Full FeedE3 2008 Big Three Wrapup: Microsoft shines, Nintendo and Sony underwhelm
It’s the end of the week and E3 2008 has officially ended and now it’s time to sit back, relax and take in all the announcements made by the big three: Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft.
Here’s a breakdown of the good and the bad of each company’s press conference. Clearly, Microsoft was this year’s winner but read on to find out where the other two companies fell flat.
Nintendo
The Good:
Let’s begin with announcements made for the Wii. Animal Crossing: Cityfolk looked magnificent and will utilize Nintendo’s new WiiSpeak communication system. Nintendo has thrown its hat into the music ring with a demo of the exciting looking Wii Music. Another game announced with a Nintendo device was a sequel to the very fun Wii Sports, Wii Sports: Resort. Resort will use the new Wii MotionPlus device, an add-on that will allow for more precise WiiMote controls. A surprise announcement that was revealed for the DS was that Rockstar will be bringing its flagship franchise to Nintendo with Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, bringing some much needed credibility to mature gamers who see the system as being for kids only.
The Bad
Nintendo’s conference was a lot more laid back than usual with no major announcements aside from Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and the new Wii accessories. The company disclosed no news on their flagship franchises, Mario and Zelda, only that the teams are hard at work on new titles. Considering that games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero will be utilizing downloadable content for the Wii there were no discussions of a storage device and not a whisper about WiiWare.
Sony
The Good
The company announced at its press conference that the PS3 will have a price drop as the the 80 GB will retail for $399.99 USD in September 2008. Playstation Home was teased again bringing together the Playstation Network with games, content, and social networking. The company also announced that the PSN video delivery service would begin later (midnight) after the company’s conference with content ready for download including movies and TV shows straight to their PS3 and then copy it to a PSP. The company has already formed partnerships with many studios including, Sony Pictures, MGM, Lion’s Gate, and Warner Bros. Another feature on the PS3 will be the ability to capture footage from your game and send it to YouTube. A few of the games announced included Resistance Retribution , Star Wars Force Unleashed, and Madden NFL 09, all for the PSP. Among the game highlights revealed for the PS3 included Little Big Planet, a God of War 3 teaser trailer, DC Universe Online, Infamous, and MAG. DC Universe Online will allow players to create their own supervillian or superhero and fight alongside or against the heroes and villains of the DC Universe. While MAG, an MMO, can have up to 256 players with 8 players squads as the players character grow through three levels to become the best soldier to lead their squad..
The Bad
After months and months hearing about the avatars and trophies to rival the achievements list of Xbox Live, Home still hasn’t been released and there still is no tentative release date for it. Sony has done all it can to continue being the best with its all-around mainstream media approach to the video service and exclusivity with third party vendors but now that appears to be dwindling with Final Fantasy XIII also being released for Xbox 360. Finally, Sony lacked a truly huge announcement when it came to new games. Sure, they gave us a teaser of God of War 3 but, in the grand scheme of what Sony usually brings to E3, that is nothing. Maybe because E3 came on the heels of the success of Metal Gear Solid 4 they didn’t feel the need to release any spectacular news or rumors about upcoming titles.
Microsoft
The Good
Now because of all the news, announcements, and demos Microsoft rolled out, I might leave out a few things, but that’s why the internet created links. Microsoft had an impressive amount of intel at the conference that excited and surprised many. Fallout 3 was presented with impressive gameplay footage and an interesting teaser trailer. The game will include downloadable content, but no details were given exactly what that would entail. A playable demo of Resident Evil 5 was shown with the team-up mechanic on display and news that there would be online co-op gameplay included with the title. A very detailed and cinematic trailer of Fable 2 was shown for the audience with a detailed environment. It was revealed that the game will have co-op gameplay online, the ability to get married, have a home, and make real decisions that affect everything in the world. Gears of War was also given the demo treatment, with the announcement that a new mode multiplayer was announced, as Horde will allow up to five players to take on horde after horde of enemies.
The Xbox 360’s main screen will no longer consist of simple sliding screens on its user interface, as the user interface will be getting a major overhaul. No longer will gamercards be the norm as Microsoft has announced Avatars, channels and “live party” for chats and games. Xbox Live Primetime was also announced and will be coming to system this fall. Its a cross between web 2.0 and videogames. The first release for Primetime will be 1 vs. 100. Other Xbox live goodies that will eventually arrive include, Geometry Wars 2: Retro Evolved, Galaga Legions, and Portal: Still Alive will come with new achievements and levels this fall. The company also announced a new television and movie partners with NBC and Universal, so now you can see every Scrubs or Monk episode you may have missed. Aside from the new partnership with NBC, Microsoft will also have a new media partnership with Netflix. Debuting this fall, Live subscribers with a Netflix subscription will be able to access its entire library through their 360 console for no additional cost (Gamertell). How sweet is that? Finally, the big shocker of the entire conference is that Final Fantasy XII has a new home on the 360. Gone is the exclusivity of Sony and welcome the possibility of more Square Enix (cough*Kingdom Hearts 3*cough) or other third party games making their way to the Xbox 360. The fellas at Microsoft even threw it in Sony’s face that they lost it (Burn!).
