For those who do not know, the annual E3 is the largest video game conference on American shores. This year the big three came out swinging and here is the report on the winners, losers, surprises, and predictions for the year to come.
We begin by looking at Microsoft since they held the first press conference of this year’s E3. Not to anyone’s surprise, Microsoft announced an avatar system similar to Nintendo’s Miis and PS3’s Home system. The difference is Microsoft’s avatars actually look like a decent representation of people due to a new camera hookup, unlike Nintendo’s Miis, and the arena through which you could meet and greet people and play X-Box Live makes the Home system of the PS3 pale in comparison. Microsoft did exactly what it had to do to compete in the next year, take the competitions ideas and improve on them in ways that the X-Box 360 could handle. If only we could get rid of the damn red rings of death now…
On the software front, Microsoft looks strong with a slew of sequels to big hits. Fable 2 looks amazing in every way and the revelation that Resident Evil 5 will be on the X-Box 360 as well as the PS3 is a huge boon for the system. Gears of War 2, Far Cry 2, and Fallout 3 are also on the slate to be released, rounding out the bombardment of true sequels from Microsoft. Halo Wars will grab hold of Halo fans, but I do not know if the Real-Time Strategy format will be enough to win over a larger audience like Microsoft predicts it will. RTS games have never transitioned well to consoles and I think Microsoft is banking on the Halo brand name a bit too much with this one. After signing a deal several years ago to bring their characters away from Nintendo, Rare has finally produced a Banjo-Kazooie game for the X-Box 360 that was on display at E3, but I think it will fail miserably because most of the fans of that franchise are playing Wii. If Rare was going to wait this long for a new game, they should never have left Nintendo.Moving onto the 2nd day of E3, we look at the Nintendo press conference. Expectations were high for Nintendo to continue applying the pressure to the other two after their domination in the next gen wars with the Wii. It started off as expected, with typical numbers and graphs that lulled the audience into a light coma. Then the typical Nintendo big reveal was going to happen. Except it never did. They showed the skateboarding and snowboarding game that was expected for the balance board. That was nice, but where were the franchises? Where were the big reveals?
Nintendo’s big move was…Wii Sports 2 and Wii Music?! For the biggest video game conference of the year in the U.S.A. and a chance to possibly put Sony away, who is near bankrupt at 3.3 billion dollars in the hole in their video game division, and distance themselves from that system with the red rings, Nintendo left the window wide open for the other two to get back into the video game wars. Wii Music is a blatant rip off of Guitar Hero with the only thing worth buying about it is that you can compose your own music and play Nintendo theme songs. Wii Sports 2 will be popular because it includes some great new mini-games and will be packaged with the Wii Motion Plus, a controller accessory that makes the movement of the Wiimote pick up on screen in a 1:1 ratio. In other words, every movement you make will be read flawlessly by the Wii Sensor Bar now. That alone will push this product, but when will Nintendo stop packaging two decent products together and just come out again with jaw droppers. Where is Zelda? Where is Mario? Come on!Speaking of packaging things together, the other reveal for Nintendo was Animal Crossing: Big City for the Wii. Again, a so-so game, but it will sell well because it is being packaged with a microphone. That’s right! Similar to Microsoft’s microphone, Nintendo is including a microphone with Animal Crossing for the Wii that will sit right on top of your Wii system. No headset. The microphone can pick up all sound in the room so that your parents can hear who you are talking to on the other side for when this hopefully becomes compatible with future fighting and sports games. Nintendo found a way to make the headset into a family friendly feature once again and that microphone will push the product.
Aside from the microphone and the Motion Plus accessory, there wasn’t a lot to be excited about for Nintendo. They did announce a GTA game for the Nintendo DS, and that should be great, but will still be a long way before we actually see it. Games that are coming out in the fall are games that are being released for all systems so there is not much other software to be excited about. I am tired of gimmicks from Nintendo and that they’re not giving the fans what they want. Someone start gearing a few games to the older audience. Knowing Nintendo it’ll probably be Wii Sex or something though because Nintendo is losing its focus on games. Imagine THAT lifelike experience. You could get a glove for solo action or something with a hole in it for multiplayer over the internet and with microphone they could talk dirty. For the ladies, a brand new, ribbed vibrating feature for the Wiimote, which now will come in neon pink and black of course. Okay so maybe that is a little extreme, but for a company that is all about taking risks, they sure get comfortable after one of them pans out like the Wii has. Overall, Nintendo dropped the ball at this year’s E3.
