It's E3 time again, or it recently was anyway. For those that of you that don't know what E3 is....well for a start, what are you doing calling yourself a Gamer for god's sake!
well for a start, what are you doing calling yourself a Gamer for god's sake! 
Anyway, now that I have that off my chest, E3 is the gaming industrys biggest tradeshow. Until last year this was an event open to all the public, however in a surprise move they decided to make it for industry insiders only. Many software houses and manufacturers now have their own shows, so the need for a massive event, as seen in the past, is no longer needed.
As well as software houses pushing their games that will be coming out over the next year, the 3 major manufacturers (being Microsoft, covering Windows and Xbox360, Nintendo, covering the Wii and DS, and of course Sony, covering the PS3 and PSP) also do a show, each lasting about 90 minutes and showcasing the advances in hardware, and a short run down of some of the games we expect to see over the next year.
I recently had the immense pleasure of viewing these seminars, with all three trying their hardest to convince me that not only are their systems the only ones worth my money, but also that my life will somehow be incomplete without one
my life will somehow be incomplete without one
, and in the case of Windows, that is sadly true I guess.
As far as the individual games are concerned, you can find those details at your favorite game review sites, so I intend on giving you the info you won’t get at those sites.
Microsoft:
For me Microsoft was the stand out at last years E3. All the promise that Vista had as well as the announcement of their cross platform gaming network, these have turned out, in my opinion, to be a flop. Windows Live is basically trying to charge PC gamers for services we have had free for many years
Windows Live is basically trying to charge PC gamers for services we have had free for many years
, via applications such as xFire, Teamspeak and Ventrillo. And Vista (I know I am going to cop a lot of flack over this), well what can I really say? I think we all know Vista isn't all it was cracked up to be, maybe with the release of Service Pack 1 it may find a place back on my machine, but until then no thanks.
I must admit I was hoping for some more PC orientated presentation, however they merely showed a few of the games coming to the Games For Windows brand and thats about where they left it in regards to Windows this year.
With that said, Microsoft did deliver the most game content of any of the 3 seminars. Between the Xbox 360 and Windows there is a lot to look forward to this year.
Microsoft states that more money was spent on games this year than music, which is an incredible little fact upon itself. It means the gaming industry is really becoming a force to be reckoned with and I believe will eventually out do the Movie industry also. Who wants to sit and watch a movie when you can be part of that movie and decide how the story plays out?
Who wants to sit and watch a movie when you can be part of that movie and decide how the story plays out?
Now as we know, the Xbox 360 was released well before its two next gen counterparts, being the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3. However the facts below come from after the launch of those two platforms. Remember, this was presented during a Microsoft Seminar so how much stock you want to put into these facts is up to you:
- 2.7 Million (5.6 Million units since launch) Xbox 360 Units have been sold while 2.8 Million Wii consoles and only 1.4 Million PS3 units have been sold over the same period. What does this mean? Well it's simply that the Wii, at a fraction of the cost is only slightly outselling the Xbox 360, while PS3 has not even come close
- 4 Million games have been sold for PS3, 8.8 Million Wii games and a whopping 18.1 Million games have been sold for Xbox 360 since the launch of the other two consoles. According to MS this means that Xbox games account for 2/3's of the next gen games being sold are being sold for Xbox 360.
- $1.1 billion has been spent on PS3 games, $1.3 billion on Wii, while Xbox 360 has accounted for $2.4 billion in consumer spending (this includes both hardware and software), meaning that Xbox 360 accounts for roughly half of all Next Gen consumer spending.
We then moved onto Xbox Live, which now has over 2000 hours of downloadable movies and TV Shows, with about 500 hours of that being in High Definition format. They are currently rolling this out worldwide with Canada and Europe to come online in Fall (or Spring for us Aussies). The Xbox Live membership has just surpassed 7 Million members and is growing steadily.
