Prognosticating E3

With E306 getting underway, basically tomorrow, Game|Life has some predictions of what we'll see from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. From the Nintendo piece: "Remember the amazing surprise when Twilight Princess was shown off at E3 2004? Nintendo's press conference on Tuesday will be something on the order of two dozen of those 'holy shit!' moments, all strung together. Fanboy tears will flow. Nintendo will make some surprising announcements about online for both DS and Wii. The 'nunchuck' attachment for the Wii will also have an accelerometer inside it -- it won't be able to detect the position of the controller relative to the screen, but it will be able to detect tilt."

Comments

Prognosticating?

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't that still illegal in most countries?

Tilt, huh?

[Dr. Eggman]

Sounds like a great pinball machine simulator! Great for Monkeyball, or Starfox perhaps.

Re:Tilt, huh?

[kitsunewarlock]

As well as sword fights, fighting games, fishing games, sports games, motorcycle games, ski-do games and hummingbird based shooter games. WE LOVE YOU KOLIBRI!

Re:Tilt, huh?

[mausmalone]

EA has said that you'll be able to run in Madden with the analog stick, juke left and right by jerking the nunchuck around, and stiff arm people using the remote. I dare say that Madden for the Wii will be awesome, but that just about every Madden fan will avoid it like the plague simply because it's for a Nintendo system.

E3 Surprises?

[eagle52997]

Basically more demos for the new platforms, but that are so overdone with CGI they'll never look like the real thing?

Clever

[Life700MB]

Although I am not a gamer myself, I've had a couple of consoles along the time and am very pleased with the 'nunchuck', as is clearly, to me, the most natural controller ever.

Nowadays is hard to find someone that has never played with a console, but, back in the day, when the nes was the rage (no ataris for us Europeans!) almost everybody who was playing for the first time... o first month in some cases... actually moved phisically the controller as like they where trying to 'push' the Italian plumber, or the Contra fighter, or whatever.

I'm in no way a nintendo fanboy, but I hope it works.

--
Superb hosting 20GB Storage, 1_TB_ bandwidth, ssh, $7.95

Re:Clever

[aichpvee]

Yeah, that's actually the biggest concern for me about the Wii controller. Last time I played my dad at Madden he waved the controller around so much he hit me in the head with it.

Re:Clever

[Don_dumb]

almost everybody who was playing for the first time... o first month in some cases... actually moved phisically the controller

You must be one of the more evolved gamers as myself and many others still do this (especially driving/rallying games). Just this weekend on MOH I ducked a couple of times. And I have been playing games regularly since the SNES was around.

Some of us are just 'wired' for hand & arm to eye co-ordination.

Re:Clever

[fufubag]

Sweet, I've gone all these years thinking my older sister was some kind of freak, the way she would flail her arms out in front of her back and forth, and up and down while playing atari 2600. Now I can relax. But that is funny. Me, i wanted that thing (controller) strapped to my leg or the floor or anything that would make it feel 'solid'.

Re:Clever

[KDR_11k]

(no ataris for us Europeans!)

WTF are you talking about? Of course we had Ataris.

Re:Clever

[mausmalone]

I'm in no way a nintendo fanboy, but I hope it works.

And hey, even if you're not a fanboy, they'll be cheap enough within a year or two that you could easily pick one up as your 2nd console for this upcoming generation just to play neat controller games and virtual console games.

I think after years of floundering, Nintendo's struck upon a solid strategy for the next gen, simply by removing the concept of "winning" the generation.

Re:Clever

[Suddenly_Dead]

Just to clarify - the "Nunchuck" is the thing with two buttons and a joystick that plugs into the main Wii controller and is held in the off-hand.

The Wii controller itself has long been announced to detect yaw/pitch/roll/up-down/left-right/forward-back motion. The new announcement would be that the Nunchuck has any motion detection at all, even if it's only one 2d axis. It kind of sounds awkward, since the last pictures showed it being tethered to the controller with a cable. If you moved the main controller, you'd expect an accelerometer in the nunchuck to detech motion as well; moving the nunchuck independently with a cable attached would also be odd.

Crossroads for many

[erwejo]

I cannot remmber anticipating E3 ever as much as this year. Sure, last year was the first one that I even noticed, but still. A lot should be revealed in the next week that determines pricing, DVD formats, release dates, strategies, publisher loyalties, etc.

Re:Crossroads for many

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm anticipating this year's show too, but really just for the Konami conference (MGS4!) and the Nintendo conference (what the hell WERE they thinking?)

