What a week. There were lots of info and confirmations from this year’s E3, but not a lot of brand new games. As for how I would rate each of the press conferences? Let me break down E3 2008 for you.
Microsoft
- Great start. Showed off a lot of multiplatform games targeted at core audience. Nothing new, though.
- Microsoft’s first party games developed games were alright.
- XBLA games (Geometry Wars 2 and new Galaga Legions)
- New dashboard was nice, but they took a bit too long with the demonstration.
- Netflix deal was nice.
- Mainstream/casual games themselves weren’t terrible, but the demonstrations with the Microsoft execs were painful to watch and went for far too long.
- FFXIII was a huge shock at the end, but only for that time. Thinking back, it’s not as big of a deal like GTAIV’s multiplatform move.
Overall: B+
Nintendo
- Too much sales talk.
- Too much talk about “paradigm shifts”
- The core audience was shunned. Throwing the “Mario/Zelda teams are making games” isn’t enough.
- WiiMusic demonstration was embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as Microsoft’s. I guess I’m used to their shenanigans.
- GTA: Chinatown Was a surprise, but there was nothing beyond a logo shown.
- New Wiimote MotionPlus and WiiSports Resort was alright
Overall: C –
Sony
- Sales talk was presented with LBP which was fantastic. It showed how flexible LBP was.
- Spent a little too much time on the PS2.
- A lot of PS3 games were merely teased, but not pushed as it should. Two CG movies? Come on…
- New PSP titles were surprising and nice
- New PSN titles were even more surprising! R&C: Quest for Booty and Fat Princess grabbed my attention.
- PSN Movie store was nice, but a live demo was not necessary.
- M.A.G. was not a good way to go out on.
Overall: B
Let’s take a look at my predictions and how I did.
I made 10 genuine predictions with Nintendo, I got 4/10 right. As for Microsoft? A lot of convincing leaks occurred weeks prior to E3, but only 1 out of the 3 “Uncertain” items came true and none of the Longshots appeared. One of my Microsoft “Longshots” was about to come true, but Bungie had to hold back. Sony’s lineup was predictable, but disappointedly only a couple of my “Uncertain” guesses appeared. Surprisingly, my prediction about Sony’s “price cut” came to be. It wasn’t a real price cut, though. It was more of an “added value” move like with Microsoft. Third parties also disappointed. It was nice to see Rage and the new Wolfenstein, but they were quite reserved when it came to new projects.
Overall, E3 2008 was a success if you were looking forward to more info about known products, but as for genuine surprises? They were very few of them. GTA: Chinatown Wars, Resistance PSP, Super Stardust PSP, Fat Princess and Galaga Legions were some of the legitimate surprises for me — there was absolutely nothing completely new for consoles. So sad.
What happened to the E3 of crazy announcements? Are publishers and developers holding back for their own public events? Perhaps. We’ll have to see when Leipzig Games Convention and Tokyo Game Show comes around.
This is it folks. This should be my last E3 2008 post.
P.S – I don’t have a “Game of the Show”.
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