Comment: The Battle Of Los Angeles
GamesIndustry.biz staff 12:00 17/05/2004
As the dust settles on E3 2004, which of the platform holders emerges
with the champion's wreath from the LA Convention Centre - and which
with the wooden spoon?
It's practically customary, once E3 is fully underway each year, for
journalists, industry types and fans alike to start heated debates
over which of the platform holders "won" the battle of the pre-show
conferences in Los Angeles. Bars up and down Sunset Boulevard and all
along Santa Monica's streets fill with people drinking, gesticulating
and arguing over which of the giant companies won the most hearts and
minds in the days prior to the show.
This year the arguments were more heated than ever - because there was
really no clear winner, and the two most interesting products on show
- Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP - have massively polarised opinion both
within the industry and among consumers.
Microsoft, however, is barely in the running. For a second year
running the company chose to massively inconvenience many overseas
visitors to E3 by holding its conference on Monday evening rather than
on Tuesday like its competitors, for which it instantly loses brownie
points - we can only hope that some form of sanity will prevail in
Redmond next year when this is being planned once more. However, the
many overseas media types who missed Microsoft's conference weren't
missing a great deal; the settling of a deal that will see EA
supporting Xbox Live is important, but not exactly unexpected, the new
Xbox Live features are only of passing interest, and while Halo 2
looks stunning, that's hardly a major surprise either.
In fact, Microsoft had pretty much nothing of interest to say in Los
Angeles, and fell back on a cringe-worthy video lampooning Sony's
online gaming efforts rather than actually announcing anything really
noteworthy. It's hard not to see this as evidence of a company
treading water until it can talk about its genuine next big thing,
namely Xbox 2.
Sony's conference the following morning was quite corporate and
reserved, but much more interesting nonetheless. Microsoft's comedy
video seemed even more embarrassing as Sony reminded the audience of
its vastly larger numbers of PS2 online gamers, and pointed out a
growth rate of 100,000 new online users a month; and the company also
fired an impressive shot across the bows of its rival with the
announcement of a new IBM-built workstation for digital content
creators, which will be based on the Cell processor which will
eventually power PlayStation 3.
Of course, the real meat of Sony's conference was the unveiling of
PlayStation Portable - a sleek black slab of technology which wowed
audiences with superb design and impressive graphics, as well as a
huge line-up of software. That's where the misgivings kicked in,
though - much of the software in the pipeline appears to be PSP
versions of existing PS2 franchises. Is this really the future, or
just a portable version of the past?
Last out of the stalls was Nintendo, and the Japanese company's flair
for showmanship once again proved to be a winner with the partisan
audience at its conference. The Nintendo DS has divided opinions
massively, though, with many dismissing it as a gimmick or a poor
response to the PSP, while others are sold on the hugely innovative
control mechanisms and some of the unique games demonstrated by
Nintendo.
One interesting factor is that those who have actually used the unit
seem to be much more positive than those who have only seen pictures;
the response to the DS from those actually at the show has been far
more positive, in general, than comments from those who have only seen
pictures or videos of the unit. The company's trump card, though, was
the unveiling of a new Legend of Zelda title for the GameCube, due in
2005, which returns to the graphical style of the N64 Zelda titles and
received a rapturous response in Los Angeles.
The head to head here is between Nintendo and Sony, and arguments will
likely rage for weeks over which company "won" E3. Our stance? Nobody
"wins" E3 - but the healthy competition between the two giants of the
games industry in the handheld space will make gaming consumers, and
the entire market, into the eventual winners.