I noticed that microsoft's conference is the day after Sony's. I wonder if they are hoping a day will be enough time for damage control in case Sony pulls a playstation on them ($299). Of course, they're after Nintendo's conference too. Maybe they'll announce an xbox 361 with hddvd and an innovative new control scheme.

And then of course, E3 itself... without boothbabes, what's left?

Re:Crossroads for many

[DDLKermit007]

Well E3 last year well...sucked...it sucked due to Microsoft getting the indutry changeing to a new console way the hell too soon and they let just about anyone in last year. Stocking clerks, joe-gamer, cosplayers, ya know...people that should be reading gameing sites who really have nothing to do with the industry. As such, far too much stuff was "behind closed doors" and the quota of "swag" to "tits on legs" was far out of puportion. *shoots Gizmondo and Nokia and evil glare for starting the problem* This year however is a launch year which is going to get each of the three companies in a bit of a war for attention shall we say? 360 didn't launch last year (they showed a few games on G4s) and they are going through a "relaunch" right now because it's doing so badly (there is a market outside the USA). I certainly hope it's as good as the last launch year we had. I just hope I'm not deaf afterwards again (2000 was the last launch year I think...E3 has gone downhill ever since...I almost went home after the first day last year).

Re:Crossroads for many

[DDLKermit007]

E3 without boothbabes would = heaven for those of us who are going. I'm there for games and meeting old friends in the industry. Not for tits. Show me those at the nightly parties instead damnit!

Re:Crossroads for many

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm tired of media types berating the access normal people can get to what's supposed to be a tradeshow. Trade-show, IE: for vendors and retailers, and more specifically for vendors to trade ideas, and even more specifically to pitch products to retailers. That's not what E3 is anymore, but that's beside the point, and media access is to blame for that change.

In all honesty, as a tradeshow stocking and retail clerks have more of a right to be there than anyone with a press pass. They might, however unlikey this may be, actually influence an ordering decision through the internal processes of their companies. And people with a press pass have no more right to be there than the general public. E3 isn't about that anymore, as evidenced by the fact the media gets special access. It's now an event which includes and is somewhat about the general public and the distribution of information. You can bitch and moan about the innefficieny of information distrubution due to the tenious ties needed to get in, but quite frankly I'm sick of all the E3 is going downhill crap. The media is entirely responsible for that.

Re:Crossroads for many

[DDLKermit007]

Actually I am industry (not press) and there is a convention for the "non-industry" folk of stocking clerks (if they want to affect purchaseing decisions they need to talk to management E3 is an oportunity to expose management to what they buy) that have zero buisness being at E3. It's called PAX. E3 is an oportunity to show off to the rest of the industry and get developers published by companies that otherwise would never have a chance to look at thier product efficiently (I actually used to serve as a gopher of sorts one year giving a couple VPs of a publisher for input on what was at E3). Last year Rockstar didn't even have a public presence because of the devolution of E3. Thier booth was fenced off and everything went on inside of a bunch of busses. E3 has been going downhill by the way and the press has had nothing to do with that. Last year almost half the people there were the people I spoke of that had no buisness being there so generaly exibitors, materials and "swag" were not as eaisy to get to since they were usualy swampped with people that belonged on a messageboard asking questions. As such many developers kept stuff off the floors. You personaly sound like someone whos just pissed that E3 was harder to get in this year and couldn't go. Go troll somewhere else AC.

Re:Crossroads for many

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot has existed for years because of AC. It *may* be large enough to do without us now, but that has only recently become the case. STFU and keep it in your pants, near-millionite. "Trolling?" Well, at least you're closed-minded enough to hang out here.

As far as I'm concerned, neither press nor retail sales monkeys deserve the level of attention they have traditionally received at the show in recent years. Some level of participation, sure, but not what they're getting now.

Re:Crossroads for many

[LordVader717]

Not quite. Although it is called "trade show" it hasn't got much to do with retailers. I can't imagine EB games sending some folks down there to see whether or not they should order a few of these new-fangled PS3-thingies.

The only thing along those lines are a few small developers, trying to find publishers for their games.

The main thing about E3 is and always was a press event, with manufacturers wanting to unveil and promote their new products, specifically to the gaming press, who then give the information on to their readers.

That's exactly what Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft want.

It's not really any different from trade shows for other goods, only that there are so many interested fans anticipating the event.

