Oceania E3 2004...

Anyone going?

 

No.

One of these days, perhaps...

 

I'm going!!!!

*hugs press pass* Although I do qualify for industry entry as well

6 weeks to goooooo

 

I hate you

Should be a big one this year, major announcements from all three companies.

I'll be geeking it out in front of the computer that weekend, it's become somewhat of a May tradition

 

It'll be interesting to see if Nintendo are serious about staying competitive, or rather perhaps signal the beginning of the long speculated pull-out.

Microsoft and Sony are going to roxx0rz them no matter what they do (and this is from a Nintendo diehard loyalist) so I only hope the wealth of franchise and genre history in the Nintendo line is preserved.

 

I love nintendo but I'd be happy if they just became a developer for microsoft. Apparantly they are unveiling a new console though and I'll be interested to see the Nintendo DS.

 

I envy you soooooo much Kehleyr. It's always been one of my life long dreams of mine and my friends to go to E3. I hope you have a terrific time which I'm sure you will.

And you get to play the Nintendo DS before anyone else here, as well as first hand experience of the newest games and latest information. Nintendo still have alot of life in them.

Don't forget to bring us something back

 

At the moment, I'm more interest in Nintendo's pre-E3 press confrence, scheduled for some time at the end of this month (April). It's a Nintendo only event where they'll be showcasing a lot of games for the press to take a gander at, including Metroid Prime 2 and Wind Waker 2. And, as I understand it, Metroid Prime 2 is looking pretty close to completed, which is nice and exciting.

Now, in regard to Nintendo's position in the market. I'd say with a float of close to $6 billion, they're probably going to stick around for a while anyway. Also, whilst they are doing poorly here in Australia, they are doing awesome overseas.

As for the other two consoles... I'm pretty sure they've got a lot of games that they've delayed over the last 12 months that they can show off to us. Xbox has Halo 2 and Fable, which both had release dates originally set for last December but are still nowhere to be seen. Sony will most likely show off GT4 and GTA4. But speaking of delaying games...

Whether or not it is the same in the American and Japanese markets as it has been here in Australia, I don't know, but Sony hasn't been making a lot of friends over the last 6 months. They've been delaying games quite frequently recently, holding back titles for sometimes months at a time. Sony is the comopany I'm worried about. They are literally poisoning the gaming market. They don't really care about what they are doing, but have the money to back themselves up everytime they fall.

There will also be a few different handheld devices on show that interest me: the PSP and GBDS. That's Playstation Portable and Gameboy Dual Screen. The DS is definately the more interesting of the two. We don't know a real lot about it, but I think Nintendo has some good ideas up it's sleeves. The PSP on the otherhand, well, it has the potential to change handheld gaming. It's going to be the most powerful handheld out there, it'll play games, music and movies at PS2 quality. And since it's using DVD's, you can play your PS or PS2 games on it as well. At least, that's what I've heard. But before we get carried away, let's take a walk down memory lane, to a time and place called E3 2003.

Remember the Nokia N-Gage? Remember how awesome we were taold it would be? Nokia said it would rox0r our sox0rz and that we'd be phat and rad all at the same time. Except of course, that only babies play video games, and you're a dork if you hang around on a friday night playing game boy or something. Yeahm, good one Nokia... When it launched in the states in August it shifted almost 5000 units. Nokia hailed it as a great success. As I'm sure you're all aware, the N-Gage blows.

Now, back to Sony's PSP. I'm sure it's probably going to do a little bit better than the N-Gage. At least Sony doesn't mouth off at it's prospective customers. I'm not sure that the PSP will be as big a hit as Sony thinks. In fact, I think that they only people who are going to want a PSP are people who already have a Gameboy. If you want to enjoy some handheld gaming, then you more than likely already have the means to do so. The PSP isn't going to do anything that the N-Gage failed to do. People are going to be playing wireless multiplayer games when they're out at a club, or skating, or whatever it is these people do. If you're going to go out to dance, why even bother bringing games along?

