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The results are in. After an insane few days of news coverage and announcements, the flood’s dried to a trickle. E3 2008 may well have been a pivotal year for the show, with some massive highs and tragic lows permeating the platform holder conferences, and an explosion of behind-the-scenes gossip left in the wake. Hit the link for VG247’s round-up of which console manufacturers got high scores, and which binned all lives on the first level.
E3 2008 winners and losers – the press conferences
First place – Microsoft
Microsoft “won it,” in our opinion. The Final Fantasy announcement has to be one of the greatest in recent gaming history, and no one truly expected it, not even Sony by all accounts.
The amount of controversy it’s caused since Monday has been unparalleled. The only other showing we can think of that’s actually crashed large sites was the first ever look at the PS3 casing, so that gives an idea of the level of magnitude of 360’s coup.
Aside from FFXIII, Microsoft’s showing was wall-to-wall gaming and service announcements. A complete Xbox 360 dashboard revamp and the inclusion of party-based movie-viewing and Avatars was genuinely exciting.
Gears of War 2, Fallout 3 and Resident Evil 5 looked exceptional from where we were sitting, and it should be noted that the latter two were shown in the 360 conference, not in PS3’s. As it was put to us after the event, “As far as PS3 and 360 goes for ‘gaming,’ there’s just no contest any more.”
There was little bullshit. Massive games, massive demos, and all those major titles had proper announcements and release dates. Tons to write about.
The casual stuff? Well, Lips looked fine, but it’s SingStar with sparkly microphones, basically. It’ll be interesting to see if it actually sells. You’re in the Movies? No thanks. Not so good.
As far as the other “lighter” games went, having Viva 2 and Banjo on board isn’t so slouchy. Both were looking excellent.
In terms of presentation, Don Mattrick looked relaxed and delivered a feature-heavy speech with ease. It’s quite something to do a double thumbs-up and stare into the distance when Yoichi Wada tells you Final Fantasy XIII is releasing on your console, but Mattrick managed it. Some good beta blockers going on there.
Second place – Sony
Jack Tretton was unflappable in Sony’s E3 2008 presentation, but there’s probably a good reason for that: it was boring.
You’d had to have balls of steel to profess otherwise, frankly. The conference was very long at over an hour-and-a-half, and lacked the real “wow” moment Microsoft provided with FFXIII.
There was no date for Home and big presentations for games that can hardly be described as “megaton,” such as Ratchet & Clank: Future Quest for Booty. A lot of it was fairly tiring.
That’s not to say there was nothing there. Far from it. Resistance 2, especially, looked brilliant, and the announcement of an immediate opening of the US PS3 Movie Store was good and welcome. Eric Lempel’s presentation of the Store and its features was impressive but, again, if was hard to not just stare and the stage and say, “Great.”
God of War III was teased, but there was no information at all. Solid announcements took the form of retail news, with the 40Gb PS3 being dropped in favour of an 80Gb option and – stop the press – new PS2 and PSP bundles confirmed.
Unsung star of the show was Sucker Punch’s inFamous. Expect to hear a great deal more on the free-roaming action game before release early next year. It looked sensational, and should have been pitched far more heavily.
DC Universe Online also looked promising, and it could easily be argued that Sony’s leading the way with mass online console gaming with this and brand new IP Massive Action Game, Sony’s final boom-boom.
MAG has 256 players. It’s PS3-only. It’s made by Zipper and it looks like Quake Wars crossed with SOCOM. As with the rest of the viewing, it was commendable, but so hard to get excited about.
In summary, Sony’s E3 2008 press conference was like bad sex: going through the motions, the odd enthusiastic flurry, a weary wish it was all over and a forced climax.
Patience is starting to wear a little thin, Jack.
Third place – Nintendo
The reaction was hilarious. Nintendo’s E3 press conference can be summed up thus: Shaun White Snowboarding, massive numbers, GTA DS (no details), Animal Crossing: City Folk and WiiSpeak, Wii Sports 2, Wii Music. End.
The “core” went nuts afterwards, claiming Nintendo had abandoned its gaming roots. Wii Sports 2 saw poor Cammie Dunaway, smiling right across to her ears, playing with a virtual dog, Reggie Fils-Aime and a frisbee. Not pretty.
Wii Music was worse. Yes, it’ll probably move huge amounts. It’s a Miyamoto project, and first-party Nintendo games are pushed so hard that selling “Rock Band for everyone else” is a bit of a no-brainer.
But watching a team of Nintendo executives playing the self-professed “toy” on stage, culminating in a group leap into the air, was cringeworthy beyond compare.
In the event’s aftermath, Reggie seemed exasperated by the fact “gamers” were calling foul, saying that Animal Crossing and GTA DS should be enough for anyone.
The internet thought differently, unfortunately. Some of the commentary from blogs has been stunningly rude, although Nintendo is unlikely to care.
