It's That Time Of The Year Again!

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.

Motion Gaming - Wave of the Future or Passing Fad

In 2006 Nintendo released the Wii to the masses and with it came the age of motion gaming. The battle of the next generation systems had officially begun with Microsoft and Sony battling it out for high definition supremacy. Meanwhile Nintendo decided to go a different route and introduced the Wii, providing a completely different gaming experience. No longer were you limited to just sitting with a controller in hand but the game called for you to be active and interact with it on a whole new level. This was obviously good for Nintendo as the system went on to sell millions of units despite the fact that it wasn't on par with the graphical powerhouses in the X-Box 360 and PS3.

Fast forward to 2010 where Nintendo's Wii has maintained a growing share. While sales have slowed the Wii is still doing well. And now it finally has competition in the motion gaming arena as Sony and Microsoft's motion technology has hit the market. While Sony went the similar route by introducing a wand controller with sensors that are picked up by it's sensor camera, Microsoft went in an entirely different direction. With the Kinect, they have released a camera sensor that picks up on body movement as well as a user's voice. This eliminates the use of a wand or remote and makes you the controller. Finally each system is working on level ground and the real competition can begin.

But really what competition is there left to have? Motion gaming has split gamers into camps: casuals and "hard cores". Hard core gamers have never really been swayed by the allure of the motion control. At the same time motion control itself has brought new exposure to the industry and has made gamers out of people who normally never would have touched a console. In a way it has become a double edged sword in that it has brought new exposure to this growing business but hardcore gamers feel it detracts from the gaming experiences that they are used to. Thus far the biggest problem Nintendo has faced is that it cannot combine the two audiences. Not to mention that they have yet to produce truly unique titles that require motion gaming outside of Wii Sports. 

Microsoft's Kinect

I can't help but wonder if Sony and Microsoft have entered a state of gaming that is slowly dying off. The Wii has done tremendous business since it was released in 2006 but it hasn't exactly been burning up the charts like it used to. Tried and true titles still sell just as well if not better than heavily marketed titles that involve motion control. Again I draw my comparison between regular titles and the Wii titles as the Move and Kinect were only recently released. While both Sony and Microsoft have seen good sales from this, I'm not sure how long that will continue. Technically we have until E3 2011 when they really break out the new titles they have been building with motion control technology  but what haven't we seen done on the Wii that Sony and Microsoft can do better? And like the Wii, how long will it be until we see bargain bin mini-game titles released in droves? If they truly want to these peripherals to succeed they have to show gamers, casual and hardcore alike that motion gaming can appeal to broad audiences as well as niche gamers. They need to show that this tech is here to stay instead of another trend that will slowly die a miserable death on store shelves.