PS3

Why hardware trumped software at E3 2010

The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo typically concentrates on the games major publishers hope consumers will either purchase or put on their holiday wish lists in the coming year. Though there's always a certain amount of hardware, in the form of controllers, accessories, and PCs, for the most part, this a show about software, not hardware.

The exception is when a new game console is launching, and over the many years I've attended the show, I've seen the launches of the Sega Dreamcast; Sony's PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PSP; Nintendo's GameCube, Wii, and DS; and Microsot's Xbox and Xbox 360. That said, 2010 is the first year without a major living room console launch where I've seen almost all the attention focused firmly on hardware rather than software.

What made this year unique was the presence of both the Microsoft Kinect platform and the PlayStation Move, as well as Nintendo's handheld 3DS console. We'd all seen the Kinect (then called Natal) and Move before, but this was the official holiday season kickoff for both, with finalized names, details, and release dates.

Both motion control systems have their strengths and weaknesses, but I thought that Kinect especially had promise for home entertainment control, and the PlayStation Move provided the kind of precision and accuracy that core gamers would most appreciate.

The 3DS, at risk of being written off as a novelty in the era of me-too 3D, was a surprising success (at least in the small doses it was offered up to attendees), with eyeglass-free 3D that actually seems to work. Though that's only a tiny personal screen for now, it makes those expensive, cumbersome active shutter 3D systems feel like a much tougher sell.

If the technology behind the 3DS holds up, it's really only a matter of time and scale before consumers expect all forms of 3D to not require glasses.

These new hardware devices were impressive in person, but they're all still a tough sell; console add-ons have traditionally not succeeded (from the Sega 32X to the Xbox HD-DVD drive), and Nintendo fans may have upgrade fatigue after the DS, DS Lite, DSi, and DSi XL.

The second major reason this year's E3 felt like it was all about hardware, was that the software largely failed to impress. This left the field wide open for the Kinect, Move, and 3DS to steal the show.

I've already detailed the overreliance on sequels and spin-offs, many on a rapidly accelerated production cycle to feed the need for annual product installments. But, there was a handful of games in development seen either on the show floor or behind closed doors that made my must-play list (and yes, most of them are sequels). In no particular order, they are:… Read more

Nintendo: A 3D console is coming

Amid all the hoopla surrounding E3, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told a Japanese publication this week that he plans to bring 3D functionality to the company's next game console.

"If you display a 3D image, the image quality becomes extremely bad, so we'd probably do it with the next system," Iwata told the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. "We're thinking that the timing should be once the 3D television adoption rates crosses the 30 percent mark. We're looking at the adoption trends."

Iwata's comments seem to fall in line with Nintendo's recent … Read more

Packed E3 a sign of a healthy game industry

LOS ANGELES--If the huge crowds and crowds at E3 this week are any indication, the video game industry is in a lot better shape than a lot of people thought.

All throughout the two main halls at the Los Angeles Convention Center where E3 has been going strong since Tuesday morning, throngs of people make it hard to move, and at booth after booth, if you don't have an appointment, there's little chance you're going to get your hands on any of the hot games and hardware being shown here this year.

For more than a year, there's been a hint of doom and gloom surrounding the industry as its leading analyst, The NPD Group, has reported month after month of year-over-year sales declines. In April, for example, the firm bore the bad tidings that the industry as a whole saw 26 percent year-over-year declines, and that hardware revenues were down 37 percent year-over-year.

But on Wednesday, in a confession clearly timed to hit during the industry's premiere event, NPD admitted that its longstanding methodology for measuring industry sales has ignored some significant streams of revenue. … Read more

E3 exposes video game industry's sequel problem

LOS ANGELES--If there's one story we seem to write at least every other year at E3, its how the gaming industry is overly reliant on sequels and spin-offs, rarely creating anything truly new. This year, the issue seems bigger than ever, with seemingly few original ideas in a sea of IIs, IIIs, and more.

Case in point: The games big publishers are depending on to carry them through the all-important holiday shopping season are for the most part all retreads of existing games. They include Gears of War 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Fallout: New Vegas, Halo Reach, Dead Space 2, Crysis 2, Civilization V, and new installments in the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises (a separate-but-related issue is the "rebooting" of vintage games, such as Kid Icarus or GoldenEye).

Its overly simplistic to blame a conceptual lack of originality for the deficit of new ideas, stories, and characters. Video games generally don't function under the auteur theory that many of the best films do, crafted by a singular creative vision (with a few high-profile exceptions); instead they more often are the ultimate example of art by committee. Game developers essentially create "work for hire" on behalf of publishers, which in turn resemble nothing so much as the classic 1940's Hollywood studio system, where studio bosses pulled the strings and set the agenda. … Read more

preGAME 18: E3 2010 press conference wrap-up

This week on preGAME we take an in-depth look at all three major E3 2010 press conferences. If you didn't get to catch those shows live, make sure to tune in here as we run through each conference, picking apart every announcement, game, and hardware debut.

