Now we come to the end of our show. Sony’s E3 2010 press conference finally takes place. Jack Trenton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, walks onto the stage. He gives us a tour of the PS3 before he introduces Kaz Hirai to talk about the new 3-D features of the PlayStation 3.

Kaz gives us a short preview of what to expect when Sony launches its new 3-D features for the PS3 sometime next year. We don’t see any footage we just hear a lot of talk.

Killzone 3 – finally, we get a live playable demo showing us the 3-D features of this game. Everyone in the audience is given 3-D glasses to watch the demo. Unfortunately for those of us watching this presentation in the comfort of their own home (me), the effect is useless. Nevertheless, Killzone 3 looks spectacular even in 2-D! The graphics look very realistic and the gameplay looks smooth. I kept thinking to myself, “man, it’s too bad this isn’t on the PC ‘cause I’d really love to play with the keyboard and mouse!” Oh well, it’s still a must buy for me. Release date: February 2011. One other detail Sony mentioned is that Killzone 3 would be fully compatible with the new Sony MOVE. Maybe I don’t need a keyboard and mouse after all.

Kaz continues the presentation by showing us a video of third-party games that are coming to the PS3 in 3-D. The list is impressive but the video itself is pretty boring to us at home who could only watch it in 2-D.

Jack takes the stage again to talk about the 10 year anniversary of the PS2. He talks about how its sales are still going strong today. Come on, Sony, this is an E3 press conference not a Board of Directors meeting. Tell us about your new system and games, not your old one.

MOVE — Peter Dille takes the stage to talk about the Sony MOVE. Throughout his entire speech is pretty obvious that he’s reading from the Teleprompter is constantly looking down.

A short video is shown of various developers discussing and praising the Sony MOVE. This short video goes on for far too long with no real footage of the MOVE in use or any games. At this point in the presentation I realize there haven’t been any big announcements. We’re about 30 minutes into the press conference and nothing surprising has happened. What is Sony waiting for? Come on, let’s get to it! Enough of the ass-kissing videos and sales numbers. I wanna’ see games!

Peter talks about the MOVE having “buttons”, and obvious slam to Microsoft and the Kinect. Where is all this negative hostility coming from? Microsoft isn’t playing the mudslinging game. What’s bothering me more is the fact that Peter still keeps looking down at the Teleprompter. It’s annoying.

At this point I start experiencing some connection problems I don’t know if it’s going on at the show floor or if it’s happening at the gametrailers.com streaming servers. The video keeps jumping back and forth by a few seconds. I don’t really miss too much but it is very annoying.

Sorcery — at first glance this game looks like a Harry Potter type knockoff. You use the Sony MOVE to swing your wand and fight off all kinds of villainous and monstrous characters. It didn’t take very long for the audience to realize that this was a very unique game. The movements looked natural and very smooth. Also the color of the glowing ball on the end of the MOVE changed to match what was going on on-screen. The audience burst into applause several times throughout the demonstration. Very cool indeed, Sony.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 — I’m not really into sports games, outside of racing games, so I don’t have much to say about Tiger Woods. The graphics looked good in the MOVE control seemed natural.

Suddenly the streaming goes all out of whack. The video jumps back and forth a few seconds constantly. It’s really hard to watch the presentation at this point. Fortunately the video returns back to normal before the Tiger Woods presentation ends.

Heroes on the MOVE — not many details are given about this game other than it stars Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Dexter, and Sly Cooper all in one game. Is it a linear action game? Is it an adventure game with multiple quests and puzzles? Who knows.

I’m starting to feel a little bit let down; no real big surprises have been announced.

Jack then talks about a new partnership that Sony is doing with Coca-Cola. It’s something along the lines of how PlayStation characters and products will appear on Coke cans or something like that. I don’t know; I don’t care. I just want to see more games. Please, Sony can we just have more games?

Next, comes what I consider to be the low point of Sony’s press conference. Kevin Butler walks out on stage and performs his Sony “corporate guy” routine before the audience. Kevin starts slamming Microsoft, again! He starts talking about gaming life. Yeah, it’s funny but at the same time I ask, what’s the point of this? Why is Sony giving time to the war with their competitors? Why is Sony padding out this conference with so much talk? Are there any surprises left for Sony? Unlike Microsoft and Nintendo’s press conferences, I haven’t seen anything in this press conference that’s made me catch my breath. Then, Jack makes a big announcement.

The Sony MOVE will be available on September 15 in Europe, and September 19 in North America. The controller itself will cost $49.99, and $29.99 for the “nun-chuck”. Wow! That’s two months before Kinect hit stores and possibly cheaper as well! There will be 15 to 20 new titles at launch and several older games will be patched to use Sony MOVE. Finally, some worthy news!

Sony then shows us another video of some of the games and the technology behind MOVE. I’m all excited about motion controllers. I admit they look good and at this point I can’t tell which motion controller I like more -MOVE or Kinect? Both seem to have their advantages and disadvantages. One thing is for sure, Nintendo is sooooooo screwed this Christmas!

Next we get another series of videos giving us a preview of the upcoming Sony PSP advertising campaign. Once again it’s funny to watch, but I can’t help but keep asking, who cares? Show us more games, not marketing videos!

