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E3 2005 - A Look Back
Last week was so interesting I caught the plague and died for two days. Now that I've gotten a rez and E3 has wrapped up, a look back is in order. Ferrago takes a look at E3 no-shows, like STALKER, while GamesIndustry.biz has a look at statistics. The big three PR conferences were some of the highlights of the Expo, and Gamespot tells us who 'won'. The best way to get a feel for what happened last week, though, is to get it firsthand. The Casual Gamer Experiment is over, with his impressions now available. Personal accounts are available at Press the Buttons, GamersInfo.net, CliffyB.com, Grimwell.com, John Davison's Blog, and Jeremy Parish's Blog. Was there any firsthand E3 coverage that you particularly liked this year? What did you think of G4's live broadcasting, if you caught it? Update: 05/23 18:56 GMT by Z : Obligitory PA link. From the post: "I don't believe there is any such thing as a 'Playstation 3' yet, and I don't believe in the Killzone video. What I do believe is that Sony harnessed the media and then rode it from place to place, one hand on the bridle while the other waved madly in the air."
I think the most interesting thing to come out of E3 this time round was the consoles. It isn't all that often when the three big time players release details around the same dates, and I suspect that many people were interested to find Sony's response to the Xbox 360 'launch party'.
I think it was most disappointing that Nintendo couldn't elaborate on the capabilities of their latest console or give us an insight into what they truly believe will compete with the PSP -- after all, rumors suggest that the DS is merely a 'third pillar'. It was also pretty dreadful that Sony chose to show concept videos and pre-rendered trailers instead of actual game footage rendered in real time, as Microsoft did -- even if it was on Alpha hardware (read: PowerMac G5s).
It definitely showed for one thing, that gaming is taking a nice twist down the High Definition path -- and that online services and expectations are much, much higher than four years ago. The only thing I fear, is that the price will be much higher too...
I thought Sony's presentation was awesome. The X-Box 360 presentation was all about pizazz, and how they would be everything to every gamer, and how the new Live would change everything. They also showed clips from many action and sports titles. Blah. But Sony's presentation was all about numbers, the new cell technology, and tech demos actually SHOWING what their new tech can do. It was awesome. You can get the micrososft conference here as a torrent or direct download: http://www.filerush.com/download.php?target=e3xbox _20050516_300.wmv. Unfortunately, I can't find a link for the sony presentation. I myself dumped it to my hard drive from a video stream found on Gamespot http://www.gamespot.com/.
Gamespot tells us who 'won'
It ain't a competition, people! If it was, Sega'd still be making consoles and Microsoft would be out of the business (after their initial E3 in 2000, which was a disaster).
The competition comes later in the marketplace. And as has been proven time and time again, the public knows or cares not a whit what happens at E3. E3 is interesting to follow for those of us who do follow it, but it means absolutely nothing to the fortunes of anybody concerned.
Articles like the one at GameSpot serve no purpose, and the analyst they quote is a moron. Things may or may not shake out the way he predicts, but it won't be because of E3. It has happened time and time again that the "winner" of any individual E3 goes on to lose badly in marketplace in the following years, and vice versa. I'd even go so far as to say "winning" E3, especially when new consoles are introduced, is almost a jinx.
The real winnders of E3 are the hotels, restaurants, cabs, and various other services which profit from this influx of money annually.
to get as much buzz as I think they wanted to out of E3. They are only 5 months away from the Xbox 360 launch and this is the main show they had to show it off and generate hype. They did get a lot of hype but I think they were hoping to have such a strong showing that people would already have made up their minds which next-gen console they really wanted. Sony and Nintendo did a good job of showing just enough that most people I know are taking a wait and see attitude towards the next-gen consoles. I think that where MS failed was that while the next gen games for their system are impressive there were too few of them and none of them seemed like must have games, for my tastes at least.
Sony released their specs and showed pre-rendered game footage. The overall consensus I felt about the the PS3 was a desire to see what it can really do in actual gameplay, since it is supposed to be so much more powerful than anything else.
Nintendo was a real tease and it drives me nuts. The idea behind the Revolution seems solid but there is absolutely no way to tell how well it has been executed. I am not worried about their specs , I think the Revolution will be comparable to Xbox 360 at least. My main problem with the Revolution was, where are the games? I would have liked to have seen at least something like Sony's pre-rendered stuff for Revolution games. Nintendo is playing this so close to the vest that they may end up putting people off.
Right now, I get the feeling people are taking a wait and see attitude. If Sony and/or Nintendo deliver on the hope people have for their consoles then 360 could be in trouble. However, if Sony and Nintendo under-deliver or even wait too long to give more details then the Xbox 360 will probably have a huge holiday season.
I swear PowerPoint is going to be the downfall of higher education in western society.