LOS ANGELES -- The renewal of E3 in 2009 was a double-edged sword. It brought back the glitz and glamour of the old shows, but it also brought back all the smoke, mirrors, and fakery.
When the Electronic Entertainment Expo shuttered its doors in 2006, the trade show took up the entirety of the Los Angeles Convention Center and had 80,000 visitors. With the eyes of the world upon them, every gamemaker attempted to outdo the others, with flashier booths, noisier presentations, and bigger announcements.
After the cancellation of the trade show and the rebirth of E3 as a small-scale media event, the pomp and circumstance went away almost immediately. Yes, it was much easier to get work done, but there was also significantly less work to do -- fewer announcements, smaller games, and a generally depressed sense of excitement.
That's why, for all its issues, it's a good thing that "the real E3" is back in business. With the increased attention that comes with a flashy trade show environment filled with game fans, game publishers are once again pushed to produce game demos and presentations that are more impressive than the other guys'. The arms race is more fun to cover than the détente.
There's just one catch: As we saw in abundance this year, there's also plenty of subterfuge. For so many of their attempts to wow us are also attempts to pull the wool over our eyes, stopping us from asking questions like "Is that thing really doing what you say it is?" or "How much will it cost?" or "Is that thing even going to come out?"
What can we count on, and what's just snake oil?
E3 2009 will go down in nerd history as The Year That (Almost) Everything Leaked. We ran a story with seven different E3 rumors, and I'll be damned if six of them came true, including one that we made up. And the only one that didn't come true was the one we said most likely would not.
Then again, having a little bit of advance knowledge about the rumors didn't take all the wind out of their sails. There was still plenty to find out. But the unveilings often left more questions than they answered. Let's revisit the six true leaks.
Members of The Beatles made a personal appearance.
Boy howdy, did they ever. You should have seen the crowd get to its feet when Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr walked on stage at the Microsoft press conference on Monday. This was an excellent indication that E3 was well and truly back. The star power had been cranked up.
And the game they were promoting? It's awesome. My E3 was defined in great part by The Beatles: Rock Band, which I played on three separate occasions. Beatles was my game of the show purely based on time spent playing it, always with different groups of people who were just as excited as me to be singing the three-part harmonies to "Octopus' Garden" and "Day Tripper."
The general sentiment seems to be that Nintendo had the least invigorating press briefing, which is certainly true in my opinion as well. Why didn't they try to attract the exact same star power? After all, for what console is Beatles Rock Band going to sell the most copies? If you answered Wii, then right you be. So why did McCartney and that other guy appear at Microsoft's conference, not Nintendo's, to introduce the game? If Nintendo is going to remain the industry leader, one would think they'd want to put on a show of force and act like it. Speaking of which:
Nintendo showed new *Mario *and Zelda games for Wii.
Somehow, Nintendo actually managed to pull a fast one on us even though we'd already heard going in that *Mario *was a dead cert. It kicked off the briefing with news of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, lulling us into thinking that we'd heard the big news before unveiling the more surprising (and perhaps more appealing) Super Mario Galaxy 2.
I must say I was surprised, not only because there were two Wii Mario games but because it is quite unlike the Mario team to release a direct sequel like this. Generally, Nintendo spends about five years coming up with a brand new gameplay foundation for each new Mario game -- for as much guff as the company takes for relying on its older franchises, they very rarely create sequels as the rest of the industry does. Galaxy 2 is apparently a special case, but it's still slightly weird to see considering that the Mario team hasn't done something like this since 1986.
As for the Zelda reveal, it was a last-minute addition that wasn't anything more than a piece of concept artwork. It still counts, especially when you consider that a piece of 2-D art isn't any different from an informational standpoint than a CGI trailer: Both of them are created completely separately from the actual game itself, and neither gives you any indication at all as to the progress of the title -- just that it exists and that the developer has some ideas about what's going to be in it.
The announcement of Zelda, and to a lesser extent the Super Mario Galaxy 2 reveal, are largely distractions. That's what I mean by "smoke and mirrors" -- Reggie waves his magic wand, says "hey, look over here," and while you're distracted by the shiny trailer, you're forgetting about other things. Like, for example, that Nintendo's 2009 holiday lineup for Wii, in its entirety, consists of:
- Wii Fit Plus
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Remember how Nintendo was excoriated for its 2008 holiday lineup of Wii Music and Animal Crossing? This year's is just slightly more hard-core, but only just. And although NSMBW could be a massive sales success like its little brother on DS, it seems more like a light snack than a full meal.
But certainly Nintendo wasn't the only company relying on distractions.
Microsoft and Sony showed motion controllers.
What were the announcements of Project Natal and Sony's unnamed controller, if not attempts to make a big splash with a minimum of actual information? Yeah, these work-in-progress prototypes (clearly labeled as such by both parties) have interesting, even fascinating, potential applications. We got to look at the behind-the-curtain tech of Microsoft's camera, and were quite impressed with how well it recognizes body movements and a person's distance from the camera -- and how it can recognize two people at once.
But when, with what games, and at what price? These premature announcements were very likely made because Sony's and Microsoft's hands had finally been forced -- they simply could not go one more year without unveiling something to compete with Wii. Removing Nintendo's monopoly on motion controls had simply become of paramount importance. Of course, the likely reality is that Nintendo still has about a year and a half with the market all to itself before these prototypes become reality.
Until then, what all the attention over these big announcements concealed was that Microsoft and Sony are effectively ceding the war over the casual gamers to Nintendo in the interim, while they regroup.
The next Metal Gear Solid game was revealed.