Sony does show us footage from a few of its new PSP games. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, InvZimals, God of War: Ghosts of Sparta, just to name a few. They look good but they seem to be lost in the shuffle instead of being individually presented like Microsoft and Nintendo did with their games.

Jack talks up PSN and its success. He said that today casting for season two of “The Tester” starts. He also says that for those of us stuck at home (me), we can visit a virtual E3 Sony floor-booth within HOME. Sounds cool, I have to try that later. Jack keeps talking. In fact he keeps talking too much. Less talk, more games, please!

Little Big Planet 2 — they gather up some audience members on stage and demonstrate a few of the new user made levels and features from the game. I suppose this game is great to some people but to me it looks pretty dull. I don’t want to waste my time creating levels, I just want to play them. Sorry, Little Big Planet is just not for me.

PlayStation Plus — now we get to the big announcement that has been rumored for quite a few months. Sony is finally introducing a paid subscription plan almost similar to Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE. For $49.99 per year you’ll have access to exclusive content like early demos, free games, themes, minis, and other things. What’s interesting to note is that this exclusive content is available to you only while you are an active subscriber. So if you get a game off of PSN through this service and then decide not to pay my bill next year, it’s gone.

Sony promises that the core multiplayer features that are available now on PSN will remain the same to non-paying customers. PlayStation Plus is for those of you who want more. Honestly, I am in awe that Sony actually did this. All those years that Sony ripped Microsoft for charging for Xbox LIVE, and then they pull a stunt like this! Amazing!

Next up, EA games shows us a sneak peek of the new Medal of Honor game which comes out October 10, this year. It looks good. Medal of Honor, Call of Duty – they both look the same to me now and I can’t even tell them apart.

EA then goes on to show us a playable demo of Dead Space 2. Once again the graphics look great, but this is a multi-platform game. Chances are high its going to look better on the 360 or the PC so I’m not so impressed with the PS3 version.

One neat thing about both of these games is the fact that EA is releasing exclusive content to the PS3. Medal of Honor will receive the original PSOne version of Medal of Honor: Frontline. Dead Space 2 will include the Wii version of Dead Space: Extraction.

Suddenly, in a major blow to Microsoft, none other than Gabe Newell walks out to the stage and announces that Portal 2 is coming to the PS3. Gabe apologizes for his numerous comments throughout the years criticizing the architecture of the PS3. This is a very awkward moment indeed. Add to that, he says that the PS3 version of Portal 2 will be the best version available on the console. Wow! Good thing I’m getting the PC version. They show a very brief clip of Portal 2 gameplay and it looks amazing. I can’t wait till next year to play it!

Sony shows off a few more brief clips of games to come.

Final Fantasy XIV: Online — I’m not really final fantasy guy myself so all I can say is that it looks pretty much like the previous one.

Mafia II – I’ll probably end up getting this one on the PC, but Sony is promising exclusive day one content for this game so that may end up being a game changer.

Assassin’s Creed: brotherhood — once again another game with day one exclusive content for the PS3 version. They showed a multiplayer trailer but I had no idea what was going on. I looked good though.

At this point in the conference it strikes me that Sony is really pushing itself into Microsoft’s territory. All of these big exclusives should force the big MS to act fast.

Sony then concluded this segment of the presentation by showing a video of some of the upcoming PS3 games. Not all of them were exclusives though. I thought this was the end of the show. It was almost 2 hours later and I was ready to go eat lunch. No such luck, Sony still had a few more announcements.

Gran Tourismo 5 – this game looked amazingly real with awesome graphics, however this is not my type a racing game. Destruction racing is my thing and there was none of that to be seen in this game. To those of you interested in this game, November 2, this year is the day you want to remember. This game is also 3-D compatible right out of the box.

Infamous 2 – I’ve never gotten around to playing the first game, but I promise I’ll get to it one day. The sequel looked great and I’d love to give it a try. I just have to beat the first one.

Finally, to the surprise of everyone on stage Sony rolled out an actual life-size ice cream truck from the Twisted Metal franchise. That’s right Twisted Metal returns to the PS3 next year. They showed a short multiplayer demo which looked both good and bad. Graphically it looked like it still needed a little bit of work. Some of the explosions didn’t look right and it was also a little choppy. The game isn’t coming out till 2011 so I’m sure they’ll fix those issues by then. Gameplay wise, it looked really fun. The ability to recklessly shoot at your opponents with all kinds of crazy weapons and vehicles looked fantastic. I’ll have to keep my eye on this one.

Jack Trenton comes on stage one more time to close out the show. That’s it! The presentations are over. Now it’s time to walk the floor and try everything out – unless you are stuck in your home like me L.

I just finished watching Nintendo’s E3 2010 press conference. Going into this press conference I really wasn’t expecting much from Nintendo. I had no idea which games they were going to announced and what new features they’re going to show off. Here’s my breakdown of the show.

Reggie Fils-Aime steps out onto the stage to introduce the show. She says that technology is a tool and that “experience” is better than “technology”. He’s right, except you can’t have very many great experiences if your technology comes up short – “hint, hint” – Wii HD please?

