Anyone else find this irony amusing?

E3 this week! That is all

SI

I'm hoping that they'll officially announce harmony in Rock Band: Beatles. Even just 2 mics would be awesome. Four would blow my mind ;)

Madden Online dynasty will be big news when EA (officially) announces it.

Hopefully Microsoft will officially announce a release date for the Live Arcade version of Magic: The Gathering.

I'm looking forward to more info on Bioshock 2.

I'd like to see a release date for Max Payne 3, though I don't think it will come out until at least 2010.

I'm also really excited for the debut of 1 vs 100 on XBox Live tonight at 10:30 PM EST. Hopefully it's cool. I will be on Live tonight until it crashes the servers :)

EA conference is at 2PM tomorrow pacific. The news should be sometime tomorrow afternoon depending upon how long that conference is.

I'm hoping for three games to be announced that seem interesting to me, if that happens E3 will be a success.

EA's conference is likely to be underwhelming just because there's likely to be no new information. They don't hold back information for events like this. They prefer to let a steady stream of info out through the whole development and testing process leading up to the release date.

Dola-

I'm really interested to see Microsoft's presentation this afternoon (1:25 PM EDT). Sony's had quite a bit leaked before the show and Nintendo will obviously be showing off Wii Motion Plus, but we've heard hardly anything about Microsoft's plans. If they've got a big announcement hiding, they've done a great job of keeping it under wraps.

Mixed feedback from Eurogamer on the Wii Motion Plus.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/wi...nplus-hands-on

More complaints from third party executives concerning the Wii's third-party sales. Honestly, I don't know why some of these executives are complaining at this point. Nintendo has made it clear that they are doing well with first party and hardware sales and who can blame them for continuing with that trend as long as it works? These third-party producers just need to continue to pull more mature titles to the other consoles (as this exec mentions they are already doing) and keep the kid/family titles on the Wii........

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/w...says-thq-exec/

I know they scaled back E3 last year to some degree. Is it back to being huge this year?

Yep.

Yes, they got rid of E3 for All, which was the alternative show. It's now back to just E3 as the big show with tons of people invited.

I agree. The only online information that is likely to be "new" is news of online franchises for Madden, and that has already leaked out. Still, it will be good to have it confirmed and get details such as how many people can play at once.

I'm also interested to see how the matchmaking will be set up as far as whether solo and co-op play will each have their own areas or if there will be some mix of the two.

Actually, I'm also looking forward to improvements in franchise being more fully revealed. There is a rumor floating out there that the "extra point" show is the full NFL access crew doing a very detailed weekly wrap up in which you can skip through various segments if you choose (like College Hoops 2k8 did, except more detailed.)

The old NFL 2K5 highlights show at halftime and at the end of the game was always fantastic despite it being relatively low-tech. A highlights show for the various games each week would be a wonderful addition.

Where did you see that info/rumor?

If they do a highlight show, I demand the old NFL Primetime music.

There's been some speculation about The Extra Point show over at Operation Sports forums.

Even 2k5 type presentation would be awesome. I loved that aspect of 2k5, but never particularly loved the gameplay.

And this one.

The info has been out there that there was a show for weeks if not months. Confirmed by Ian on twitter. However, there was some rumors generated in the last 24 hours about exactly what it entails. Like Kodos said, the discussion is over at OS.

There's about an hour and forty-five minutes until Microsoft's conference. This is the second straight E3 where they were rumored to be coming out with a motion controller, maybe we'll see it this year.

Thanks. I don't frequent OS too often, so that's why I missed it. I'll check it out.

Microsoft conference is starting.

Square announcement.

FF13 creator is speaker.

FIRST LOOK AT FF13 ON XBOX 360!

Is there somewhere online to watch E3?

Found one...

Justin.tv - G4TV - LIVE at E3 2009: gaming,video games,video gaming,pc gaming,computer games,Gaming,Other Gaming

Sequels announced for XBOX:

Crackdown 2
Left for Dead 2
Splinter Cell Conviction

Final Fantasy XIII due stateside Spring 2010

Splinter Cell Conviction just announced as XBOX 360 exclusive to be released Fall 09.

HIDEO KOJIMA on the XBOX 360 stage!!!!

MGS:Rising coming to the 360!!!

HOLY SHIT.

So now I can be stealth-bored on my 360 now? ;)

This gives us a good timeframe for FFXIII releases now. Japan will likely get this game in November/December 2009 exclusively on the PS3 with a multiplatform release on the 360/PS3 in NA/Europe in Spring 2010.

Project Natal doesn't look convincing.

