Category Archives: E3 2010

Refresh

E3 is well over, and in my Gamasutra analysis at the close of the show, I talked about what it was like to play with Kinect, among other things. In brief: Its target audience is “not us”, and it’ll work best for fitness games (which is what I asked EA Sports’ Peter Moore about). Most importantly, after I saw “Project Natal” debut at E3 2009, I wrote an article for Kotaku highlighting how crucial I felt an object in hand is to gaming. My mind hasn’t been changed.

Other thing: Nintendo finally had a great E3. Sony appeared confident. The game industry is going to get really exciting to watch over the next year or so — both major platform holders are aiming for a mid-cycle “refresh”, and we’ve very little visibility on how big the demand is for Move and Kinect. We also have very little visibility on how long it will take for me to stop typing “Natal.”

So, what now? I sit and stare at the calendar and wait for Portal 2 and MGS: Rising to come out, I suppose. 31% of you said in the last SVGL poll that you expected that the biggest buzz out of E3 would come from a yet-unknown surprise announcement, but there were no surprises, really. Instead, the big focus was on new tech: 3D (including Nintendo’s show-stopping 3DS) and motion controls.

The success of either motion control solution will depend on software and how consumers react to pricing, neither of which we can know yet. But based simply on what you saw out of E3, what’re your sentiments? I’ve added a new poll to enable you to vote.

[Today’s Good Song: ‘Invisibility: Nonexistent‘, Kurt Vile]

E3 E3 E3 E3 E3 E3

Hi guys — no time for updates, but hope you’re sticking with me on Twitter for E3 stuff. Secondly, keep your eyes on Gamasutra’s E3 page to see the coverage my colleagues and I are on about.

Who do you think ‘won’ the press conference war (yes, you know how much I hate this question, but let’s pretend)? I feel Sony did a better showing than Microsoft, but Nintendo whupped ‘em both. How about you?

Here We Go Again

Who’s going to E3? I have no idea what kinda time I’ll have to update while I’m out there… it’s strange. Based on the kind of work I do, my schedule is usually the most packed during GDC. Since I’m a business and trend writer, I don’t really do any consumer reportage like HANDS ON PREVIEWS and things like that (happy to leave it to the Destructoids and the Kotakus and the people who are great at it).

So I always go into E3 expecting not to get my ass kicked and I always do. So this year, I’m erring on the side of assuming I’ll be busy or hung over all the time.
That being said, I hope to meet a lot of people out there, so if you are in the SVGL Army and you’re going to be there, say hi to me and to each other. I got a lot of mails that I should have arranged a meetup of some kind, and I was so busy getting ready with scheduling and stuff for all the work we’ve gotta do that it never occurred to me. Maybe next year.
Anyway, I’ve added a new poll to see what you think the biggest deal out of next week’s gonna be. Discuss and all that fun stuff!
[Today’s Good Song: ‘L. Mansion‘, Sic Alps]