E3: Wii and PS3 dominate the news

[Roger]

The floor of this year’s E3 had a stark divide between the Sony and Microsoft camps. Some even reported on trenches, barbed wire and land mines in between. Okay I made up the last sentence for dramatic flair, but you get the idea.

Meanwhile Nintendo, #3 console’s manufacturer is deemed no threat to big boys and thus passes with impunity between the palpable rift at this year’s E3. But it’s in this unthreatening position that makes Nintendo most dangerous. Sun Tzu would approve of Nintendo’s ruse. Watch out! Nintendo is bringing to the next generation of consoles some interesting innovation and one big (or small) advantage over both systems, price.

Nintendo has announced that its next generation platform called Wii (pronounced “we”) will be out later this year. There is even rumor that Nintendo is stockpiling units during E3 for a surprise release with plenty of stock. But Nintendo is going to beat Sony and Microsoft in price, retailing Wii at $250 US. But that’s not the only difference.

Wii has a unique new controller that will allow players to interact with their games in ways as yet unseen in gaming. Motion sensing controllers have been tried before and failed to catch on, but this one seems to take it to the next level. The position sensing of the Wii not only allows you to move the controller to interact with the game but the exact position of the controller will contribute to in game moves as well. The console knows how the controller is being held. Early reports of the “nunchuck” style controller are very positive as E3 was packed with gamers wanting a crack at it.

Gerry Block at IGN who braved the two hour wait to get his hands on one had this to say:

“In my admittedly short time with the controller I was very impressed. Tracking and response in Super Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess were spot on, and quickly felt natural as means of playing the games. In RedSteel, however, aiming with the remote, especially in the moments of pause while targeting specific body parts, was a little tricky to get used to, as the aiming reticule was extremely sensitive and subject to inaccuracy due to shaky hands.”



Sony meanwhile blew away expectations by actually being able to present no less than 70 working PlayStation 3 units to demo. This bodes well for fans and Sony’s commitment to get the system out on time. I stand behind my guess that they’re not going to make it and there will be more delays before the worldwide release this fall. Hundreds gathered to see demos of anticipated PS3 titles (sometime in ’07) like Grand Turismo HD and Heavenly Sword.

Microsoft’s area had lots of new games being announced for their console most are coming out now or will be out this year. Peter Moore chief exec for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 project took time to carefully blast Sony and the PS3 in an exclusive interview he gave ComputerandVideogames.com. He says the PS3 is overpriced at almost three hundred bucks more than 360 and the games on display aren’t worth the extra price. Mr. Moore added that the PS3 forces Blu-ray on gamers who don’t need it. This artificially raises the price in an effort to promote their next gen disk technology.

It seems that Sony’s console game market strategy is one of pure brute force and Sony has the deep pockets and power to pull off such a strategy. Brute force in this case entails building the most expensive, luxury gaming box out of the highest end hardware you possibly can. Subsidize the **** out of the console just to have the highest end system on the planet when it’s finally released.

It’s a risky strategy because Sony will have a lot of sales to make up in subsequent years after the PS3s release. It’s those sales on the back end of the technology curve where Sony could make up the lost money from subsidizing the unit in its first year of production.

Microsoft on the other hand used a balanced attack on this generation of games consoles. Playing it safe, making sure theirs was released first might have been Sony’s advantage in the PS2 (honestly did anyone expect Xbox to outsell PS2 at any point?).

This generation of consoles isn’t going to need HDMI, 1080P, Blu-ray or HD DVD. In three year they’ll be taken for granted. But at this time these technologies are just bragging rights for Sony. Only time will tell who sells the most units in coming years. I’m hoping for the Wii, I’m a sucker for the underdog.

Guess who made it to E3?

Actor Robin Williams made an appearance at E3, apparently he’s a big gaming fan. He says his current favorite is Battlefield 2 online and his favorite class is the sniper. Ever taken a head shot from a celebrity?



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