The Bad
I’ve read through every live blog and watched the conference twice to try find something to bust them on but I came up with nothing. They had tons of games on display that I ran out of space to mention (for more go to Gamertell), Final Fantasy XII, the new Xbox live experience, and its partnerships with Netflix and NBC. The only bad thing I see is that we have to wait for all of this. Microsoft treated E3 like the E3 of old. Every website I’ve been to since the conference ended has stories of execs for companies hating the summit which showed it in the conferences and led to a lackluster week for Sony and Nintendo.
The Winner:
Microsoft by a wide margin. Microsoft clearly came into this conference to prove that it could not only be a video game entertainment system with a heavy load of upcoming games but also a mass-appeal, mainstream entity that will pull in hardcore gamers and the casual family crowd. Nintendo continues to impress with its innovative styles and ways of gameplay, but they failed to give the audience anything to really get excited about. Plus a conference with no Mario or Zelda from the Big N is always a recipe for disaster. Sony has some real positive points with its price drop on the PS3 and its media partnerships with a host of film studios. They also gave people who are anxiously waiting the the arrival HOME more to get excited for. However, Home was supposed to released in the spring and by the looks of things its still without a release date. For all the money a PS3 owner would have to shell out to purchase films and shows on PSN, it’s more cost effective to go with Microsoft’s Xbox Live because of the partnership with Netflix. One thing is for sure, the gauntlet for console supremacy has been thrown down.
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Lol. What E3 show were you guys watching?
“The Winner:
Microsoft by a wide margin.”
WTF? Clearly you guys have been getting it from behind from MS.
Worst fanboy dribble I ever read.
on July 20, 2008 at 08:05 PM - LINKdude your article is lame and has MS fanboy all over it.. As a gamer I was truly more excited from sony’s line up than nintendo’s or MS.. I guess you consider scene it 2 or lips to be huge games you want to play on your console.. Are you a gamer?? Sony’s line up is very huge for the next 2 years. MS line up after gears 2 isnt. The only game i know thats coming to the 360 exclusive in the next 2 years is gears 2 and fable 2.
Please list the heavy load of games MS showed other than multi plat games at E3?? Please back up this statement. the only games they showed were gears 2 and fable 2. which we already knew about.
I think you meant sony showed off a heavy amount of games.. MAG teaser, little big planet, resistance 2, killzone 2, motorstorm 2, god of war 3 teaser, infamous, heavy rain, the agency, and socom.
The ff13 announce was way blown up. If it was in TGS and FF13 was coming to the 360 in japan than it might be a little different but its not that big of a deal. Its still coming to the ps3 and exclusive in japan. And sony keeps versus.. And the games not coming to the 360 until 2010.. Is that something to get excited about? No
this article is straight up fanboy crap.. You should be a shamed to post something like this. “MS won by a wide margin”.. lol laughable. No one really stood out this year but SONY came and showed the games. As a gamer sony won in my eyes. As a fanboy you write this.. Loser.. Wonder if you play games.. I will own you on live and PSN.. cod4 biatch..
Play games and stop sucking MS wang..
on July 20, 2008 at 08:14 PM - LINKOh yea. you said you couldnt list anything bad about the MS conference.. lol. the whole this was bad and boring until the FF13 annoucement.. Not as bad as Nintendo but it was prety boring to watch.
they showed no new games at all and all the games you listed above are multi plat games except for gears 2.
on July 20, 2008 at 08:23 PM - LINKyo buddy you might wanna watch the press conference again cause you are losing it .
Microsoft by a wide margin. DOUBT IT!!! hey i have a better idea, why don’t you go paste your little microsoft fanboy article on a strict xbox website, maybe all the geeks there will agree with you
on July 20, 2008 at 10:52 PM - LINKHey, Sony fanboys. A few things to point ut….
1. John…Most of those games you pointed out are coming out for the PSP, and will barely sell, because, lets face it, the PSP is not a hot seller in the States. Your argument is based on MAG and small teaser for God of War. Weak, come harder. I’ll even help you DC Online was pretty cool.