I hope the Raiden game isn't exclusive, a lot of the stuff shown in this conference has been multiplatform.

Peter Molyneaux is out. :D

yay, 4 hour cut scenes on the 360 FTW!!!

MGS Rising is much like the FFXIII announcement last year. It's just going multiplatform. I wouldn't be shocked to see a similar arrangement in Japan to the FFXIII where the game remains a PS3 exclusive in Asia.

Fight Night Round 4 looks awesome.

EA's Madden Online Franchise plug was hilarious, "Yeah there's an app for that."

I laughed at that, too. By the way I can attest to the awesomeness of EA Sports Active. It's like this is the major leagues and Wii Fit was t-ball. I'm only on day 6 of the 30 day challenge and it has made me a true believer. I'd wager I will lose at least 15 pounds by the end of this challenge. But the real kicker is I'm already positive it has changed the way I look at exercising.

How about 3 mics?

This game looks awesome - simply stunning opening cinematic, and the background visuals in gameplay look fantastic. I'm going to try to resist the temptation to buy the new peripherals and just get the disk, but man those old guitars look really cool...

Color me highly skeptical that it will work as well as they want you to think.

I'll give MS some credit for trying to think big and advance the technology, but I'm doubtful that the execution will match the ambition, and gamers will find themselves more often than not wanting an actual controller to manipulate.

IMO, they'd have been better off just admitting that the market has shown that motion-sensitive controllers are desirable, and rather than trying to make another quantum leap forward beyond the Wii controllers, they instead should've focused on doing a better version of the Wii controllers.

I predict a significant amount of complaints from users that their actions aren't consistently recognized by their Natal compatible games and wishing they had actual buttons to press and joysticks/wheels to manipulate and controllers to tilt and turn and wave around.

Another problem they might have is price. Supposedly it will be $200 which is quite a bit considering a 360 costs that much at a minimum.

Even if the motion controls are better than the Wii you still lose quite a bit by not having a stick or any buttons at all. And the Wii has the IR pointer which has been better for gaming than motion controls have so far IMO.

Not to mention it won't have very much of an advantage on Wii Motion Plus even if it works perfectly, anyway. But I agree with you about the IR pointer. (should change with WMP).

My kids are very excited for tomorrow's release of The Sims 3. Now they know how I feel when games like Rock Band and NHL get released. :)

I will be picking it up in the morning for the wife. Our home office is officially closed tomorrow she told me.

Three mics is pretty hot. This definitely exceeded my expectations. I don't know why I ever doubted Harmonix...they've never let me down. I'm just glad they went for it. Perfect game to introduce the harmony. Plus downloadable albums will be pretty sweet. Hopefully they don't omit any big Beatles songs from the main disc, though.


I just finished playing the Beta pilot episode. It was okay when I was alone...then I joined a party with some friends and it was a blast. I highly recommend this to anyone who even remotely enjoys trivia. Definitely best played with friends. The format moves very fast, too. They don't spend 5 minutes on the answer to a question. They definitely keep the game moving, which helps a lot. A few flaws, but overall the game has exceeded my admittedly high expectations. I'm bummed I won't be able to play on Saturday night's games...but I should be on for next weekend's games.

EA should really do a Madden MMORPG. I bet something like that would really take off.

Monday was cool for seeing some more info on games I was already interested in. During the Nintendo and Sony conferences today I want to see some new games.

I hope Nintendo has some surprises around the big 3, Mario, Metroid and Zelda.

Fixed.

Agree with all of this. I'm not terribly interested in any motion controllers at all on the PS3 or 360. With that said, the much better option was to copy-cat at this point in the life cycle. With the cost expected to be $150-200, it's going to flop badly. That's just too expensive for mass market consumers.


Sequel after sequel yesterday from Microsoft. I'm really hoping that Nintendo and Sony have some actual new games to bring to the market today.

Crap, I sold my Wii, and I'm going to HAVE to get another one when Zelda comes out.

Console companies must love people like you.

New Star Wars MMO. I had no idea this was coming out.

Yep.

Edit: Actually, no. I haven't bought a new system since N64. I pretty much only buy on EBay, so they probably hate me.

Dola

I'm going to be completely broke after these games come out.

Anyone have any thoughts on the Tiger Woods PGA Online game? It streams right to your browser. Sounds like a pretty cool idea.

Well, you know, Nintendo is having a hard time, what with their consoles still being the closest thing to printing money that exists in the world today.

They've already said the Metroid triple pack is coming out this summer so that's what we'll hear on that front and they leaked that a new Mario is coming out so two of the three are already covered before E3.

