Category Archives: E3 2009

EA Sports president Peter Moore has said last year’s E3 was miles “better” than the 2007 and 2008 versions of the US show.

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We don’t care if this is old. Nelson told HipHopGamer at E3 that PS3′s going to be gathering dust soon thanks to Metal Gear: Rising going multi-plat.

“I’m going to be happy when I come to your place next time and I see your PS3 off with dust on it,” said the exec.

“That’s all I want to say.”

You must watch this video. At 6.20 Nelson’s asked, “How was you able to whip the Wii’s ass?”

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said in the firm’s Q1 investor call this month – we think he did, anyway: this is according to NintendoEverything – that Nintendo’s E3 briefing was a bit rubbish. For shame.

“As for the media briefing at E3, of course we had many internal discussions after that,” he said.

“Honestly speaking, none of us at Nintendo thought that our presentation at E3 was as good as it could have been.

“It is apparent that we could not fully convey the charm of our products.”

Iwata explained that motion-based games from previous years are better to perform on stage. This year was a tough call.

“This year… with the New Super Mario Bros. Wii, four people lined up with Wii Remotes was not a scene that no one had ever seen,” he added.

There’s more through there.

The best moment of Rebellion’s Aliens Vs Predator, according to European brand manager Rob Bartholomew, is akin to pornography. The spunky bit of pornography.

“It’s got to be the trophy kills on the predator,” Bartholomew said when asked about the game’s signature moment, talking in the official Sega E3 podcast.

“We’ve just been trying it out now, just before the show opens, and we’re just getting familiar with it again, and getting those trophy kills right where you rip the skull off the marines and pull their spines out afterwards and the predator kind of caresses the spinal cord and purrs.

“It’s such a great moment, and it’s something that everyone recognises from the films. The guys we’ve had wondering around already are screaming that it’s fantastic and it’s kind of the money shot. So that’s the perfect kind of picture moment for me.”

We’re hard just thinking about it. Did you know the Sega shooter’s been in development for nearly four years? We didn’t.

“The guys have been working on it for going on three, nearly four years now,” Bartholomew said.

“Sega only recently got involved in the last sort of 12 months.”

The game’s out for PC, PS3 and 360 in the first half of next year.

According to Ubisoft’s Maxime Bernard, when Steven Spielberg was at E3 he mentioned that he gets some of his ideas from games like Splinter Cell.

“He had an entourage… and he said to his friend ‘it gives us a lot of ideas, it’s very inspiring’” Bernard told OXM. “I was thinking, like, wow. If we made a game that inspires Spielberg then [censored], we’re doing something good here.”

Guess it has to come from somewhere.

Hit the link.

Grasshopper Manufacture’s Goichi Suda, Level-5′s Akihiro Hino, and Q Entertainment’s Tetsuya Mizuguchi chat about E3 in the latest Famitsu, and all seem to agree that motion control stole the show.

“Hardware-wise, it was all about Project Natal,” Suda told the magazine. “It’s hard to really understand it unless you use it, and it remains to be seen what you can do with it, but I think it’ll be a huge device. We developed No More Heroes with the Wii remote in mind, but now I want to think about games with Natal in mind. I have to ask myself, as a game designer, what new games can be done with this, what can be an interesting experience and challenge, and I’m looking forward to that.”

“With new technology announcements like Natal and the [PS3] Motion Controller, it’s like I have a feel for the new generation, or that the door to the future has been opened,” said Tetsuya Mizuguchi. “It’s a wholly different impression of the future than we had before. It’s not a shift from 2D to 3D or in the number of polygons, but it’s games trying to open up an entirely new door. I thought it would take longer, but it’s happening faster than I expected.”

You can also get their views on what games were the most exciting to them at E3 via 1UP.

Xbox 360 product boss Aaron Greenberg has said he believes Microsoft’s E3 performance was nothing short of “historic.” He also revealed that he owns a PS3, plays games on it and reckons Sony did a “good job” in LA earlier this month.

“Last year there were so many big games that we showed. We had Resident Evil, we had Gears of War 2, we had all the big blockbuster and people were like, ‘how are you gonna top that?!’ – and we did,” he told Major Nelson during a podcast interview.

“A lot of people thought it was the best E3 we’ve ever had, I definitely think it was historic. We dreamed of opening with The Beatles and closing with Steven Spielberg and it happened.”

