Official E3 2007 Discussion

Introduction

E3 which stands for the Electronic Entertainment Expo is traditionally the biggest video game event of the year, when all the game companies in the industry, from developers to journalists to retailers congregate together in one place. At E3 the stage is set for the next 12 months of the gaming year as new games are announced and displayed, console manufacturers set out their plans, and there's always a megaton or two dropped that has a significant effect on the entire video game landscape.

E3 has changed this year, it's a little smaller, a little quieter, but the massive upheaval that the industry is currently undergoing is already fueling the event with a torrent of news. I understand that most people already have one or two sites that they get all of their news from, personally I prefer NeoGAF, so I'm looking at this thread to offer a clearer picture of the major announcements that have gone down, and hopefully have some discussion among our own people here.

Here's the my report on last year's E3. Silence omo wisely chastised me for marginalizing the Wii, though I have to admit I'm kind of tempted to do that again this year! I also have to point out that I was pretty good with many of my predictions. I said that the Wii would take over Japan (but missed out US and Europe), I said the PS3 would do horrible (its done even worse than I thought) and I said publishers would come out with more 360 games.

Schedule (all times in PST)

Well that was rather uneventful. Microsoft showed only games coming out this year in 2007, other than Resident Evil 5. As a result everybody already knew about most of the games except for a couple such as Scene It and Viva Pinata Party Animals. While that is disappointing for the hardcore gamers expecting some megatons (MGS4 come on!) Microsoft did reiterate and demonstrate why they do have a pretty killer holiday 2007 schedule.

Sony's KillZone Conference - Tuesday, July 10th right after MS' conference

It looks like KillZone was a hit getting very close to the CG trailer and hype.

• Super Smash Bros Brawl will be releasing on December 3rd. No ONLINE it seems!
• EA is going online with Madden and FIFA. This is actually really good for the Wii. I'm actually quite happy about that.
• Mario Kart Wii to be released early next year, and online. Again, this is a good thing as I know Mario Kart DS has sold extremely well. And heck MK is always fun.
• Wii Accessories (Zapper and Steering wheel). These are pretty cool. I personally love Light Gun games so having a cheap little add-on that turns the Wiimote into a full light gun is pretty sweet. Ghost Squad is a fun game, and I'm sure that the included software with the Zapper will be Duck Hunt-esq. The steering wheel is pretty lame though. I mean you can already buy one.
• Mario Galaxy will be released on November 12th
• WiiFit!! When this inevitably gets on Opera, 30 million housewives will rush to stores this holiday and pickup the Wii. It's a big deal.

• PSP redesign that is 33% lighter, 17% slimmer, and comes with Audio/Visual output port to migrate the display to your television. So much for integrated flash memory!
• Echochrome on Playstation Network and PSP. Sweet named combined with an awesome concept of manipulating perspective to pass through mazes. Like a bunch of interactive MC Escher paintings.
• Wip3Out, Pain, WarHawk and SOCOM will be available on Playstation Network. WarHawk and SOCOM will be available on Blu-Ray as well, all for this year
• Home will have a social networking site attached to it where you can take pictures in Home and upload them to the site
• Deep integration between Home and games was also announced. Launch a game directly from Home, and quit game right back to Home. Unsure as to whether or not the Home can act as an in-game lobby or not.
• NCSoft will be developing some exclusive titles for PS3. The wording is kind of weird, Tretton made it sound like NCSoft would be developing exclusively for PS3, but Huxley and a Marvel MMO are being made for the 360 by NCSoft so...
• Haze and Unreal Tournament 3 are both time exclusive for this year. UT3 will support mods for the PC version.
• Infamous is a new title developed by Sucker Punch (studio behind the Sly Cooper games). Looks like a darker take on Crackdown.
• new MGS4 trailer, reiterated again that its exclusive for PS3. Releases in 2008, and will be the last MGS game by Kojima. Really. Last time he said that about MGS2 it was fake. And about MGS3 he was lying too. This one is really the last one.
• KillZone 2 trailer demonstrated and looks incredible.

