This year's E3 is very quickly taking shape and it's starting to get pretty damn huge. Information seems to be getting released at a breakneck pace, I can barely keep up with it honestly. And that pace is only going to get faster as the days lead up to the actual event. For now I at least want to preview some of the big things we can expect to see covered when the big three step out onto their respective stages for their annual press conferences.
Nintendo
Right off the bat we know Nintendo is quite possibly going to have the most interesting conference of the year. Normally I never look forward to a Nintendo conference because they have a certain formula to them and an odd pacing. For years Nintendo used to trot out a representative who would go over various facts and figures displaying how their business has grown over the last year. For a while it was basically Nintendo boasting about how much money their handheld division was printing for them with the Gamecube's less than stellar performance. The Wii seemingly turned things around and made Nintendo's conferences just a little more exciting. But here we are five years down the road from the Wii's release; sales have slowed but the recently released 3DS is more than likely picking up the slack despite some of the sales not living up to expectations.
Despite this, I expect Nintendo to have the biggest showing of the three for one simple reason. They have already stated that the successor to the Wii console will be unveiled at this year's E3. Currently titled, Project Cafe, is Nintendo's latest foray into the console war, promising HD graphics while retaining the motion control that has wildly revolutionized Nintendo's brand in recent years. The more recent trade shows have been about Nintendo showing off the 3DS technology, expect their E3 conference to be the same but with Project Cafe's new tech at the forefront. But what will it take for Nintendo to really set themselves up to dominate yet again? Simple, they need games. New technology is all well and good but Nintendo needs support from third party developers. Rumor has it they have been courting Rockstar to develop for their new platform. It remains to be seen but I'd keep an eye out for interesting third party developers and publishers to sign on board for Nintendo's next console release.
Sony
Sony has their work cut out for them this year. Originally I thought they would have a ton of momentum going into this year's convention because for one, they have continued to support the motion controller they introduced last year. The Playstation Move has been integrated into many titles already, even being bundled with high profile releases like Killzone 3 and Socom 4. Not to mention the many attachments that these releases spawned such as the sharpshooter rifle attachment. Simply put, Sony has been smart about what the Move can do for them in the long run. On the other end of the spectrum Sony had a new portable in the wings waiting to be profiled. After its official unveiling a few months ago, we'd finally get some proper hands on looks at their new handheld platform, the NGP(Next Generation Portable). Yes the name still kinda sucks so I expect it will be re-branded at E3 next week with something to fall in line with the Playstation brand itself. On top of this, it's just an all around big year for Sony's games divisions with several exclusives on shelves and more to come. We've already seen the release and success of LittleBigPlanet 2, Killzone 3, and Socom 4 this year. In the coming months they will deliver inFamous 2, Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, The Last Guardian, Twisted Metal and I'm sure they have a slate of motion specific games to show off as well.
You'd think will all that on its plate, things would be looking up for the folks at Sony. I have a feeling that won't be the case, at least not entirely. Earlier this year Sony found themselves in a legal tussle with a hacker who had unlocked the keys to the PS3 and posted them online for the hacking community to take advantage of. While Sony was in their legal right to protect their property, it was still sort of a dicey situation to get into and it certainly enraged a portion of the hacking community who later went on cause trouble for Sony with some server disruption. This eventually led to the massive internal intrusion into Sony's Playstation Network where millions of users had the private information that was stored on the network compromised. In turn Sony shut down the PSN for a number of days in order to reconfigure the network and beef up their security. The network has only recently gone back up. Considering some people are still up in arms about this I expect a portion of Sony's conference will be set aside to talk about what they're doing to ensure another breach like this cannot happen. We know they have a lot of interesting things to show off, but I wonder how much time they'll have to do that while also still running damage control on the PSN situation. Once again, we'll find out next week.
Microsoft
In my opinion, Microsoft seems to have the weakest going into the conference. Last year they trotted out Project Natal which was then re-branded as the Kinect. Their revolutionary controller free motion technology would release in the fall and go on to sell like hotcakes. Hell even to this day they're still selling tons of these things. However Microsoft hasn't followed Sony's example with the Move. The games that launched with the Kinect in the fall of 2010 are essentially the only games currently available aside from a few mini game collections and fitness games. Much like the Wii, Microsoft seems to have fallen into a small rut where there aren't a lot of major titles being released for the Kinect or developers who are incorporating Kinect into their regular releases. As it stands right now, the Kinect is kind of stagnant.
Now when Microsoft and Sony released their respective motion controllers I always figured the race between them would heat up at the following E3 once each company had a solid install base. The difference here is that like I've stated, Sony has continued to support the Move since its launch. Meanwhile Microsoft just kind of let the Kinect flounder while relying on the sales of the initial launch titles. It just kind of seems lazy to me. In any case we know that we can at least expect to see Microsoft try to revitalize interest in the Kinect with some new titles for it. Already there's word going around that they'll show off the Star Wars Kinect title that they teased at last year's event so that's something at least. In essence, they will have to trot out a line up of games to captivate the audience. I've already listed the number of exclusives Sony has released and will release this year. Nintendo has quite a few up its sleeve still to come for the 3DS and I'm sure they'll pull the lid off of titles being developed for Project Cafe. That leaves the X-Box to come out the gates with..Gears of War 3. Don't get me wrong, Gears 3 is a BIG title for Microsoft. I'm even highly anticipating that game myself. But after racking my brain and discussing the topic with Andrew, we came to realize that Gears 3 is Microsoft's only big exclusive on the horizon.
So we can probably expect some massive Gears coverage from Microsoft themselves. Then much like previous conferences I imagine they'll pad things out between Gears and the Kinect with some high profile third party titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, The Darkness II, and perhaps even another look at Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Though this is E3 we're talking about here. It's the biggest show of the year for all three companies and I imagine there will be many surprises. Microsoft is the one company I'd expect to see pull out many of those surprises because at first glance their conference looks like it doesn't have much going for it on paper.
We'll all know these things for sure when the conference kicks off on June 7th. If you're interested in watching any of these conferences they will be streaming online as well as covered on TV by a variety of outlets. Sony will even be streaming their conference on the Playstation Network via PS Home. You'll also find streams from the usual suspects such as Gamespot, IGN, 1UP, Game Trailers, and G4(who will also televise the conferences.) Once again E3 is upon us and I have to admit I'm sorta excited to see where the industry is headed next. Game on!
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