Industry talk in the UK was one of complete disbelief: we’re unsure we’ve seen the acronym “wtf” used so frequently in such a short space of time.
The big question is whether or not Nintendo will be back next year. Is a games conference showing ever applicable for the company any more? Why bother showing and facing criticism – from all quarters, not just the games press – when you’re selling 750,000 Wiis in the US alone?
Tomorrow at 1pm – E3’s winner and losers, part two: which games and services had names in lights, and which are propping up the bar dropping tears into whisky.
Viewing 93 responses
morriss said:
klanger13: everyone steals. Sony steals, Microsoft steals. I’m sure even Nintendo steals but as I can’t back it up I won’t state it categorically.
Psychotext said:
Nintendo don’t steal. Such a thing is an unforgivable accusation!
klanger13 said:
I don’t really see that as a justification for them doing it though. ‘Everyone steals thats why its ok for me too’.
Also, Lips, Scene it, and the Avatars. Come on? Why try to compete with them? Why not do your own thing, generate your own IP, and then there is no competition! its jus too risky and the bean counters at Microsoft can’t see that risks and innovation are the way to make money in the Games business, and now was that time for Microsoft to do that, not just do ‘me too’.
After failing to push on this time last year, they have done it again. And they really have the most to lose as they only have the 360 and its not selling like hot cakes.
morriss said:
Imitation is the sincerest form of compliment.
klanger13 said:
Theres imitation and then theres intellectual property theft
Psychotext said:
I’ve said it before klanger… but there’s f’all innovation left in this industry any more. Everyone is copying everyone.
klanger13 said:
The Wii? The DS? They were pretty big innovations if you ask me. LBP looks pretty innovative and interesting. I quite like the look of Banjo Kazooie. Flower looks interesting.
What isn’t innovative, and is killing this industry is all the bloody FPSs everyone keeps on releasing. Just cause a crowd makes a loud noise, doesn’t mean theres a lot of them. Nintendo know that.
Psychotext said:
Wii and DS were built on existing technologies refined (and they’re hardware, I should have made it clear I was talking about software). LBP is also based on existing stuff but made accessible. I think Flower is actually the re-imagination of a Speccy game (I read a discussion on it the other day but I can’t remember exactly what it is).
Either way… even if these were truly innovative things, they’d still be a drop in the ocean compared to the overwhelming amount of cut and paste crap we see. It’s not surprising though – as any industry matures the amount of originality goes down.
morriss said:
Nintendo Wii is killing the industry. That’s what innovtion does for you.
klanger13 said:
Well I was talking about games, and the hardware is an integral part of the experience for me. I also find it hard to not call the Wii and the DS innovative. Credit where credit is due, and Nintendo took a big risk and innovated with there last set of consoles, and have been incredibly successful.
Anyway, for me, I find MS recently to be a little dull and me too.
Psychotext said:
Oh I’ll give Nintendo massive credit for taking risks. Absolutely.
Hero of Canton said:
For all that Nintendo’s conference was a serious let down, neither of the other two made me laugh. And maybe that’s the point. Maybe Wii Music IS silly, maybe Wii Sports Resort is equally daft, too. But Nintendo talked about putting smiles on faces, and I’d imagine that the three games they showed will do that for a lot of people.
Still a clear third, though. Three casual games is enough for its new audience, but not for most gamers.
I was really quite impressed by Microsoft’s, even if it took me to sit through Sony’s to fully realise it. Quite something that the best parts of Sony’s conference were the stats section and the PSN stuff.
anth89 said:
I own all systems and this is how E3 went down for me
1. sony
2. MS
99. Nintendo
I don’t get what MS did that has everyone saying they came out on top. Besides Gears and Fable no other exclusives were announced. While Sony has RE2, GOW2, Infamous, LBP, I am alive, KZ2, Mag
Avatar is just copy of the Nintendo’s Mii’s. Plus, if you want to get technical MS is 3rd in line because Sony actually announced home before MS’s avatars.
You can’t lump in Multiplatform games to one console, even if they were only shown on one console. The programmers of Fall Out are one record saying both platforms are identical. If you are going to put RE5 and FO3 on MS’s billing, then Mirrors Edge should be on PS3’s.
ecu said:
Yeah, I didn’t understand that either. RE5 and Fallout 3 are coming out on PS3 as well.
Sony showed the most games, and the most exclusives. Microsofts conference would have been universally panned, were it not for that FFXIII announcement. It literally saved their whole E3 from becoming a disaster.
Psychotext said:
anth89: I am alive isn’t a PS3 exclusive. In total MS and Sony showed pretty much the same amount of exclusives with Sony showing more ones we already knew about about and MS showing more new ones. Whether or not you found the games attractive is another story.
