E3, one of the biggest gaming events of the year, and definitely the most commercialized, is almost upon us once again. While you won’t see the cool and collected developers showing playable models of their games as much as at GDC, you will get the big announcements of new games, consoles and exclusives. So, what is in store for E3 this year? How the hell should I know? Here are just some ideas.
This issue should come out in the week before E3, which, in case you don’t know (shame on you – just kidding), is June 7-9th. This will allow me to do some predictions this article, and then a follow-up next issue, and not look like an idiot by predicting stuff after the event is over. Kind of like last issue – I talked about how the Sony Network was down, and then they restored limited parts right before the issue came out – ahh well, what can you do? Hack their systems again so that I was still right? Not that that wouldn’t be appreciated. It might also be slightly illegal.
So anyway, Sony has now partially restored the Playstation Network around the world, with a goal of getting Japan back online before the end of the month (now here is one of those predictions whose outcome will be known by the time you read this), so we will have to see what happens. Sony has also announced the new PSP Remaster series for the PS3. Like the name implies, this group of games is kind of like a platinum hits line of games from PSP, but with HD graphics, better textures and new features for the PSP’s big brother. The first game in this new lineup to be announced is Monster Hunter Portable 3, which kind of sounds weird since it will no longer be portable – but who cares?
The new spring dashboard update has been released for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 system, enabling a few minor new features as well as a couple of cool new items. Paypal will now be fully functional on Xbox Live, allowing you to purchase Microsoft points using their secure service instead of registering your credit card on their system. Obviously, the benefits of this kind of system are now apparent in light of Sony’s network being hacked and some users’ credit card information being stolen. Microsoft is released of any responsibility, and users get the assurance of knowing that the company protecting their credit card information is actually designed for that purpose.
So, on to some E3 predictions. First of all, consoles. As I have said before, both Sony and Microsoft have reiterated their previous statements that they are not looking at releasing new consoles until around 2014. While this may leave them in the dust for a while when Nintendo releases Project Café, they will have around two years to analyze their competition, learn from their successes and mistakes, and revise their own consoles to blow Nintendo out of the water. One thing that Microsoft is probably going to talk about is a recent announcement they made – full stereoscopic 3D will be coming to the Xbox 360 through a future firmware upgrade. The exact same 3D capabilities of the PS3 will grace the screen of 360 owners, though it will only work with HDMI, so first generation systems are out of luck. Interestingly, according to the news release, the processing required to create the stereoscopic 3D effect is actually better suited to the traditional CPU architecture of the 360 than the cell structure of the PS3. However, since the Xbox does not have the capability of reading Blu-ray discs, there is very little chance of 3D movies coming to the system. In contrast, Microsoft has said in the past that they could always release an external Blu-ray player for the system – allowing for both 3D movies and increased storage space for games.
Nintendo, of course, is unveiling Project Café, so we can definitely expect a big show from their camp – release date, launch games, pricing and capabilities are always the big pieces of information everybody wants. I wouldn’t expect them all to be revealed. Meanwhile, Sony has the PSP NGP to show, with the big ticket pieces of info being its release date and pricing. Sony has an opportunity here to right some of the mistakes they made with the original PSP. A lot of people complained about the huge difference in the release dates of the original, with some countries getting the system months after others. Another problem with Sony’s systems has always been the initial price – hopefully the NGP creates a market through a reasonably-priced technology instead of requiring purchasers to choose between their house and the NGP. On a side note, a Sony representative recently said that there would definitely not be the kind of capital investment in the next Playstation console as there was in the PS3. Not only did Sony decide to go with new cell processor technology, they also incorporated Blu-ray into every system – which was definitely not cheap at the time. While console makers normally operate at a loss for a while until they can decrease the production costs of the system, the PS3 only reached profitability last year.
Creating a new console takes years of development, so I’m not expecting either Sony or Microsoft to suddenly rush their research and development divisions to match Project Café. Instead, I think they are both going to focus on their new tech, the Move and Kinect systems. Here, I think Microsoft has the advantage with the Kinect in terms of originality and longevity, while Sony has the benefit of using tried and true technology. The Kinect actually has the capability to do the full body motion tracking that the Move and Wii can only mimic – just look at Wii bowling, where you don’t actually have to bowl, but rather, just flick your wrist the right way and the Wii wouldn’t know the difference. As for Sony, I just don’t think they have pushed the boundaries as much as they could have. Instead of coming up with something new and revolutionary (like the Kinect), Sony instead made a more accurate Wii: congratulations, you were able to beat their technology after they outsold you for years, but now they are releasing a new console so it really doesn’t matter. Like I said, Sony has the advantage of using a proven technology. Developers have been creating successful games for the Wii for several years now, so they should easily be able to adapt these games or create better ones for the Move using the knowledge they already have.
So that is it for this issue: be sure to follow the E3 presentations as each company is bound to have an ace up their sleeves. In the meantime, keep on gaming.
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