The E3 Thread! Who will come out on top?

That's a possibility. There are some theories being tossed around that the recent SCEA prez Tretton's "We don't buy exclusivity" being some sort of pre-emptive PR to competitors' E3 announcements - of either new competitors exclusives or Sony losing some more exclusives.

 

My call is the Wii.

The already announced the indie developer channel, they must have something bigger than that, otherwise they would have held off until E3.

They shocked everyone last year, Reggie knows what he is doing.

 

I don't know if I'd subscribe to that theory given that the very same day that quote hit the web, Sony announced they'd bought up the exclusive rights to Quantic Dream's next game, for example.

Jack Tretton may claim that Sony doesn't directly fund the development of games being published by other companies, but they certainly do sign deals with developers for games that they will publish - clearly, and to a pretty agressive extent - and they certainly do approach third parties with other kinds of incentives to make their games exclusive, beit temporary or otherwise. Apparently Sony isn't quite so straightforward as offering wads of cash upfront, but they do do 'other things'.

As for the OP, everyone will have a different idea of who comes out on top Hopefully everyone will be happy. One comment on your predictions, though - I wouldn't expect any pricecuts at E3, I think everyone will wait until Fall at least.

 

I think it will be either MS or Sony. I think we can forget about nintendo as nintendo said they want to go to E3 with a small amount of games because E3 is so much smaller. This is one of the reasons SSB wont be playable. Also nintendo doesnt have exactly a great record on announcing games on shows for the last couple of years. Atleast, in my opinion. So if there is big wii stuff I think it will be most likely from the few big pubs that are on E3.

 

GameTrailers 'Bonus Round' has talk on E3 where the likely content from each company is discussed. All the companies will be showing known key titles, so they cancel each other out. That is , LBP has lots it's surprise, and we all know what Metroid Prime is by now. These games will be covered by journo's and they'll probably like all of them! The company who garners the most attention will likely be the one who makes the biggest presence with the most titles or appeal in the titles or whatever. I think it's what we don't know about that is the most important factor. The surprise showings that get everyone talking and wondering.

MS could, potentially, unveil some novel peripheral games. They're supposedly working on them, and a recent comment (from Bill I think) said they needed to target this market that Nintendo dominates. Sony are reportedly waiting on a lot of as yet unannounced titles, so they could potentially drop a large amount of interest at E3. There's supposed to be something like 5 PS3ye games in development, and we've seen 2, one of which was only a cursory glance. Nintendo seem to have the least to unveil, going by rumours (or lack thereof). Repeats of franchises might make an appearance, so official announcements of Pikmin Wii. These titles are expected though, so won't be surprising. Other than that I expect them just to show the titles we already know about.

 

Given that most know what Microsoft is going to talk about before a conference, their silence and lack of leaks make me think that they are going t surprise a lot of people at E3 with what they have going on.

 

The full amount they are losing on each unit. Unless they want to lose $350 per unit I wouldn't even hope for a $50 price drop. They are probably realistically losing $150 to $160 per unit now than the previous $200. They have made some cost saving strides in the recent months.

 

The only two consoles that may impress and come up with huge surprises are Sony's and MS's I believe.

For now I cant see in Wii anything that can surprise as a game, other than the number of games shown and surprise announcements of originally exclusive franchises (probably games like Kingdom Hearts). Impressive games wasn't the main point last year's E3 anyways. Games were mostly mediocre and different, but managed to gain huge interested by the media based on the curiosity of people visiting their booth and the difference itself in the way its games were played. I have fears developers feel fine to just offer simply good games or games alienated from the genre they should have been because they know they will sell anyways and profit with low cost of production. Dragon Quest and Resident Evil: UC for example. I hope this will change at this E3.

Nintendo feels highly safe anyways. They are way above their competitors.

MS and Sony are the ones in a real battle though and they are the ones who will do anything possible to gain a leverage. They need surprise announcements and showings more.

 

Im with Nesh on this one. I just cant see how Mario Galaxy or Metroid can get a bigger reaction than what Sony and Microsoft will reveal at their press conferences, though I also agree that Nintendo can definately gain some headlines if they manage to get a game like Kingdom Hearts.

No more speculation for me. 1 more week til E3

 

I think if Nintendo is going to wow with anything, then it would have to be 3rd party publishers who have reallocated significant resources to Wii development for this year. Development cycles could be short enough so that the first real results could turn up at E3. Though probably Nintendo themselves should have one or two surprises as well. Just think about their previous E3 presentation. They're going to want to do something similar, seeing how it was a big success. There were a fair number of things shown there that we haven't heard from since, I believe, and E3 is as good a time as any for something to show.

