All three console press conferences are well over with by now, and E3′s last day is today. Everyone’s had time to take in all of the information coming out of E3, and everyone’s had time to sit and think about the press conferences and compare them to eachother. While most of my impressions from each press conferences (if you haven’t read them and missed anything from the press conferences, check them out under Featured Posts on the left) haven’t changed much, I have lightened up a bit about some of what I felt were shortcomings about a certain conference (Sony’s). Before I declare my personal winner of E3 this year though, I’d like to run down the good and the bad of each conference. You can just skip to the bottom if all you want to see is who I think “won” E3
Microsoft
Microsoft kicked things off this year, and all-in-all it wasn’t that bad. With that being said, Nintendo and Sony both kind of took the wind out of the Microsoft press conference’s sails with their conferences. I called the Microsoft conference “pretty good” in my Microsoft round-up post, and I guess you could say it was “pretty good”, but that’s not going to win E3, nor is it going to win over potential new customers. You’ve got to bring your A-game for that, and Microsoft kinda failed at that.
The good: Microsoft started off by trying to grab the attention of the core audience, showing off Gears of War 3 first. I thought that Gears of War 3 looked pretty good. It’s more Gears, but as Cliffy would put it, “better and more badass”. Halo: Reach was also shown, and it’s more Halo; that’s not a bad thing for Microsoft, though. Microsoft also had a decent showing of casual games for the audience they’re trying to reach with Kinect.
Dance Central seems to be very well-received among the gaming press at E3, and the press was also generally impressed with Your Shape Fitness Evolved, Ubisoft’s competitor to Wii Fit using Kinect. Seeing it in action, and hearing from various gaming press that the game does actually work, was a pretty big “the future is now” moment for me, and it gave some hope and reassurance that Kinect can actually work.
The bad: I hate to say this, but the thing that they pushed the most only served to hurt Microsoft, in my opinion — and by that I mean Kinect. OK, Microsoft, we get it: you want to go after some of Nintendo’s casual market, and you’re going in deep and hard to accomplish that. If that was your purpose at E3, you at least managed to send the message. One problem with their focus on Kinect, however, was that they focused too heavily on it, leaving just a little time for their core titles to shine.
I’m all for Microsoft attracting a brand new audience to the Xbox 360, but you can’t just throw a couple of scraps at your core audience and expect it’s going to make them happy. The core audience takes up too much of the userbase of the Xbox 360 right now, and I’m sure Microsoft could’ve made room for at least one or two more core titles. Another problem is that a lot of the Kinect games shown looked like nothing more than glorified tech demos. Really, who the hell does Microsoft think is going to buy Kinect Adventures? You can only barely call Kinect Adventures a retail game with a straight face.
Nintendo
I’m sure most of us remember last year’s Nintendo conference. A nearly complete lack of core titles, some vague new peripheral called the Wii Vitality Sensor (which, by the way, was absent at this year’s E3).. over-all, it was pretty awful. Nintendo was apparently aware of that, and went all-in at this year’s E3 with loads of core titles, as well as some casual titles for their biggest market. Nintendo wasn’t messing around this time.
The good: Ahh, a new Zelda game. If you own a Nintendo Wii, I can’t see how you couldn’t possibly be excited about this one (unless you have no soul). Despite the.. technical difficulties during the Zelda demo, the game showed really well. Since it was demoed on stage, the consensus among gaming press says the movement with Motion Plus isn’t exactly one-to-one, but it’s close enough and it controls really well.
Zelda: Skyward Sword wasn’t all they had to show for the core audience, though. They also showed Golden Sun Dark Dawn, new Goldeneye game/remake, Epic Mickey, Kirby’s Epic Yarn and, my personal favorite, Donkey Kong Country Returns. They also had some titles that the casual audience loves (based on past sales figures), showing Just Dance 2, Wii Party, and Mario Sports Mix to name a few. Well done, Nintendo.
The bad: While I’m thrilled to death to see a new Zelda game is coming, just as I’m thrilled that Donkey Kong Country is back, I expected some new IP to be shown. This probably doesn’t bother most people, and it doesn’t necessarily bother me, I was just a little disappointed that Nintendo hadn’t been cooking up anything completely new and original. They’re sticking with what works, which I guess I can’t fault them too much for.