Nintendo gets right down to business and shows off a brand-new Zelda game: “The Legend of Zelda: Skywards Sword”. The game features 1:1 sword swinging action using the Nintendo Wiimote as a sword and the nun-chuck as a shield. By swinging the sword in different directions you can defeat enemies in a variety of ways. At first it reminded me of the new Metal Gear game on the Xbox 360, but it seems a little bit deeper because of the Nintendo controller. About halfway into the presentation they started having connection errors. The controller wouldn’t respond to the actions onscreen. The presentation started going really bad to the point of where this would end up on YouTube as another infamous E3 moment. They ended this presentation with a release date of 2011.

Mario Sports Mix — at first I thought this was just going to be another Mario sports game. As it turns out this is many Mario sports games mixed into one! Mario and his pals will be able to play soccer, volleyball, dodge ball, and basketball just to name a few. The graphics looked great in the gameplay looked pretty fun. Release date: sometime 2011.

Next, Reggie spends a few moments talking about the Wii and its sales. He plays up how Nintendo had its biggest Christmas last year and how its games continue to outsell its competitors combined. It almost like he’s convincing the audience that there is still some life left in the Wii. Just get back to the games, Reggie.

Wii Party — Nintendo shows off this online multiplayer party game. It features 13 different party games combined into one. The game looks a lot like Wii sports and uses your Mii avatars. It basically looks like kid stuff and uninteresting to me.

Just Dance 2 — obviously a sequel to Just Dance. You basically “just dance” swinging the Wiimote around. This game looked mundane and dated especially after seeing yesterday’s Dance Central on the Xbox 360 using NO controller.

At this point in the presentation I start getting bored. I expect the next group of games to be just as equally uninteresting. Boy, was I wrong.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn — I’m not really an RPG guy so I don’t have much to say about this game other than for a DS game this looked pretty sweet. Graphics looked great and it looked like it would appeal to core gamers too. Good job, Nintendo.

Goldeneye — okay so this is a remake of the original N64 classic. This was actually leaked last night so I knew it was coming. I don’t know how Nintendo did it but apparently they are able to port the original Rare (now Microsoft owned) game to the Wii. Graphics looked great, gameplay looked intense — one huge disappointment: Daniel Craig as James Bond? What! This was Pierce Brosnan’s movie! Maybe that was part of the arrangement that Nintendo made with a Rare to get the game on the Wii. One other thing that stuck out was the fact that this was a full retail game and not a Wiiware downloadable title. That’s odd; Nintendo doesn’t have enough GameCube games to port over to the Wii? Now they have to port over and N64 games?

Disney’s Epic Mickey — Warren Spector came out onstage to show off this new game. The game takes place in a wasteland called “Venture Land”. This land is full of lost and forgotten characters from Disney’s past. I was really looking forward to learning more about this game and was not disappointed by the presentation. This is a corrupted land and you must make use of both paint and paint thinner to save this world. Mickey has the ability to erase and restore characters. Apparently this game will have some kind of a “moral” system. You’ll be able to choose whether you want to save characters or erase them completely. This will affect later levels and characters you encounter. The game is also a mixture of adventure, platforming, and RPG and uses very different art styles for its different levels. This game looks fantastic and I can’t wait to try it out. No release date given.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn — obviously a new entry into the Kirby franchise. This game looks like it takes place in the world of cloth and fabric. I must say this is a really cool idea and looked amazingly great on the Nintendo Wii. Release date: fall 2010.

It’s at this point in the conference that I start to realize, “Wow! Nintendo really has their act together this year! There are some great games coming out to the Wii!”

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies — this is a Japanese game and is now making his entry to the US. Once again I’m not really RPG guy so I won’t say much about this game other than it’s coming out June 11 and will have a lot of social networking features too.

Metroid: Other M — this game was first announced at last year’s E3 and we haven’t heard much of it since. The video that they showed looks like it has amazing graphics and great action. It looks like the mix of 2-D and 3-D action and puzzles. Release date: August 31 of this year! No way! Good job, Nintendo and Team Ninja.

Donkey Kong Country Returns — this game is made in the tradition of the original Rare classic on the and 64. Amazingly cool cartoony art style with lots of fast and furious action. I can’t wait to give this will try; it looks really fun!

It dawns on me at this point that Nintendo is finally focusing on its key franchises and giving core gamers what they want most — real games. No more stupid Wii B.S. games but actual CORE games! Fantastic job, Nintendo, you really blew me away this year! I may actually go out and buy a Wii now.

Nintendo 3DS — finally the new Nintendo 3DS is revealed in all its glory. Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, comes out on stage and shows off the new device. It has two screens like the previous model – the top screen being widescreen the bottom screen being touchscreen. The new 3DS will be able to display full 3-D graphics without the use of any 3-D glasses. There will be a slider on the side to adjust the intensity of this effect or remove it completely. New features include better graphics, a motion sensor, and a gyroscope. There’ll be one camera on the front device and two cameras on the back so you’ll be able to take pictures in full 3-D. Another new neat features of fact that the device can play 3-D Hollywood movies out of the box. Of course you need to purchase these movies before you play them.

Another new feature of the Nintendo three DS is that the device will synchronize itself online even when turned off or while playing another game. You’ll be able to receive new data, quests, rankings and other things automatically. Nintendo also announced that they won’t charge anything for this feature.

Nintendo then went on to list a few of the publishers who would be creating games for the new DS. The list is impressive though I will have to see what they come up with before I pass judgment on them.

