Animation Mentor Student
Video games, SWAG, and booth babes, galore. Tomorrow will mark the official start of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which takes place from June 15-17 in the Los Angeles Convention Center. E3 is an annual trade show for the video game industry, put on by the Entertainment Software Association. It is the world’s largest regular video game convention, and is typically used by companies as a means of announcing and promoting new products of both the software and hardware variety (and nothing screams “BUY THIS GAME” like hot girls wielding big weapons). Some of the biggest highlights of the show include the Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo press conferences. The presentations from these three major video game companies are usually critically compared to one another by the gaming community. While there is no official “winner” of the conference, fanboys of each console will undoubtedly argue over which company’s show was the best. The gaming crowd can be insatiable, and it often takes a truly groundbreaking announcement to impress the hardcore crowd. As a result, many companies hold off on major announcements until E3, making this week one of the most exciting in the gaming industry.
Even though E3 doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, some publishers got a head-start on the event. Microsoft already had its press conference today, officially announcing its new camera-based motion device for the Xbox 360, dubbed the Kinect. This announcement was not a surprise to many in the know, as for the past year Microsoft has been advertising this product under the code name Project Natal. Several Xbox exclusive games were also announced during the conference, as well as a new, slimmer Xbox 360 model. I’ll go into Microsoft’s conference in-depth later in the week, after all three console makers have had their respective events. So far, there isn’t too much to talk about, but expect both Nintendo and Sony to have a few tricks up their sleeves in an attempt to upstage Microsoft.
Look familiar?
Sony is bound to show off it’s new motion toy just as Microsoft devoted much of it’s conference to the Kinect. That’s right, both Sony and Microsoft are following in the Nintendo Wii’s footsteps with motion control, an ironic turn of events from two companies that consistently downplayed motion control throughout the entire lifetime of the Wii. Sony’s solution to kinetic gaming is called the Playstation Move, and mimics the wiimote in many ways. In spite of Sony’s lack of originality, I won’t hold it against them too much, especially since early hands-on reports paint the Move as a much more accurate and appropriate motion controller than either Microsoft or Nintendo’s offerings. The Move is somewhat of a hybrid between Microsoft Kinect and the Nintendo Wiimote. Like the wiimote, the Move controller is wand-shaped and has accurate pointing and motion-sensing capabilities, as well as a traditional button-interface. It even has a nunchuk-like connecting controller for analog stick control, exactly like the Wii. The amount of blatant copying of the Wii is pretty significant. Like the Kinect, however, a camera is used for sensing the position of the controller (rather than the IR-emitting sensor bar of the Wii) making it far more accurate and responsive than the wiimote is technologically capable of being. I for one like this best of both worlds approach. Only time will tell if Move lives up to expectations. Oh yea, and the Playstation 3 is now in 3D….did you know? You read right, all current PS3 systems already sitting in consumer’s homes can now display 3D video game content with a simple wireless (and free) firmware update….if you have the TV capable of outputting it, which less than 1% of consumers do. Nevertheless, this is an interesting development for the future and the longevity of the PS3.
Both Microsoft and Sony have shown, and will continue to show off, motion controllers. So where does this leave Nintendo? What could Nintendo do to surprise and impress, since it’s motion control technology is now four years old? I think the key for Nintendo is to focus on killer first-party games. With the other two companies are focusing on putting out new hardware, many of the games they’ve been debuting have been nothing more than tech-demos and motion-friendly party games. Nintendo is in an excellent (and for them, unusual) position to appeal to the core gaming crowd with possible announcements concerning sequels to beloved franchises, such as The Legend of Zelda and Pikmin, and perhaps even brand new IP’s (intellectual properties). But what I really expect Nintendo to focus most on is its already-announced but short-on-details successor to the Nintendo DSi handheld game system. The new handheld, tentatively referred to as the 3DS, is expected to feature dual-screens like its predecessor, but will also feature the first major application of glasses-free 3D technology. The success of this system will have major implications for the future of 3D in film, television, and gaming for years to come.
Stay tuned for future developments. And for in-depth news on E3, I suggest visiting IGN or Gamespot.
References:
Callaham, John (2007-06-19). “Looking back at E3″ . FiringSquad. http://www.firingsquad.com/features/looking_back_at_e3_1/. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Entertainment_Expo
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/108/1089522p1.html