Also, did you not read about everything else Microsoft is doing with Xbox live, because, I don’t know if you realize it yet, but consoles are no longer about the games, its about the online content, and who can reach a broader audience.
2. Nintendo is my homeboy and Microsoft is the hanger-on, who just happens to the fake ID to get us into cool places.
3.Shady why don’t you watch every conference again and tell me why Microsoft should have lost. Nintendo even admitted to not catering to hardcore gamers at the conference, i.e. people like me and you.
4. I don’t know how many E3’s you guys have followed, but Ive been watching, reading about, anticipating this show since I was a kid. If you know anything about the history of Sony and Nintendo at this show they usually pull out all the stops to get people ready for the holiday season. That totally did not happen this year, so get over yourselves and go play a video game.
5. My PS2 and my Wii get a lot more play time than my 360…Fanboy! Please, I can’t stand those guys…
on July 20, 2008 at 11:49 PM - LINKSorry, the netflix thing sounds good till you realize that you have to have a gold membership and at least a basic netflix membership. This translates to $158 for for a year. That translates to roughly 52 SD movies or 26 HD movies on PSN . Netflix doesn’t offer a downloadable HD solution yet, so there are more viewing options currently using PSN, along with the ability to copy the movie to a psp to watch on say a long plane trip. Personally I think the Sony offering is a lot more appealing.
on July 21, 2008 at 12:25 AM - LINKIt’s hard to really take this article serious when one makes the statement that Microsoft is the winner by a large margin…In all honesty, what did Microsoft show that warranted such a statement ? Netflix !! XMB inspired dashboard !! Nintendo inspired avatars!! ..So they paid major money to have a few developers demo their games during their conference ..These games will ALSO be available on the Sony PS3.. Come on lad, the only exclusive content they showed was GOW2 and Fable2 ..Sony’s internal studios are second to none and just look at the amount of exclusive contents they annouced..You cannot be real in your lack of objectivity…Furthermore all this hoopla about Final Fantasy heading to the 360 is not warranted ..it’s a good business decision on Square’s part..In this business it’s all about maximizing your dollar and i’m sure microsoft came with a truckload of money for the right to also have this game on their system..Funny thing is that Sony has a 9% stake or share in Square-Enix so Sony is not going to cry over the loss of the word ‘Exclusive” when it’s going to put extra money into their coffers from their main rival..I think that is poetic if you ask me .. Stop this unwarranted bias towards Sony and commend them for finally making the right moves in the interest of the gamer…Lowered price point, in-game XMB, Movie/Tv rentals/purchase and free netplay along with a system that is as futureproof as one can get and will be around for the next 8yrs to come ..Did any of the three conferences blow me out of the water, NO, nor did any come outs as a winner by a long shot..However in saying that, if i was to choose a winner it would be Sony for showing more exciting games exclusvie to their system.
on July 21, 2008 at 12:51 AM - LINKFirst off to Clint and Arthur, thank you for being respectable about your opinions of the article. Secondly, I don’t see where there is a lack of objectivity. Yes it’s great that PSN is free, and the fact that the price dropped on the PS3 is a pretty sweet deal. But its still cheaper to purchase a Wii or an Xbox and millions still pay to subscribe to Xbox live even though it should be free to play online.
To Arthur yes it maybe cheaper to use if your only getting a certain amount of moives a year. If your netflix user your probably renting movies constantly, which in the long run it maybe beneficial/cost efficient to pay one price, than constantly shelling out dough. Your also right about the HD selection, but down the road I can see Netflix and Microsoft adding HD rentals.
Clint, first GOW 2 and Fable 2 were not the only exclusives. You forgot about Banjo and Kazooi and the some of the exclusive xbox live games like Geometry Wars 2 and Galaga. Also your going to tell me that that weak teaser for God of War was something to get excited about, no way. So they showed Little Big Planet and Resistance 2, everybody has known what to expect from those games for months. Im not going to argue that Sony’s internal studios are second to none, because I completely agree with you. But so what Sony had more games, most for the PSP, which as I stated before hasn’t done well in the states. That’s not enough particularly when Microsoft’s online capabilities is second to none, yes it still suck you have to pay, but its true. It wasn’t about the avatars or the channels or even the Netflix partnership. It was the fact that Microsoft is going to give folks the best online experience that they have (begrudgingly) paid for. With the live party and Primetime plus the Netflix, the 360 will be around just as long as those 8yrs you discussed with the PS3.