Also, forget TGS for a moment. Sony doesn't have to choose this time. E3 will show everything, and at TGS the 'general public' can play everything. Even Japanese publishers are now having a bit of a Western rediscovery, so will be as keen as Sony to show off at E3. I also don't think they feel E3 needs to compete with their own Gamer's Day events, especially considering how generously they showed off at their last one.

I'm still of the opinion though that Sony has the best potential for having a big show. There are eyetoy things to be shown, we'll get to see the final SingStar with its myspace functionality and who knows some big stars can come on-stage to show it off. Of course there's a whole host of big games too.

Here's why I think Sony will have a big show. There's just a lot of stuff to show and talk about.

Playstation 3

Ratchet & Clank - Insomniac indicated that they haven't had as fluent a development and production cycle for a game in many years, largely because they did the ground-work while making Resistance. So I expect a lot to be showable and playable.

Heavenly Sword - apparently 1/3rd of the game was offered playable to EGM recently, and we've gotten a few glimpses of how hot that can look.

Little Big Planet - obviously. We'll see more levels and some more of the editor.

Lair - got its final release date for August, what, 18th? So is pretty much done.

Uncharted - polish will move on at a very steady pace, I'm sure

Killzone 2 - considering how long they've been at it, the game should be quite far ahead now. And regardless of whether it will be good or not, I'm sure they will have tried to get a few technical feats in there that will be interesting to see.

Gran Turismo - Could be further ahead than we think too; remember that we saw a movie of the La Sarthe track at Le Mans. I think they will show off some full on-board camera action, at the very least (there was a special Ferrari event teaser).

Time Crisis 4 - I'm not sure it will debut here, but I think it will. The star this time won't be the game, but the new GunCon 3. I very strongly wish that they make this gun available to Epic/UE3 as I can't imagine anything that I'd rather play an FPS with, but I guess that'd be too much to ask at this stage. Still, it would be absolutely awesome - two analog sticks that you can operate comfortably while holding a gun that works similar (but probably more precise - they'll want to be as close as they can to the excellent precision of the GunCon2) as the wii-mote pointer functionality. Time Crisis is still one of my favorite shooters, and I can't wait to be able to play it on a post 60hz CRT TV

Epic / UE3 / Unreal Tournament 3 - we'll see a very polished and nearly finished Unreal Tournament 3. I've read some small comments on it, that indicated it looked at least as good as GoW. Perhaps we'll also get the first glimpses of other UE3 games, though that may be to early - I think they're just barely nearing completion of the third party package for UE3 (consider the delay of Fatal Inertia).

EyeToy - Obviously we'll see the pretty much finished version of Eye of Judgment, but what of those other 4-5? And what about third parties? Are they ready to use it already?

Playstation Home - Another big thing that is coming along nicely. Maybe not that much new is to be said about it, but I'm sure it will be there and maybe we'll get to see some more examples or hear more specific details about how the first games and third party publishers, who I think are itching to get at it, are going to support it. Perhaps we'll hear that the first SDKs are going to be rolled out. Would probably be a good idea at this point in time, if you want games to support it come this Christmas.

Firmware 2.0 - as good a time as any to announce it, with in-game calling up of the XMB. Maybe they won't be able to release it day one as all games will need to work with it, and some may need a patch. But probably it shouldn't be too hard, and I think we'll get it soon enough. In any case, we'll probably hear about new features. Also, I expect they may give more details on how Home improvements will be reflected in the new firmware as well.

Havok - the new optimised for Cell version had some pretty awesome performance figures when announced a few months ago. Probably they were able to squeeze some more out of it since, but more interesting should be which games are going to support it. I'm willing to bet that we'll get stuff like more impressive explosions and additional physics in PS3 versions of multi-platform games as a result.

Wipeout HD - I'm sure we'll see something of this here, and it should be an absolutely fantastic online game.

Tekken 6 - probably playable. More importantly, we'll have Tekken 5 Online.

Soul Calibur 4 - will probably at least be present in some form.

Motion Control - I definitely expect some more stuff in this area. The much maligned sixaxis is more than capable of a lot of nice motion control stuff, and the SDK having been out there for a full year now, I think we'll get some more stuff that is intended for it specifically. There's a bowling game that's been in development for a long time already (pre-E3 2006) and should be about finished. An obvious possibility is a Mercury which uses realistic looking materials which could be interesting, but there's plenty more that I expect to become available through PSN.

Controller Redesign - I mention it, but I actually expect it should be too early for this. Maybe they will say something about it, maybe not. I think probably better not at this time.

Metal Gear Solid 4 - duh. We'll get more info and I presume we'll see something being played this time. Who knows a demo is coming up soon (I wouldn't be surprised if it comes with a vibration peripheral ). I expect it will use the sixaxis wherever it can, as these guys are creative enough to find a use for anything you throw at them (witness the GPS features of MGS PO on PSP).

