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E3 big 3 roundup

KnackChap

By KnackChap,
in General Chatter

Who had the best conference at E3 2008 ?  

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SchizoidFreud Newbie

SchizoidFreud

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NY Times: Nintendo and Sony Underwhelm at E3

 

The Japanese video game titans, Nintendo and Sony, announced wide-ranging, if not entirely breathtaking, constellations of new games and services at the E3 convention here on Tuesday, but did not appear to significantly alter their overall strategies in the fast-growing game market, as Microsoft did on Monday.

 

Nintendo — which is riding high on the gangbusters popularity of its DS handheld game unit and its Wii home console — continued to aim largely at children and the mainstream consumers who have adopted gaming in recent years, propelling the industry and the hobby beyond its historical base of young male players. Sony, which is finally generating some traction and excitement around its PlayStation 3 console after initial stumbles, directed most of its new offerings at more traditional gamers, as well as at movie buffs interested in the company’s high-definition Blu-Ray disc format.

 

While far from disappointing, the combined showings from the two companies appeared to leave some of the cognoscenti a bit underwhelmed.

 

“They didn’t need to show a lot and so they didn’t show a lot,” Brian Crecente, managing editor of Kotaku, a leading game blog, said of Nintendo. “I’m a little disappointed that Nintendo didn’t make good on their promises of earlier this year that they would have a big new title for hardcore gamers. People were expecting a big new Nintendo Wii game, like another Mario game or Zelda, or a big new intellectual property for core gamers. And what they got was more casual games, and not a lot of them. As for Sony, they did have to show a lot. They met the minimal expectations but they didn’t blow it out of the water.”

 

Ben Schachter, a game company analyst for UBS Securities, echoed that thought but held out hope that the so-called “third-party” publishers scheduled to present their wares later Tuesday, on Wednesday and on Thursday could generate a bit more excitement.

 

“Both Nintendo and Sony were somewhat playing it safe,” he said. Referring to the Microsoft and Electronic Arts showcases on Monday, in addition to Nintendo and Sony, he added: “Through the first four press conferences there hasn’t been a real ‘Wow’ moment yet. They seem to be covering their bases, showing a little bit of something for everyone, but there hasn’t been anything totally spectacular yet.”

 

Mr. Schachter pointed out that many of the more intriguing rumors in the game industry leading into E3 had not come to pass, such as Nintendo announcing a new version of the DS or Sony or Microsoft showing new motion-sensitive controllers (Microsoft did say briefly on Monday that the microphone for its coming karaoke game Lips would include some motion-sensitivity, but that was a relatively minor development).

 

Despite the criticism, both Nintendo and Sony did announce plenty of new products.

 

Nintendo opened its briefing at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood with Shaun White, the Olympic gold medalist, demonstrating his upcoming snowboarding game, in which a player stands atop the sensitive balance board Nintendo has shipped with its new Wii Fit fitness system. Shaun White Snowboarding, to be published by Ubisoft of France and shipped this fall, appears to be one of the first third-party games to take advantage of the board.

 

Nintendo unveiled two new peripherals on Tuesday. The first is a microphone for the Wii called Wii Speak, which will be available as an option for a new version of Animal Crossing, a sort of virtual zookeeper, this holiday season. The second is an attachment for the Wii controller that is meant to make it even more sensitive to being physically twisted and turned than it already is. Called the Wii Motion Plus, the unit will be packaged with a new compilation called Wii Sports Resort, which includes mini-games such as sword fighting and throwing a Frisbee-like disc.

 

In terms of third-party games, the surprise announcement from Nintendo was that Take-Two’s Rockstar studio is creating a version of the Grand Theft Auto series for the DS called Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. It is unclear whether that game will be aiming for an M for Mature rating (roughly equivalent to R for movies) or T for Teen (akin to PG or PG-13).

 

To finish, Nintendo’s star designer Shigeru Miyamoto showed off Wii Music, which will allow players to mimic playing any of about 50 instruments.