One final surprise – Nintendo showed off was a game that they had been working on in secret. It was codenamed “Project Sora”. As it turns out this game is actually Kid Icarus Uprising. It is a 3DS exclusive and will feature 3-D graphics. Maybe would have been better if they hadn’t shown that short gameplay video. It was full of bad voice acting and horrible one-liners. The graphics look great, though and I’m sure also like hot cakes when it’s released.

Well, that wraps up Nintendo’s press conference. Sony is next. Time to give them a look and see what they have in store for us this year.

Well, I’ve just finished watching the Microsoft E3 2010 press conference. I have to say that it was a very good show though not as impressive and exciting as last year’s. Having Steven Spielberg on stage last year along with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr was a tough act to follow. Anyway, the show has ended and here are my thoughts.

Unfortunately I missed the first part of the show due to connection problems (thank you GameTrailers for presenting me with that wonderful black screen for so long). I believe the show started with few promotional trailers of what they were about to unveil along with a preview of the new Call of Duty: Black Ops game. I picked up the show during the Metal Gear Rising presentation.

Metal Gear Rising – at first it looked like another third person action/shooter game. Then a new gameplay mechanic kicked in – the ability to slice anything from any angle with your sword. That looked really cool! If they incorporate Kinect along with the slicing you’ve got a really cool game. I can’t wait to give this a try.

Gears of War 3 – Cliff Bleszinsky introduced the new four player co-op campaign. Four players! That’s insane! Sometimes I have trouble just getting one buddy to join me in Gears 2. Anyway the graphics looked great, gameplay looked fantastic, I’m very excited and looking forward to this one.

Fable III – I admit I haven’t played any of the fable games yet (though they are on my must play list). Not much for me to say about this game – looks good but probably will end up being more of the same of the first two.

Kingdoms – this is a new game from Crytek the company responsible for Far Cry and Crisis. There was no gameplay footage to show just a brief CGI teaser. It looked like some kind of medieval/God of War type action game. We’ll have to wait and see how this one turns out.

Halo Reach – Bungee spent a bit of time showing off this game. During the presentation I couldn’t stop thinking, man this is more of the same Halo we’ve seen since the first one. There were the same weapons, the same green and purple bullets flying across the screen. Microsoft, just give it a rest. Does anyone realize that this is the fourth Halo game on the Xbox 360? Even Nintendo doesn’t exploit Mario and Zelda this much.

Kinect and Xbox live – this was the highlight of the show and Microsoft spent a considerable amount of time showcasing new features that gold members can expect later this year.

1. The first thing Microsoft showcased was the new controller-free dashboard. The ability to move your hands in the air and control your Xbox is amazing. Add to that the fact that the 360 can also recognize your voice and you’ve got one really cool system! It was a great presentation and you could tell the crowd was really getting into it. They were actually applauding while the presenters were still speaking.

2. The next new thing that Microsoft showcased was called Video Kinect. Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect is also a web cam with an integrated microphone. You’ll be able to video chat with other Xbox 360 users and people on MSN messenger. That was really cool indeed! They also showed a feature where you’ll be able to watch a movie with someone else through Kinect. I have to say that the presenters they got to show this feature looked a little too “wooden” and scripted. Another cool thing about Kinect is that it actually rotates to track you so you’re not limited to standing in one place you can move around the room and the camera will follow you!

3. The next big thing that Microsoft showed for gold users is that ESPN will be coming to live. Now I’m not really a big sports fan so I figured I’d just zone out for now. To my surprise there are actually a lot of cool things that caught my attention. Sports fans will be able to watch tons of games – basketball, football, baseball, college sports – you name it, and all of it live! Also with the Kinect feature you’ll be able to rewind plays, check out scores to other games that are currently in progress, and get history and stats for what you’re watching. Pretty cool indeed.

Kinect launch games – Microsoft showed off a few launch games that will be coming out this November along with the Kinect.

1. Kinectimals — this looks like a kid’s game similar to Nintendogs on the DS. The difference being that instead of raising dogs you’ll be raising wild animals including tigers. At first I thought this was little cheesy but after a few moments, a thought finally kicked into my head (yes that does happen sometimes), my daughter would love this game! And I think that is the beauty of kinect.

2. Kinect sports — once again another ripoff of a Nintendo game – WiiSports. After watching the demo I have to say that it looks really great – graphics wise and motion wise. This is really what the Nintendo Wii should have been in the beginning. It took us four years for Microsoft to finally make that Wii HD and boy does it look great!

3. Joyride — cute little arcade racer also played with Xbox avatars. You can do stunts in midair. Looks neat, I like to try it.

4. Kinect Adventures — this is some kind of obstacle course game. You use your body to form different poses to either jump over obstacles or collect coins. This game looks extremely goofy yet extremely fun! Of all the connect demos that I saw in Microsoft’s presentation this is probably the one game I would like to try most!

5. Your Shape — this is a third-party game made by UBI Soft. Like EA Active which is out on the Nintendo Wii, this is another virtual trainer/workout game. The Kinect scans your body is able to tell your height and size and determine the correct workout routine for you. So far my one criticism about this game is the blotchy orange avatar. They need to do something about that because it just looks awful.

6. Dance Central — this game is made by MTV and harmonics (the maker of Rock Band). It’s basically a hip-hop dance game that looks pretty neat. The whole interface and scoring looks similar to Rock Band and I think teens will really love this game.

