Microsoft showed off Halo 4. See: Best of E3 Winners List. Nintendo's new console, the Wii U, made a strong first showing. Lines to play some of the demos approached five hour wait times. One such demo, Chase Mii, involved the use of Wiimotes in addition to the tablet controller to demonstrate multiplayer gaming.
Four players control Miis using Wiimotes while a fifth player controls Mario via the tablet. Nintendo also demonstrated the graphics of the Wii U with a Japanese garden demo.
This was an extremely simple presentation of a bird flying through a Japanese garden as weather and lighting conditions changed. Through the Wii U controller, the view could be expanded to see beyond what was visible on the TV.
It was a small example of how the screen might add to the scope of a game, but it was more of an interactive cutscene than a gameplay demo. Piper was by no means alone in his excitement as thousands of equally enthusiastic E3 attendees waited in long lines that snaked around the Nintendo booth to get a peek of the new device.
Nintendo now hopes all this positive buzz for the Wii U will translate into sales and silence sceptics who have criticised the company for its recent failure to keep pace with industry rivals Microsoft, Sony and Apple among others.
Microsoft, for its part, also received considerable praise at E3 for software upgrades to its hugely successful XBOX platform. The software giant is moving aggressively to position XBOX as an all-purpose entertainment hub that can deliver live TV, movies, web videos from sites like YouTube and streaming audio. Gamers at E3, though, were most excited about new upgrades to its motion sensing device known as Kinect.
Motion gaming is one of the key emerging industry trends where users interact with the game using voice commands and body movements rather than a hand-held controller. With a host of new Kinect titles announced at E3, Microsoft is placing a large bet on motion gaming. The company hopes that children's exercise games featuring Sesame Street characters, new dancing titles and motion-enhanced war games such as the popular Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will entice non-gamers to put an XBOX with Kinect on this year's holiday wish list.
While there was considerable enthusiasm for Microsoft's new software, like games and motion-enhancements to the XBOX , gamers expressed an equal level of disappointment for the lack of any hardware upgrades.
French interactive entertainment company Ubisoft also didn't fare so well in the eyes of many at E3 this year. Ubisoft is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, an unusual accomplishment in this competitive industry, and on Monday announced a number of updates to popular game titles like Rayman , Driver San Francisco and Brothers in Arms: Furious 4. Yet, overall, the reaction was, well, 'ho-hum'. GameVision, the industry standard in consumer intelligence, points out a declining share of the market for under year-old console gamers in Europe in the last year.
Conversely, the console manufacturers are wary of releasing technology which could become redundant quickly if challenged from either a new entrant, or from consumer changes in video gaming preferences. So for some console manufacturers, there is still some way to go in this cycle and gamers are still experimenting with the entertainment in their lives surrounding gaming. Core gamers can enjoy similar experiences from online PC gaming and are prepared to experiment in the new world rather than moan about the lack of new consoles.
Nick Parker is the founding partner of Parker Consulting Ltd, advisors in strategic planning, business intelligence and research for the games industry.
Contact nick parkerconsulting. Tags ben-parfitt generation hardware nintendo. Ukie has launched the second UK Games Industry Census in order to survey the diversity of the UK industry workforce — and you have until Friday, the 19th of November to take part. Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn.
0コメント