 

“I hope everyone came away with the understanding that we are continuing to drive innovation to appeal to the mass audience in addition to the core,” Reginald Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s president and chief operating officer, said in an interview Tuesday. “Our focus is on having the breadth to drive enjoyment for the consumer.”

 

Responding to the criticism voiced by Mr. Crecente of Kotaku and others, Mr. Fils-Aime pointed to Animal Crossing as a game that would appeal to core gamers. He also reiterated a statement from the presentation that the teams responsible for the famous Mario and Zelda franchises are currently working on new installments in those series.

 

For its part, Sony kicked off its presentation with a stunning demonstration of Resistance 2, the high-octane first-person shooter under development by Insomniac Games. Ted Price, the studio’s president and chief executive, impressed the crowd with his demonstration of combat against a 300-foot tall leviathan rampaging through an urban landscape.

 

Building on the PlayStation 3’s popularity as a Blu-Ray movie player, Sony announced that on Tuesday it had opened a movie download service over the PlayStation Network. Differentiating that service from a similar Microsoft offering, Sony said that consumers who buy or rent movies over the Sony service may also transfer those films to their PlayStationPortable handheld game units to watch on the road.

 

In terms of new games, Sony offered a first look at its coming superhero-themed multiplayer game called DC Universe Online and confirmed the long-suspected rumor that a new installment in its blockbuster God of War series is in the works for the PS3.

 

Sony did not offer specifics in terms of when the long-awaited Home upgrade for its online network would become available. Home is meant to allow players to socialize over the system outside of particular games.

 

The company did, however, exhibit a high level of artistic and technical ambition in playing a trailer from a new game in the works called MAG, for Massive Action Game. MAG is meant to allow up to 256 players to simultaneously occupy one continuous modern-combat battlefield. Currently, most console games do not allow more than 40 or 60 players to compete at once. Sony did not say when it hoped to release MAG.

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AtheK Grand Master

AtheK

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MS did hardly anything new...FF13 was a big announcement but then its not as if it is exclusive....and also it seems its not out till 2010 so its all meh...

 

Gears of war 2 awesome ownage...but that is about it. Lips seems to be a rip off of Singstar.

 

On the other hand sony showcased some real nice exclusives....the way stats were presented using LBP very immovative....though the presenter the fat a*s sucked...Sony has a lot more innovation in LBP and MS just stole one more of franchisee using there muscle power.

 

So my vote goes to Sony -- Kratos was there so its done with :majesty:

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SchizoidFreud Newbie

SchizoidFreud

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The winners and losers of E3 2008, part one – the press conferences

 

The results are in. After an insane few days of news coverage and announcements, the flood’s dried to a trickle. E3 2008 may well have been a pivotal year for the show, with some massive highs and tragic lows permeating the platform holder conferences, and an explosion of behind-the-scenes gossip left in the wake. Hit the link for VG247’s round-up of which console manufacturers got high scores, and which binned all lives on the first level

 

E3 2008 winners and losers – the press conferences

 

First place – Microsoft

 

Microsoft “won it,” in our opinion. The Final Fantasy announcement has to be one of the greatest in recent gaming history, and no one truly expected it, not even Sony by all accounts.

 

The amount of controversy it’s caused since Monday has been unparalleled. The only other showing we can think of that’s actually crashed large sites was the first ever look at the PS3 casing, so that gives an idea of the level of magnitude of 360’s coup.

 

Aside from FFXIII, Microsoft’s showing was wall-to-wall gaming and service announcements. A complete Xbox 360 dashboard revamp and the inclusion of party-based movie-viewing and Avatars was genuinely exciting.

 

Gears of War 2, Fallout 3 and Resident Evil 5 looked exceptional from where we were sitting, and it should be noted that the latter two were shown in the 360 conference, not in PS3’s. As it was put to us after the event, “As far as PS3 and 360 goes for ‘gaming,’ there’s just no contest any more.”

 

There was little bullshit. Massive games, massive demos, and all those major titles had proper announcements and release dates. Tons to write about.