Finally, it was announced that Kinect launch on November 4, 2010 with 15 titles. Other details are that Kinect will work with all Xbox 360s in existence – both old and new. Microsoft did not give a price for Kinect so you know it will be expensive. I’m hoping it’ll cost in the $50-$100 range. My greatest fear though, is that it’ll be priced in the $100-$200 price range (making it just out of reach of most homes).

Microsoft then showed a few last-minute trailers. The first was for a new LucasArts Star Wars game. There was a demo of in-game footage that looked pretty neat. We’ll have to wait till next year to see the actual game.

They also showed a demo for a new Forza a game coming out next year which would use Kinect. Along with racing you’ll be able to use the Kinect camera to perform a natural 360° virtual tour of each car. That looked kind of cool but I’m more of a Burnout type guy that rather than a Forza a guy.

Finally Microsoft saved their biggest surprise for last – that being the introduction of the new Xbox 360 model. This new Xbox will be priced the same as the current models and feature a 250GB hard drive and built-in Wi-Fi. Very cool indeed, however, where is the Blu-Ray drive!? It almost seems pointless to me to have a new redesigned and not throw in a Blu-Ray drive. Come on Microsoft this is 2010 not 1999. Get with the times!

Well, that wraps up this year show I can’t wait for Nintendo and Sony’s presentations tomorrow. How are they going to top Microsoft?

Well, Steam finally dropped on the Mac last week to the cries of thousands of Mac-heads. For the first time ever so-called “Mac gamers” will be able to experience the joys that we PC gamers have been enjoying for years now. I tried installing the new SteamMac on my G5 earlier last week. That was a failed experiment. Apparently the new SteamMac is only compatible with the Intel-based Macs. Those of you lagging just a few years behind in the technology curve will find yourselves out of luck too. In a way it’s no surprise to me that Steam requires an Intel-based Mac. I mean look at all of the great PC games throughout the years that have run flawlessly on Intel machines. It makes you wonder why Apple stuck with a PowerPC based processor for so long instead of switching over to an Intel-based processor years ago. Maybe PC’s weren’t “dumb little boxes” after all. Either way SteamMac is here and if you want to use it you have to have a current Mac. But then again I’m sure all of you Mac aficionados probably already have the latest Mac so this won’t be an issue for you. 

At launch there are about two dozen or so Mac games available on Steam – only a few of which are worth your time including Braid, Portal, and Torchlight. Steam promises that new titles will be released each Wednesday but does not elaborate on how many or which titles would be released. We do know that eventually Valve will release its entire collection of Source engine games to the Mac. This includes the Half-Life series and the Left 4 Dead series. Left 4 Dead 2 is currently the hottest game on Steam. It’s amazing that Valve chose Portal instead of this as its launch title for the new SteamMac. I can easily see the sales of Left 4 Dead 2 quadrupling on the Mac platform alone. What are you waiting for, Valve. Bring Left 4 Dead 2 to the Mac — NOW. 

One of the great new features of the new SteamMac is a new feature called “Steam Play”. Purchase a game once on one platform and play it forever on either platform. So Torchlight (which was originally a PC game) is now available for play on both Mac’s and PC’s regardless of which platform you originally purchased it on. On top of that Torchlight also supports “Steamworks” which means that you can start a game on one computer and continue playing where you left off on a totally different one (Mac or PC). Ahhhh…  the joys of clouds saves. 

Another positive thing to note about the new SteamMac is that so far prices appear to remain consistent among both platforms. Anyone who’s walked down the game isles of the Apple store knows that the prices of Mac games are astronomically higher compared to their PC counterparts. Who knows where this inflation comes from but the fact is being a “Mac gamer” has never been a cheap hobby. Hopefully, the new SteamMac aims to change all that. Then again it’s the publishers who set the price of their games not Steam so we may, in fact see $50 games for the Mac version where the PC version sells for $20. Only time will tell.

In closing it seems like the new SteamMac is a good thing. Hopefully Apple has a few dollars left over from its iPad advertising campaign to invest into promoting Steam on Mac. If Apple really wants to take a bite out of Microsoft’s dominance in the gaming world this is the way to do it. Who knows, maybe in a few years from now we’ll be looking back and saying, “you used to game on a PC?”

You know what’s so scary about zombies. They’re not strong at all, or smart, or even fast (well, at least traditional one are slow). What makes zombies so scary is their sheer numbers. Individually, they’re weak. In numbers, they are very overwhelming. Our final competitor is frightening for the same reason.

Over the past two days we’ve looked at 2 of the 3 big game companies, Microsoft and Sony and their biggest mistakes from launch day to today. Now we’ve arrived at the end of our journey – Nintendo. You may choose to disregard me as incompetent and obtuse if you like. Having the podium, I will continue. Over the last 2 days I’ve been presenting this article by (A.) showing the 3’s biggest mistakes at launch and how they dealt with them, then (B.)  showing their current mistakes and offering a plan to correct their path. Like the previous two days, I’ve left out handheld systems for another blog. Now, enough with the formalities and on with the lashing!

NINTENDO – Wii

Launch Mistake – not powerful enough.

