Category Archives: E3 2008

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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Bethesda’s Peter Hines has admitted that showing RPGs like Fallout 3 at tradeshows like E3 and Games Convention can be a frustrating business.

“Sometimes, yeah,” he told VG247, when asked if showing such a large game to people in such a short space of time was problematic.

“We had a lot of discussions about E3. Todd Howard and I sat and talked about what to show… Anything we do is just one thing, and we’re not about, ‘Here’s one quest.’ It’s more about, ‘What do you want to do?’ Do you just want to run around and shoot stuff and combat’s fun for you [then that's fine]. Our games are about not forcing you to do anything, and having a demo that makes you do that cuts against it.

“To your point, it does make it a bit like, ‘Well, what are you doing at E3?’ versus, ‘What are you doing at Leipzig?’ Go do what you want. If you played it at E3, go in a different direction this time. That’s what we do well.”

Fallout 3 did come under some fire after E3, where journalists were allowed to play the game for 30 minutes.

“You play the game and you see what you think,” Hines said previously on the matter.

“At E3 we let people play the game for a half hour, and if in a half hour you can make up your mind one way or the other, OK. I don’t really get into judging the rightness or wrongness of it. I just give people a chance to play it and they draw their own conclusions.”

Fallout 3 launches in both the US and Europe at the end of October.

Bethesda’s Peter Hines reckons Games Convention’s just as important as E3 for games like Fallout 3. He told us so in Germany.

“It’s hugely important to ‘do well’ here… to get a lot of people to see it and get excited about it,” he said.

“It’s just as important as E3 was. E3 was important for a different reason because it has the distinction of being first. That sort of sets the tone going forward for ‘how did you do?’ We had… many hundreds of people come through and play the game.”

E3 hasn’t had the best year, and Hines certainly isn’t the first to say E3′s dominance is well over.

Let’s hope gamescom can pick up where Games Convention left off, eh?

In an interview with GI at last week’s Games Convention, Sims and Spore creator Will Wright said that the everyone’s favourite whipping boy, E3, isn’t even dead. It’s undead.

“It almost feels like a zombie at this point; it’s the walking dead,” said Wright.

“It’s such an abrupt end to what was E3, which had been this huge escalating arms race.”

He added: “I understand why they really pulled the plug on the big E3. Looking at the amount of money a company like EA would spend on it, it was ridiculous amounts of money just to be present and competitive with everyone else, so I think they were looking for a way to sign the arms treaty and de-escalate the whole thing.”

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to VG247 at Games Convention yesterday, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida said that E3′s importance for the firm in terms of announcements has diminished in favour of a global approach.

“It’s always important to have something exciting for each key event that we have, and this Games Convention is really gaining lots of lots of importance, not just for the European market but for [the whole business]. E3 was ‘the show’ in the past, and lots of publishers, including ourselves, focused almost solely on E3 and all the news got disseminated from Los Angeles.

“But now, all through the year we have… E3, Games Convention, Tokyo Games Show, so we make sure we have something great for each of the events, and also some messages for local [markets] as well.”

We had a good chat with Mr Yoshida in Leipzig yesterday, and we’ll be bringing you more next week.

Norwegian site Game Reactor has an exclusive interview with Heavy Rain creative director, David Cage.

There’s nothing really new in there. The interview was conducted just before Cage was to show the game to the US press behind closed doors at E3.

However, he did confirm that Quantic Dreams will be officially announcing the game in Leipzig this week. So that’s great.

We’ll be live blogging the Sony conference so make sure you’re around at 5pm CET tomorrow.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking with VGChartz, NoA marketing boss Cammie Dunaway told how the company was “disappointed with our performance at E3″ and how she wished Nintendo had announced Pikmin 3 on stage.

“I would say the message is we were disappointed with our performance at E3,” said Dunaway.

“There were titles like Wario which we think will be really fun titles that we should have showcased. We were excited that Mr. Miyamoto made the commitment that Pikmin is coming. It would have been nice if we could have said that on stage.”

However she added Nintendo are still rooting for the hardcore: “But, we think it was a good recognition for us that we care for our core fans, and not just the new people who are now discovering Nintendo.”

Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Nintendo’s Wii MotionPlus add-on came as a shock to everyone – including publishers. So it’s not too surprising that a few aren’t exactly feeling buddy-buddy with Nintendo at the moment. Game Informer (via NeoGAF), however, claims that LucasArts is especially miffed.

It’s not too hard to see why either. When you’re hard at work on a Wii game with the subtitle “Lightsaber Duels,” 1:1 motion control probably sounds like a godsend. Shame then, that LucasArts was already putting the finishing touches on the game when Wii MotionPlus was announced.

And so, the wait for a real lightsaber game resumes.

By Nathan Grayson

Nintendo’s sent out thank you cards to attendees of the company’s E3 press conference, signed personally by Reggie, Cammie and Denise Kaigler, as you can see on Kotaku.

“THANK YOU for attending our E3 media briefing,” says the card. “Nintendo aims to bring people engaging experiences…to make them smile…and we hope we provided you at least a little of that during our event.”

You certainly did, Nintendo. You certainly did.

Speaking at E3, Epic boss Mike Capps expressed dismay at the fact the PC version of Gears of War scored lower than the 360 game, saying the desktop outing was “much better” and the fact it achieved lower marks was “bullshit.”