Don't get me wrong. I'm as much against having the general public involved as you. "Booth Babes" are a prime example of how the event has turned to becoming a party for journalists and such, with games companies then opting to make announcenments and shows as far from E3 as possible.

Re:Crossroads for many

[Anonymous Coward]

materials and "swag" were not as easy to get to since they were usualy swamped with people that belonged on a messageboard asking questions.

Yes because everybody knows how important cheap plastic crap is to industry professionals! It's just not meant to fall into the hands of messageboard kiddies, that's just insane.
moron

Like Playing With a VCR

[Anonymous Coward]

My E3 prediction is that everyone is going to think Wii players are trying to use a VCR with a remote that needs new batteries.

Not really a prediction

[Anonymous Coward]

The 'nunchuck' attachment for the Wii will also have an accelerometer inside it -- it won't be able to detect the position of the controller relative to the screen, but it will be able to detect tilt."

That is not a prediction. It was confirmed by an EA representative last week.

Re:Not really a prediction

[__aaclcg7560]

The 'nunchuck' attachment for the Wii ...

I know Nintendo wants to be more acceptable to the adult crowd while still being friendly to the kids but this might backfire on them. I can see the "video games are violent for kids" crowd going wild with the nunchuck attachment. I just hope they can knock themselves silly before they can doing any further harm to Nintendo or the video game industry.

Re:Not really a prediction

[jericho4.0]

I was confused at first, but have come to the conlcusion the it's called the 'nunchuck' because it kinda looks like one, not because you're expected to swing it around making kung-fu sounds.

Re:Not really a prediction

[geminidomino]

Which leads to the next question:

How much will it cost to replace said controllers when they're broken by being swung around just that way?

Come on, we all know it's GONNA happen.

Audience?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am just wondering how many people will be following the Nintendo conference, whether via webcasts or the usual website news (mind that F5 key!). Will it be the "largest" event related to gaming on the net?

I think every gamer, whether a Nintendo fan or not, is eager to see the Wii in action.

The megaton cometh?

Re:Audience?

[writermike]

I think every gamer, whether a Nintendo fan or not, is eager to see the Wii in action.

Waa?

Re:Audience?

[246o1]

I am just wondering how many people will be following the Nintendo conference, whether via webcasts or the usual website news (mind that F5 key!). Will it be the "largest" event related to gaming on the net?

That's a good point. If I were in even remotely the correct time zone, I am sure I would. As is, I hope to download it somewhere Wednesday. I have a PS2 now, but the Wii is the only one of the new consoles that I really an interested in. The others might be worth buying eventually, once they get some good exclusive games, but I really could care less about seeing some graphics upgrades etc. on my laptop screen that wouldn't matter on my 14-inch TV. The Wii is the only one that has a CONSOLE (and controller, rather than games) that itself will be a selling point, in my mind.

Re:Audience?

[Doytch]

Gametrailers.com is going to be airing the Nintendo conference live in HD, starting at 9:30am

Re:Audience?

[porcupine8]

(mind that F5 key!)

Hey, lookit that! F5 reloads! Neato. The only thing I've ever used function keys for is Expose. I thought most of them didn't really do anything.

Heh, no, I'm not joking. I hit F5 to see what would happen.

Re:Audience?

[fbjon]

Man, this is just like when people told noob-gamers in the chatroom before a starcraft game to press Alt-F4 to reduce the lag. Thus leaving some room for new players.

Nintendo Predictions

[dcapel]

Nintendo will change the Wii back to Nintendo Revolution with a big 'gotcha!'.

See, I can make baseless predictions and state them as facts too.

Re:Nintendo Predictions

[Stormwatch]

But that's not baseless! It's based on the wishes of 95% of all Nintendo fans out there.

Re:Nintendo Predictions

[DDLKermit007]

Have you ever heard a Japanese person that's never studdied English attempt to say the word "Revolution?" That word is damn near impossible to pronounce in Nintendo's native country.

Re:Nintendo Predictions

[Anonymous Coward]

>Have you ever heard a Japanese person that's never studdied English attempt to say the word "Revolution?" That word is damn near impossible to pronounce in Nintendo's native country.

Re-bo-ru-sho-n. Not exactly rocket science.

Re:Nintendo Predictions

[246o1]

"Have you ever heard a Japanese person that's never studdied English attempt to say the word "Revolution?""

Two points: it turns into katakana just fine, though obviously it doesn't have the same pronunciation as the English.
Point Two: 'A Japanese person that's never studied English' is about as common as an American person who has never studied math. It's required in school, and the majority of Japanese take at least 6 years of it.