The Nintendo Wii launched on November 19 of 2006 just 1 week after the PlayStation 3 launched and 1 year after the XBOX 360’s launch. The system was an immediate success. Its sales quickly surpassed Microsoft’s and Sony’s combined! Currently it is the 2^nd most successful video game system in history; the top spot going to Nintendo’s other game system – the DS. The icing on the cake for Nintendo is that unlike their competitors, Nintendo never produced the system at a price higher than their MSRP so every system sold was sold at a profit and not a loss. That is where we find Nintendo’s biggest launch mistake.

Very little is known about the technical details of the Nintendo Wii (Nintendo won’t release the full details). I won’t bore you with too many details but it is important to know a few key numbers. What we do know about the Wii is that it is a PowerPC based processor reportedly clocked at 729 Mhz with 88 Mb of RAM. The ATI graphic card is clocked at 243. Lets compare this to its competitors.

As you can see from the simple table presented above, the Wii is seriously underpowered compared to the 360 or the PS3 by a factor of at least 4:1! As a matter of fact, it’s not even twice as powerful as Nintendo’s previous console – the GameCube! To those of you who are wondering why there is no HDMI output on your Wii, well, now you have your answer. The Wii cannot display images in 1080i/p or 720i/p or any HD content at all, heck! It can’t even play regular DVDs! Tell me again, why is this system so popular?

Motion controls are the reason the Wii is so popular. Had Nintendo put more money into developing a more powerful system to go along with that unique controller, we would be playing the BioShock series, the Modern Warfare series, and the Mass Effect series with motion controls. As it is now, those games can’t even run on the Wii (ok, so they ported Modern Warfare 1 over to the system but the reviews weren’t that great). What has the big “N” done to correct this launch mistake? Nothing. There is nothing you can do about this error other than to release a whole new system.

Current Mistake – not powerful enough.

Ok, this is beating a dead horse, but it needs to be emphasized how terrible of a mistake this was. Nintendo’s sole claim to fame was motion control gaming. With Microsoft and Sony introducing motion controls this November, the Wii is no longer unique. Combine the relative ease and fun of motion controls along with the raw power and graphics of a 360/PS3 and you’ve got a winner. This critic predicts that Nintendo will loose its first holiday sales lead this year and begin to show heavy drops in console sales next year.

What can Nintendo do to counter this upcoming decline? Simple – release a new console. However, it wouldn’t be enough to release a system with just more power (that time has passed). They would have to release a new innovation as well to separate themselves from the competition. With E3 just around the corner, Nintendo just might pull a rabbit out of their hat. We’ll have to wait and see. Until then, start saving money for a Natal/Move.

Conclusion

Well, that about wraps up our little journey. All this talk brings us to the inevitable question on everyone’s mind. Which is the best console to own? Here is my personal breakdown:

Nintendo Wii – If you have young children in the house. If you are a casual gamer who doesn’t like games that are too deep and have complicated controls. You just want to have fun every once and awhile especially with some friends over. This is for you and your family!

Microsoft Xbox 360 – If you’re a teen or “hardcore” gamer. You love action/RPG/sports games with awesome HD graphics. You love playing deep games (both single player and online). You can play for hours on end; it’s in your blood. You must own an XBOX!

Sony PlayStation 3 – You’re somewhere in between the top two but also like watching Blu-Ray movies as well. Get this and at least a decent gaming PC.

If you can afford to purchase more than one console, then go ahead, by all means. This critic owns an XBOX 360, a PS3, and a high end gaming PC. I find myself spending most of my gaming hours on the PC or the 360 and doing all of my movie watching on the PS3. In the end, all of the big 3 listed above will meet your gaming needs so long as you understand what to expect from them. You have the power to change their direction by voting with your $$$. Choose wisely and vote often.

There is a saying, “the early bird gets the worm” In Microsoft’s case, they caught a lot of worms before their competitors even hit the ground. It is now November of 2006 and Sony and Nintendo have just released their own consoles. If you can’t get there early, at least be there fashionably late.

Yesterday we looked at Microsoft’s flaws, both past and present. Today we’re moving on to bachelor number 2 – Sony. This article is merely my own observations. You may choose to disregard me as incompetent and obtuse if you like. Having the podium, I will continue. Over the next 2 days I’m going to present this article by (A.) showing the 3’s biggest mistakes at launch and how they dealt with them, then (B.) showing their current mistakes and offering a plan to correct their path. I have purposely left handheld systems out of this argument (that’s another blog entirely). Now, let’s get this bus on the road!

Sony – PlayStation 3

Launch Mistake – too expensive

PlayStation CEO Kaz Hiari announced the price of the PS3 to a stunned E3 audience in 2006. The console would launch that November for $500 and $600 (two different models). That was almost twice the price of their competitor’s product, the XBOX 360.

It didn’t help when his boss, Ken Kutaragi, said that customers “will work more hours to buy one.” Who has the audacity to say that in a recession? Does he think that we’re all made out of money here in the US?

Regardless, the PS3 launched in the US to mixed results. It sold somewhat decent numbers but not nearly as much as Sony would have wanted. It was nowhere near the sales Microsoft was enjoying with its XBOX 360 (now out for a year and widely in stock). To add insult to injury, numbers started trickling down that Sony was actually loosing more than $300 for each system sold. Now, it’s not uncommon for launch consoles to be sold for less than they’re made. All major game companies have a little financial wiggle room in hopes that they will make up for those losses in software sales (games, to the layman). Sony, however, was not so lucky this time and in the long run may never make up their losses from game sales alone.