As for announcing other big titles… well everything they showed was overshadowed by the FFXIII story so it was probably a good idea to hold things back.
morriss said:
The thing with the Microsoft conference that can’t be denied is, is that they showed so much “new” stuff. Whether or not we thought it was shit or not is another matter.
No-one had seen Lips, no-one had seen You’re in the Movies, new dash, new 360 features (game installs, netflix, video sharing), new Fable 2 video (intro), FFXIII (of course), new Fallout 3 trailer etc. etc.
Yeah you can argue that you thought it all looked shite, but that’s just personal opinion. The ‘fact’ is almost everything they showed was “new”.
Shatner said:
“New” to “you” perhaps. But a lot of those things we’d “already” seen before. Certainly there was no “new” FF13 footage that hadn’t done the rounds before.
It’s funny how one company simply declaring something is all wondrous and amazing. Another company declaring things is all empty promises and vacuous hype.
No one had seen Flower running before. No one had seen that footage from Resistance 2. No one was aware of PSN unified login. No one was aware of Ratchet and Clank episodic content. No one was aware of Patapon 2. No one was aware of Resistance PSP. No one had seen Killzone multiplayer. Hell, there was “new” footage of Little Big Planet too. Nobody knew of the PS2 bundle that effectively puts the PS2 hardware at $99 for the first time. No one was aware of the DC comics MMO. No one was aware of MAG. Loco Roco 2 or Super Stardust PSP.
If I was going to be petty I’d mention a God of War 3 video as “new” too. If videos honestly count for much (which some seem to think they do). But you can decide if you want to include that on the list.
But, you’re right. No “new” stuff. Oh, apart from some multiplatform games being treated as though they only exist on a single platform. Yup yup.
Likewise, you may have an opinion as to the quality of all that you seem to already have forgotten was “new”. Funny how short or selective people’s memories can be.
You could argue that Sony have the advantage due to having more platforms that they support. You might even claim it’s an “unfair” advantage, but then you’d have to dock points away from Nintendo for exactly the same reason. And, to be honest, I think Nintendo could do with keeping those points, don’t you?
Psychotext said:
Shatner… jump off your horse for a second. I’m simply going by the “scorecards” that were put together for each platform at the conferences.
Each one listed: Total no. of games shown, Total no. of new games shown, Total no. of exclusives shown, Total no. of new exclusives shown.
That not good enough for you? Tough.
Shatner said:
I was actually responding to morriss. Interesting that you thought I was addressing you. Ok then:
Nope it’s not good enough for me. Thanks heavens for these cute little boxes that I can type in and express my opinion!
And, has already been pointed out, if you’re scoring is screwed up because you’re not reporting exclusives correctly then then what’s the point on relying on botched figures in the first place??
So, no, inaccurate scoring ain’t good enough for me!
If you’re happy to base your responses on fuzzy data then good for you (your words were “pretty much the same” – conveniently vague). My nice high horse doesn’t stand for that sort of sloppy judgement.
I tell you, the view up here is amazing. You can see for miles!
morriss said:
I forgot to mention “new and interesting”.
Shatner said:
Ah, yes but when you were talking about one company, morriss, you were careful enough to suggest that personal opinion can’t take away from the “facts”. Now we’re talking about the other company you want to reinstate personal opinion in the hope of dismissing less convenient “facts”:
Yeah you can argue that you thought it all looked shite, but that’s just personal opinion. The ‘fact’ is almost everything they showed was “new”
Not very good at this morriss. You need to be a little more subtle with your “double standards”.
morriss said:
Seriously however, we didn’t see Resistance PSP, we didn’t ‘really’ see Super Stardust PSP, we didn’t really see God of War III, we didn’t ‘really’ see Patapon 2, we didn’t really see Flower, we didn’t really see MAG either.
Unless I missed some extended gameplay footage of all of them during the conference, that is.
It’s all well and announcing something and showing 4 seconds of it in a montage but it takes a bit more than that to get my pants wet I’m afraid.
morriss said:
“Not very good at this morriss. You need to be a little more subtle with your “double standards”.
Can’t wriggle out of that one I guess. Unless we debate the semantics of new and newness but I really can’t be arsed with that.
Psychotext said:
“And, has already been pointed out, if you’re scoring is screwed up because you’re not reporting exclusives correctly then then what’s the point on relying on botched figures in the first place??”
Not reporting exclusives properly? I don’t understand. The scorecards are very, very simple. Show a game (even a CGI video), add 1 to the appropriate column.
Shatner said:
Morriss,
Seriously, I can throw that straight back at you – particularly in respect of FF13. Which rather takes a considerable amount of wind out of the sails of one of the three press conferences.
If we’re to continue using your own set of constantly evolving technicalities that is, morriss.
Seems like you want to introduce as many caveats as possible to maintain your “facts” but you’re not so fond of applying them consistently in all camps.
