E3 Nominations

[Johnny Awesome]

http://www.e3awards.com/nom-stats.html

Interesting that Microsoft is the number one publisher and that many of the top nominations went to EU/US developers. Notice that Sega, Capcom, and Konami faired pretty poorly. The Xbox literally cleaned up in the key genres of action, RPG, and adventure. 4 of the top 5 console games are coming to Xbox.

 

[Fafalada]

I will find it incredibly entertaining if PS2 wins best hardware

Anyway, so this year it's enough if a game was announced at the show to be nominated? :? And nominated against 4 other games that were not only shown but also playable on the floor? :? :?

Some of the "genre" distribution is bizzare at best too, for the sake of not using any bad words to describe it.

 

[DemoCoder]

Does that mean if no one was showing playable demos and only Pac-man was playable on the showfloor it should get GOTS?

HL2 was clearly running, you could watch also people interact with it, you just weren't allowed to play yourself. Doesn't matter much to me, since the lines at some games are too long to ever play anyway.

 

[Vince]

Does that mean if no one was showing playable demos and only Pac-man was playable on the showfloor it should get GOTS?

HL2 was clearly running, you could watch also people interact with it, you just weren't allowed to play yourself. Doesn't matter much to me, since the lines at some games are too long to ever play anyway.

I think it's just the mentality that while one studio prepares for and actually puts their butt on the line, allowing the common person to play the game, explore the experience and find every bug and problem - the other studio makes a cool video out of parts of the game they like and look good under controlled circumstances and doesn't show anything but....

Something just seems wrong with this.

 

[Fafalada]

HL2

You're getting defensive about the wrong category
The specific category I had in mind was actually racing games, although I don't doubt there were other categories worth complaining about.
And what I actually said was - to paraphrase your quote :
If noone was showing demos on the show floor, then yes, PacMan should get GOTS.
(Besides, the new PacMan deserves at least a nomination either way - at least by current "rules" of picking nominees).

Oh hell, since I obviously struck a nerve (unintentionally though it was) I'll go on

was clearly running, you could watch also people interact with it, you just weren't allowed to play yourself. Doesn't matter much to me, since the lines at some games are too long to ever play anyway.

Ever watched TV shopping channels? I rest my case.
(which isn't to say I didn't enjoy HL2 presentation, but then I can't honestly say that I never "wanted" to buy one of those amazing super cleaning things they show on TV either ).

 

[wazoo]

You know something is wrong when vivendi got 2nd rank in nominations.

 

[DemoCoder]

I can understand if your talking about canned videos or prerendered cut-scenes, but HL2 is shipping in September and they were showing actual gameplay.

I think HL2 deserves the nominations it is getting.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Vivendi owns Blizzard.

The nominations look fine to me. I mean, no one was complaining when a non-playable demo of MGS2 won in 2000, or when Doom III won last year.

 

[Magnum PI]

Vivendi owns Blizzard.

no one was complaining when a non-playable demo of MGS2 won in 2000, or when Doom III won last year.

false. lots of people complained. as usual.

 

[Qroach]

Half life certainly deserves it's nomination. Not every game is playable by the public at E3, and I don't think that should hurt a games chances. Although prerendered footage of a game without it actually running certianly shouldn't be nominated.

 

[Jabjabs]

MS with 13 nominations and Nintendo with 5!!!

If someone had told me this would be the case three years ago I would of laughed at them. Ms deserves them, they are working hard and the resaults are paying off, it all proves the industry gets more intresting every day.

 

[marconelly!]

I mean, no one was complaining when a non-playable demo of MGS2 won in 2000

Except that it didn't win.

MGS2 only won at 2001, when it was playable on the showfloor.


Interesting thing:

Nominee Breakdown by Platform
PC -- 26
PS2 -- 21
Xbox -- 20
GameCube -- 14
GameBoy -- 5
Helix -- 1

PC won, and many people tend to write it off as a gaming platform.

Btw, I don't know why is anyone surprised that western companies got the most nominations - E3 was always about pushing western developers, especially PC centric developers, which is only normal considering where it's taking place, who is organizing it, etc. Think how many of these would even make a blip on something like TGS nominations... Not to mention that all these nominations and winners mean absolutely nothing (think Black & White, State of Emergency, Blinx - all turned out to be crap and were praised to heavens on their respective E3s)

 

[Deepak]

Was SH3 eligible for nomination?? It released after E3!!! BTW why RE4/outbreak is not there???

 

[marconelly!]

RE4 was not playable but frankly, I would put both RE4 and SH3 on the action adventure list, instead of asstacular looking Starcraft:Ghost.

 

[Deepak]

This is what I found on E3 site/////

Playable Format
In order to compete, a game be shown in playable format. Playable format is defined as the ability for the judge or a developer to manipulate a game in real-time while running on its native platform. Games that are only demonstrated on videotape or through screenshots, concept art, rendered movies or pre-scripted (i.e. non-interactive) gameplay sequences are automatically disqualified from consideration in the major award categories. However, non-playable games are still eligible for Special Commendations in Graphics and Sound Design.

Was Halo2 playable?? Wasnt it running on PC and not on XB???

 

[marconelly!]

I'm pretty sure developers played Halo 2 on the Xbox for that demonstration.

 

[Qroach]

The halo 2 demo was running in real time on a xbox at the show. The demonstrator is sitting there playing it while you watch two big monitors connected to his comptuer screen. It wasn't playable by the public, but I'm sure they would let the judges of E3 try it out to qualify.

Deepak, good find.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Did they demonstrate the Halo2 more than once?
Did the demonstration differ at all between the demonstrations?

 

[Johnny Awesome]

The PC always gets lots of E3 nominations simple because there are Simulation and Strategy categories. These games aren't really relevant to most gamers and the PC market is contracting as a result. Those who predict the eventual niche-ification of the PC games market aren't necessarily saying that the PC has bad games (I'm not), but that it doesn't matter when most people can't play them (hardware requirements) or don't buy them because they are in unpopular genres.

As for my comments about western developers: A Japanese developer has won best console game as far back as I can remember, except for Rare in 1999.

1998: MGS
1999: Perfect Dark
2000: JGR
2001: MGS2
2002: Zelda

It's pretty obvious when you look at past nominations that big nominees were companies like Sega, Capcom, Konami, and Nintendo, NOT Microsoft, Vivendi, and Activision.

Another thing I noticed: If you look at only games and not hardware, Xbox has more nominations than PS2.

 

[arhra]

Did they demonstrate the Halo2 more than once?

Yes. Once during the press conference, continuously during the show itself, and a couple of times during the Bungie Fanfest.

Did the demonstration differ at all between the demonstrations?

Significantly, by all reports - there were several people sharing demo-duty, and they each tended to play through it slightly differently, and during the aforementioned fanfest, one of them gave an "alternate" showing, where he messed around a bit, showing off some stuff that didn't really fit into the usual demo - full reports here and here.