The “cost” blame constantly kept coming back to two key components. First was the internal Blu-Ray drive. Was it really needed for gaming purposes? The XBOX 360 was still using the old DVD-ROM format for its games. This offered about 1/5 the storage space as a Blu-Ray disc for both game data and video playback. The reality is that even on 1080p playback, the XBOX 360 looked equally as crisp and sharp as a PS3. Blu-Ray proved itself to be great for watching movies, but useless for playing games.

Second, was the custom Sony “Cell” processor. The Cell is a mess. All developers who have worked on it have come away screaming that it’s a pain to use. Sony, itself, has admitted that the Cell is a “challenge” to code for. Add to the fact that most cross-platform games ran smoother and looked better on the XBOX 360, it make one wonder why Sony chose this path. How does the PS3, a system which on paper is a vastly superior gaming platform, manage to perform poorly, in reality, when compared to an XBOX 360? It was all just wasted money on poor technology, and Sony was trying to pass that loss on to the consumer.

Things finally turn around in September of 2009 as Sony introduces a new “slim” model and finally drops the price down to $300. Great move, Sony; the PS3 was finally affordable, but the story doesn’t end there.

Current Mistake – not listening to their customers/finding direction

Every big company does research on their customers to see where they can make improvements in their overall satisfaction. Based upon these results, they start working on new features to improve their product. Where was Sony conducting its research when it was developing and expanding the PS3? Here are a few examples of features that never amounted to anything.

1. Home – A poor attempt to merge “Second Life” into an interactive Facebook/Twitter game. Who cares about meeting other people’s avatars in ad filled virtual worlds to wait in virtual lines to play virtual darts.
2. Sixaxis Controller – A poor attempt to copy Nintendo’s Wiimote at the last minute by putting a gyroscope into what was formally a DualShock controller. Developers (even to this day) make little to no use of it at all. Whenever a game asks me to “shake” or “tilt” the controller, I pause for a minute before I finally remember, “oh, there’s a gyroscope inside.”
3. The Cell – I’ve already covered this one in the previous section, but I’ll recap it here. It’s supposed to be a powerful chip. What use is all of that power if game developers can’t figure out how to use it? It would have been better if Sony had gone with a PC architecture like MS and Nintendo.
4. “Install Other OS” – with the earlier models of the PS3 you were able to install Linux as an OS in addition the PS3 OS. Neat little feature except nobody really cared about it. Sony eventually took it out.
5. Paid Online Subscription Model – This is just rumor for now but word is that Sony may start charging for certain “online features”. For a company that’s criticized MS for charging for XBL, it’s funny to see them even considering doing the same thing.
6. Backwards Compatibility with PS2 games – This was a great feature that should have stayed. Why Sony removed it from the current systems only befuddles this critic. What was the logic with this move, Sony?

So, what do all of these useless features have in common? They are all wasted attempts at figuring out some kind of direction for the PS3. Nobody asked for the first 5 useless features listed above. Now Sony is trying to cover up their mistakes by releasing updates to remove them or peripherals to replace them. What are the features that PS3 users really want? – Backwards compatibility, cross-game chat, a robust online experience like XBOX LIVE. The list is endless. Microsoft and Nintendo have never had to remove big features from their systems. They’ve only built upon them. Sony should have listened to their audience first, and then started working on new features. This constant jumping back and forth between decisions clearly shows a lack of direction from the start and continuing to today. Solution – listen to your customers, Sony, not your competitors!

Well, we’ve covered 2 out of the 3 big boys. Tomorrow, Nintendo is on the chopping block and we’ll wrap this whole thing up! Hang around, you won’t be disappointed!

Here we are in the midst of the “next-gen” console war with 3 fierce competitors fighting their way to first place. If you were to look at the sales charts alone you would deduce that Nintendo has won the battle. Its sales alone easily outrank Sony and MS combined. If you were to size them up by number of quality games, the results would be a complete flip-flop with Sony and MS taking the lead. You may ask yourself, why does this matter to me as long as I’m having fun playing games on the console of my choice? Let me explain. Hidden behind the scenes there is a secret war going on for your hard earned dollars. The big 3 are brewing up new strategies to get your attention and your loyalty. In order to understand where they’re going, we need to understand where they’ve been and what mistakes they’ve made along the way and what they’ve done to fix them. In other words, how have they met your needs over the years and how far are they willing to go to meet them in the future?

This article is merely my own observations. You may choose to disregard me as incompetent and obtuse if you like. Having the podium, I will continue. Over the next 3 days I will present this article by (A.) showing the 3’s biggest mistakes at launch and how they dealt with them, then (B.) I will show their current mistakes and offer a plan to correct their path. Also, I’ve left out handheld system for this debate (that’s another blog in itself). So, without further ado, on with the show.

Microsoft – XBOX 360

Launch Mistake – no internal HD-DVD drive

For the most part, MS did a fantastic job launching the 360 in November of ’05. They had an amazing E3 unveiling earlier that year with an even bigger marketing campaign following suit. Adding to that they also had a great number of launch titles to boot. Where does it go bad? As great as the system was, it shipped with no internal HD-DVD drive.

