E3 2011 the reckoning!
By Punk1984 7 Comments
Man it has been awhile...
Anyway E3 2011...yay! Who won? Who cares? No one and no one.
Each of the big three game companies delivered a lackluster presser even though two of them had some awesome tech and game son the floor.
Breakin' it down!
Microsoft: The ad wizards at Microsoft have continued to some how manage to give the people what they don't want. I really felt like I was watching E3 2010's presser all over again. It just seemed like a photo copy of last year's; start with COD, next do some Gears follow that up with a bunch of expanded media announcements no one in this auditorium cares about, KINECT! KINECT! KINECT! CHILD ACTORS WITH KINECT! and wrap it up with a little Halo. granted the Halo stuff was new...but there wasn't much to it, it was like back in 2008 when Sony announced God of War 3 with a short pre-rendered trailer. Pretty much a let down and if I were a Microsoft fan I'd be scratching my head. I'm sure the Microsoft execs are scratching their heads wondering who their audience is-kids? moms? Tweens? Bro-Dudes? Dalmations? Thumbs down!
Sony: Has had a hard spring...a really hard spring. They did a few solid things namely apologizing for the PSN outage twice. They also showed off Uncharted 3 and a 3D TV I can actually afford. Resistance 3 did not look as good as I had hoped but hopefully that is this years Uncharted: Drakes Fortune a game that didn't show well but blew my mind once I had it to play. The Vita's price was a pleasant surprise. I always knew I was going to eventually get one because of my PSP fanboyism but I didn't think it would be priced so I could get one at launch...which is when? Sony just said it would be released by the end of 2011? Am I getting it for Christmas? New Years? Boxing Day? Who knows?! I was more surprised by what Sony didn't show, no Twisted Metal, no Starhawk on stage, no Ratchet and Clank, no big surprised game to close the show? By most accounts all these games are good so why didn't Sony show them off? Too much time with Move and 3D? I love the Move and think Deadmund's Quest looked fun but was it really better than Starhawk? There was more stuff I liked than stuff that left me shrugging but come on this was an easy win and Sony botched it. They had the good stuff they just didn't show it off. Thumbs sideways!
Nintendo: Nintendo hates the Wii. That was my impression, you're gonna get this Zelda game because Miyamoto's been working on it for two years, but that is it. As quickly as Nintendo abandoned the core audience they've abandoned their new expanded audience. (In all fairness both audiences abandoned the Wii first) 3DS games look cool but this year they didn't show off the cool 3D parts, it was kind of like "Here is a new Mario game...ad it does 3D if you want." With the Vita priced at $249 the 3DS needs an app and quick. I don't think Super MArio 3DS is that app. It needs an app that reaches beyond its established audience and into a wider audience like Angry Birds or (in Japan) Monster Hunter, the good news for Nintendo is that they have time Vita doesn't appear to have that mass appeal app either. Then there is the WiiU I guess it was fun and I guess it is powerful but outside from the controller and the name it is still a big question mark. A lot like last year's 3DS reveal everyone ohh-ed and ahh-ed and handed out prizes but you still didn't know much. In fact I would say we know less about WiiU then we knew about the 3DS last year. No games, no specs, no format, no price and no release date. I mean come on I'm sure it is cool and all but what have you got for me now? Nothing? You have footage of games running on your competitor's hardware presented like it was your own? A Zelda OST? Okay I guess... thumbs sideways
If I had to pick a winner I would say Sony...but nothing blew the doors off the place.
IF Microsoft had more Core stuff to show and showed an interesting game for Kinect, they could have won. If Sony had announced the Vita's price, release date and not said AT&T they could have won and if Nintendo had shown an actual game running on the WiiU that was worth the wait they could have won.
No won truly won ... well the fans did because there is gonna be another wonderful year of cool games, just wish we could have seen some of them at the pressers.