Finally, we look at the PS3. As mentioned earlier, Sony’s video game division is 3.3 billion dollars in debt. With Sony losing $400-$600 per system sold, they really had to stress software this E3 in order to have any hope of overcoming that debt before they have to declare bankruptcy. Oh boy! Did they deliver! First off: they announced at least another 120 titles to be released for the PS2 before the system is discontinued. A puzzling announcement to say the least, but considering anything sold for PS2 at this point is pure profit, it looks to be a move to try and cut back on that horrendous deficit. Especially since Sony announced that they are cutting the 80 GB PS3 to $400 in October so they will lose even more money on each of those units, Sony is really putting all their eggs into the software basket in the next year.
What a basket it is though! With the blockbuster titles coming out in the next year for PS3, I am very tempted, as a lifelong, diehard Nintendo fan, to go out and buy that $400 80 GB PS3 in October. Ghostbusters the Game, a video-game geek wet dream, it looks amazing and it looks best on the PS3 system. Resistance 2 will come out with an eight player co-op mode and I will declare right now that it will be the shooter of the year. Little Big Planet is getting a lot of hype, but I do not think it will be as revolutionary as everyone declares, but it will find its niche. The two games I am most excited about though are DCU Online and MAG. PS3 is the only console to have the DCU Online Universe and it looks amazing. The chance to create your own DC Character is a dream come true for millions of fanboys out there. And MAG means one thing: Massive Action Game. And it will live up to its title as it pushes the PS3 to its limits to allow 256 players to fight simultaneously on one map over the internet with minimal lag. These games could revolutionize online play beyond anything we have ever seen before on a console. You add games like DCU vs. Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter 4, Soul Caliber 4, Infamous, Prince of Persia 4, Resident Evil 5, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and Deadspace to the list and PS3 could have several games reach the million unit mark by the next E3 (Hooray for the return of the “Greatest Hits” line). Sony needed to drop some software bombs to gain some ground back in the video game wars and it looks like it has. The question is not whether or not they will get out of debt now, but when.Overall, here are the grades for the game companies.
Microsoft: C+ : Nothing spectacular from Microsoft. They came out with a bunch of sequels to their powerhouse franchises and some upgrades to X-Box Live, such as the use of avatars, an advanced arena system, and a deal with Netflix to download movies onto the system. All are strong, but average, moves to remain constant in the video game wars and they get a plus for reacting quickly to their competitors’ moves.
Nintendo: D- : Nothing major from the main franchises. Just more gimmicks. They didn’t show off Star Wars or Ghostbusters like the other consoles did or even their up and coming projects like The Conduit (prediction for shooter of the year for 2010), or Mad World, which could be the next big sleeper hit right next to Killer 7 and No More Heroes. Dead Rising, a game that came out 2 years ago for X-Box, being ported over is not a big deal folks. Nintendo only keeps their head above water with the possibilities for the microphone and Motion Plus, but let’s stay away from the gimmicks next year, okay?
Sony: A- : Sony did exactly what it had to do to save itself. It showcased nothing but bombshells for games, many original titles, and just a few sequels sprinkled in to keep the faithful happy. The announcement that it won’t discontinue the PS2 yet caused a few groans amongst the audience because it means that Sony still isn’t fully geared into the PS3, but if these new games are a sign of things to come, Sony will be in great shape. They just have to keep their heads above water a little longer. It also means that more resources are being taken away from getting Home online, which is promised to launch in the next year, but still hasn’t been given a hard date. And a nice maneuver to counter the Microsoft/Netflix deal was that Sony has made deals with several picture companies themselves to have their movies downloadable for rent or purchase in both standard and Blu-Ray format. PS3 is still the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market and when you add that hardware to this new software, Nintendo should be shaking, that’s for sure.
-Ray Carsillo
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