Another thing that was a little disappointing to me was that they didn’t show off the Nintendo 3DS that much. I get that the handheld doesn’t really show well in 3D when it’s being displayed on a gigantic screen, but I think they could have put a little more effort into showing more about what we can expect from the Nintendo 3DS. Unless you’re actually at the event, you’re going to have no idea how well the 3D effect works, and you’re not going to have too much of an idea of what the graphics are going to be like, though it’s apparent it’s at least on par with the PSP’s graphics from the Kid Icarus trailer they showed. I still think they should have shown more — it’s not like the thing’s still 2-3 years away, it’s expected to ship starting next year.
Sony
I came off a little strong on Sony with my opening and closing statements about the conference in my round-up posts, but that was just because I felt the conference as a whole lacked the momentum it could have had. Kind of like a good movie where the only thing stopping it from being great was in its editing to fit the scenes into the right places. It can’t be denied how exciting it was to hear Twisted Metal be announced, and Kevin Butler’s segment about gaming was amazing (which is why I posted that instead of a pic).
The good: Sony had several titles at E3 that had me really excited this year: Sorcery, Killzone 3 and Twisted Metal. The reason I enjoyed Sorcery so much was that it validated the PlayStation Move for me. It showed that intuitive and fluid control schemes are actually possible with motion control, and that’s something that I’ve been wanting to see for awhile. Killzone 3 also looked like it’s going to be really good, and Twisted Metal’s announcement had pretty much everyone in the crowd (as well as me at home) going crazy.
Sony didn’t really focus too much on the PSP, but the titles that are coming up for Sony’s handheld platform shows that there is still life left in the handheld, despite the relative failure of the PSP Go. Some key titles for the PSP shown were God of War: Ghosts of Sparta, a prequel to the God of War trilogy, Modnation Racers for the PSP, Persona 3 Portable, and a new Kingdom Hearts game. There were many more PSP and PS3 titles shown at the conference, but most were revealed by way of montage. You got the point across loud and clear, Sony — you’ve got a lot of games coming.
The bad: While Sony had a very impressive showing of new titles for both the PS3 and the PSP this year, the structure of the conference couldn’t have been any worse than it was. Every time they built up momentum, they stopped it dead in its tracks by constantly reminding everyone in attendance that their console sales are doing well. It’s good to build up consumer confidence in your products, but I think E3 has evolved to the point where that shouldn’t be your focus any longer. People watch E3 streams to see games, not corporate back-patting.
Back when E3 was only shown to the press and to other companies, this kind of thing made sense, but not anymore, not when it’s being streamed worldwide on many different gaming sites (as well a YouTube). Seriously, unless you’re a shareholder, I can’t imagine anyone got excited when they said “We’re still selling PS2s!” or “We’re doing really well, guys!”. Show the consumers that you’re doing well with small snippets about individual game sales and then jump right into the next game, rather than spending 10 minutes reassuring yourself and your potential consumers of how good you’re doing in the market.
The winner
I can tell you who didn’t win right away, and that’s Microsoft. I don’t think you could call Microsoft a winner at this event by any stretch of imagination. Sony, while showing off impressive new titles for the PS3 and PSP, just couldn’t keep the momentum going up enough. Twisted Metal was an exciting announcement to be sure, as was Portal 2, but nothing can compare to what the winner had to show, and that winner is of course Nintendo.
Nintendo’s conference was just all-around solid from start to finish. They had several new titles coming that in some cases appeal to both core and casual at the same time, and the Nintendo 3DS is already starting to generate a ton of buzz online after they showed off some of it at the press conference. There’s especially a lot of buzz about the titles that are coming to the Nintendo 3DS, like a Metal Gear game (supposedly Snake Eater), a unique Resident Evil game and Super Street Fighter IV. It’s been awhile since I’ve been bombarded with so many titles that I can’t wait to play, and that’s why Nintendo is my pick for this year’s winner.
Got your own picks for the winner of E3? Hate mine? Leave a comment.
Related posts:
- E3 2010: Microsoft Press Conference Round-up Part 2
- E3 2010: Sony Press Conference Round-up Part 1
- E3 2010: Nintendo Press Conference Round-up
- E3 2010: Microsoft Press Conference Round-up Part 1
- E3 2010: Sony Press Conference Round-up Part 2
