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Nintendo didn’t announce a new Zelda game at E3 this year, but Shigeru “I Do What I Want” Miyamoto decided to talk about one anyway. We’re not talking “Twilight Princess” style, either, as in a GameCube game being shunted along to the Wii with tacked-on waggle action. We’re talking a full-on, Motion Plus-enhanced sword-swinging extravaganza.
While the citizens of Nintendonia are thrilled at this news, I am quite underwhelmed. Lots of gamers have been irritated with Nintendo on a large scale since the success of the Wii, since Nintendo has stopped catering to them, and instead started looking to SELL SELL SELL (which they’re doing brilliantly).
It’s clear that Nintendo is prioritizing their newfound “Casual” market now, but it’s also clear that they’re struggling to put out just enough real gaming material to keep the older, reasonably-cynical hardcore market satisfied. The question is, how much can they whore out their “anchor” franchises until everybody catches on? Read more →
This really got on my nerves during E3. Why were all those celebrities from completely irrelevant art forms being trotted out at a gaming event?
It’s not unheard of. The bigger celebrities you have, the easier it is to sell your product. However, at events such as these, the celebrities usually have some relevance. The academy awards, for example, uses actors and the like for presenters. That makes sense. Those people actually work in the industry that they’re talking about. It wouldn’t make any sense for a videogame developer to show up at such an event.
So, why does the gaming industry feel the need to have celebrities that are completely outside the industry speak at the biggest gaming event of the year? Read more →
Well, that was a rather busy few days. To help get through all of the E3 news that happened, on this week’s E3 themed show I am joined by Gandy, Half Left and Brandon. Things we talk about;
So there you go. Here is a link to the Edge of Twilight trailer mentioned, and here is a link to Uplink, which is awesome. As always, reviews on any of the subscription services (linked below) are very much appreciated.
MP3, iTunes (review us here), PodFeed, Podcast.com, Digital Podcast, Any other RSS
The above picture shows Jim Sterling punching Product Manager at Southpeak, Aubrey Norris, in the face because Velvet Assassin was so terrible. The other big news from Thursday is that Digital Something played Tony Hawk and this is what happened (Tony Hawk himself appears in the video, keep an eye out);
Who didn’t see that coming? Once again Europe is getting royally screwed over by the electronics industry. I’m no marketing specialist but surely shipping and what minor localisation has to be done cannot possibly justify the £239.99 price tag that UK retailers are asking for pre-orders.
It is very likely that these are not the final prices. And of course those who have felt the need to purchase such a device and have pre-ordered already will be charged accordingly.
To illustrate the price differences (of June 2009) calculated by the world’s favourite omni-tool, please peruse the following table at your leisure;
| Value | RRP | RRP in US Dollars |
| $249.99 | $249.99 | $249.99 |
| €176.20 | €249.99 | $354.69 |
| £154.25 | £229.99 | $372.74 |
As you can see, us Brits are literally paying well over double the value of the device. That’s rather a lot.
Sony have yet to announce the UK pricing so hopefully the prices being touted by the retailers are inaccurate. That said, it’s not like the actual prices announced will be fair. Why would they be? If I were a businessman and I had a product that people would pay over the odds for I would certainly charge them an arm and a leg.
As the source so subtly suggests, importing is looking very attractive right now.
Via: CVG
With the big three press conferences’ out the way, E3 coverage typically turns from the breaking, big news to the hands on impressions and smaller announcements. Not to say that there is any let up in the relentless tide of news flowing out the show, it’s just now you care even less about most of it.
Square Enix’s press conference turned into more of just a simple Q&A session. It’s rumoured the reason for this is that their big announcement for the show was FFXIV. Something that ended up being announced by Sony, leaving them with very little to show for it.
Konami’s Press Conference (IGN’s live blog here) on the other hand had a bit more to it. During the show Kojima announced an arcade version of Metal Gear Online. It’s not just the first Metal Gear arcade game that’s cool though, it;s the fact it will be in 3D (with the player wearing goggles).
Continuing the Metal Gear theme, Kojima (as in the Sony press conference) tried as hard as possible to basically piss on (the Xbox 360) MGS Rising. He made sure everybody was aware he would be having very little to do with it, instead spending his time on the new PSP MGS game.
