The Annual Electronic Entertainment Expo
This year’s annual Electronic Entertainment Expo kicked off with the Microsoft press conference and an update on the progress of the Halo 360. Excuse me, I mean Xbox 360, though I’m surprised they haven’t made the name change yet. Microsoft made it clear that this year Xbox 360 is all about Halo 3. The briefing began with a band performing the Halo theme song, before multiple trailers were shown, promoting both Halo 3 and a Halo spin-off real-time strategy game called Halo Wars, both of which gamers will be able to play on the new olive green-colored, Halo-themed Xbox 360 that will be released this fall, or as Microsoft likely calls it, Halo Season.
Of course, the Halo hype is to be expected. Master Chief’s last adventure made $125 million in its first weekend of release, even beating out Hollywood’s biggest opening weekend grosses up to that time. Not only is it likely that every Xbox 360 owner will purchase a copy of Halo 3, but many consumers will probably purchase an Xbox 360 in order to play Halo 3.
But even without that console-pushing killer app, Xbox 360 is sitting pretty with support from all of the major third party software developers. That means that game franchises like Guitar Hero and Grand Theft Auto, which were once exclusive to PlayStation consoles, will now see simultaneous release on the Xbox 360.
It looks like Microsoft’s one-year head start into the next console generation has paid off beyond anyone’s wildest dreams of avarice. Since the launches of PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii last winter, Xbox 360 products have garnered a whopping $2.4 billion. That’s as much as Wii ($1.3 billion) and PS3 ($1.1 billion) combined.
For now, Microsoft has little to fear from the competition, but there is one highly coveted console that they might want to keep an eye on.
“In less than eight months, Wii has proved itself the video game system for everyone, and we’re not letting up,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime.
The tone of Nintendo’s whole press conference was similarly cocky, but with good reason. Nintendo’s innovative motion controller batted away the naysayers to make the Wii a hit with hardcore and casual gamers alike. And Nintendo’s not stopping there when it comes to bold new peripherals.
Fils-Aime unveiled the Wii Zapper, an accessory that makes the Wii remote the barrel of a two-handed rifle while the Nunchuk attachment serves as the handle and trigger. Also revealed was the Wii Wheel, a steering wheel that will be released with the new Mario Kart but can then be used for any Wii driving game.
Finally, legendary game designer and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto took the stage to tout, not Mario Galaxy or the new Zelda for DS, but Wii Fit—an exercise game that utilizes a new Wii Balance Board controller. The peripheral, which resembles a weight scale, is pressure sensitive and measures shifts in weight when the player performs yoga and aerobics.
After some hands on (or foots on) time with Wii Fit, I was underwhelmed, but considering the company’s recent track record with innovation, I’d be foolish to not give Nintendo more time to prove the device’s versatility.
Fils-Aime also made a point to mention the company’s continued success in the handheld market. A graph showed that portable platforms accounted for about half of all video game console sales, and Nintendo DS for a massive 23 percent.
“So just to be clear, the majority of that other green bar represents sales of GameBoy Advance,” said Fils-Aime, making a not-so-subtle jab at the underperforming PlayStation Portable’s failed assault on Nintendo’s dominance in the handheld market.
Speaking of Sony …
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Unsurprisingly, Sony didn’t bother with the onslaught of graphs that kicked off the Microsoft and Nintendo media events. And they didn’t need to. The preceding press conferences had already made it clear that in the jump to the next console generation, Sony had fallen from a comfortable first to a solid third.
As many industry insiders predicted, the $500-$600 price tag proved a bit too steep for the average American gamer. So Sony Computer Entertainment president and chief executive Jack Tretton wasted no time announcing the price drop of the 60GB PS3 from $600 to $500 -- a dramatic decrease considering it’s been less than a year since the console’s release. He went on to announce a new $600 80GB version of the platform, set for release in August. And since the $500 20GB PS3 has been discontinued, the Sony console has now shifted its price range from $500-$600 to … $500-$600. Huh?
“We know implicitly that what is most on the minds of gamers right now, as we head into the important holiday season, are the games themselves,” said Tretton, shifting the focus to software. He then brought to the stage revered video game designer Hideo Kojima, who presented a six-minute trailer for the new Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
Set for simultaneous worldwide release in early 2008, MGS4 is clearly what Sony hopes will be the PS3’s console-selling, exclusive, killer app. The long-running stealth franchise has an avid fan-base, but it’s nowhere near that of a gargantuan title like Halo 3. So while Master Chief’s latest Xbox excursion might actually convince a few consumers to invest in a $300-$400 Xbox 360, it’s less likely that Solid Snake’s mission will push gamers to purchase a substantially pricier PlayStation 3.
But if Sony Computer Entertainment’s recent misfortune has taught us anything, it’s that the course of interactive entertainment domination can change in a matter of months. In the end, it’s the games that will determine what console we choose, and Microsoft can only make so many Halos at a time. With new Super Mario, Metroid Prime and Legend of Zelda games on the way from Nintendo, as well as Killzone and God of War sequels on Sony’s horizon, victory is still up for grabs. The latest console war has just begun.
When Las Vegas Weekly contributor Matthew Scott Hunter realized his career as a lab technician was seriously interfering with his gaming, he pink-slipped himself into a successful career as a freelance writer. Bug the hell out of him at [email protected]