That’s what put Microsoft over the top, not only did they cater to the hardcore but the casual gamer as well. I was hard on Sony for the fact that they are still tops in the industry when it comes to making games and they gave us what, a teaser of Kratos standing around with no details of what the game will be like. The only exciting thing from Sony was the DC online announcement. I expected better from Sony and to tell me I lack objectivity because of that is completely unfair.
on July 21, 2008 at 02:11 AM - LINKKenneth:
You keep saying that most of the games shown were for the PSP?
These exclusive games were show and were for the PS3:
InFamouse
Resistance 2
Killzone 2
The Agency
Socom: Conforntation
Little BIG Planet
Motorstorm Pacific Rift
Valkyria Chronicles
DC Universe Online
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm
Flower
Pixel Junk Eden
Fat Princess
PAIN Amusement Park
Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic
Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty
MAG teaser
GoW 3 teaser
These are ALL PS3 games, and are exclusive to the PS3.
Pluss SONY opened the PS Store Video Service, where you can even choose to buy HD movies from all the major Hollywood Studios. PSP support.
Pluss, Universal access to PSN. What this means is that you can access your friends list and other PlayStation Network content via your PC. You can access the PSN even when not around your PS3.
80GB Replacing 40GB PS3 — Price Stays the Same at $399.99
Grabbing in-game video, and posting it directly on YouTube.
Gran Turismo TV introduced - racing video content coming to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, shows like Top Gear and other original content in Hi Def.
Lots of PSP content.
PS2: More than 130 new titles coming to PS2. Not bad for a 9 year old system.
on July 21, 2008 at 03:25 AM - LINKSorry for double post.
No one here is saying that the MS presentation was bad, it just didn’t have any new games. Gears of War 2 (looks really good), Fable 2 (look very good), then ....... nothing…. movie rantals from NetFlix, well Sony toped that easily in my book, with purchasable movies and PSP support to take the movies anywere you like. Lips, well, it’s a SingStar from MS, Scene It is Buzz, and the Eye Toy clone looked like crap even more than Eye Toy. So that leaves us with a new Dashboard and avatars, nice, but hardly anything to shout about. Final Fantasy XIII is on both PS3 and X360, release exclusively on PS3 in Japan maybe a year before US and Europe. FF XIII Versus still PS3 exclusive.
What did MS actually have to take this by a good margin?
And, ofcourse it’s all about the games, who are you trying to fool.
I found the whole article biased and laughable.
on July 21, 2008 at 03:39 AM - LINKI’m not going to argue about whether its biased. First for the PS2 most of those games will be ports or multiplatform games with a few being exclusives for the system itself. Thats nothing to get excited about. Most of those games have been discussed, prior to the conference, except DC, Mag, and their PSN library. PSN has just started releasing games and it still doesn’t match the quantity or quality of the Xbox lives library.
This conference is and always will be about who can drum the biggest announcement and Sony didn’t do that. Yes, they named dropped a ton a titles, and dropped the price but quantity doesn’t always beat out quality.
I’m not trying to fool anybody, but any intelligent person knows that these companies are no longer just about making games. Unless you live and breathe Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft want you use your console for more mainstream means, like watching tv shows and movies. So hop out of the time machine and join us here in the present, where these companies are going to take your hard earned cash any way they can.
P.S.
on July 21, 2008 at 04:14 AM - LINKthe 360 is also getting a Naruto game, so that point moot.
Ok, Kenneth. I see where you stand, we can agree to disagree. Like you say, if the show is just about dropping the biggest bomb, then MS would have won in my book also with the Final Fantasy XIII announcement.
It’s not about that for me, I was most entertained by and I’m looking forward to alot of what Sony has to offer like the Video Store with TV Shows and blockbuster movies, HOME is something I’m looking forward too also, and there are a lot of exciting games coming for the PS3. Actually the only thing I was liked in the MS presentation was Gears of War 2 and Fable 2, except for other multiplat games ofcourse like RE5 and FFXIII etc..
It doesn’t matter how many games the X360 has from before or what services, it’s what was presented and what was new at the show this time that I’m evaluating. It was kinda bland overall and Sony grabbed my top spot this time because it was the least boring of the three.
Well, yes, there’s a version of Naruto on X360 also, but what about all the other exclusives. Seems like you don’t want to mention them or make a thing about them at all.