Unfortunately, I suspect more of the same from Nintendo at E3. They like to spread out their big announcements across the year and don't save a ton up for E3. Heck, the Tokyo Game Show seems to get more major news than E3. Last week it came out that there's a new Mario and a new Wii Fit so outside of some "big" announcement that really isn't like Pikmin 3 or Wii Music 2 or something Kirby- I don't see them having the infamous "m3gat0n" this year.

I guess the biggest thing to hope for is another Zelda but I think we're still a year too soon in the dev cycle. Tho I think Twilight Princess was the last really big E3 thing I can think of out of E3. Nintendo just always seems to deliver theirs on an even keel- good depth but no super crazy big news.

SI

Not of late. All three consoles have seen a significant downturn in sales. Perhaps E3 isn't as key as the next console to make the price jump. There's market to be had at a lower price for any of these companies.

Also, the Wii has seen large drops in sales in Japan. The Wii is actually trailing the PS3 in sales over there on a month-to-month basis. They desparately need a franchise sequel in Asia to boost those sales and get the Wii corrected.

Yep, I'm sure they are heartbroken that they aren't hemorrhaging money like Sony's game division continues to do.

Wii 340K sold in April in USA * 50-100 dollars profit/unit >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> PS3 127k sold in April in the USA * 25-100 dollar loss/unit.

Once again, that's not even remotely the point. As I mentioned previously, it's like the Obama supporters saying he's better than Bush. That's fine, but is that a high bar to clear? Nintendo could be doing much better than they are currently. They should set the bar at a level that optimizes their impact. Setting the bar in comparison to the 360 or PS3 is a poor indicator of whether they're doing the best they can.

No, you miss the point. They continue to sell better than any other console after already saturating the market with their console. Factor that with a down turn in the economy and there was no chance that their sales wouldn't taper off to some extent eventually. They still continue to sell more than everyone else and they have done so while making a profit from day 1. They are the clear winners and they are doing better than any other console ever.

But that doesn't have any relation to what we've seen over in Japan and Europe. The PS3 sales in those two regions haven't fallen off nearly as much as in the U.S., but the Wii sales have fallen off in those two regions. The only thing that could be related to is the lack of any big franchise releases in the last 12-18 months. Both of those regions tend to get swayed by big releases more than price. In the U.S., price is king. It's the reason Sony is getting hammered so badly in this region while performing much better in the other two regions.

Comparing the PS3 and the Wii is like comparing apples and oranges. The Wii sold at record rates to help saturate their markets in those regions. The PS3 hasn't sold well enough to even come close to saturating their potential market.

I agree with part of your assertion- comparing to the 360 and PS3 is not what Nintendo should be doing. However, you throw out a bold assertion in the middle that's patently false.

They're doing well compared to the PS2 sales numbers which is pretty much the gold standard as it was the best selling console ever and shows a reasonable saturation point for a globally dominating console. And they're doing it in a horrible world economy, worse than anything the PS2 was operating in.

So, yes, all of your other sentences are correct. The one in the middle, which is the crux of your argument, is just flat out wrong.

SI

Sure. So are you saying that the Wii sales will continue to fall in all three regions since the market can't hold many more Wii's? I personally don't think any of the three consoles are anywhere close to a saturation point. It's much more of a cost constrained demand at this time IMO.

Could be. It's a fair comparison point, though it's not wrong as you suggest. The PS2 was at a cheaper price point at this point in its lifecycle than the Wii. If the Wii were running at a price point similar to what the PS2 ran at, I think it would be selling in significantly larger numbers than it currently is.

My guess is that Nintendo is going to remain at this price until we see the expected $100 price drop of the PS3 later this year. Then they'll drop the price to negate that effect. Nintendo may also drop the price in Japan when FFXIII is released on the PS3 over there.

Nintendo is still kicking Sony's ass. No matter how bad you try to paint everyone else, Sony is stuck in 3rd this generation.

You are so fucking annoying.

That's a given as of now and I've already acknowledged that. We're talking about what's going on moving forward, which is exactly what E3 is all about.

BTW.....reverting to the topic at hand. Nintendo press conference is at 12:00 EDT today and Sony press conference is at 2:00 EDT today.

Rumors (basically photoshop filters applied to a picture of Nintendo's floor space with signs covered by sheets) suggest the new Mario game will be Super Mario Bros. Wii. A new 2D Mario platformer for consoles would be amazing, there hasn't been one of those since Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island on the SNES. The 2D levels in Super Mario Galaxy were fantastic and this would likely be made by the same team. We'll see in a couple of hours.