Re:Nintendo Predictions

[Kuvter]

Care to wager on that 'fact'. If so, I bet you $10,000 they don't.

Re:Nintendo Predictions

[Anonymous Coward]

It's required in school, and the majority of Japanese take at least 6 years of it.

Yet somehow we still have the cultural phenomenon of Engrish. The Japanese are obsessed with English, to be sure, but they don't actually learn it. Most English teaching in Japan is for show, a status symbol and cultural trend. The actual grasp of the English language for the average Japanese person is very, very poor.

Re:Nintendo Predictions

[Anonymous Coward]

The actual grasp of the English language for the average Japanese person is very, very poor.

I think you misunderstood his point:

"A Japanese person that's never studied English' is about as common as an American person who has never studied math."

Much like the American math student, having studied a subject actually implys nothing about the understanding of the subject; the Japaneese person's understanding of English is probably as good as the American students' understanding of mathematics. The thing that really bothers me about how poor American Math skills are is how proud some people are that they can't do simple arithmetic. Having a Mathematics degree myself, I'm amazed by how many people tell me "I suck at math, I can't even calculate the tip at a restaurant." and I wonder how many people tell a person with an english degree "I suck at reading, I have problems even understanding a comic book"

Re:Nintendo Predictions

[buffer-overflowed]

Meh, I'm not happy with it, but a lot of people weren't happy with the name-change from katana to dreamcast, a lot of people thought the playstation sounded like a really kiddy fischer price-style name, the XBox was ridiculous sounding(ala EXXTREEEEMMMEEE teenage bible), Atari 2600(wtf is that?), Famicom, PS2 (phoenetically "piss 2" if you say it fast enough), etc. etc. Step back a bit, and most branding sounds silly.

I don't love the name, but I no longer hate it, and by the time it launches I'm sure I won't care. I do kinda dig the visual aspects of the logo in the name change announcement, it's the vocalization that I'm not a fan of. And I'm over the urine connotation, quite a bit faster than I got over the pronunciation of the french word for yes when I was 13. It's still awkward, but you can see how much the furor has died down already, and it just doesn't bother me anymore. Few people are fans of the name, but not nearly as many are angry about it as they were when it was announced.

If they change it, alright then, but the revolution is not about the name of the console. It's about the features the Wii has and what potential the Wii has to truly revolutionize how we play games. To quote the bard, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." They could name it the Nintendo Shitcock and it wouldn't truly matter to me.

Re:Nintendo Predictions

[DDLKermit007]

Let me rephrase that then. I know the average Japanese person is taugh Japanese (I'm currently studying Japanese) and in the end comes out knowing basic words. What I'm getting at though which you seem to have almost entirely missed is that the word Revolution is pretty hard to pronounce by the average Japanese person (heck my Japanese teacher has a hard time saying it). RRRRRR

Re:Nintendo Predictions

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Wii Launch

[jensen404]

One thing seems certain... Nintendo will have a much bigger and better launch title line up for the Wii than for previous Nintendo consoles.

Time magazine just revealed Wario Ware Revolution and a Tennis game. http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.video.nin tendo/browse_frm/thread/0c34d048d64a8afd/1a7d18802 7394f91#1a7d188027394f91/

Re:Wii Launch

[LFS.Morpheus]

I've heard from my sources on the inside that a Ninja Golf remake is a launch title. Blows that Tennis game right out of the water...

Re:Wii Launch

[The_Real_Quaid]

That Time magazine article was great. If the general public is half as impressed as Time was, then Wii is going to seriously disrupt the entire game industry.

My favorite part of the article:

"It's a remarkable experience. Instead of passively playing the games, with the new controller you physically perform them. You act them out. It's almost like theater: the fourth wall between game and player dissolves. The sense of immersion-the illusion that you, personally, are projected into the game world-is powerful. And there's an instant party atmosphere in the room. One advantage of the new controller is that it not only is fun, it looks fun. When you play with an old-style controller, you look like a loser, a blank-eyed joystick fondler. But when you're jumping around and shaking your hulamaker, everybody's having a good time."

Wow. Time Magazine basically called out PS3 and X360 as being old and busted systems for loser joystick fondlers. Ouch.

Re:Wii Launch

[NiteHaqr]

Hmmm Wario Ware Revolution.

Not Wario Ware Wii

Or maybe Wii Wario Ware

Or how about Wario Wii Ware

But no, listed in Time as Wario Ware Revolution.