Sorry for being so big mouthed in my previous posts, it gets my blood pumping when I see, in my opinion, such one tracked opinions.
on July 21, 2008 at 05:33 AM - LINKKenneth, Microsofts conference lacked any excitement. It’s saving grace was the announcement of FFXIII coming to it’s console..Everything else in respect to games was known to be on it’s way..Also people unfairly compare the price of the 360 to that of the PS3…Blu-ray player,wireless connectivity,free online play right out of the box ...When you get this and keep the price of the 360 below the PS3 then i’ll concede it’s cheaper but until then one has to just do the math to see that the PS3 is the better deal financially .. Also Kenneth in all honesty can you tell me you have faith in what Microsoft has to offer in a year or two from now..I hope Cliffy doesn’t run out of ideas for the GOW series or Bungie can come back to the fold with Halo because beyond that I can’t see anything else exclusive to that system which will move units…
anyway i believe we agree to disagree and I respect your points for they are yours and how you interpret things which differ from mine but hey my points are mine own based on my interpretation and what a mundane world it would be if we all agreed on everything all the time ...a little healty bantering is always good lads hahahaha
on July 21, 2008 at 06:14 AM - LINKSorry Kenneth, but IMO, the moment you tried to justify your choice was the moment your article fell.
I can respect your opinion about MS being the winner, but your “no bad stuff” argument is pretty… well… vague.
More BAD:
- Netflix coming this fall (it’s also GOOD, but Sony’s store is online, today)
- a Singstar, Eye Toy, Avatars rip-off… is there no creativity?
- few exclusives (dare I say… almost no exclusives, because Fable 2 and GoW2 are coming to the PC)
Also, you placed RE5 and Fallout 3 on the GOOD side… although these weren’t new games and will be multi-platform.
Finally, you put Fable 2 and GoW2 on the GOOD side… but again, hardly new stuff. And, dare I say, just as strong as Killzone 2, Resistance 2 and LBP combined (throw some more on the bag, if you prefer. Except Naruto, thank you).
Finally, in your justifications, you speak about MS’s “online excellence”... well, Sony presented DC universe, LBP, Home and MAG (plus Resistance 2)... games heavily based on multiplayer. While MS… had no MMOs or heavy multiplayer games.
And live is paid.
Oh, but you can chat. Oh, sorry… and you will be able to play GoW2 with 5 other people. That’s 251 less than MAG… :)
Cheers
on July 21, 2008 at 01:26 PM - LINKFirst of all, I just want to say that Microsoft had the best show at this year’s E3. Why, you might ask? Well, what Microsoft did was cater to both hardcore and casual gamers with their entire presentation. If any of you happen to miss some parts of Microsoft’s showcase, then I suggest you to watch the entire presentation, and judge it for yourself before saying that Sony should have won. We all know that Nintendo did not deliver any interesting news on their show—Gosh! That was one boring show, wasn’t it? I don’t have to write all the stuffs I saw on E3, because we have our own different opinions about it, and I just don’t want this whole thing to be a huge debate between certain fanboys. But in my opinion though, Microsoft really had the best show—bar none! And please, do not ask me why, okay? I guess these PS3 fan-jerks are just in total denial that Sony’s presentation was not that overwhelming at all, nor, that impressive! This is what Nintendo and Sony did during their presentation, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah…and more blahs, that resulted a HUGE BORING show!
on July 22, 2008 at 07:08 AM - LINKThanks to you all for the healthy and fiery discussion. Its clear that everybody has their own opinion on the matter and that is cool. But only time will tell who actually won this console war and that may not be for a while. I hope to have more passionate debates and discussions about gaming.
Rock ON!!!
on July 24, 2008 at 05:26 AM - LINKwow man….. ok fanboys suck…. they suck #####. i hate when i read an article and then i get to the bottom of it and i see all the raging fanboys talking all this sweet sex talk about what console is the best and purrs them to sleep every night, why dont you guys start arguing about what computers are better like a MAC, or a ###### P.C.? that #### is pathetic everyone know that #### has its ups and downs. that fanboy #### just makes people look like ignorant ### fools and then ruins articles because you forget what the hell they were about because you got 100 comments of whiney ######## that pisses you off into writing some stupid ass ####. if you dont like an article go find one you do like. an article is always written by someone, and that someone always has an opinion…... so fanboys go plug your console in and hop in the mother ###### bathtub with it cuz im sick of hearing your #### maggot #####.
on September 30, 2008 at 11:46 AM - LINKoh you guys mother ###### suck you ####### blank #### out! ####### #######.
on September 30, 2008 at 11:48 AM - LINK“adam” - You type to your mom with those hands? Since the site is not age gated, the owners put up a vulgarity feature. Considering your last two posts, I’m glad they did. If you continue to use unnecessarily crude language without a point, your comments will be deleted. I’m all for freedom of speech but please avoid unnecessarily crude language.
on September 30, 2008 at 10:38 PM - LINK