Theocacao: Overall Impression of E3 2006

Overall Impression of E3 2006

In short, it looks to me like Nintendo made the biggest positive splash at E3. I'm not sure what Sony is thinking. A $600 game machine just doesn't seem like a mass market device. Microsoft seems to have kept pretty much even. There were no major Xbox surprises as far as I can see.

So what about Nintendo? It seems like they've proved once again that they're the true gaming company. That is, they make games because they like making games, not because games are a component of an overall strategy to gain a hold on home entertainment. Maybe that's not a completely fair characterization of Sony, but Microsoft is losing billions on Xbox.

The approach that Nintendo is taking with Wii is anything but the path of least resistance. It's risky and a little bit bizarre at times, but Nintendo seems to be the only one willing to branch out and rethink the whole equation. At least they're willing to take the chance on an idea they believe in. Original thinking is always refreshing.

With all that in mind, it's easy to see why so many parallels are drawn between Nintendo and Apple. Nintendo executives themselves have said they've looked to Apple for inspiration. Rather than cramming more and more stuff into their products, Nintendo is choosing to invest in a more focused, more affordable game console.

At $600, Sony has trampled the line between game console purchase and PC purchase, but is that what people really want? The Xbox 360, of course, is a PC on the inside, but at least it hovers more around $400.

Whatever the case, it really doesn't get any better for me than Zelda, Mario and Metroid. If I can get these on a system at a third of the price of a PS3, all the better.

Overall Impression of E3 2006
Posted May 12, 2006 — 9 comments below

Josh — May 12, 06 1219

You forgot to mention the whole virtual console idea in the Wii (hopefully Bonk will be one of the TurboGrafix games for the Wii). I think that'll be awesome, to say nothing of the remote! With the remote, did you see some of the sports game videos (esp the tennis one)? Maybe we'll see more active and involved games that help kids slim down a little while having fun.

I also don't get how the Sony Entertainment chief can consider $600 (the $500 one is slimmed down enough, I'd vote to spend the extra $100) to be cheap for a video game console. Ouch!

John — May 12, 06 1220

> The Xbox 360, of course, is a PC on the inside

The architecture of the 360 is very different than any PC. It's no more a PC than the GameCube is.

Daniel Lyons — May 12, 06 1221

By no stretch of the imagination am I a gamer, yet this week for the first time in probably a decade, I bought myself a game: Final Fantasy IV Advance. Looking back on my life, there have probably been ten or so video games that were "worthy," and they were all on Nintendo systems (except a few Dreamcast and Descent on the PC).

Sony has been a conundrum for some time. They keep pushing their own bizarro closed hardware (memory stick, mini disc, etc.) and now their console is expensive but not making anyone go "wow." Very strange.

What's equally strange is that Microsoft is doing so marginally when hemorrhaging money. Maybe it's because they're pretty up-front about Xbox being a strategy for taking complete control over your living room.

This is all very odd, especially to me as an outsider.

Boyan — May 13, 06 1223

The whole situation looks a bit ridiculous, if you look from an angle of a person who actualy works in games industry.
Both companies (Sony and MS) are trying really hard to cut eachother's throat, while making damage only to themselves, and to the whole industry. The problem for them now - too much hype around "next-gen", and still no real reason why would anyone spend $600 on a console. Next-gen games are nowhere near to what they would have you believe. It all started going downhill once the PR took over. Nintendo is the only company in the field not going after this, staying true to themselves. Respect for that.

disgrinder — May 19, 06 1282

As a mac partisan for many years it was a very easy step (when becoming a father for the first, second and third times: a midget rodeo of small boys) to decide on nintendo as the game console fo the little chaps - game play over uncanny valley realism (if the point of a good game was how 'realistic' the scene/characters are then why has 80's defender still got adrenalin?). Metroid, Zelda, Mario, Animal Crossing, DS Lite as opposed to what? Another brown gun or super-real car sym? No contest.
I don't care if you can push a million polygons a nanosecond if they're all arse-shaped.

disgrinder — May 19, 06 1283

diskgrinder — May 19, 06 1284

aaargh!!! double post! And have now compounded my error by pointing it out. Admin guy please to remove this and preceding.

diskgrinder — Dec 08, 06 2615

Well, you didn't delete the double post. So that's you not looking then.

"ah, to see the dying of the light, where traffic goes to die – only the dim-bulb illumination of comment spam to show the way.
There’s an idea, as comments get further away from post date, decrease the contrast between background and text. Or maybe the text gets smaller – into the realms of big-bang microwave radiation – the limits of dead post comment realised visually.
That’s me then – find some comment streams undersubscribed and post into the antediluvian sediment therein. The skitterings of trilobites and my voice echo in the depth of time.
Perhaps not."

a quote from some other neglected comment stream.

Scott Stevenson — Dec 08, 06 2616

There’s an idea, as comments get further away from post date, decrease the contrast between background and text

Something similar to that was done here. Found here.

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