Anyway, enough of that. The only stuff I'm really interested in is Nintendo's stuff this year. The GC games and the new DS. Unless Sony have plans to release FF12 here in Australia before the end of the year then they've got nothing that interests me, and the only Xbox games that I want right now were supposed to be released 4 months ago. Even on PC, the only game I want is Half-Life 2, although I will be interested to see if Obsidian Entertainment and/or Bioware bring anything new and exciting to the show. I know they're working together on a number of projects, but so far all I know is KOTOR2, so I'm waiting to see what new PC games they're bring out.

 

The Gamecube is doing better overseas than it is here but it's still coming last (except in Japan where it's second). Most of the money Nintendo is making comes from the Gameboy.

Apparantly the DS is not being branded as a gameboy. According to nintendo it will exist along side the gameboy and will simply be called the Nintendo DS.

 

Nintendo DS isn't it's offical name. But should be great none the less.

 

luigi, PPOR... last I heard (Dec '03) the gamecube was second in the states too. It overtook the Xbox in the last week of November when it sold 500,000 units over Thanksgiving and followed it up with a strong christmas.

Also, iirc, GBA outsells PS2 in japan, technically making the Gamecube 3rd.

 

It did sell more units coming up to christmas than xbox because of the massive price drop but there's still more people with xboxes in America.

 

*grins*

It is definitely set to be a big year. I am looking forward to see what the Australian companies put forth.

 

Bring me back a few of those E3 girls. I'll PM you the dimensions.

 

LoL, wonder who they are as this year?
Wonder if they have a Samus Aran...

Should be good none the less. E3 just keeps getting bigger ever year, now they got the "History of Video Games" Museum which would be fun to see some of the old classics and all.

 

Got my confirmation of registration! Now just trying to coordinate flights!

 

twist the knife, why don't ya?

 

3 sleeps until I fly out!

 

You must be pretty gosh darn excited!

 

yupyupyupyup!

 

I'd love to go but have no money

 

2 sleeps!

 

E3 begins oh so soon

 

Microsoft have had their pre-show launch and boy was there some impressive stuff unveiled but no XBox2 unfortunately

They did however unveil a car game that they've been hiding that was obviously designed to beat Gran Turismo, And let me just say from what I've seen of it so far, Gran Turismo doesn't come close. It is un-friggen-believable!

 

Well, It's only been 1 day or so and already we've had some pretty big things happening.

As far as the console market is concerned, Nintendo have got this years E3 totally owned.

The Nintendo DS has been unveiled and it looks pretty nice. The list of games in development for the system isn't too shabby either: Metroid, Final Fantasy, Mario Kart and two different Mario platformers, just to name a few.

But it's not the new handheld that really stood out for Nintendo, it was the announcement of new games on the Gamecube that have really wowed the crowds. Metroid Prime 2, Advance Wars: Under Fire and Resident Evil 4 were among the impressive 2nd and 3rd party exclusive titles but it was the big first party games that have really made a big impression. Nintendo revealed an all new Legend of Zelda game for the GBA, and took it one step further, revealing an all new Legend of Zelda for the Gamecube. The game revolves around an Adult Link, and shows that Nintendo aren't afraid to "grow up", as a lot of people have been saying lately.

After all the big Nintendo anouncements, it was pretty hard to find anything else to get really excited about. There have been quite a lot of cool 3rd party titles that are in the works as cross-console games, such as StarCraft: Ghost, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent and Prince of Persia 2. Microsoft seem to have been fairly quiet this year, with not very many surprises at all. That being said, what they did show was very nice, even if you could see it coming a mile off: Fable, Halo 2 and Jade Empire have been my 3 top picks so far. And for the PS2, Square-Enix have started showing off some new screens and video of both Final Fantasy XII and Kingdom Hearts 2, plus there's a new Xenosaga in development, which is pretty exciting.