Makes you wonder if there IS a name publicity conspiracy........

Or maybe Time just went to press pre the name change announcement and didn't confirm the titles 1st....

what kind of article was this ???

[Anonymous Coward]

every article i ever read says Shigeru Miyamoto needs no introduction, or that he has so many credits to his name that to name them would take too long...

WTF is "You may not have heard of Shigeru Miyamoto..."

Re:what kind of article was this ???

[gEvil (beta)]

What you seem to be missing is the element of 'audience.' The articles that you are referring to appear in gaming magazines, to whose audience he doesn't particularly need an introduction. However, this appeared in Time Magazine, which is not focused on gaming at all. Hence, it's written for a different audience--one that is not familiar with him.

Re:what kind of article was this ???

[Anonymous Coward]

Hate to break it to you, but in the big scheme of things on the planet Earth, Shigeru Miyamoto is irrelevant and any knowledge of him is a waste of braincells.

Re:what kind of article was this ???

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF is Shigeru Miyamoto?

Re:what kind of article was this ???

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a casual gamer, ownde the NES and gameboy as a kid, owned a play station and now have an Xbox and a GBA, and I'm seriously considering getting the Wii (So I'm in their target audience). I've never heard of Shigeru Miyamoto nor see any reason why I should have.

Re:what kind of article was this ???

[KDR_11k]

Explain why Paris Hilton doesn't need an introduction.

Most impressive.

[Malor]

At E3, Nintendo will demonstrate that it has the biggest Wii of all.

Lest Americans be intimidated, they will, of course, immediately port Chinpokomon.

Re:Most impressive.

[rAiNsT0rm]

Awesome, If only I had some mod points you'd get 'em. It appears the majority of /.'ers just don't get it. They probably have balls on their chin.

My Predictions

[miyako]

The article's predictions seemed reasonable, though really there is no way of telling how accurate they may be. Keeping in line with the E3 fervor, I'll post some of my own predictions of what I think (or perhaps hope) will happen at E3.
Nintendo

• Nintendo will announce a general release date for the Wii. It will be sooner than expected.
• Nintendo will announce some accessory for the DS that will add motion-sensitivty to it, for use with the Wii.
• Twilight Princess will be delayed.
• Nintendo will show off a slew of sports games for Wii, including Tennis, Golf, and Fishing.
• We may see the next "Halo" on the Wii. At the very least, the next Duck Hunt.
• Wii launch titles will include a Mario game and a Wario game.
• We will probably learn more about the Virtual Console.

Sony

• We will see a re-designed controller for the PS3. It will still look like a boomerang, but will look slightly more like the PS2 controller.
• Sony will announce that the PS3 will launch in Q1 2007.
• We'll see the same MGS and RE demos.
• Sony will show new trailers that are "approximations" of what the system might be capable of.
• The PS3 will not be playable.

I don't really follow Microsoft much, nor care much about the 360, so I will not make predictions regarding it.

Re:My Predictions

[Anonymous Coward]

We may see the next "Halo" on the Wii. At the very least, the next Duck Hunt.

I wouldn't say the next Halo but then again I would say that (except for easily set-up 16 player lan games) Halo was an over-rated game that was outshined in practically every way by PC first person shooters when it was released.

I do think that Red Steel is going to be the console First Person Shooter to watch for this year. The reason I believe this is that Nintendo is working very closely with Ubisoft to produce the highest quality of game, and I imagine that Red Steel is (one of) Nintendo's Prototype Games for the Wii's controller. What I mean by Prototype Game is that Nintendo has a habit of developing games (when they produce new features in a console) where they attempt to take as much advantage of the unique features of their system; Nintendogs uses both screens, the touch screen, and voice commands very effectively; Mario 64 took advantage of the analog stick, and the camera buttons; and Super Mario World used the shoulder buttons to allow Mario to fly. (On a side note I would say that the Nintendo DS has several Prototype Games because the feature set can be used in many different ways; Nintendogs, Electroplanktin, Animal Crossing, Advance Wars: Dual Strike and Meteos all use various features very well). The reason why it is good for Red Steel to be a prototype game is that Nintendo puts a lot of effort behind these games, and they usually turn out well, because they are essential in demonstrating the design of the interface to the public; at the time of Mario 64 people didn't see the need for analogue input, and at the time of Super Mario World people didn't understand why shoulder buttons would be useful.

