This year’s E3 Expo is about the future of videogames, as always. But it’s also about delaying the future for as long as possible: Instead of rolling out new gaming machines, the big players are adding flashy new tech to systems already on shelves in an attempt to extend existing consoles’ life cycles and attract new players.
E3, aka the Electronic Entertainment Expo, opens Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Microsoft’s E3 focus will be Project Natal, a camera-based device that lets Xbox 360 players control the onscreen action using body movements. (Microsoft introduced Natal at last year’s E3.) Sony will highlight PlayStation Move, its version of the Wii motion controller, and make a big move into 3-D stereoscopic gaming.
It’s arguable that Natal and Move will differentiate Microsoft’s and Sony’s aging consoles more than a faster CPU and better graphics would, anyway.
“What would an Xbox 720 even look like? We’re beginning to hit the point of diminishing returns,” said Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter. He says Sony and Microsoft will treat the launches of the new controllers as if they were entirely new machines.
The only company unveiling a new game platform at the show will likely be Nintendo, which will show off its 3-D-enabled portable machine, the Nintendo 3DS. Although the company’s current DS hardware remains a smash success, the portable device is positively geriatric, dating back to 2004. Facing renewed competition from Apple’s game-friendly iPhone and iPod Touch, Nintendo needs to do something radically different.
E3 is back at full size after a few downsized years, and ready to once again serve as a portal into videogaming’s near future. The industry’s grandest trade show, expected to draw over 40,000 attendees, will lure every major publisher to the Los Angeles Convention Center. There, they will show off high-profile titles they plan to release in the next 12 months, and even give some early looks at what the next few years will bring.
It’s great timing, says Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse Divnich, because the struggling game industry needs a show of force.
