Developers, distributors, and the Big Three attend annual entertainment convention
The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was held over three days from June 14 to June 16. Developers, publishers, and gamers all flocked to Los Angeles for a weekend of new releases, trailers, and excitement.
Each year, organizations from around the world attend E3 to showcase the latest and greatest video games, consoles, and developments. As a result, thousands of products are unveiled to the public, drawing interest from thousands of different parties. For the sake of brevity and efficiency, discussed below are the efforts of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo—the current generation’s “Big Three” console manufacturers.
Sony focuses on games
Japanese entertainment giant Sony featured almost 100 different games at this year’s conference. In many instances, these were games for the PlayStation 4 that are also expected to be released on PC and for Microsoft’s Xbox One console. However, games like Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man, and the as-of-yet un-subtitled God of War sequel were all revealed to an audience craving exclusive Sony content.
Sony also featured their PlayStation VR platform, revealing a number of games for the console. While reports seem to indicate that many of the ported titles feature no compelling reason to purchase a virtual reality-capable console, Sony’s heavy investment in the platform is a sign that the company is convinced of virtual reality’s necessity to the market.
As for the PlayStation NEO—also known as the PlayStation 4.5—Sony spent little time addressing the console that will serve as the next iteration in the PlayStation 4 generation.
Nintendo focuses on The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon
In the past three years, Japanese entertainment giant—and all-around fan favourite—Nintendo has skipped the typical E3 press conference in favour of a more accessible format. This year’s Nintendo Treehouse Live featured exclusive interviews with the developers behind the only two games that the company brought to E3.
Those who tuned in to the event were greeted with exclusive gameplay videos from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Pokémon Sun, and Pokémon Moon.
The new Zelda game is an open-world, roaming action adventure title that takes significant amounts of inspiration from games like Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Once again featuring Link as the hero of time, Breath of the Wild is expansive and detailed. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, known for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, returns along with series producer Eiji Aonuma. Breath of the Wild is scheduled for a 2017 release, on both Wii U and Nintendo’s yet-to-be-revealed next-generation console, currently code-named NX.
As for Pokémon Sun/Moon, the two new main series games feature a brand new region, brand new starters, as well as several handfuls of new Pokémon. This time, the series heads to the Alola region—closely based on the American state of Hawaii.
Microsoft continues to be Microsoft
The video game industry might be experiencing an unprecedented surge of success and exposure, and more people might be playing video games now than at any other moment in history, but the fact remains that it’s still an industry in its infancy. If one needs any further convincing of this fact, one must look no further than American software legend Microsoft.
The Xbox One console continues to struggle to gain the market presence of main competitor Sony’s PlayStation 4. Moreover, while the company’s Xbox 360 console once boasted the largest market presence out of the Big Three, today’s Microsoft is still trying to figure out what comes next.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTSUgXkfooA
At E3 2016, Microsoft’s senior vice-presidents took the stage to unveil several games, including a new Gears of War title and a new Forza title. However, time was also spent unveiling a slimmer Xbox One console—aptly named the Xbox One S—as well as the codename for a new Xbox One that will boast 4K video output and VR capability. Project Scorpio is Microsoft’s answer to the Playstation NEO, and while Scorpio will allow games to play in higher definition, the console will not feature any exclusive titles.
Microsoft’s presence at E3 2016 was not a completely visionless affair, however. The company spent quite a bit of time highlighting the cross-platform potential for Xbox and PC gamers. Almost every Xbox One exclusive title revealed or showcased at this year’s conference is also expected to be available for PC users. Microsoft’s plan going forward seems to be to transform the Xbox One into yet another Windows 10 device. Likewise, the plan seems to be to transform every Windows 10 PC into a full-fledged gaming console.