It was around this time a year ago when after watching the three main press conferences that a systematic change had begun with my outlook on the gaming industry. I felt that the future of it looked somewhat bleak and unfulfilling as no company really cared to truly innovate or inspire as they had done in years past. Those feelings were all washed away after I had witnessed Nintendo’s conference and I began to realize that there was at least one company that was starting to get it. I felt as though both Sony and Microsoft had bleak futures ahead in the long term and were simply milking the successes of Nintendo with gimmickry instead of solid games. For the most part, events over the past year have left me feeling vindicated in my remarks and this year’s E3 left me with no surprises.
Often times people cite that I’m a hater of Microsoft or that I bash them unfairly. While I plead guilty to the first charge, I respectfully disagree with the latter citing this years press conference as conclusive proof that Microsoft is indeed, full of complete fail. Now before you begin typing up your frantic rebuttal in nerd rage anger, bear in mind that I don’t think that Microsoft lacks potential or that they can’t be the best game company out there; they most definitely have the tools, but rather that potential is often unrealized or squandered due to a fundamental lack of focus on what makes them different from anyone else as a gaming company. This year’s E3 show at most times felt like I was watching a press conference for a Satellite TV company, not a supposed product that plays videogames. A quarter of the presentation was spent telling me not about their fantastic gaming lineup, but rather about all the wonderful ways I can tell my console how to navigate the various extraneous menus by pure speech alone. It smacked of the same idiotic mentality Sony had last year with its “You can do this and this and this with the console, I mean we have a few games I guess but check out what this does!” Who cares if the Xbox 360 can play games when you can order UFC fights with it and bet with your friends! It really makes me wonder sometimes if they know what kind of people actually watch these E3 shows. Speaking of games, it truly is sad once again Microsoft when the highlight of your presentation focuses on a multiplatform game in Tomb Raider at the start of the show. How dare you tease us into thinking you’re a gaming company before launching into your Direct TV infomercials and subsequent Kinectfest featuring games that typically center around one idea; bounce around like a complete idiot. Speaking of Kinect, I truly hope you can ride this wave for as long as you can Microsoft, given how you’ve poured all of your eggs into this one basket in the hopes of continuing sales. However, I can’t see alienating your core audience by shifting primary focus of your console over to your add-on peripheral by also featuring games designed for not just children, little children. What you have now are your core audience, who purchased a 360 and looking forward to games like Gears of War 3 (for reasons I cannot fathom), while at the same time spending over half of your time devoted to showing off playground Kinect games that the core audience wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. Oh sure you throw a bone in there for the core audience to make them feel as though their $150 wasn’t totally wasted on a Kinect purchase, but for every voice command recognition Mass Effect 3 offers, there were about ten other examples of things like waving your arms around like a Taebo exercise to an ugly, unpolished version of Red Steel with a Star Wars coat of paint. Welcome to your future Xbox gamers, pointing your finger like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino and pretending to shoot. Only, you don’t look nearly as cool doing it. Microsoft is attempting to reach out to the casual fan at the expense of the core audience that brought them to the dance and this year’s abysmal show really makes me wonder what future they have when people realize Kinect was a $150 con job. Oh, but fret not core 360 fan. Microsoft has given you Halo 4. Hear that? It’s the sound of nobody caring.
Sony! Usually my venomous rage is saved for you but this time however, you managed to not completely screw it up and actually left me more optimistic than you did before your E3 show. The Move as expected was a complete and utter joke and even Sony realizes where they’ve been going wrong and this year finally started to focus more on games and less on fluff. Rather than promote all of the amazing things the PS3 can do besides you know, play games, they instead just got down to business and presented a lineup of games that people will want to play. Marcus was mercifully phased out to instead dedicate more time to showing off the NGP, now named PS Vita. (Sounds like a fancy new menu item at Taco Bell. Yes, I’d like the Vita combo with a Grilled Stuft Burrito please, mild sauce.) If anything was shocking about Sony’s conference it’s that they seem to really be promoting the Vita way more than initially expected. This is a good thing. After all, when the Gamecube was finished with its fairly disappointing run, Nintendo focused on handheld gaming with the DS for a little while before returning strong with the Wii. Sony is in a similar rebuilding stage and if they want to climb back to that number 1 spot, conquering the handheld market is a fantastic start. Because well, let’s face it guys, PS3 is pretty much a bust at this point. PS Plus is a joke, the Move is a failure and well, let’s just sweep that nasty elephant in the room, the Playstation Network under the rug as Jack Tretton wisely just addressed it quickly and moved on. I’m not saying that there can’t be any decent titles for the PS3, but Sony can’t place all of their hopes in it becoming the best selling console on the market because it just won’t happen at this point.
Once again Nintendo gives me more hope than the other two. However, I won’t shower you with glowing praise either. Simply being the lesser of three evils doesn’t really equate to good, there is still much work to be done. The Wii U didn’t have the same “oomph” that the 3DS promised last year, but it’s arguably more important. It instantly made the Wii a competitive console again and takes the unique interactive motion controls to a new level. The potential gameplay applications with the device leave much to the imagination, but that’s all it is at this point, potential. Most games presented in the works have a very late 2011 release date at the earliest and of course the Wii U won’t be available until 2012 and not much has been announced in the way of games for it. Still, Nintendo has somewhat undercut the threat of their competitors with the Wii U and of the big three, had the biggest and best variety of games once again. Flashy hardware will cock a few eyebrows, but quality games are what hold that interest and sustain it and I hope Nintendo keeps that in mind.
E3 this year felt like cruise control. None of the major companies saw fit to really make any earth shattering announcements and each side seemingly played it safe. Even still, if anything I felt a little more optimistic towards the direction of the gaming industry as Nintendo has shown that despite a disappointing 3DS launch, they still have plenty up their sleeve and Sony, having tasted a slice of humble pie has wizened up with their own presentation and is now starting to focus on what matters. Microsoft is the true wild card as it will be interesting to see if they can sustain the Kinect’s momentum. E3 left me feeling slightly more excited about the future of games than it did prior and that’s all anyone can really ask for.
Even still, being a default top winner in the E3 race isn’t really a good thing, Nintendo. Just saying.
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