It wasn’t just Kojima seemingly annoyed at Microsoft. Tony Hawk was non-too-kind with his opinions on Microsoft’s motion control detecting camera, project Natal. Talking to MTV Multiplayer he said that they tried using “a camera, but it wasn’t accurate enough. Plus you can’t really do ollies, grabs and flips when you’re just standing on nothing.” Though perhaps he’s just a bit annoyed at them for dragging him out on stage to talk about his skateboard peripheral, only to then show skateboarding without a peripheral in their Project Natal video. Read more →
Well it was the worst kept secret of the pre-E3 build up but it’s still worth acknowledging that the PSP Go has been officially revealed. I may as well start with a little kindness towards Sony and say that as far as their content goes, I was very impressed. You can read Gandy’s post for a round-up of the Sony products shown at E3 and join me in a big sigh of relief that perhaps the PS3 isn’t dead yet.
Unfortunately, I can’t get as enthusiastic for the hardware announcements as I am for the software. The PSP Go, with an exorbitant $249.99 price tag, strikes me as an exercise in utter pointlessness. This isn’t to say that the broader PSP platform didn’t excite me, the announcement on Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker had me salivating. I just can’t see anything even vaguely resembling a good reason to buy the latest iteration of the PSP. Read more →
Finally some E3 news that isn’t an announcement or a trailer.
A troupe of everyone’s favourite well-adjusted individuals, religious activists, have been seen outside the convention centre protesting the existence of EA’s Dante’s Inferno. Because I’m a horrible person who loves conflict I found this particularly entertaining. I am also under the impression that Dante’s Divine Comedy, upon which the game is extremely loosely based (see: recognisable name) was a poem, and thus intended as work of fiction. Which makes me wonder why religious types are getting up in arms about it. But you can never keep an activist away from a good protest!
LA Weekly has a collection of photos showcasing the hi-larious religion/EA/gaming puns and jokes on the hand crafted signs. I fully concur with their own favourite. Though I would like to point out that ‘Electronic Anti-Christ’ would be an excellent name for a band.
Via: Joystiq
Update:
Seems the whole thing is just some viral PR shenanigans as illustrated by wearesavedgroup.org. They get points for effort. After all, they managed to last a whole day before being found out. But, cardboard signs and an archaic website which links to game marketing material are no match for Wii Fit Girl or ilovebees.com.
Well it looks like our good old buddy Jack Tretton at Sony was telling us fibs during the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV when he claimed it was going to be a PS3 exclusive. New information has surfaced from the Q&A held by Square Enix today, revealing that the latest iteration in the online FF franchise will be coming to at least one more platform (Windows PC) and they are considering others (Xbox 360).
Another possibility to emerge was that the original unveiling of FFXIV was due to take place as a separate press conference in place of the Q&A that was put on. This does seem rather plausible to me as the Q&A basically gave no new information and Sony did lose what was sure to be their biggest announcement to a leak. It kind of makes sense for them to try and bolster their line-up, but taking as large an announcement as a new Final Fantasy title, albeit an online one and also claiming exclusivity for it when none exists is a bit embarrassing to say the least.
Via 1UP
Well well, Tuesday was a blast wasn’t it? All of the announcements, trailers, and tech demos left me in convulsions and frothing at the mouth for the better part of 5 hours. The two main events of that day were undoubtedly the Nintendo and Sony conferences (live blogged here and here respectively.) Individual recap for Sony here and Nintendo here.
Before we delve into those let’s cover the off-stage bits and pieces;
Quite a lot this time round. Below are some bite-sized recaps of the Nintendo and Sony conferences for you to enjoy.
Oh dear. Not the best press conference it has to be said. Starting a few minuets late, Cammie Dunaway came on the stage to tell us all about how great Nintendo are, and how they are reaching new grounds.
The first actual game announcement to come out the Nintendo camp was a New Super Mario Bros for the Wii, a 4 player 2D Mario game. Plenty of innovation here, you can be a dick and steal coins from people or even pick each other up! They have a quick play test with three people and Cammie, she is bad at the game and comes last. She justifies her worth by saying:
“This is why I make my money selling games, not developing them.”