Microsoft News

Nintendo News

Sony News

Game News

• One Wii exclusive with over a 100 minigames that centers around building blocks
• And one ambitious action adventure game for next-gen consoles and PC with an "epic story"
  

Microsoft

Video Marketplace gets release dates in more countries, to be launched either in July or August. (close, to be released in fall)
A lot of NEW exclusives and timed exclusives are announced. Especially from Japanese developers. (nada)
XNA gets beefed up with amateur created games being available in the fall. (nada)
MAYBE: a price drop announcement, but I doubt it. (nada)
HOPEFULLY: Expanded XBL features such as clans. (nada)
HOPEFULLY: a web browser gets included in the dashboard that lets you play Silverlight videos, and AppleTV encoded YouTube videos. (nada)

Nintendo

Sony

I agree with Omar. I've played the Wii, thought the Wii was the greatest thing in the Universe and now? Well, the last time I played the Wii was about a month ago and a lot of the novelty has worn off. I still think it's a great system and a great group gaming console (which Xbox and PS3 most definitely are NOT), but I don't know if it has the staying power of the other consoles - where staying power usually requires some hardcore gaming fanatics.

I'm saying you have to redefine your definition of success. If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, then it's a duck. Huge sales, major impact on society, and ridiculous press even at the expense of novelty is still a success.

It's just that with such a short time frame, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between something that is a long lasting success and just a fad. The Wii definitely has a TON of potential for true success. And they may very well have it already! Of course if it is a fad then you'll see a lot of used systems churning over, and software sales won't be high. We'll see though, we'll see!

Case in point is the two new Steven Spielberg games.

Wii game is just another collection of mini-games. While the one for PS3 and 360 is an epic action adventure. PERSONALLY, I'd prefer the action adventure game. Though most "casual" and lapsed gamers may prefer the mini-game-a-thon. MAYBE. But, how many friggin mini-games can one person have? I'm perfectly content with Wii Sports in group settings, its so good that it really doesn't get old. I guess Mario Party 8 is selling quite well though so maybe people don't mind buying a bunch of mini-game collections.

The novelty of the Wii has definetly wore off. But I don't think of the Wii as a fad. It is still a great console, even though the shock and awe of motion controls has died down. Now Nintendo has to really step it up if it wants to continue shouting from the rooftops that graphics are not as important as the controls.

My Wish List:

SD Cards: Useless! Although these are supposed to be the Wii's memory cards, you cannot play your saves off of the SD cards. You have to move the save back onto the Wii console memory. Which basically means you have 512mb of memory, even if you have a 1gb SD card. This is a major problem if you like buying Virtual Console games, or if Nintendo releases a lot of Wii Channels. 512mb is not a lot of space, that SD Card needs to be able to store more than your photos. Fix this Nintendo!

3rd Party Developers: Keep that support! GameCube was basically devoid of quality third party content. Now that 3rd parties are taking notice of the Wii due to its recent success, you need to keep the gates open to those 3rd parties. Let games like No More Heroes and Soul Caliber Legends have some of the glory, instead of overshadowing them with a release like Mario. Spread out your big franchises and let 3rd party content fill the gaps. They have great games too.

Wii Channels: Some of the channels are useless, and organization beyond moving the channels is non-existstant. Make channels that people can use frequently, or actually want to use. And allow people to put channels into folder type channels (for example, having all of your NES games fill one channel space, instead of having a channel for each game). Everybody Votes channel is totally lacking in usefullness, or even an incentive to vote on every poll. Make channels that show theatre showtimes for your area, or something else that anyone can use.

To the Developers: No more ports or hand me down titles. I was really excited by the release of Destroy all Humans 3 for Wii. Then I found out it was a port of the PS2 and PSP versions. Only Xbox360 and PS3 get Path of the Furon. Instead, Wii owners get Big Willie Unleashed. Make games specifically designed for the Wii, not PS2 games with tacked on motion controls.

And at this years E3, please announce Pikmin 3! And don't skimp on original properties either. I want to see some Starcraft caliber RTS games on Wii (after all, the remote is basically a mouse right). Nintendo, you have not won yet, PS3 and 360 still have some big guns. You just need to have bigger ones.

Microsoft's conference is starting very soon. I'll try and do some "live blogging" but we'll see how it goes :) I'm watching the conference on G4 by the way, much better than stupid feeds that keep buffering/breaking, even if there is a tape delay.

Starting with Halo 3...