Re:My Predictions

[Spaceman Spiff II]

I see what you're saying. I also think Metroid Prime 3 could fit the bill for Nintendo's "prototype" (as you say) FPS. I'm not sure exactly why they have two FPSes, but since it's my favorite genre, I'm not complaining.

Re:My Predictions

[Mongoose]

All our comments about Sony are wrong, so I guess you don't follow them closer than Microsoft. Good thing you did say 'prediction', however you shouldn't 'pull things out of your ass'. If you just read the various press releases you might know more about what will be on the floor than making things up.

I 'predict' you'll make a great wall street tech analyst as long as keep this up. Nothing personal -- out of the hundred comments like yours by fate I replied to yours. =)

Re:My Predictions

[miyako]

No offence taken. I'm no game industry analyst (heck, I don't even get to play games much anymore, let alone closely follow the industry). My comment was probably 20% prediction, 30% humor, and 50% mocking the completely baseless predictions most people make leading up to E3.
I actually think Sony will probably have a good showing, and I also think that Nintendo will have a decent showing, but I'm not sure if ANYTHING nintendo can do will live up to the hype.

Re:My Predictions

[aichpvee]

I guess it kind of depends on how far Metroid Prime 3 strays from the formula of the previous two. If I want to play a FPS (which I haven't on console since Golden Eye) I definitely wouldn't reach for Metroid Prime.

If it is pretty similar in the exploration/action break down then I think having a more straight up FPS will be a real asset at launch for Nintendo.

Re:My Predictions

[mausmalone]

Nintendo will announce a general release date for the Wii. It will be sooner than expected.

That's not going to happen. NEC is fabbing the "Broadway" chips for Nintendo, and has stated publicly that they won't be in production until September.

Twilight Princess will be delayed.

Unlikely. Nintendo will not want to release a big Gamecube game after the Wii's released. Last Nintendo said on this one was "fall," which is broad and gives them a range of dates in which to release it. I don't see it being delayed beyond that.

Nintendo will show off a slew of sports games for Wii, including Tennis, Golf, and Fishing.

If development has advanced enough, we may also see Madden for the Wii at E3, at least in trailer form.

The PS3 will not be playable.

The PS3 hardware is already at a playable stage, and there will almost certainly be one or two playable demos. The last big hurdle they were having is that that humongous but sleek box they designed is too small to fit the PS3 hardware in, so the design may change radically.

Re:My Predictions

[KDR_11k]

Nintendo will announce some accessory for the DS that will add motion-sensitivty to it

You mean Wario Ware Twisted without the game?

Re:My Predictions

[The-Bus]

I wouldn't say the next Halo but then again I would say that (except for easily set-up 16 player lan games) Halo was an over-rated game that was outshined in practically every way by PC first person shooters when it was released.

You sir, are quite right; the point, however, is still missed. Up until Halo, there were two or three (maybe less) good first-person shooters for consoles. I can think of Goldeneye for the N64, maybe someone else can mention the other two (Perfect Dark?). Everything else was an adequate PC port or a very bad PC port.

IIRC, Halo was originally going to be for the PC, so it still has PC roots, but while it's not the best shooter ever, it's certainly one of the best console shooters ever and arguably the greatest non-handheld launch title since the "64-bit" era. That it had a sequel that (for many) improved on the first only helped.

Sure, it's not as good as a decent PC-centric FPS. But it has its merits and a lot of fans.

Re:My Predictions

[Mongoose]

Marked me as flamebait, but I was right. Ha Ha! =)

Weeding out non-industry, babes = lower attendance

[markjl]

I'm less affiliated with the industry now, but I've been to three E3s and they are great experiences. I ultimately had to say no to attending this year due to scheduling conflicts.

However, I wonder if this year two factors will reduce the E3 gross attendance of 35,000 from last year?
Consider if you will:

1. Exhibits only hall fee has more than doubled:
   • Last year: early sign up was $150, late sign up: $200 (if I remember correctly)
   • This year: early sign up was $500, late sign up: $650.
     (See Package 4 at http://www.e3expo.com/attendees/pricing.aspx)
2. Booth Babes are going to be banned and exhibitors fined.
   See http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70075-0.htm l

I have to discount the latter factor because most people don't know this will happen and probably don't care too much to complain or applaud.

Don't forget

[Anonymous Coward]

Super Mario Wii
http://img68.imageshack.us/my.php?image=supermario wiiwithbox8rg.jpg

My tongue-in-cheek prediction...

