Sony went last with their press conference at E3. I’m just going to put it out there… they crapped the bed. There was not much announced we didn’t know about and everything we saw was fairly boring. Hardly any applause in the theater could be heard. We got a teaser for God of War 3, saw info on the upcoming MAG online shooter, and a few others. Overall, it wasn’t very good.
Instead of bringing you our normal wrap-up, myself and Al chatted the press conference and here’s the entire log for your viewing pleasure:
Al
And so it begins, Sony is close to taking the stage and starting their conference
hope this turns out better than the Nintendo conference
Matt
We’re hoping for some big game announcements, hopefully God of War 3.
Microsoft had some strong announcement, but went very casual. Will Sony stay hardcore or will they go the Nintendo route?
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Sony confirmed what we all know: the PS3 Greatest Hits are coming later this year. Here’s the first batch of titles that will ship for $29.99 each:
Resistance, Motorstom, Warhawk, CoD3, Fight, Need for Speed Carbon, R6: Vegas, Assassin’s Creed, Oblivion, and Ninja Giaden Sigma
Some good stuff there for cheap. More details coming later in our Sony Press Conference wrap-up.
Nintendo has confirmed live voice chat during their presentation of Animal Crossing: City Folk at the E3 press conference, WiiSpeak is the new coined name for it. It will not be a headset but more of a speaker device that will sit on top of the sensor bar. The speaker will pick up a lot of sound in the area since it is not a microphone by your mouth, so I can see this becoming a bit annoying with listening to other gamer’s background noise while you play.
You can now chat with friends across the world and build further gaming relationships says Nintendo. Nothing new if you have been playing on other consoles.
I am curious how Nintendo will protect it’s younger gamers against profanity and exposure to the wrong elements by introducing voice chat? WiiSPeak seems interesting, but it is a needed option for the Wii if they want to be taken seriously against MS and Sony online.
Time to upgrade that Xbox 360 hard drive. According to a letter from Marc Whitten, you’re going to be able to copy your disc-based games to your hard drive and reduce load times even further after the Fall Update.
Play from hard drive. Copy your games from the game disc and play directly from the hard drive. Not only will the drive not spin, but load times are quicker, as well. Of course, you will still need the disc in the tray to prove you own the game.
What an insanely cool feature! Microsoft, you stepped it up big time. Kudos!
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Avatars were announced today, even though everyone pretty much knew they were coming. You’ll be out to customize your look online with clothes and accessories after you make it look like yourself as best as possible. But just how much is this going to cost?
We already know how much things cost for gamer pictures and themes and we know Sony will be selling wardrobe additions in Home, so it’s only logicial that Avatar customization won’t be completely free.
Like other things, it’s impossible to get in touch with Microsoft PR today, so we can’t confirm anything. My bet is they haven’t set pricing yet. We’ll keep you posted.
By now we’ve all seen the new major changes coming to the Xbox 360 dashboard this fall. A whole new user experience is being reinvented to make things easier and adding Avatars. But what about all the money users have spent on themes and gamer pictures? With the way the new dashboard looks, there’s no place for either in the grand scheme of things. Is all that money now completely wasted?
Requests to Microsoft about the issue were not returned by press time. We’re trying to get ahold of anyone, but in the wake of the press conference, everyone in PR is pretty tied up. We’ll keep you posted as things progress.
[Image courtesy of Joystiq]
Last, but certainly not least is Sony, whose press conference is Tuesday afternoon. Check out our thoughts and just what might happen.
Matt - We know the video store is coming, and I’m betting that we be prominently shown. We’ll also see more of Home and hopefully get a concrete date when we can expect to see it on our consoles. This year will most likely be all about games for Sony as they need to keep their string of exclusive AAA titles up. Expect to see God of War 3, a new Ratchet and Clank game, a sequel to Uncharted, and possibly some new franchises introduced. I’m also hoping for more integration with the PSP and PS3.
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Nintendo is second on the chopping block with their press conference starting around noon ET on Tuesday. Here’s what we all think is going to happen:
Matt - They say it’s about the core gamers at this year’s E3, but I’m not sure how much they’ll do on that front. We may or may not see a storage solution (maybe being able to play games off the SD card). I have a feeling a new Zelda game will be announced and possibly sequels for Animal Crossing and Pikman. Just like with Sony, I’m hoping for more integration for the Wii and DS.
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E3 starts up Monday, and we figured we’ll throw out just what we think will happen. We’ll start with Microsoft, since they get to go first with their press conference. Here’s what each of us will think happens:
Matt - I have a strong feeling we’re going to hear about this price drop that everyone knows is coming. I’m guessing a $50 drop across the board on all SKU’s and the possible introduction of a 60GB SKU, maybe replacing the current 20GB Premium. I also think we’ll see the first signs a redesigned dashboard, some new casual gaming innovations (Avatars, Newton, etc), as well as the announcement of a new Halo game without Master Chief.
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All eyes are on E3 and this year is no difference. Only weeks away, MS is starting to fan the flames and are promising quite the show.
We’re always working on new things, and you’ll continue to hear lots from us that we believe will be game-changing.
MS must have something planned because outside of GeoW2 and Alan Wake, there is nothing that people are talking about. With Sony picking up steam, MS will be trying to steal the show, this time without Halo 3.