“I think it’s bullshit,” he told MundoRare. “Because what we did was take a great game, Gears of War 1 for Xbox 360, made it run at higher resolutions and added three new hours of really good gameplay and it got lower reviews. I think that’s bullshit, and I don’t understand it. I can’t figure out what it is.

“Like, ‘It’s an old game.’ Well, yeah, but it’s new on that platform, so I was really surprised to see lower reviews for what I think a much better game. It had new multiplayer modes, new levels, three hours of gameplay you never saw on 360 that the 360 guys are still upset we haven’t given them, right? So to get lower reviews for more game that’s good? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Watch the full video, including other stuff about Gears of War 2, after the link.

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Speaking at E3 Xbox global marketing director Albert Pennello scotched rumours that any kind of “behind the scenes” maneuvering has gone on to get FFXIII on 360, saying that Square simply can’t ignore the machine’s install base.

“I think a lot of people assume a lot of things about why Square made that announcement,” he said, talking in MundoRare. “I think the most obvious reason that they made the announcement is just looking at the success of our console. I mean, we’re the leading console on a worldwide basis, we’re more than double the install base on the US.

“I actually think it’s a great partnership. Square has done games for us in the past, and I think there’s a point where Square just has to look at the Xbox 360, the install base and attach rates that we’re seeing and actually has to make a decision on their own that it’s the right thing to do for them.

“So, I think people make a lot of assumptions about what they read or the rumours that go around, but the reality of a lot of this is that we’re doing very well, we have a great install base, we have passionate gamers like you guys that buy a lot of games, and a publisher like Square can’t ignore that.

“I think it’s easy to assume that something’s going on behind the scenes, I think the more obvious answer is we’re doing really well and the game creators want their games to be where the most people and the most consoles [are], and right now that’s the Xbox 360.”

Watch the video after the link.

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On Kotaku. Fallout 3 won game of the show, Mirror’s Edge won best original game and LBP won best console game. Congrats to all. Take a look.

Speaking to MTV at E3, EA boss John Riccitiello said that he believes EA has the best content plan of any games publisher. Well he would, wouldn’t he?

What we’ve been focusing on is making the world’s most creative and innovative games,” he said.

“Making sure we put the creators first — because that’s how it happens — and frankly if you look at our [E3 demo area] whether it’s Mirror’s Edge or Dragon Age, our partnership with Valve, our partnership with id — with Left 4 Dead and Rage, respectively– it’s our Hasbro titles, it’s what’s going on with Spore, Sims 3, Sims Animals, we frankly do have the best title plan of any company in the industry.”

Go John. More through the link.

Speaking to Kotaku at QuakeCon, id boss Todd Hollenshead has joined the “E3 was shit” chorus by saying that… E3 was shit.

“E3 this year, in my opinion, it was pretty much disappointing to everybody,” he said. “The press were disappointed, the people I talked to in the industry are disappointed. Almost everyone agrees that that was the wrong way to do it.”

More through the link.

Speaking to MTV at E3, EA boss John Riccitiello said that it’s likely we’re going to see Steven Spielberg puzzler Boom Blox migrating from Wii in time.

“We haven’t made announcements on that front, he said.

“Frankly, its original design was all about the control of the [Wii] wand. But there are other ways to implement that. It is a hugely innovative product. I expect you’ll see it on other platforms in time.”

More through the link.

Uh oh. Microsoft’s John Schappert gave an unnerving answer to VentureBeat when asked at E3 whether or not Xbox Live’s Avatar’s will come with microtransactions attached.

“That may be in the future,” he said. “In the near term, we want to launch these with great customization and a great library of accessories this fall.

“I think there is a lot more we can do with them. You will see us continue to add experiences that make use of the Avatar.”

Avatars were, of course, announced at E3 as part of the upcoming Xbox dashboard reboot. Tons more through the link.

This one’s already almost guaranteed to sell through the roof, but why not give it one more push? GoNintendo sends word that High Voltage Software has made a few new additions to its trophy case. Says the press release:

“In a limited showing throughout the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) Media and Business Summit, The Conduit has managed to earn accolades including:

• Best Wii Game of E3 (IGN.com)
• Best Wii Shooter of E3 (IGN.com)
• Best Graphics Technology on Wii (IGN.com)
• Honorable Mention for Real-Time Control on Wii (IGN.com)
• Best Wii Game of E3 (Gametrailers.com)
• Top 20 Games of E3 (Edge-online.com)

”

Quite impressive. Looks like all the hype may very well be warranted. Guess we’ll find out when the game launches in early ’09.

By Nathan Grayson

Speaking in the GameTrailers interview after the break, Peter Molyneux confirms that Lionhead has plans for another three Fable games.

“We’ve got plans for Fable three, four and five,” he says, adding, “it’s actually a big story arc.”

See for yourself. It’s around the 5.10 mark. Thanks X3F.

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There are two videos after the break of associate product manager Tim Hodges demoing the NetDevil’s space-based MMO, Jumpgate Evolutiuon, at E3.

The footage shows the first real look at the title being played, and fluid combat is the name of the game. Hodges says in the second movie that Jumpgate’s playable with a joystick, which should give you some idea of how “immediate” control is.

The game’s out next spring. You can sign up for the beta here. Thanks, Massively.

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In two parts after the break. They’ve been lifted from Videogamer.com from the stamps, and even though they’re shot off-screen the game just stinks of quality. There’s loads to look at in there, so take your time.

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