Some of the Xbox 360 Exclusives mentioned were:
- Halo 3
- Mass Effect
- Project Gotham Racing 4
- Lost Odyssey
- Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
- Eternal Sonata
- Naruto: Rise of A Ninja
- Scene It? (being released with 4 controllers that look incredibly similar to the controllers that came out with Buzz! for the PS2 about 2 years ago)
- Fable 2
- Halo Wars
Some of the Windows Exlcusives to come:
- Crysis
- Hellgate: London
- Age Of Conan: Hyberian Adventure
- Flight Simulator X: Acceleration
- Age Of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties
- Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Some of the Windows and Xbox 360 Exclusives (these will only be available on these 2 platforms):
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction
- Bioshock
- Alan Wake
- Viva Pinata
- Universe At War: Earth Assault
- Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Everyone is a Gamer! This is the statement that Nintendo started with and then spent the next 90 minutes trying to prove it. To be honest I think they actually pulled it off too.
They started off with some facts on the market and they are follows:
- In the US, the Video Game market was up 46% in the first 5 months of this year, in the same period 42% in the UK and 114% in Japan.
- In 2002 the split between Console and Portable gaming devices, the sales were 70-30 in favor of Consoles, in 2006 it is now a 50% split with 23% of the overall total being DS, and GBA making up the majority of the remainder
- In 2005 the revenue split into age groups looked like this:
- 17 and Under, 57%
- 18-24, 18%
- 25+ (the TOG group) 28%
- In the first 5 months of 2007 this has changed to:
- 17 and Under, 47%
- 18-24, 21%
- 25+ 32%
- This means that 25+ now accounts for a third of all gaming revenue.
- Hardware sales across the board have had a split this year of 80% male to 20% female, however in regards solely to Nintendo this is only 67% to male and 33% to female
- 40 Million DS units have been sold worldwide, while in the 33 Weeks since the Wii's launch it has been virtually sold out the entire time.
Two new controllers are coming for Wii. Firstly the Zapper, this is basically a Lightgun.
Firstly the Zapper, this is basically a Lightgun.
The first games to support this new controller will include Resident Evil, Ghost Squad and Medal Of Honor. The Zapper, (US$19.99) will be packaged with a Wii game, although they are tight lipped on what the game will be. The second is a new Wii Wheel which will come packaged with the new MarioKart.
Nintendo also mentioned something called WiiWare, and while not elaborating too much on this I gather it is tied into their electronic delivery system somehow. What this actually means I am not too sure, as they already have an online store for the electronic purchasing of games. To date they have 112 games for sale electronically and have had over 5.6 million downloads. They are introducing a new Wii Channel for the sole purpose of sharing your Mii, similar to a HotOrNot type website where people can vote on your Mii. Nintendo also made reference to competitions on this channel such as the closest Mii to a Celebrity etc. It is very much a gimic, but gimics tend to work these days.
WiiFit, well I am sure all Wii Fanboi's have heard of this by now, it is designed to get us lazy geeks and our families off our backsides and getting fit. It is basically a thin board, similar to a set of bathroom scales that not only measures your weight, but your balance also. If you thought Wii Sports made you sweat, wait till you see this thing! It also has a lot of potential for games that require balance, such as Snowboarding, Skateboarding and Surfing.
Currently there are 60 Wii games and 300 DS games worldwide, but by the end of the year there will be another 100 Wii games and 140 DS games released, some of which you can see below.
Exclusives games coming to DS include:
- Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
- Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker
- Brain Age 2
- PicCrossDS
- Flash Focus
- MyWord Coach
Exlcusive games coming to Wii:
- Soul Caliber: Legends
- Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword
- Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
- Super Smash Bros: Brawl
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
- Mario Strikers Charged
- MarioKart
- super Mario Galaxy
- Rayman Raving Rabbits 2
Coming to both:
- WWE Smack Down Vs Raw 2008
- MySims
- High School Musical
I was not all that impressed by the Sony conference. Not to say it was bad, but nothing really stood out for me.