Come on old bean, sort it out. This is fanboy level debating – all these rather dubious double standards and rules changing is a bit stupid and embarassingly transparent.
morriss said:
I just admitted that you were right. I can send some blood your way if you like?
Hero of Canton said:
“No one had seen Flower running before. No one had seen that footage from Resistance 2. No one was aware of PSN unified login. No one was aware of Ratchet and Clank episodic content. No one was aware of Patapon 2. No one was aware of Resistance PSP. No one had seen Killzone multiplayer. Hell, there was “new” footage of Little Big Planet too. Nobody knew of the PS2 bundle that effectively puts the PS2 hardware at $99 for the first time. No one was aware of the DC comics MMO. No one was aware of MAG. Loco Roco 2 or Super Stardust PSP.”
I have to pull you up on this. I’ve seen flOwer (pretty much an identical clip to the one shown) before. I was aware of Ratchet on PSN, the DC comics MMO, Patapon 2 and Loco Roco 2.
MAG was a CGI clip, Resistance had been seen before (admittedly not that clip, but it was hardly ‘new’)
The PSN stuff and a couple of the PSP games were the biggest surprises for me during Sony’s briefing, and generally the PSN games were the ones which most excited me. I can’t quite understand why so many people are getting excited about a five second tease for GOWIII. Sony’s show started well, but ended poorly. For all that a lot of MS’s stuff was imitating rival product, it did show a hell of a lot of new and interesting stuff.
For my money – and I own all three consoles – the MS conference was by quite some distance the best.
Shatner said:
Psychotext, I noticed you responded to anth89’s ‘incorrect’ reporting of PS3 exclusives but you didn’t seem to show much interest in his observations of ‘incorrect’ reporting of 360 exclusives.
Your reliance on these scorecards, like most people’s reliance on some abritrary review number, isn’t a very reliable distillation of things. Especially with the sort of double standards that folk enjoy practicing.
But seriously. It’s great up here. You all look like tiny little ants!
HOC – that’s your view. My view is that a huge amount of what MS showed me I’d seen before on other systems. Where does the line get drawn between something being “new” and something being “new because it’s not happened on this console yet”. Do we therefor claim that Wii Speak is “new”? Simply because of the lack of voice chat on the Wii so far? Or do we dismiss it because other consoles do voice chat? If so then we need to be consistent in our appraisals – what does this mean for avatars? Hard disk installs? FF13? Or even something like a microphone karaoke game?
morriss said:
o_O
absolutezero said:
Seriously Shat everyone that comes here expects morriss to troll Sony, I never expected anything else.
He may pretend to be all even and normal now but I remember good old Halo morriss.
NEVAR FORGET.
morriss said:
If you think that’s trolling…;)
Shatner said:
morriss assured me that he was even handed in his appraisals. Especially the “professional” ones.
Are you claiming morriss is a liar?
absolutezero said:
Oh shut up silly.
morriss : :p
morriss said:
No I didn’t. I said don’t confuse “morriss” with the person who works here.
morriss said:
AB0: I came here to get away from you people, to start a new life! All you do is drag me back in…
Shatner said:
But after what absolutezero said how do I know I can trust you?
morriss said:
You’ll just have to.
Shatner said:
Hang on. You’re asking me to trust the media!?!
Now I know you’re full of it.
Anyway, I’ve finished with toying with you all for one evening. I hope we can do this again sometime.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me to keep under your pillows.
Sweet dreams.
absolutezero said:
ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US
Psychotext said:
lol Shatner. You’re always entertaining I’ll give you that.
Hero of Canton said:
“HOC – that’s your view. My view is that a huge amount of what MS showed me I’d seen before on other systems. Where does the line get drawn between something being “new” and something being “new because it’s not happened on this console yet”. Do we therefor claim that Wii Speak is “new”? Simply because of the lack of voice chat on the Wii so far? Or do we dismiss it because other consoles do voice chat? If so then we need to be consistent in our appraisals – what does this mean for avatars? Hard disk installs? FF13? Or even something like a microphone karaoke game?”
I see where you’re coming from, though I did say that a lot of it was imitation stuff.
But you can’t really have it both ways – you can’t say Microsoft’s stuff wasn’t new, but that sequels to LocoRoco and Patapon (in the latter’s case, a game which to all extents and purposes looked identical) are. Like I say, the PSN stuff was what impressed me the most, as that all looked genuinely new. But the disk-based PS3 content was comparatively lacking in wow value.
anth89 said:
I still dont get it…. someone shed the light????
Please be an individual and not a democrat. Democrats just disagree with what reppublicans say, they dont come up with ideas for themselves.
I love xbox tities/titles but where did they separat themselves?
morriss said:
Historically, Democrats have had just as many ideas as the Republicans. Does the name Roosevelt mean anything to you?