It’s that time of year again, when the gaming world gets together to take in the sights and sounds of what developers have on deck at the E3 convention. The annual event never fails to elicit surprise and anticipation, and this time was no different.

Last year, Sony was the clear winner in what has become a never-ending competition of reveals between the PlayStation camp and Microsoft’s Xbox team. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, then, that the biggest news to come out of this year’s E3 is from Microsoft. The home of Xbox caught many off guard by announcing not one, but two, new consoles – or variations thereof. First up is Xbox One S, an update on the current Xbox One that comes in a smaller and sleeker design with internal revisions, such as a larger hard drive. Xbox One S will be available for purchase in August, but gamers will have to wait until fall 2017 for Project Scorpio.

Not a whole new console, per se, Project Scorpio is a hardware upgrade that can be used on older Xbox One games, as well as new releases. It will allow games to be played at 4k resolution – the newest experience in HD viewing – and will support virtual reality (VR) gameplay, too. In an effort to expand playability in multiple mediums, Microsoft also announced that upcoming games like Gears of War 4 and Halo Wars 2 can be played on Windows 10 and continued on a traditional Xbox One, meaning you can go back and forth. Why this hasn’t already been done is anyone’s guess.

But Sony didn’t rest on its laurels this year. The PlayStation camp made it obvious at its showcase that the company is going all in on VR gameplay. Titles announced for VR included Batman, Star Wars X-Wing, Final Fantasy and Resident Evil 7. The VR headset itself is expected to be on store shelves this fall. On the other end, nostalgic gamers were rewarded for their patience when the return of Crash Bandicoot was announced in the form of remastered editions of the franchise’s first three releases.

The biggest news involving PlayStation, however, is the lack thereof in regard to Neo, a supposedly more powerful version of the PlayStation 4 console that is expected to be available soon. No official word was spoken at E3 about Neo, but there will likely be an announcement soon. Also missing was an announcement concerning the rumored release of Red Dead Redemption 2, the follow-up to the popular western Grand Theft Auto-style game.

In similar fashion, Nintendo decided not to show off its next rumored console and instead elected to focus on the long-awaited return of Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, to the delight of many.

So who won this year’s E3 convention? With Microsoft eagerly trying to jump ahead of Sony, it creates good competition that can only lead to better games for all of us. There’s definitely a developing trend of enhancing already established consoles, as opposed to developing new ones. VR gameplay also gained a major boost this year with both heavyweights investing in it, signaling a new world of gaming that once may have seemed futuristic and impossible.

For more, visit e3expo.com/takeover.

By Jason Savio