Playstation Home:
It seems that Playstation Home is going to see a few improvements this coming year, with new purchasable customizations for your personal space. Games will be able to be launched directly from Playstation Home, regardless of whether the game is on your HDD or on Blue Ray disc. But one of the coolest features is that the fundamentals of Playstation Home will be available on mobile phones. The presenter actually demonstrated taking a photo on his mobile phone and then uploading that to his Playstation Home so he could hang it on the wall as a picture. I must admit the whole Playstation Home concept is rather intriguing and I think will work for social networking. An example would be, if a software house could create a room for their game, in which fans of the game can hang out and interact, then if they so choose all launch the game and play against each other. It really does hold some great potential.
PSP:
Kaz Hirai, President of Sony Entertainment, announced a new PSP model, which will be 33% lighter and 19% slimmer. There have been improvements in the Load speeds and the battery is now more efficient, something I am sure all PSP owners have been waiting for. This new model is due out in America in September, and will come in Piano Black, Ice Silver and a Special Edition White Star Wars model, with Darth Vader on the back.
Supposedly UMD movies aren’t doing as bad as we all thought and sales are up 36% since 2006, with many new titles slated for this year’s release.
Some of the new Games coming to PSP this year include:
- SOCOM US Navy Seals: Tactical Strategy
- Wipeout Pulse
- Syphon Filter: Logans Shadow
- God Of War: Chains of Olympus
- Silent Hill: Origins
- Patapon
- Sonic Rivals 2
- Sims 2 Castaway
- SWAT: Target Liberty
- Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of The Lions
- Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadran
PS3:
Sony mentioned that they have two goals in mind for this year for their PS3 system. The first being to broaden the install base of the PS3. They realize that the PS3 is not selling as well as the other two consoles and are pushing to turn this around. The second is to deliver a wide range of game services. To be honest, I am not 100% what this means but time will tell I guess. It seems Sony is quite happy about having chosen BlueRay and state that most retailers are now dropping HDDVD in favor of BlueRay. I believe this relates to movies not games though, keep in mind that Microsoft has come out since, and disputed the claim.
Sony will be releasing a new PS3 package that will contain an 80GB drive unit and be bundled with Motorstorm. Expect this sometime in August in America. They stated that there will be 200 games released this year on BlueRay with 15 of those being Sony Exclusives.
Some of the Exclusives include:
- Haze (timed exclusives)
- Unreal Tournament 3 (timed Exclusive)
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots
- Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
- Folklore
- Heavenly Sword
- LittleBigPlanet
- Uncharted: Drakes Fortune\
- Infamous
- Killzone 2
- Gran Turismo 5, and of course the earlier release of GT5 Prologue
In all there are estimated to be about 500 games being released for PSP, PS2 and PS3 this year alone. A good year for Sony gamers.
Finally:
The Sony seminar in my eyes was a let down, with nothing really outstanding. The Microsoft conference was sorely lacking in Windows content and instead this year almost solely concentrated on the Xbox 360. Nintendo on the other hand was an outstanding show. They have a lot of ideas and are very focused on not just the current gaming market but on making 'Everyone A Gamer' as they say. I really think if anyone can do it, it is Nintendo. They showed a lot of footage from news stories in the US showing people that you wouldn’t expect to be playing games having a ball on the Wii. This console is bringing in a much larger audience than any other console has ever managed before.
Some other big games coming this year on multiple platforms:
- Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Assassins Creed
- Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
- Resident Evil 5
- Burnout Paradise
- NBA 08
- Madden NFL 08
- Harry Potter and The Order of The Pheonix
- The Simpsons Game
- Guitar Heroes 3: Legends Of Rock
- Medal of Honor: Airborne
- Rock Band
If you are interested in watching these 3 seminars then you can watch or download them here (unfortunately if you are not an IGN Insider then you can only stream the videos):
IGN.com E3 Central
Or for info on E3 itself you can find it here:
E3 Insider - The Official E3 Website
Also for many of the Game Trailers shown at E3, go to:
Gametrailers.com - The Source For Video Game Media
Discuss this article here.
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