Two of them, actually. That teaser website that Konami unveiled prior to E3 was introducing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, a PSP game, but also Metal Gear Solid Rising, an action game starring Raiden that will debut on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
This latter reveal marked the first, but not the last, confusing announcement at E3. Up until Konami's Wednesday press briefing, journos argued for two days over whether Rising, showed at Microsoft's presser, was exclusive to Xbox 360 or what. (Sony's even more confusing announcement of Final Fantasy XIV took the cake in that regard, however; more on that later.)
Nintendo showed Wii Fit Plus.
Yyyyyep.
Sony unveiled the PSP Go, a download-only PSP model.
I'm of two minds on the PSP Go. On the one hand, I was genuinely surprised when I got my hands on it at just how small and convenient it is in comparison to the standard PSP. The sliding screen has a really nice spring that snaps it open and shut, and the L and R buttons feel very comfortable.
On the other hand, it's tough to shake the feeling that we're just going to end up getting less features for more money. Remember: The current PSP model can do everything that the Go can, and more. And the PSP Go is $250, much more expensive than the current PSP model. The reason for the price disparity is surely down to the smaller parts, but Sony also confirmed that retailers are taking a higher markup on the Go. And why wouldn't they? They're not going to make a dime selling software to anyone who owns a PSP Go.
From Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter's note to investors following E3: "We were surprised at the $249.99 and €249.99 price points, and think that after a rush of fanboy purchases, sales of the device may stall."
(Pachter also called Sony's motion controller "Wii-nis envy," and that is the first and last time that I am going to print that phrase.)
PSP Go is all about convenience, but less in terms of the form factor and more about the convenience of downloading games on the fly and storing them on flash memory. With only a little bit of information on what games will be available at launch and what Sony's plans are to embrace downloadable content with smaller, cheaper games in the iPhone App Store style, we can't really know how PSP Go will be embraced by the older, richer consumer that Sony is clearly chasing.
It sure is a nice design, though. Too bad their official image (above) also features a gross claw-hand with hideously deformed thumbs grasping it.
But not everything leaked from this year's E3. There were some big surprises as well. Few of them were game-changing momentous occasions. There was no announcement this year that elicited any sort of collective gasp from the audience. Well, one came close:
Sony announces Final Fantasy XIV.
Say what you will about Sony, they wrung every last drop of juice they could get out of the *Final Fantasy XIV *trailer. Look at what Jack Tretton said in announcing the latest game in the series:
"PlayStation 3 will be the only console you'll be able to play Final Fantasy XIV on when it launches in 2010."
Oh, the parsing of words was positively Clintonesque! Hearing this, every media outlet reported exactly what it sounded like: that Sony, after losing Final Fantasy XIII as an exclusive, had pulled off a coup and sewn up the sequel. Of course, this was not in any way true, even though the sentence was. Read it again with the magic words highlighted:
"PlayStation 3 will be the only console you'll be able to play Final Fantasy XIV on when it launches in 2010."
Because of course Final Fantasy XIV, an MMORPG, will also appear on the PC, which is not a console, and an Xbox 360 version -- which Square later said it was looking into, in a hastily-issued clarification the next day -- will not be available at launch.
Smoke! Mirrors! Watch now, as my beautiful assistant distracts you from the real news! Presto!
Is it still great news for Sony that the game will be available on PlayStation 3, day one? Yes, so much so that it shouldn't have attempted subterfuge.
Nintendo unveiled the Wii Vitality Sensor.
Sony's press conference was still constantly interesting, which is something I can't say for Nintendo's briefing. It had its peaks and valleys, and one of the dips was the Vitality Sensor, a new piece of hardware that... takes your pulse while you play games? Look, I'm not saying this couldn't have interesting applications. But a) it's old and b) no software, not even a tech demo, was shown, leaving us all scratching our heads as to why Nintendo would spend time on this.
Microsoft announced Crackdown 2.
YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHH
Nintendo is teaming with Team Ninja to produce Metroid: The Other M.
I am cautiously optimistic. On the one hand, a third-person Metroid game produced by the originators in Japan could provide a refreshing alternative to Metroid Prime. On the other hand, if Team Ninja had handed in *Ninja Gaiden II *to Miyamoto, he wouldn't just have flipped the tea table over, he'd have broken it over their heads.
I'm hopeful that the Metroid brain trust helps them produce a story-based game that's done more artfully than Ninja Gaiden II's frankly ridiculous narrative and with lots more polish. This is a make-or-break moment for the series, as they're taking it in a direction that could be an even bigger dice roll than the gamble that was the first-person Prime. It paid off in spades, then. Will lightning strike twice?
Sony announced The Last Guardian.
There is absolutely no downside to this, except for the fact that, much like the Metroid trailer, this trailer is there to placate us while we wait (and wait) for the when-it's-done final product.
Microsoft and Lionhead announced Milo and Kate, the only currently-announced Project Natal game.
Peter Molyneux has a reputation for promising absurdly grand things, then having to backpedal when his products turn out to be, well, videogames. Good, even great videogames, yes. But the promises are just astounding.
He's up to his old tricks again with Milo and Kate. Last year, the creator of Fable told Chris Baker that this game would be a "significant scientific achievement" that would end up on the cover of Wired magazine. And now, here it is: It's a virtual-human simulator, like *Nintendogs *or Seaman but with a young boy to interact with rather than an animal or quasi-human fish.
We got to interact with a very, very small slice of the game, in which Milo talks us into going fishing with him. From this we can certainly determine that the camera functionality works. But how realistic will Milo seem once the E3 shackles are off? And why was there, quite literally, a man behind a curtain in the demo room?
Forgive me if I take everything anyone says about Milo and Kate with a big, big grain of salt.
But I will be first in line to buy it.
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We'll be updating Game|Life with more hands-on impressions, interviews, and other snippets of information gleaned at E3 throughout the week.