[Wdomburg]

They'll announce a port of Call of Duty to the Wii, and thousands of slashdotters will drown in their own spittle while guffawing. DOODY! WEE! :P

Re:My tongue-in-cheek prediction...

[Bagels]

http://revolution.ign.com/articles/705/705438p1.ht ml

It has in fact been announced already. Thankfully, the guffawing masses seem to have restrained themselves on that particular joke.

Re:My tongue-in-cheek prediction...

[Anonymous Coward]

Never got CoD, bored me to tears. Now, Brothers In Arms on the other hand...

Re:My tongue-in-cheek prediction...

[Wdomburg]

I've never played either, actually. More often than not me and the wife are cursing each other out over Mario Kart: Double Dash or Soul Calibur II. Really really need to clean up our language before the kids are old enough to repeat it. :)

Re:My tongue-in-cheek prediction...

[buffer-overflowed]

CoD III for the Wii is already confirmed in Activision's trailer for the game(which system the trailer was made on, if any[given activisions penchant for pre-rendered and misleading trailers] I leave up for debate).

So I guess that means it has number 1, number 2 and number 3 all covered. What the hell number 3 is, I leave up to the more imaginative.

Now can we cut out the scatalogical and urine jokes? They're soooo April 2006.

Re:Weeding out non-industry, babes = lower attenda

[Lucractius]

welllll id say its official

e3 just went down the toilet... no wonder the big 3 are holding press conferences before the damn thing. No ones going to turn up to the actual one with those kinds of things going on.

My bold prediction...

[Hamster Lover]

Ken Katuragi (Sony) and Steve Ballmer (Microsoft) will go several rounds in a mud wrestling competition over who has the better console. In a stunning upset, sommeone will slip a chair ringside to clinch it for Ballmer.

Re:My bold prediction...

[__aaclcg7560]

And Steve Jobs will be the referee? My bookie is going to be all over this.

Re:My bold prediction...

[AlexanderDitto]

And Satoru Iwata sets the whole thing on fire.

"Reports indicate that since the only people who were actually involved in the fight were the two fighters themselves, no one important was injured.

In other, more interesting news, Slashdot can now proudly boast that it has reported at least 6 major articles about Nintendo's Wii."

Re:My bold prediction...

[KDR_11k]

Wouldn't Kutaragi go against J Allard? Or Howard Stringer against Steve Ballmer? Come on, head of a division vs. CEO isn't fair by any means!

No worse than "piss" for PS

[tepples]

It's based on the wishes of 95% of all Nintendo fans out there.

But why? The name "Wii" is no worse than Sony's "Piss 2", "Piss Pee", or "Piss 3".

You are right

[246o1]

They are generally bad at English, but that doesn't mean they haven't studied it. I just wanted to correct want is presumably an American assumption that foreigners study English as rarely as Americans study foreign language X. The problem is the pronunciation, generally, as tests focus on vocabulary knowledge and grammar in a written context. The words also pop up everywhere. It's as impossible for a Japanese person to know no English as it is for an American to know ZERO Spanish (amigo, habla, Espanol, hombre, etc. are universal, pretty much).

As a math person (but not a math major), I feel your pain on the math topic, but that's just how it is, I guess. I personally enjoy using my brain on math, even just a little tip-calculating exercise.

Re:Weeding out non-industry, babes = lower attenda

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, the Big 3 have been holding press conferences before the actual event for years now.

The English 'r' sound is not relevant

[246o1]

I don't know how far you are in your studies, but you should realize that the katakana version of 'revolution' will sound just like a legitimate word in Japanese, the same way that 'level up' has become a Japanese word, and countless others that include L/R sounds. Just because they don't make YOUR language's sound doesn't mean that they don't have a completely acceptable and obvious (to the Japanese) way of saying it. If you pronounce the 's' in Paris, do you feel taht invalidates it as a name of a city (or some commercial product) just because you'd sound like an idiot if you said that in France?

Re:The English 'r' sound is not relevant

[StingRay02]

Besides, it's not like American's are even unanimous in their treatment of the English language and pronunciations. A quick trip through the South, New England, the Dakotas, or the Plains will make that abundantly clear. So who cares whether they pronounce Revolution the way we do? As long as they know what they're talking about, it works.

Realistically, Wii makes as much sense for the Japanese audience as Revolution does. The name's supposed to invoke community and togetherness, "we," but does the Japanese word for "we" have any relation to Wii? If "I" and "you" are any indication, probably not.