We've got dozens of videos to show, displaying the latest and greatest from the world of gaming, including Nintendo 3DS hands-on, Microsoft Kinect, and PlayStation Move gameplay. Also, we'll be checking out game trailers for blockbuster titles like Portal 2, Twisted Metal, Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Gears of War 3.

So … Read more

Sony shows off Move, PlayStation Plus at E3 (video roundup)

Here's a collection of short video highlights from Sony's press briefing at the E3 gaming conference Tuesday.

Sony 3D and Move Sony shows off some big-name game titles that are now in 3D, plus games and pricing for the new Move controller. Also: scary clowns drop in for a preview of Twisted Metal.

Gran Turismo 5 in 3D Sony teases the November release of the Gran Turismo 5 in 3D for the PS3.

Click here for our complete coverage from E3 2010.

Sights and scenes from E3 2010

LOS ANGELES--The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is a very visually oriented experience, with game companies spending heavily to create compelling show floor experiences to lure in attendees. You'll typically find plenty of costumed characters, giant physical structures that can hardy be called booths, and more flatscreen TVs per square inch than at your average Costco.

We captured some of the most notable sights from the show floor, as well as from the Sony and Nintendo press conferences. Highlights include some caged zombies from Capcom's Dead Rising, Nintendo godfather Shigeru Miyamoto demoing his latest Zelda game, and the most … Read more

E3 2010--deja vu all over again

LOS ANGELES--Can someone please tell me why we've spent the last two days rehashing the highlights of E3 2009?

If you were here for last year's video game mega-convention, you will recall that the big news from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo was the true dawn of the motion control wars. Microsoft unveiled Project Natal, Sony showed off its prototype system, and Nintendo pulled back the wraps on some new improvements to the Wii Motion Plus.

All told, these innovations were going to take us to the next level of video game play, where it's all about gesture-based control and traditional button-based controllers became a thing of the past.

Flash forward to this week, though, and the highlights of the press conferences, at least Sony's and Microsoft's, seem someone familiar. Let's recap. At Microsoft's event on Monday, the biggest news was the formal unveiling of Kinect. This, of course, used to be known as Project Natal.

Microsoft announced that the device would be available November 4 and was able for the first time to name some actual games that will be Kinect-enabled. There will be 15 launch titles, including Ubisoft's Michael Jackson game, as well as six that were featured during the press event, Dance Central, a dancing game from Rock Band developer Harmonix; Kinect Sports, a game that offers soccer, bowling, track, and more; Kinect Joy Ride, a racing game; Kinect Adventures, a game for navigating down rivers and railroad tracks while trying to hit targets; Your Shape, an exercise game; and Kinectimals. However, the demo was very much like the one from a year earlier. … Read more

The case of the missing Xbox 360 Blu-ray player

When Microsoft unveiled its new Xbox 360 at E3 on Monday, not many people were expecting the company to include a Blu-ray player, and we didn't get it. However, when you look at the specs and $299 pricing for both consoles, the most obvious omission--and the thing that seems to separate the two systems--is that Blu-ray player.

Yes, you can nitpick about things like the PS3's free online play vs. the Xbox 360's $50 yearly fee for Xbox Live Gold (360 fans like to say you get what you pay for) and which industrial design is superior (… Read more

Sony's E3 event focuses on 3D gaming

LOS ANGELES--And then it was Sony's turn.

After Microsoft grabbed the spotlight with its Monday morning press conference, and Nintendo was the star earlier today, Sony got everyone's attention Tuesday afternoon with its own set of announcements.

Topping the bill for Sony and its PlayStation group was its plans to enable 3D gaming right away. Kaz Hirai, the president of Sony's Networked Products and Services group, touted the company's "end-to-end" 3D offerings, from its Bravia 3D TVs to its new roster of 3D-enabled games for the PlayStation 3.

Immediately, Hirai said, games like Super Stardust, Pain and Wipeout will be available in 3D from the PlayStation Store, and more than 20 additional titles will be added to the roster by the end of 2010. And even more titles will be coming in 3D next year, including Killzone 3, which was given a big, loud demo at the press conference. As well, PS3 users--all of whom will be able to play in 3D--can look forward to titles like Mortal Kombat, Tron: Evolution, NBA 2K11, Motorzone Apocalypse and Gran Turismo 5.

After 3D gaming, the second major piece of the puzzle for Sony Tuesday was PlayStation Move, its motion-controller system, which it first unveiled at E3 a year ago and talked about in more detail in March at the Game Developers Conference. But on Tuesday, Sony was able to talk in much more detail about specific games that will be Move-enabled. … Read more