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Notes
From The Floor Of E3 2006
Most
people in your everyday life just blink and nod when you
mention E3. Even though they may have noticed all kinds
of coverage in their local paper, it didn't quite register
where all this videogame news was coming from -- nor do
a lot of people even care, quite honestly.
But
you're here at Fanboy Planet because you DO care. The gaming
industry has become an 800 pound gorilla in the entertainment
world, with a successful game not just rivaling Hollywood's
biggest blockbusters for income but easily eclipsing them.
Of course, many games actually are based on Hollywood films,
gambling on both new (Superman Returns and Eragon,
for example) and old (The Godfather and Scarface).
Though
E3 tries to remain a trade show in the purest sense, supposed
professionals line up with the giddy enthusiasm of newly
minted fanboys. Actually, they're in the perfect environment
for it; there's something ironic if not surreal to see people
in line playing their PSPs while waiting to see the latest
in handheld gaming.
This
year the show did its best to keep out the mere enthusiasts,
and some reports have it that 20,000 fewer people attended
than last year. Certainly, the requirements for press credentials
were stringent, and the stinging from the DNA sample off
the back of my neck has almost subsided. With tighter security
and fewer attendees, this show was still insane.
In the
West Hall the big boys set up shop, well-lit, clean and pleasant.
Here Nintendo either rocked gamers or terrified them with
the introduction of the single-handed NextGen called "Wii."
Reporter Jason Schachat responded negatively to it on the
floor; perhaps when he files his article he will have changed
his mind, or in best Fanboy tradition, pretended the thing
just doesn't exist. On the other side of the argument, you
can see our Asian Bureau Mish'al Samman has a different perspective.
Plenty
of Playstation 3 consoles abounded in the Sony compound.
Though the platform seems to utilize HD pretty well, the
distinction for the average user (not necessarily a hardcore
gamer) may not be enough to justify the $499 minimum price
tag that Sony announced.
Some
critics consider that a crucial misstep in Sony's strategy.
Indeed, even the complementary Playstation Magazine
that Sony handed out to attending press underestimated the
price tag by a hundred dollars.
But
again, this was the well lit upper crust -- the Alphas of
E3, if you will. Perhaps we should be expected to pay a
little more for this kind of sophistication. A few other
game-related businesses lay at the edge of the big dogs,
hoping (and getting) crumbs of attention.
For
the real action, though, you had to go among the developers
in the South Hall. Where the West was clean and well-lit,
sort of like San Francisco in THX-1138, the South
Hall was definitely Los Angeles in Blade Runner:
everything was dark and moist.
Sure,
Microsoft tried to make itself a platform of the people
with the XBox 360, making one corner of the hall bright
with seductively soft lighting that might actually be seeing
into your soul. And of course your soul was saying "I
want one!" Since the 360 has been on the market for
a while, Microsoft had to shoulder in among the developers
and remind the industry that this is the box you want to
use.
The
handheld device N-Gage also carved out a little oasis with
a futuristic lounge that projected sillhouettes of players
onto mist. Somewhere in there, they probably had a cabinet
full of pleasure orbs. But N-Gage hasn't broken into the
mainstream consciousness the way that the Big Three have,
and portable mini-gaming, even if it's for cellphones, doesn't
yet have a killer app or brand-name loyalty in the audience
that it wants: those who don't really know what E3 is.
Gaming
on the go is definitely a direction the industry is pushing,
with companies like Namco bringing back old arcade favorites
with creditable translation to the much smaller screens
of portable communications devices.
While
we wait for Schachat's much more educated report, check
out a couple of galleries of pictures. Pretend you can smell
the sweat of gaming excitement...
Gallery
One
Gallery
Two...You Know, For The Kids...
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