 

The casual stuff? Well, Lips looked fine, but it’s SingStar with sparkly microphones, basically. It’ll be interesting to see if it actually sells. You’re in the Movies? No thanks. Not so good.

 

As far as the other “lighter” games went, having Viva 2 and Banjo on board isn’t so slouchy. Both were looking excellent.

 

In terms of presentation, Don Mattrick looked relaxed and delivered a feature-heavy speech with ease. It’s quite something to do a double thumbs-up and stare into the distance when Yoichi Wada tells you Final Fantasy XIII is releasing on your console, but Mattrick managed it. Some good beta blockers going on there.

 

Second place – Sony

 

Jack Tretton was unflappable in Sony’s E3 2008 presentation, but there’s probably a good reason for that: it was boring.

 

You’d had to have balls of steel to profess otherwise, frankly. The conference was very long at over an hour-and-a-half, and lacked the real “wow” moment Microsoft provided with FFXIII.

 

There was no date for Home and big presentations for games that can hardly be described as “megaton,” such as Ratchet & Clank: Future Quest for Booty. A lot of it was fairly tiring.

 

That’s not to say there was nothing there. Far from it. Resistance 2, especially, looked brilliant, and the announcement of an immediate opening of the US PS3 Movie Store was good and welcome. Eric Lempel’s presentation of the Store and its features was impressive but, again, if was hard to not just stare and the stage and say, “Great.”

 

God of War III was teased, but there was no information at all. Solid announcements took the form of retail news, with the 40Gb PS3 being dropped in favour of an 80Gb option and – stop the press – new PS2 and PSP bundles confirmed.

 

Unsung star of the show was Sucker Punch’s inFamous. Expect to hear a great deal more on the free-roaming action game before release early next year. It looked sensational, and should have been pitched far more heavily.

 

DC Universe Online also looked promising, and it could easily be argued that Sony’s leading the way with mass online console gaming with this and brand new IP Massive Action Game, Sony’s final boom-boom.

 

MAG has 256 players. It’s PS3-only. It’s made by Zipper and it looks like Quake Wars crossed with SOCOM. As with the rest of the viewing, it was commendable, but so hard to get excited about.

 

In summary, Sony’s E3 2008 press conference was like bad sex: going through the motions, the odd enthusiastic flurry, a weary wish it was all over and a forced climax.

 

Patience is starting to wear a little thin, Jack.

 

Third place – Nintendo

 

The reaction was hilarious. Nintendo’s E3 press conference can be summed up thus: Shaun White Snowboarding, massive numbers, GTA DS (no details), Animal Crossing: City Folk and WiiSpeak, Wii Sports 2, Wii Music. End.

 

The “core” went nuts afterwards, claiming Nintendo had abandoned its gaming roots. Wii Sports 2 saw poor Cammie Dunaway, smiling right across to her ears, playing with a virtual dog, Reggie Fils-Aime and a frisbee. Not pretty.

 

Wii Music was worse. Yes, it’ll probably move huge amounts. It’s a Miyamoto project, and first-party Nintendo games are pushed so hard that selling “Rock Band for everyone else” is a bit of a no-brainer.

 

But watching a team of Nintendo executives playing the self-professed “toy” on stage, culminating in a group leap into the air, was cringeworthy beyond compare.

 

In the event’s aftermath, Reggie seemed exasperated by the fact “gamers” were calling foul, saying that Animal Crossing and GTA DS should be enough for anyone.

 

The internet thought differently, unfortunately. Some of the commentary from blogs has been stunningly rude, although Nintendo is unlikely to care.

 

Industry talk in the UK was one of complete disbelief: we’re unsure we’ve seen the acronym “wtf” used so frequently in such a short space of time.

 

The big question is whether or not Nintendo will be back next year. Is a games conference showing ever applicable for the company any more? Why bother showing and facing criticism - from all quarters, not just the games press - when you’re selling 750,000 Wiis in the US alone?

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