Now before you start laughing me off, consider the time frame – November 2005. DVD is king but getting “long in the tooth”. An HD format war is brewing with Toshiba/Microsoft in one corner and Sony/Disney in the other. HD-DVD is finally released in March of ’06 in Japan and the following month in the US. Blu-Ray is still 3 months away from its release! Had MS burned the midnight oil to get an HD-DVD in the 360 at launch, it would have easily won the format war. Even if HD-DVD wasn’t ready to go in November of ’05, it would have been better for MS (in the long run) to have waited till March the following year to launch. Sure, they would have missed out on the holiday sales, but this critic believes it would have been well worth it. What about that cute external HD-DVD drive that MS introduced in November of ’06, you ask? Too little, too late. Everyone was saving that extra $100 for that newly released, overpriced PS3 which had a built-in Blu-Ray player.

Current Mistake – no internal Blu-Ray drive

Let’s face the facts; Blu-Ray is king today! Long live the king! The HD format war dragged on much longer than it should have and in the end, Sony so rightly deserved to win it. On January 4^th of 2008, Warner Brothers announced their decision to stop supporting HD-DVD. On January 5^th(the very next day) MS should have come out and announced that they were working on an external Blu-Ray drive for the XBOX 360, and all future systems would be shipping with internal ones as well. I waited desperately for that announcement! It befuddled me as to why it never came. To this day, there is no Blu-Ray drive in the XBOX 360. Why Microsoft, why? Instead, MS touted digital download as the future of home movie watching. So long as Internet speeds remain low and cable prices remain high, digital downloads are not in my future. Also, I prefer the sense of ownership I get by owning a physical copy. Solution – PUT A FREAKIN’ BLU-RAY DRIVE IN THE XBOX 360 ALREADY! The only reason I own a PS3 today is because it’s a Blu-Ray player (that, and Uncharted 1 & 2). Currently, Sony is the only company out of the big 3 that has a system that really “just does everything”. How much longer is MS going to let 360 sales slide to Sony because of this? It makes one weep.

Tomorrow I’m going to turn the tables on Microsoft’s main competitor, Sony. Stick around, I know I can’t wait!

An XBOX 360 slim… now that’s an idea. Rumors are circulating the internet that Microsoft may be secretly working on a slimmer version of its popular XBOX 360 gaming console. I, for one, couldn’t be happier to hear this news and hope that it’s true. Microsoft, this time make sure that you include an internal Blu-Ray drive… please, for all of our sakes.

The new motherboard in question.

As you may know, the XBOX 360 was released in November of 2005. Since then it’s undergone several “internal” changes but Microsoft has never updated its “exterior” beyond introducing new colors. The game console you bought five years ago is still the same “looking” console you can buy today. A new look was only a matter of time, hey, it worked for Sony.

Very little is known about the redesign at this point. The biggest rumor to surface on the internet is that both the CPU and GPU chips will be combined into one giant chip.  The first and second generation XBOX 360 were notoriously known for overheating and dying. Anyone who’s owned an XBOX 360 is probably very familiar with the dreaded “Red Rings of Death” and has probably owned more than one system in their lifetime (including this critic). Apparently Microsoft feels confident enough with their current revision to sandwich both chips together. We’ll have to wait and see what surprises the big “MS” has in store for us this November when Natal also launches.

Every child's worst nightmare.

“What’s that?” you say? “How do you know when the 360 is going to launch?”

Come on, it’s obvious that when Steve Balmer said at last year’s Executive’s Club of Chicago that Natal was going to launch a new console, we now know exactly what he meant. Not necessarily a new console, but a new look. What other secrets might be lurking in this new update? I for one am looking forward to an internal Blu-Ray drive. Come on MS! It’s long overdue! HD-DVD was DOA five years ago! Prove to Sony that it’s the XBOX 360 that “only does everything” by making it do everything!

Another simple upgrade would be an internal 802.11n wireless modem. “n” speeds are fantastic for streaming HD videos and large data files. Make it happen, MS! And while we’re on the subject of wireless, how about opening up your wireless tech to 3^rd party peripherals manufactures. Not every accessory manufacturer can afford the high royalty fees it costs to make a wireless controller. Heck, even a big company like Mad Catz didn’t bother paying the fees for those Modern Warfare 2 wired controllers. Open it up, MS! Let’s get some keyboard/mouse controllers on the XBOX 360 like the PS3’s Split Fish.

Finally MS, how about streaming live TV. Let’s be honest, the cable companies are dead. Everyone’s using the internet now. Tivo is the best thing to come out of the old fashioned ways of watching television. Why not combine everything into one little box – a box that really can “do everything”. Every time there’s a major news event I switch to CNN.com for a live stream, so I know it can be done. Of course, MS would have to cut a deal with every major network on the planet to be done successfully, but think of the possibilities and the convenience! Of course this would only be available to gold members, but I think it would be well worth the $50 a year fee. I’ll bet people would be willing to pay $100 extra for this feature alone.

Please don't make it look like this.

What are you waiting for Microsoft? Make these geek dreams of mine a reality! Don’t make me wait till November! Do it now! Do it for me! Do it for our children! Do it for our country!

[sobs quietly…].