A year ago moving forward Sony was going to catch Microsoft.

And we certainly agree there. Sony pissed away a year for the most part in regards to hardware. The only good thing was that we've seen a nice improvement in the software library despite the relative lack of the big name franchises.

Realistically speaking, Sony dropped the ball on this generation of consoles. They ain't climbing out of the hole they've dug themselves in anytime soon.

You keep saying you don't see anything big for the Wii on the horizon, but you are missing what will (IMO) easily be the best selling console SKU of 2009 - Wii Sports Resort. The system selling game for the Wii has always been Wii Sports, despite the fact that it clearly does not entertain you. 20 million people have bought a Wii to be able to play Wii Sports. You don't think the sequel might move a few units?

Good, so can you please shut up about your "demise of the Wii" predictions until you have some evidence that it is actually occurring?

Well, I never used the term 'demise' nor have I implied anything of the sort. A deceleration for a speed trap might be a better description.

Software units of Wii Sports Resort? Absolutely they'll move. Hardware units? Not much more than they're already selling. Wii Sports isn't a 'franchise'. Zelda, Mario, etc. are the franchises. Only a price decrease will create a substantial hardware sales boost at this point.

Could you please stick to a single, concise, lucid theory of why the Wii is in trouble, instead of changing the story every time evidence proves your current maleable theory wrong?

I'm not sure it proves anything. So you're stating that you believe Wii Sports Resort is a game that will cause a substantial boost in console sales? I think it will sell millions, but that's because everyone that already has a Wii wants some new Wii Sports games to play. People buy consoles for the Nintendo franchise games.

The fact that a new Mario is in the works is already known, but it isnt known whether it is more of a galaxy sequel or a NSMB sequel. I would heavily expect this to be one of the things revealed. I would love to hear about a new Zelda. Metroid is a long shot I'd say, though.

Once again, you prove your complete inability to understand what is happening with this generation.

If that were true, people would have purchased the GameCube in droves. They didn't.

Repeat after me: People are buying the Wii to play Wii Sports.

I realize that you hate it that this is true, but no amount of protestation on your part will change that. Until you come to grips with this fact, please refrain from commenting on this generation of consoles.

Absolutely they enjoy Wii Sports. But that's a different point. They're buying it to play Wii Sports because it's bundled and doesn't cost a dime. They'll continue to do that going forward, although the effect has obviously been lessened at this point. Wii Sports Resort provides more game opportunities for existing owners, but it's not going to sell hardware at a substantially increased rate. It's a great bone to throw existing owners though.

Major geek-out being show on G4TV. Steve Wiebe is trying to break the Donkey Kong record.....again.

So James Cameron shows up to E3 to talk about Avatar, a movie my daughter and I are waiting for. There will be a video game for it as well. Cameron talks about the movie............and then no clips of anything, not the movie, not the game. I guess people are feeling like this is a first for E3, no clips. :D

The only reason there are Wiis in nursing homes and rehab clinics is because of Wii Sports.

The number of consoles in those situations are an EXTREMELY small portion of the total number of Wii sales. It's a nice thing to do for those people, but nursing homes and rehab clinics have no real effect on the console war.

NSMB4Wii looks effing SWEET. Can't wait. Screw waiting for Christmas though.

Telltale Games - Monkey Island, Wallace & Gromit, Sam & Max, Strong Bad, and more!

Tales of Monkey Island

LucasArts.com | The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

The Secret of Monkey Island

Wii Fit Plus announced and everyone yawns. EA Sports Active is already better anyway.

Microsoft is making full retail games available on demand via Xbox Live. 30 titles to be available in August with more being added in the future. They are also considering making a rental service available:

Xbox 360 getting full retail games delivered on demand

Wii Motion plus looks pretty cool.

Way to show off superb voice acting Nintendo??

A new Golden Sun game, solid. Mario and Luigi RPG 3 localization was expected. The Crystal Bearers looks great.

Sweet jeebus, how robotic is this Nintendo lady?

That Minis March Again game might push me to get a DSi at some point. WarioWare DIY also looks cool.

Oh awesome, Nintendo's new peripheral is supposed to PUT YOU TO SLEEP? haha how ironic???

booya mario galaxy sequel with YOSHI!

OMG SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 NINTENDO WINS E3

A new 2D Mario and a new 3D Mario, the best of both worlds. So awesome.

edit: new Metroid game as well, not part of the Prime series.

This E3 is increasingly following a trend of putting out games that appeal to the existing base rather than new or innovative IP's. Sequels galore.