God of War PS3 - maybe some first teasers?

Indiana Jones - some more Euphoria stuff, but this time we'll get a better impression of the actual game. Probably there will be some other games announced too.

Of course there will be plenty third party multi-platform games.

Playstation Portable

A redesign? Who knows. I wouldn't want to speculate too much on it. I could still see them do a touch screen or a keyboard. Or if they are serious about the GPS and EyeToy stuff, maybe have that included? I really wouldn't know what to make of it, but if they are serious about also including/supporting phone capabilities, this could be it.

EyeToy - lots of stuff left open on this one. Is it going to be supported by first and third parties seriously, or not?

GPS - exact same story. And are we going to get navigation software for it? Or does it tank?

PSP Store - Will be interesting to see if the PSP gets its own store now. At least I expect some kind of announcement.

PSX games on PSP - obviously we'll get some more of those.

PSN Games for PSP - The store could also lead to downloadable games a la PSN games for PS3.

God of War - obviously.

Final Fantasy VII - Maybe a good time for a playable demo?

PSP to PS3 connectivity - Definitely an area with as yet unfulfilled potential.

Playstation 2

We'll probably be surprised by how many games are still coming ... (apparently even on this board here there is someone right now developing an EyeToy game for it. ).

Motion Control - there are rumors of wii-mote like devices, as well as announced and even released third party devices that give motion control to existing and new PS2 games. This can definitely breathe some new life into the PS2 and it will be interesting to see if there are third party devs who are going to do something with motion control on the PS2.

The big question is, will they do it the same as last year, or will they make a bigger 'show' of it, like Nintendo did last year?

(I'm bummed, because I have holiday this week, but next week could be a very busy week at work. Maybe I'll try to work ahead a little in the coming days)

 

If the rumors are true that EPIC is working on a PS3 exclusive that is not UT3 that is going to be VERY interesting. Potentially the megaton of the conference.

And of course I'm very excited about seeing Killzone.

We also get a new MGS4 trailer, which never ceases to impress.

For 360 I am interested in what Halo SP is going to look like. I expect at least a very cinematic well crafted trailer. I doubt it will be playable.

For Wii, it's going to be very hard to impress me. Maybe if they announced a new game with a brand new mascot that might make some headlines. But otherwise, it's going to be pretty hard to dazzle people.

 

I haven't heard these rumours, but it would probably be an awesome idea if it got a real push. Wii has 6+ million customers. The cost to new Wii wagglers is $250. Imagine a Wiimote device for PS2, at $60 with Wii-sports like game! That could sell buckets to existing PS2 users, and be a cheaper alternative to the Wii. Especially if bundled with PS2 for $150 or so! I wonder if Sony have considered this?

 

Unfortunately the rumor has already been shot down by Sony.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/06/sony-ps2-motion.html

 

Shame for Sony I think. Though that quote doesn't actually debunk it. "This rumor is absolutely not true. There are currently no plans to add motion-sensing capability to the PlayStation 2 controller." Well who said anything about adding motion control to the PS2 controller? We're talking about a new peripheral!

 

Wonder if we'll get a glimpse of id's new game using their tech 5 engine.

 

CNN's take: http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/05/technology/videogames/index.htm?section=money_latest

 

Well I really think now is when we'll see a bit of the future wii has. I think E3 really is the time where devs need to show they are really willing to build good games for the platform and dont just want to continue with ps2'ish games with wii controlls slaped on.

Btw I liked this from the article

Maybe devs should realise if you want to compete with nintendo you need to have your #1 teams making games for the platform and not your #3 and #4 teams?

 

My Predictions.

Game of the Show: Rock Band
Most Impressive PS3 Game: Killzone 2
Most Impressive 360 Game: Ninja Gaiden 2
Most Impressive Wii Game: Metroid

Sony will come out of E3 looking the best.
Nintendo won't screw up.
Microsoft will.

 

They should! Their games team is twice the size of MS or N's.


My prediction:
Sony #1
MS #2
N #3

Nintendo's showing won't be much, but their 3rd party support will be the key point for them. I expect nearly every 3rd party dev will have something in the works for Wii.

MS will finally show their hand with Halo single player campaign, but few surprises. NG2 would be sweet but I'm not expecting much. IMO this will be by design. They will want the focus on this year as they have many great games coming right around the corner that they will want to highlight at e3.

Sony will want to show off quite a bit of longterm games (2008 etc) in hopes to hold off purchases and or keep in the publics eye. KZ2 should make an appearance and I expect Drake will walk away with game of the show. Overall, I expect many known and unknown showings from Sony to keep themselves in the limelight and reestablish ps3 as the premier game console.