“E3, I think, returned to all it’s glory,” Greenberg continued. “[However], it was the first year in maybe five years that I couldn’t get to the Sony and Nintendo conferences.

“I watched on TV both of them in their entirety but yeah, it was insane. I sent one of my staff and he reported back and yeah, it was good, I thought they had a good show, I think Sony did a good job.

“I hope I don’t get in trouble for saying this, but I’m pretty open in that I own a PS3 and I play games on it: I’m a gamer.”

Full interview through the link.

In a mini-interview with motor enthusiast site autoweek at E3 earlier this month, Polyphony’s Kazunori Yamauchi has said the release date for Gran Turismo 5 will be announced “soon.”

“We made the announcement today that [the handheld game player PSP GO] is coming out Oct. 1 [with Gran Turismo 5 on it],” told the site in LA.

“We will give the release date of the Gran Turismo 5 soon.”

Yamauchi also reveals that GT1 took seven people five years and GT5 has 20 times that number working on it.

Full thing through the link.

Denise Kaigler, VP of corporate affairs for NOA, has said that it’s not Nintendo’s intention to bring what works on DS over to Wii just “for the sake of doing it”.

It only gets a console version if the company feels it would be a good fit.

“What we do is look at games that make sense to apply to Wii”, she told GoNinteno at E3. “Same thing can be said of Virtual Console games. We’re always looking at ways to make the experience more fun and more compelling for gamers. If we look at a DS game and see that a Wii version…experience can be enhanced, then that’s what we do.

“We don’t just do it for the sake of doing it. If we can make that experience more fun, more compelling, more immersive…that’s what drives that decision.”

Prime examples of DS games going Wii include: New Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart DS, and Animal Crossing: Wild World.

More through the link.

IGN’s posted three movies of a live E3 demo of Heavy Rain, with the game being played by Quantic Dream’s David Cage.

It’s a 15-minute play-through of the scrapyard sequence with Cage and two IGN editors talking over the top.

If it’s bonkers real-time graphics you’re after, look no further.

The game’s out later this year. Maybe.

After the break.

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Ruffian’s given up more on Crackdown 2 in an interview with Edge, saying the game is set in a future version of Pacific City and has all-new gameplay.

“From an environmental point of view, you probably would look at it as being an entirely new map,” said creative director Billy Thompson.

“It’s still Pacific City but further on in the timeline. We’ve altered a great deal, and think people who enjoyed the first game are going to be really pleased when they enter this one.

“And we’ve made sure the gameplay’s altered significantly.”

There’s more through there about the game’s E3 reveal and the whole zombie-infected thing.

No date.

Motion-sensing was a done deal after the popularity of the concept of Wii, Activision president Mike Griffith told GI at E3.

“Those are logical directions for Sony and Microsoft and obviously they’re seeing what everyone else is seeing – that the consumer has responded well to the physical interface of the Wii,” he said.

“This has been their response and I think they are expecting it to expand their audience which will be good for the industry by bringing in additional gamers.”

Griffiths added that Activision support would come provided Natal and PS3′s “wand” device were welcomed by the public.

“We’re always very supportive of their initiatives, we’ve got close relationships with all the first parties and if the consumer is receptive we’ll be supporting them,” he said.

Interview through there.

Lemmy is probably one of the most awesome people to have ever lived. He’s seriously fucking awesome. Having him in Brutal Legend instantly makes the game more awesome to the power of ten. But what, Tim-Schafer-talking-to-VG247-at-E3, was Lemmy like to work with?

“Lemmy was a really mellow guy, a really quiet guy,” Schafer told us. “He was really friendly, actually. He invited me to his house. I got to see his collection of knives.

“He’s a really friendly guy. He lives in West Hollywood. He likes to go to the Rainbow Rooms and chat to his fans, stuff like that. He’s a very down to earth guy.

And Lemmy has stories. Stories of ultimate rock.

“He’s got all these great stories,” Schafer added. “You know, he used to be a roadie himself, for Jimi Hendrix. He’s really lived life, you know what I’m saying?”

We do, Tim. We know what you’re saying. Brutal Legend, officially now the most awesome videogame this year, releases this October.

Agent, the PS3 “exclusive” Take-Two announced in Sony’s press conference at E3, is set in the 70s, Take-Two boss Ben Feder’s told EG.

“It’s a completely different storyline, there is completely different character development,” the exec said of the title’s similarities to GTA.