Phantom

[Anonymous Coward]

Why has nobody mentioned the Phantom console?

Man, that thing is totally going to hand Nintendo, Sony and MS their asses.

Right?

Japanese and 'Wii'

[246o1]

Japanese will understand the connection to the English word, as pretty much everyone knows the English word. The native Japanese ways of saying 'we' (wareware, warera, orera, bokutachi, watashitachi, atashitachi, watakushitachi, oretachi, bokura, oiratachi, etc.) don't sound like it, however

Accelerometer

[Jim Hall]

The 'nunchuck' attachment for the Wii will also have an accelerometer inside it.

With an accelerometer, the Wii 'nunchuck' will know when I've thrown my controller to the ground when I get too frustrated with the final boss battle.

Re:Accelerometer

[LordVader717]

Yes, and via the Wifi connection, it uses the feedback from the gaming public to adjust the difficulty.

Re:Weeding out non-industry, babes = lower attenda

[Anonymous Coward]

No, E3 is finally getting back to what it is supposed to be--an industry-only event. I have no animosity towards them and moderately enjoy their comic, but if the creators of fucking Penny Arcade are attending, you know it's bullshit.

Penny Arcade Xpo

[DeadMilkman]

....Did you just really, REALLY compare E3 to PAX....

I'm sorry sir, but you are an idiot.

PAX is a con for gamers to enjoy gaming. A few, FEW, companies show up and have titles that have been on the dog/pony tour for quite a while. And you think sales clerks/store managers should be at this? When, by the time it makes its way to PAX, buying decision were already filed MONTHS ago (if not already filed delivered and SOLD at the stores.

Repeat after me
PAX = Love for the Act of Gaming (including non-video gaming)
E3 = Business Side of Industry

Re:Penny Arcade Xpo

[DDLKermit007]

Did I mention store managers anywhere (who have no problem getting into E3 this year btw)? NO...I mentioned clerks who have ZERO effect on the decision makeing process past a piddly internal survey. Clerks that go to E3 are there for "Love for the Act of Gaming." Even Gabe & Tyco at PA feel the same.

This could be nice...

[steveo777]

From TFA "Finally, Sony will unveil a new model of the PSP with new hardware add-ons like onboard storage and/or a digital camera, or, you know. Stuff like that."

Perhaps that means we'll get a power adaptor/new PSP that actually charges when you use it's WiFi.

Is that what they call it these days?

[KDR_11k]

"Joystick fondling"? "Shaking your hulamaker"? You can't tell me THAT wasn't intentional.

PS3 Pricing

[Mark Gillespie]

I think Sony HAVE to announce the price of PS3, to stop the endless stream of rabid XBox fanboys shouting about it costing over $500...

Nice unbiased article there...

[AzraelKans]

Anyway, yes I have to admit the bigger splash will come from seing the Nintendo Revolution controller at play, it will be a blast! however the second splash will be from non -fans non-geeks hearing how stupid the "Wiiii!" name sounds for the first time. Other than that, the first batch of games (with the sole exception of Red Steel) sound as terribly non-interesting sequels and ports. Admit it, It will be a while before really cool games (zelda) that use the wii (god, I hate that name!) controller finally show up. However you CAN NOT just out-game the PS3, there will be demos of real Gameplay (some leaked on web actually) and the results will be mixed. Some fans will scream they definetily look like the promised "next gen" graphics while some will see no resemblance at all. Damn! Ive got to admit Im curious about seing those games myself. not to mention the final price and release date will be revealed. Oh yeah! and God Of war 2:Kratos "bad hair day" will be shown too. (p.s. Theres a rumor of a next gen GTA game showing up) Is too soon to diss the xbox360, remember what we have seen (before oblivion) was first generation crap, the next generation Sony-counterstrike ERA may prove a eye opener (actually any second generation has to be better than the first: but lets keep on topic) AAA Quality Japan Made exclusive titles like Blue Dragon( a first for xbox! outside of "Otogi", "Phantom dust" and Tecmo) Capcoms "Lost planet", "Dead Rising", "Too human" (god of war on esteroids), "Barbie Horse Adventures 2: the wrath of Ken" and the slightly awaited title: Halo 3. Actually if the rumors of Bungie going the way of the MMOFPS Halo 3 could actually be the show stealer. That is unless we get a blue screen of death when Gates tries to connect to play Halo. ( or he gets shots in the face 20/0 ratio in 5 seconds) that would be embarrassing.