E3 has ended. The big three and major publishers have all completed their pressers, and it could be argued that Ubisoft won the whole thing with Watch Dogs. For the sake of discussion, however, let’s focus on Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.
Microsoft?
The Xbox 360 started off a full year before PS3 and throughout its first 3-4 years, Microsoft was all about beating Sony. The firm would outright buy third-party games, essentially blocking them from releasing on PS3, and almost every time DLC was announced, MS secured timed-exclusive rights for its platform. Indeed, the goal was to beat Sony, a goal Microsoft accomplished with bruises.
Since then, though, Microsoft has shifted its strategy to bigger players like Apple and Google, turning Xbox 360 into a hub for entertainment while making gaming a side dish. It’s no longer the bread and butter of the console. Microsoft’s attitude was reflected in its press conference as it opened up the show with Halo 4, a great game, yes, but one that supposedly saw its end with Halo Reach. Later, games from Ubisoft were shown, and to close Microsoft once more turned to Call of Duty, but the bulk of the presser was dedicated to what I call “the shift”, with new services like Smart Glasses and Xbox Music.
Sony And Beyond
The irony of the turn of events which began 6 six ago is simply humbling. Sony was the king of the ring, and Microsoft was the new kid on the block with a lot of money. Now, though, Sony’s in the fight of its life; an understanding relayed to gamers over and over again by SCEA CEO and President Jack Tretton at Sony’s E3 press conference, though not in so many words. He spoke highly of the gamers, and showed countless core gaming experiences only found on PS3. His closing statements almost frightened me because it sounded as if Sony was saying goodbye to the industry, but his end-words helped me recover: “But I promise you, the best is yet to come.”
It was a great show most of the time, and Quantic Dream’s Beyond: Two Souls and Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us solidified Sony’s dedication to the core gamer. Perhaps it’s for the better, then. Perhaps it’s good Microsoft has shifted its focus over to Apple and Google. I believe it offers a balance; because if Microsoft was still chasing after Sony in the games industry, Tomb Raider would have been an Xbox 360 exclusive. So too, would be Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
Did Nintendo Impress U?
And Nintendo. I was thoroughly disappointed with that firm’s press conference, however I believe Wii U has big potential. Here’s the thing: the more I look at Wii U, the clearer it becomes to me that the machine can do awesome things, especially since Nintendo has realized its original sin, and is making strides to come back to its roots: the core gamer. ZombiU looked amazing, but Mass Effect 3 and Arkham City did not excite me because they’re old games. I needed to see more Wii U titles at the event, I needed to see more new core IPs involved.
Consequently, I left halfway through and only returned because I’m a journalist. I must cover the news.
I don’t know, Nintendo has about six months to convince gamers of Wii U’s value, something that could only be done with games, and although Mario is everyone’s favorite mascot, he won’t be enough for Wii U to replicate and outdo the Wii’s mammoth success.
Overall, I feel like this was the worst e3 I have seen in a while. I feel that the brightest spot was ubisoft. They showed off some great games. I was bored with all of the big three conferences, but I liked Beyond, God Of War and The Last of Us from Sony. MS was the biggest let down. From what I have read about the new Gears game, it sounds like it is going to be ODST all over again. It sounds more like an add on dlc than a full game. I saw an interview with Rod Fergusson in which he said that it is not going to be the cinematic experience like the other Gears games, but more of an open game. That is what ODST was. Halo 4 did not blow me away either. I just getting tired of Halo. I love the franchise, but there has been to many halo games this gen. Then there was forza and i am super pissed about this game because they are moving away from the core of the franchise and that bothers me.
The main Highlights for me:
The Last of Us
God Of War
Beyond
Splinter Cell (I am disappointed that it is a different voice actor)
Watch Dogs
Assassin’s Creed 3 (consoles and vita)
ESPN coming to xbox in full with live streaming
The main let downs:
Wii U (it was not bad, but no price point or release date)
MS conference in general
Sony conference in general (other than a few games)
I can really see that this generation is coming to a close and we should expect a lot of next gen rumors in the coming year.
ubisofts was good but they wasted too much time on the stupid annoying arguments between the girl presenting the show and the guy back stage.
ubisoft really need to learn how to market games and be a professional company!
they probably think its funny, but its not its REALLY annoying!
their slutty commercials for games like future soldier another perfect example of that.
they need to grow up!
that and the wasted time on just dance 4, and shootermania really spoiled the conference for me.
it was like the other 3 conferences, had its high and its lows.
and they did not deliver on allot of things i was expecting!
they revealed brothers in arms the furious 4 last E3 so where the hell was it this year!?
i really believed we would FINALLY see BG&E2 at their show this year too, especially because of all the resent leaked trailers and rumours!
M$s was by far my favourite!
simply because everything they showed was interesting and exciting!
they did not have 1 boring uninteresting bit in there!
only slow point was the madden and fifa kinect features, but these were also our first time weve seen the games so they were still exciting!
nintys was a MASSIVE disappointment!
i was expecting detailed hardware notes, a rough price prediction and a more precise launch window than holiday.
not to mention all the games you would expect from the company, all of them but one was absent!
and even that was a massive let down!
super mario galaxy 3 should be the launch title, not super mario brothers u!
