David Emery Online

Three

11 May 2006

It’s funny; I haven’t launched any sites in a while now (at least a month) but we’re probably going to do 3 this week…

Although I’d like to write more – so busy! – I’ve got a few quick thoughts about E3 going on at the moment; it’s all a bit of a let down, really.

Microsoft really didn’t do anything interesting – they’re in a good position at the moment, have a big installed base before Nintendo and Sony get there, but they simply didn’t announce anything surprising or innovative at all. The Halo 3 trailer looks good, but that’s not coming out till next year. Same story with GTA4 – nice to know it won’t be PS3 exclusive, but again not coming out for over a year. The other stuff, like “Live anywhere”, where you can continue games in a limited fashion across Xbox PC and mobile phones sounds, well, pointless really. I can see a limited value in being able to create content on a PC for use on an Xbox, but that’s about it really. It is, however, a limited play into the MySpace style space, what with the friends list support (including voice and video chat) across the 3 platforms.

Nintendo I think summed up by a quote I read somewhere – “I liked it, but wanted to like it more”. The Wii looks potentially very interesting – so inovative, but will it actually be good? Also, from what I’ve seen the machine doesn’t really look much more powerfull then a GameCube – so why couldn’t the controller and net access stuff be a GameCube add on (obviously other then needing to sell bits of kit)? Of course, it has got a new Mario game, so I will buy it.

Sony. Sony made one single mistake, which almost brought down the whole house of cards. The new controller looks good; the shape of the old Dual Shock was always very good, and the addition of motion detection, while being an obvious rip off of Nintendo, is still a great (and unexpected) feature. The games also looked good, with a number of promising titles; while obviously not meeting the standards of the pre-rendered footage shown last year, I don’t think anyone really expected them to.

The mistake, of course, is the price. Don’t get me wrong, I think the price is probably too high (I certainly won’t be able to afford it on launch), but in the long run it really won’t matter. Sony will get one christmas – when they will almost certainly be limited by supply anyway (all 3 – including the 360 – will be in limited supply at christmas; games consoles always are) – where they can price gouge the early adopters, and then we’ll get a steep $100 – $150 reduction come easter time 2007. Sony has the brand name to do this kind of thing, at they know it.

So, this year I don’t think any of the big 3 were particularly inspiring; roll on next year…