Comment: Big three in battle for supremacy

Jun 11 2009 by Carri Cunliffe , The Journal

THE world's biggest video game event found its feet again in California last week – as the three industry heavyweights battled for control.

When the E3 Summit packed up last year, many in the games industry questioned whether it should take place again. Those taking part wanted to cut back their spending – and attendee numbers subsequently fell from a high of 70-odd thousand to just 5,000 in 2008.

Despite taking place in the midst of a global recession, this year’s E3 saw it make a welcome return to form, with a reported 40,000 in Los Angeles for the extravaganza.

One sure-fire indicator of E3’s resurgence was the sheer number of A-list celebs milling around the venue. Pele, Eminem, Jay-Z, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Mickey Rourke and Leonardo DiCaprio were all in attendance, as were Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, who flew in to show off the Beatles version of music game Rock Star, in which you’ll get to strum along to the likes of Day Tripper and Taxman.

There were hundreds of other great games on show, including interactive film noir Heavy Rain, major sequels such as Modern Warfare 2 and Wii Sports Resort, and the odd pleasant surprise, such as Scrabblenaughts, in which you solve puzzles by creating any item you can imagine.

But by far the most interesting sub-plot of the show was the ongoing battle for supremacy between the three major format holders, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony – all of whom unveiled new ways of controlling games at E3.

Nintendo – whose Wii console has sold more units than Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 combined – demonstrated its Wii MotionPlus accessory, which uses new technology to make the existing ‘Wiimote’ controller even more accurate.

And Sony, not wanting to be left behind, unveiled a system that uses cameras and motion-sensitive controllers that can change the appearance of the controller on-screen. So in a tennis game it looks like a tennis racquet on screen, for example.

In the end, though, both companies were blown out of the water by a demonstration of Microsoft’s Project Natal.

Natal uses cameras and facial recognition technology to enable gamers to control games with their bodies, and to interact with impressively intelligent virtual characters. I recommend you watch the jaw-dropping demo available on YouTube.

Carri Cunliffe is head of sector development at Codeworks GameHorizon.