EAs was pretty disappointing too.
they did not announce a army of two game which i really was expecting and REALLY want!
another game i REALLY wanted to see which was not there was mirrors edge 2!
or at least battlefield bad company 3!
other than that everything i wanted to be there was there.
in some that was good and in others that was bad.
crysis 3 looks OH MY FREAKING GOD SO BLOODY GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that was the good part, the bad part was NFS most wanted 2 looks NOTHING like most wanted!
looks more like NFS hot pursuit 2!
and dead space 3, well that looks allot more like lost planet 2!
gotta love it how publishers listen to fans!
dead space 2 was allot more action game and far less survival horror than the original, and they got ripped a new hole for it!
so to fix that problem and make fans happy were going to make it even more of a mindless shooter!
thanks EA for taking one of the VERY few horror games left, and doing what everyone else has done, turn it into a mindless action game!
thank you oh so very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!
last but not least by far THE WEAKEST show of all!
wheres the last guardian?
the game has been in development for SEVEN FREAKING YEARS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i swear to god by the time the last guardian releases man is going to be living on pluto!
first off $ony spent WAY too much time whipping it out and getting the ruler out.
oh look at us were so good we have sold this many, have this many users, blah blah blah!
guess what $ony.
NO ONE CARES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NO ONE travelled across the world to hear that!
NO ONE got up at the wee hours of the morning to hear that!
i only had 3 hours sleep yesterday i got up super early just so i could watch it, and for what!?
so there was that, the waste of time, then there was the disappointment of so few games showing up, then there was the disappointment of how short what did turn up was.
the last of us and GOW were freaking amazing, but they were so god dam short!
in conclusion M$ did the best because they did not have any boring parts.
ubisoft came second because they had by far the most amazing games of the show!
EA 3rd because while the games they showed dont look like what they should, they still look freaking awesome!
dead space 3 for instance looks nothing like a dead space game, but my god it did look good!
ninty came 4th, simply because they did not show many games, and because they did not show off allot of what they should of!
but what they did looked awesome!
$ony dead stone cold last simply because wheres all the games they should be showing?
wheres agent?
officially dead im saying, its been what 3 years since it was announced!?
the last guardian has been in development for as i said SEVEN FREAKING YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and what was shown was either boring crap like the book of spells crap, and what little was left, the good stuff that should of been there, was so short!
definitely the WORST E3 ive ever seen!
^ dude i’m sorry but if you honestly think M$ won E3 then there is something mentally wrong with. Microsoft was hot garbage it was so bad i fell asleep thats how it sucked and so was EA’s they showed nothing but crap besides Dead Space, all that other crap was stupid. Ubisoft clearly took the show when they revealed watch_dogs, that game was so damn cool. sonys was good but it was lacking nothing really we didn’t already know except for beyond. As for nintendo i was severely disappointed in their conference the only things of merit was Pikmin 3 & Zombie U. things they were doing pissed me off like showing all that casual garbage, showing games that have already been out for other consoles like who really cares been their done that already. its not like no does not have all the other 3rd party games that were released so don’t see the point. then they showed 3 Mario games, i was so infuriated with that at this point the cow is dry and im sick of mario. they could have at least shown a unique mario but instead they show Mario bros which has been the same crap for 30 yrs. where the hell is star fox, fzero, mother, super smash bros. why so they continually keep shoving mario down our throats for? i want series that have been missing for years like really c’mon. aside from the games the system looked cool but through that whole conference not once did Nintendo at least propose reasons to own wii u. im sorry but pikmin isn’t enough for me to buy a new console i need core games dammit.
crysis 3 was not crap!
im not going to waste my time.
crysis in general is crap, all that series ever had was graphics nothing more.
NIck
MS did the same thing with numbers. You are such a blind fanboy. Both conferences sucked. MS is stuck rinsing and repeating the same franchises, and making them into something they are not (forza) and releasing full games that should just be dlc (Gears of War). Sony did not fair better, but at least they had Beyond and The Last Of Us.
Beyond and The Last of Us were more than enough to win me over when it came to E3. @Ernice thanks for nudging me on down the road to buying a PS3. Watch Dogs is going to be something special and of course the return of Big Sam Fisher channeling the Legion of Doom What A Rush! I know many people are bummed out about Fisher’s voice change but I look at it like James Bond different people are going to play the character.
As for E3 in its entirety, the gaming industry finally said and more importantly displayed it gaming is no longer about us the hardcore gamers. We had a great run guys but mobile and family gaming is where the money is along with streaming entertainment.
Back to playing Ghost Recon….
I think that E3 was a tad light this year. Next gen coming in 2013 E3 so buckle up. But if I had to pick a winner I pick gamers!!! Tons of good stuff showed by the Big 3 and publishers came with the heat too. Lots of titles to be excited for and anticipation for TGS, more nintendo news, and the Vita Heaven thing later this month. Last of Us, Halo 4, Crysis 3, Beyond, the new Gears, and pretty much everything Ubisoft showed looked amazing! And once again, BIG BIG UPS to the GT staff and EG for the amazing coverage and streams….as usual GT on top of the competition! GamesThirst wins E3!!!!!
Sony: for me Sony stole the show.
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They showed the games i want the most, Beyond, Last of Us, Playstation All Star, God OF War. i am dying to play each and every one of those.
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Ubisoft came in a very close second, for Far Cry 3, ACIII & Watch Dogs.
you say that and im the blind fanboy?
ok thats it im done, from now on im saying whatever i want to say and thats it.
im sick of sitting here explaining myself for hours and it goes through one ear and out the other!
im done!
What did I say that made me sound like a fanboy? What? You rag on something that Sony did and did not even mention that MS did the same thing. I did not say that Sony was so amazing and MS sucks. I said they both sucked, but at lest Sony had some good new IPs in Beyond and The last of Us. Just look at your profile pick. We know right off the bat that we can’t trust anything you say because you clearly hate Sony.
Can we just not fight? We are all gamers right? It’s just games. Not a life deciding decision where If we choose Sony or MS and we become retards.
i think the non fanboy gamers won( those who own most consoles). because they have a variety to pick from… and if those launch dates remain spaced out…. our wallets wont have to complain much… i tried to watch most interviews but i think what they should have asked most of these developers why they charge for content that is already on the disc… or if it possible to sell the multiplayer separate from the single player campaign……..