has been quite smart thus far. It could easily have done its own thing and built an Xbox One headset in a painfully "me too" move, although the abilities of the Xbox One to handle VR are still up for debate.
Instead it built HoloLens - which, by the way, looks more incredible than ever - and hopped into bed with Oculus. Today it also announced it's partnering with Valve VR for Windows 10, which we assume will mean hassle-free, plug-and-play VR
All of which, to me, says that it has its sights on becoming the Steam Machine before Valve's boxes get out the door. Microsoft is closing the gap between the living room and the PC faster, and more effectively, than Valve. In some ways, Microsoft is turning the Xbox One into what it was when it was first announced, before the backlash caused Microsoft to change its strategy.
It won't have Steam's bottomless pit of games, given, or the Steam Controller (might be a good thing to some folk). But we know you'll be able to stream your Xbox One games to the PC when Windows 10 launches, so what about the other way around? Microsoft recently told me that it's something it's looking into, with nothing yet to announce.
Surely it's just a matter of time.
