E3 conferences are done. The last two days have been pretty hectic, awesome nerd fun. Lots of cool stuff, lots of dick waving by companies and lots of cool videos appeared. There's a pretty good round up of it over at
Burn All Zombies. Over all i thought it was a good show though despite everyone having some small failings.
I think the most interesting thing was watching all the different business strategies on display and what the means for the consumer.
Microsofts idea now is effectively get anyone that owns the internet and make them own an Xbox. It's an interesting strategy as they try and pile as much stuff into the Xbox. Twitter, Facebook and Last Fm integration are all very interesting to me since I'm a whore for multipurpose consoles. Looking more at Project Natal it still remains interesting but a long way from actually being implemented and I think it's unfair to judge until more is seen, I am interested to see how they compensate for the whole no controller = no feedback thing. I also loved the whole stream 1080p/preparing for the eventual digital distribution only form of media but again I think it's a bit before a lot of people have the 8-10Mb broadband capable for it and by extension I love love love the Sky TV connection since I can't get satellite TV in the apartment and that would be an awesome compensation. Game wise there's a lot of more of the same, but not in a bad way. I think Microsoft successful have the 15-35 Male market and as long as they keep with exclusive downloadable content they won't have to worry about Sony. So yeah a lot of long term plans that'll be interesting to see pan out and some cool games to keep me interested until then. All in all if someone were to "win" the show I'd have to give it to Microsoft.
Nintendos idea is an odd one for me. It's not one I see myself benefiting from as much as Microsofts but it's one that I can't give out to them for having because it's so successful and at the end of the day they're a company like every other company. Nintendo is the same Nintendo as was during the NES,SNES,N64 and Gamecube era and if you don't get excited about new Marios and Metroids they aren't the company for you so just move on. Seriously they are never going to change. They showed a handful of new Marios, a new Metroid and mentioned that Zelda and Pikmin and possibly Kid Icarus are all being worked on, to them that's what the hardcore gamer that owns a Wii wants and that won't change. Sure there are a handful of interesting titles like Silent Hill : Shattered Memories, Golden Sun DS, Dead Space : Extraction, No More Heroes : Desperate Struggle and The Conduit from third parties but unlike Microsoft and Sony they'll always be the minority. While all that is going on they will keep selling to Moms and "casuals" and making money hand over fist. Perfect example being that no matter how amazing Alan Wake looks to me I know it'll never make as much as the Wii Fit : Plus they announced. I'd say it's depressing but i think we are slowly moving towards a time when both can exist at the same time. The Wii Vitality thing though, yeah I can't explain that shit.
Sonys idea was the only thing I can really say disappointed me. I'm not saying that there weren't a lot of interesting games shown The Last Guardian, Uncharted, Mod Racers and LBP all look amazing but at the price point I'm still not buying and I know I'm not the only one. The worst offense being that everyone knows that a PS3 Slim exists (all the leaked pictures prove it) and that they are waiting for the PS3 to sell more before they release it, everyone knows a price cut is eventual they just need to bite the bullet and do it. Seriously I know they are down money wise but all they are doing is hurting themselves without a price cut. Not only that but being the last ones to announce motion control just didn't sit well with me, especially since it was in a demo mode, holding off until TGS really would have been a better option. My bitching aside though I have no idea who Sony are marketing towards, they laughed as they announced Hannah Montana stuff (so why announce it in the first place?), they announced new MGS,Gran Turismo,and Last Guardian to please those who already own a PS3 and a new PSP for those who already own one. Where's the new market? Where's the new ideas? Where's the new players? It's all just reeks off old business model and I don't like it.
So there's a lot of words on video games. As I said overall I thought the shows were fun, each console has a lot to offer and each has their own problems. I think over the next year we'll see more of the same from everyone until a market disappears or expands greatly. Gonna post on some great games I've seen when I get back from work.