Ubisoft
You can't talk about E3 this year without talking about Ubisoft. They were literally an integral part of each of the Big Three's presentations, and they had their own presentation that stole the thunder away from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. I had tuned into this just because I was interested in seeing Assassin's Creed 3, but was pleasantly surprised by the rest of their game offerings, and their just announce title, Watch Dogs, stole the show. Ubisoft, you did a damn fine job this year with one exception..
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| She's got some lady wood |
Aisha Tyler's presentation was too over the top for E3. Now, I like Aisha as much as anybody else, I'm a big fan of Archer, but quotes such as "We're a little bit gay, all of us", and "Here comes girl wood number three" took Ubisoft's solid line up and made a mockery of it. Thankfully Watch Dogs was able to make the hurt disappear. For anybody who missed her, here's a summary:
Ubisoft, if you're going to play with the big boys, you're going to need to put on a better game face.
Microsoft
Microsoft was rather ho hum, with the exception of two things: Halo 4, and Microsoft Glass. Halo 4, obviously being the next Master Chief Saga, looks great. There's some really interesting concepts in it, but I worry that it doesn't look as fluid as a Modern Warfare or Black Ops does these days. Halo players love them some Halo, though, so I'm sure it will be a big hit.
Microsoft Glass, on the other hand, takes a swipe at Nintendo. Microsoft says "Instead of buying a new console with things you already own, why not just use the things you already own with the console you already own?" Using the display is a neat idea if you just use Microsoft enabled tablets and phones, but toss in Android and iDevices and you have a GREAT idea. I'm looking forward to trying this one out myself.
Nintendo
I've been calling for the death of Nintendo as a console maker for a good couple years now, and nothing they showed at E3 made me change my mind. They're showing Current gen graphics and game play on their next generation system, they're touting games that will be in the bargain bin for other systems this September as release titles in November. They're letting strangers chat and draw pictures on the Wii console for anybody to be able to see. I'm happy to see Nintendo taking something as big of a fad as "The Internet" more seriously, but they're still ten years behind where they need to be in understanding how gamers work. Expect Nintendo stock to plummet this holiday season, and Nintendo to get serious about how they're going to stay afloat for next E3.
Sony
Sony puts on a good show, but like their competitors, Ubisoft stole the show with their footage. Sony did have one trick up its sleeve from Naughty Dog, Last of Us looks fantastic and I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on it. Sony needs to give gamers a better reason to go buy their absolutely fantastic piece of hardware, the Vita, and I didn't see a whole lot of reason to be doing that in their show. Hopefully this fall will be good for them.
Final Thoughts
Ubisoft looked great at E3 this year, and they're poised to join the ranks of Blizzard and Valve for publishers that I really like. They need to bring a bit more of a corporate face than they did this year, but still be able to have some fun along the way. Ubisoft owned E3 this year, and I want to see them do it again next year. This will, at the very least, make other game companies take notice of what they need to bring to E3 next year.
Microsoft really needs to improve their Xbox Live service. People are currently paying Microsoft $60 a year for the privilege to be able to do everything they do on a PC for services they're already paying for on an Xbox. Services that are FREE over at the Sony camp. And if you pay the Sony Camp $50 / year, you get free games. Hell, if you sign up this month, you get $260 in free games this month alone. And I'm not talking about crappy games, I'm talking about Little Big Planet 2 and Infamous 2, two serious contenders on the Sony side of things. Microsoft needs to wake up before their subscribers do.
Sony is still trying to earn the trust of the community back, and they're doing a good job of winning people over. I think we need Kevin Butler back to show people the benefits of switching from the MS camp to the Sony camp. I think Sony needs to show me why I need to carry a device other than my iPhone with me, because I don't need another system in my pocket when I already have a phone that does everything.
I don't think anybody needs to worry about Nintendo. I really want to see them under new management, and take the company in a new direction. Your ideas are interesting, but we haven't plateaued in what a system can do yet, and it's admirable that you're exploring in new directions, you're losing sight of what it is people want out of their gaming experiences. Good luck on announcing your price tag guys. I can't wait to see Zelda on my new Playstation.