I think she meant “playing”, if you say “developing” that has a very different meaning.
Girls play videogames, who knew? Evidently EA knows and they want to monetise this previously untapped market. They have decided to go about this by announcing Charm Girls Club (can girls not punctuate?) at their E3 conference.
Such female activities in this new range of games include: pillow fights, hair braiding and spraying, shopping, date planning, and girl-on-girl sexual experimentation*.
These high quality, market sewing games will be available in the form of Pyjama Party on everyone’s favourite party game console, the Wii. My Perfect Prom, My Fashion Mall, and My Fashion Show will be available for the DS system.
It’s good to see that girls are finally having their needs met. I for one was getting worried that girls in the gaming world were too out of place in the ferocious sea of foul-mouthed 13 year old boys. It warms my heart knowing that they finally have some games to keep them oppressed through stereotyping entertained while us chaps can continue to enjoy blasting each others’ faces off in Gears and CoD. Girls hate that kind of thing you see. They love pink and fluffy things, not blood and adrenaline.
*May not actually include girl-on-girl sexual content.
Monday happened, and there was a lot of news. Most of it, nobody cares about. There were three big press conferences from Microsoft (we live blogged it), EA and Ubisoft. Below you should find links to all of the big news that actually matters, neatly listed for your reading enjoyment.
In the “things that weren’t announced on a stage” category;
Another story that was not announced on stage is that the Xbox will be getting full retail games, on demand. As in, full 360 games that you download onto your console without leaving your house. Why they didn’t actually put that in the real press conference astounds me. Also, quick thanks to Gandy for helping find all the links. Read more →
At the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco earlier this year, a little service called OnLive was making huge waves. Some heralded it as the end of games retail, and other people shrugged and said “Bullshit.” While the technical viability of it regarding people’s internet connections hasn’t been determined, this phantasmal service is a concept that a lot of people are interested in and talking about.
Several other sites have reported that OnLive won’t be making an appearance at E3, due to the conferences “retail-orientated” nature. OnLive isn’t something that would be sold in stores, so why should the death knell of the retail industry be shown at this event? Does anyone remember the Phantom? It was shown at E3, why shouldn’t OnLive go? Read more →
Kojima’s countdown has been a big talking point leading up to E3. Speculation over what game or series it could be had everyone guessing. The next Snatcher? Zone of The Enders? MGS5? When the site was updated with what appeared to be pictures of Raiden and Big Boss, MGS5 was thought to be it. After the reveal of Metal Gear Solid: Rising at Microsoft’s Press Conference, the countdown was approaching zero.
Well, what did we get? Nothing more than a picture of the same Raiden revealed at E3, effectively making the countdown a bit pointless. With the timer being for the already revealed Rising, I would have expected at least a trailer, screen shots or gameplay of it in action.
A countdown, especially this one for its length, should reveal something big in the end. What we got was just a picture of an already revealed game. A fairly lacklustre end.
[Header Image lovingly stolen from Destructoid]
Well, the first press conference of the big three has ended and now we’re left to pick up the pieces. At least I can begin on a high note by saying the presentation this year was better than their last attempt, which consisted almost entirely of numbers and statements of how awesome Microsoft is. However the fact that every single live feed went down simultaneously as the show was about to start was just fantastic, even our multi-talented and humble editor-in-chief Wardrox could not get access himself until a good 15 minutes in.
The stage opened to Beatles Rock Band, announcing a few of the tracks available (Taxman, Day Tripper, I am the Walrus to name a few), along with revealing that several vocalists can participate at one time along with the guitar, bass and drums. Abbey Road will be the first full album in a wave of DLC, with the track “All You Need Is Love” being an Xbox exclusive.
The best part of the entire Beatles Rock Band announcement had to be watching them get Yoko Ono out on stage and thank her for her input to the game. You heard that right, Microsoft officially are indebted to the woman who destroyed The Beatles, AND they allowed her input into the game based around their music. Paul McCartney and Ringo Star were then dragged on stage for what I can only assume was one of the highest paid 30 seconds of their lives. Read more →
This week I have a bit of a chat about E3 and what you can expect from NG this year (and possibly next year). I also talk a bit about new writers and some such. I think this is also one of the shortest vlogs I’ve done in a while… which is a good thing?