“It’s a game about espionage, set in the 1970s. GTA is obviously more about an urban experience, a typically rags to riches experience. Very, very different storylines, very different character development. It’s going to be very fresh for gamers.”

Feder refused to flesh out what the firm meant by the term “exclusive” in regards to Agent.

“These are all relationship matters and contractual matters,” he said. “When we talk about our relationships and our exclusivity for PS3 and Agent, for example, we don’t disclose anything beyond what we’ve already said.

“But we think it’s important for us to be with Sony, and it’s important for Sony, I think, to be with us. The game promises to be one of the best games available because of who’s developing it, and because of the subject matter.”

Interview through the link.

Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz isn’t impressed with Natal. In fact, he reckons Sony’s motion-sensing set-up for PS3 is a better propostition for the hardcore gamer.

“Natal appeared to me to be a technological solution in search of a problem,” said Creutz, speaking to Gama.

“I had a very hard time envisioning playing Modern Warfare 3 using Natal,” he said, adding, “By contrast, I had a very easy time envisioning it (and enjoying it) using Sony’s control/motion capture scheme.”

Creutz added that Microsoft is aiming at Wii’s casual audience with Natal – “a difficult proposition given that you’re essentially asking casual gamers to upgrade twice during the cycle.”

Thanks, Joystiq.

Why add a peripheral to the Tony Hawk franchise? So you can be Tony Hawk, Activision CEO Mike Griffith’s told MCV. Without all the blood unpleasantness, obviously.

“It’s the same analogy as Guitar Hero, where you can feel like you are a rock legend, even if you can’t play a single note; now with Ride you can skate the way a skating legend like Tony Hawk skates, but you won’t break your head open,” said the exec.

“It’s proving to be lots of fun, and the peripheral board, with its sensors, is very responsive. It’s a thrill.”

There’s an interview through there. Ride’s out later this year.

Microsoft’s announcement that 360 is to be integrated with Facebook, Last.fm and Twitter was “far and away the most important” news of E3, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter’s told Gamasutra.

The analyst said “that the media completely missed its importance,” adding that it signals a new direction for the machine, that of a “functioning computer” in the living room.

Pachter also said that the move “gives the company a huge jump start on a hopeful Apple, which has as yet to make a dent in sales of its AppleTV (intended for the same purpose).

“Microsoft appears to me to understand that it can leverage its 30 million installed base advantage if it moves quickly, and Apple will have a long way to go in order to catch up. By far, this was the most important announcement of E3.”

Very interesting stuff. Hit it. And if you’re not using Twitter already, then get with the program, soldier.

The E3 Game Critics Awards have been announced, with Uncharted 2 winning Best of Show and Warner’s Scribblenauts winning Best Original Game.

Get the full thing after the break. Thanks, Kotaku.

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Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has said that although he loves teh Halo and Modern Warfare, he wants Bungie and Infinity Ward to tread new paths in terms of genre.

“I keep waiting to hear what Bungie is going to do that’s not Halo,” he told VideoGamer at E3.

“Those guys are amazing, right? They walk on water! And the same with Infinity Ward. It’s like, dude I’m totally psyched to get my Call of Duty fix every year, but you guys are amazing! What else have you got? Can you give me something I haven’t seen before?”

However, Pitchford says he understands the nature of the business and that in the current climate, wearing unfamiliar shoes could prove too risky.

“The folks that are innovating need to be rewarded so that the folks that are making big bets can take that risk,” he said.

“It’s too big of a risk for Infinity Ward to do anything but what they’re doing, because there’s too much value and there’s really big scope for it.”

Telltale CEO Dan Connors said the idea of being able to act in an adventure game could be made possible by Project Natal and that the full body motion sensor is a “huge thing” for what the company is doing.

“Obviously with the type of games that we make, the idea of making a person an actor inside of one of our adventures is an idea that’s been theoretical for a long time, ” he said to Videogamer. “It’s nice to see things happening that can get it closer.”

“It’s a huge opportunity to give the user more ways to interact with the world than just the traditional cursor-based and dialogue-based way in which the games work,” said Connors.

“Our focus is about creating really entertaining scenarios and characters, so removing barriers to experiencing that and making it easier and more natural to interact with, is a huge thing for what we’re doing.

“The number of ideas and types of designs that you could do around it are… it’s just the kind of thing that gets your creative teams going. For us, having the user be able to be a character in one of the worlds and solve mysteries and puzzles is a huge deal, a huge leap forward.”

More through the link.