Mere days before E3 the June issue of Qore has been leaked, bringing with it a plethora of new information regarding the rumoured PSP Go and several titles for the system (Gran Turismo, LittleBigPlanet, Jak & Daxter and Metal Gear Solid) due to be announced at Sony’s E3 press briefing.
I can just imagine the faces of the Sony execs now, as what I assume is a hefty chunk of their E3 announcements are leaked across the internet for all to see. I’m also keeping my fingers crossed that Kojima Productions’ “big announcement” that has been dangled in front of us all this time has also been ruined with the mention of another PSP MGS game (take that Kojima!). Whoever ticked the little “upload” box next to this month’s Qore early is surely for the high jump, especially this close to the announcements.
In addition to a ridiculous name, the PSP Go will feature 16GB of on-board memory, Bluetooth support and, as rumoured, the UMD slot is nowhere to be seen. Instead Sony will be utilising a digital download based system, which they seem to have been testing with titles like Patapon 2. It does however seems to retain the god awful analogue nub of the previous PSP versions, albeit this time it is hidden behind a sliding 3.8″ screen.
The control layout looks to be even more hand-crampingly fantastic than previous versions. All of the buttons have been moved inward, especially when it comes to the analog nub which is almost dead centre. Along with the new “low-profile” shoulder buttons (read absolutely tiny), I’m hoping to have early onset arthritis by the end of the year.
More pictures here at Eurogamer.
E3 has been a very lackluster event since its restructuring into an industry only conference in 2007. Sure, it’s great for networking in the video game industry, flashy press conferences with pyrotechnics and monitors that are bigger than my bedroom, and, most importantly, the Booth Babes. In a recent post on gamebizblog by Colin Campbell, E3 is deconstructed as an astronomic waste of money. The retail chain buyers are losing their power in what consumers buy, as the majority of industry coverage shifts online and into the hands of the public.
One of the major talking points of the post was about the overall cost of E3, how the publishers will spend ridiculous amounts of money on their E3 booth/presentation, and how irrelevant this all is. E3 used to be for the retail heads to come out and look at a ton of games, to pick which ones they wanted to sell during the fall rush. However, this is irrelevant now, as the retailers don’t have the power that they used to thanks to blogs, metacritic, and other online sources. Which in part, is true. The majority of people that go out to buy new games are going to look up what they want, go into the store — or in a lot of cases, their favorite online store — and buy it. Very few people go in to a store and look for a game to buy. Read more →
All those speculations about entry requirements to next year’s E3 have been put to rest. It will be for “all qualified computer and video game industry audiences”. So probably not you.
In a press release issued a couple of days ago, the ESA (who run E3) gave no mention of the public having access. Talking to GamePolitics, the ESA’s PR guy Dan Hewitt clarified things further.
There will be opportunities to view the E3 Expo and learn about what’s going on at the show, but it won’t be open to the general public.
Even with the estimated 40,000 attendees, they are still making a mistake having this event invite only. One of the largest boosts these shows get is from the energy the crowd gives it. PAX this year was simply incredible, and it was incredible because there were simply so many gamers.
As has been noted in the past, and as is clear at nearly every event I have been too; “press” simply care less about the games for the most part. Often through no fault of their own. It’s just hard to get excited about a specific game to the point of wetting yourself over every new trailer, when your job is to report on, and concentrate on, everything.
I worry that the smaller, newer, more cult/cliquey games will not get the reaction they need from crowds to flourish (or indeed get coverage). So with that in mind, I extend an open initiation for anybody reading this to go to E3 ‘09 on behalf of Negative Gamer. We count as “qualified computer and video game industry audiences” right?
If you want to go (and can’t find any other ways to get in), send me an email, or leave a comment bellow, explaining why you want to go, what you will/wont do (I expect at least 1 funny photo or anecdote) and we can probably work something out.
It’s awesome to see the ESA realising there was a huge problem with shrinking something as important as E3 down to 5,000, invite-only people. It’s just a real shame they arn’t going far enough, in my opinion, to fix things.
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