Dear Friends:
This week, I'm in sunny Los Angeles, California. I'm here to attend the annual E3 Show (Electronic Entertainment Expo)., which is entirely focused on video games that will be coming out over the next year. The show is a giant assault on ones senses. The booths are gigantic - some reaching up to 30,000 square feet in size. Each is a spectacle, with games, lights, music and displays all screaming for your attention. I love it ; ) Let's get started, shall we?
We begin by looking at the three biggest companies at the show - these are the folks that actually sell videogame systems. First up is Nintendo:
The focus for their booth is a game called Super Smash Brothers, which has been around for a long time - and a favorite of a lot of gamers - but a new version is coming to the Wii U.
Directly next door was the Sony booth - with a heavy emphasis on the PlayStation 4. I couldn't get a great shot of the booth, so I borrowed this one, to show the size of the crowds coming through....
They were showing games for the Playstation 4, as well as the older Playstation 3. Sony is on a roll right now, and the line-up of games was really good.
Next door to Sony is the Microsoft Xbox booth. For several years, Sony and Microsoft have been locked in battle over videogame console systems. Their booths are lined up right next to each other. They are both giant in size and you usually end up with a little walkway right between them. A hilarious example of the console wars:
Inside the Xbox booth was a massive display of images and game systems. The latest and greatest games for the Xbox One were everywhere:
There were at least a dozen of these smaller areas, allowing people to try specific games:
Here's a broader view of the Xbox booth, in all its glory:
For the newest car driving game from Microsoft (Forza), they brought a special-edition Lamborghini for all of us to drool over:
This is a game that I really like right now - it actually lets you make your own games, and can help teach kids/adults how to actually create games that look fantastic. It's called Project Spark:
OK - this next game was quite interesting. We've all seen games that use cameras to track the movement of our bodies. There are even exercise games that lead you through a workout. This game - called Shape Up - is the most intense that I've seen. It has different levels, but I don't think I could play at this level ; )
Across the show, there were booths from a variety of game publishers. Warner Brothers Interactive had a brand-new Lego Batman game that looked gorgeous on the latest game consoles:
They had a 4-foot tall Lego Batman character right next to the game. Thousands of pieces of plastic...all to make me smile:
Warner Brothers had a more "mature" Batman game to show. They even had a giant life-size Bat-Tank on display for the game. I can't even imagine what this cost to put together:
Elsewhere, Disney had their own booth. They have a game called Disney Infinity - it's a great game that my youngest son and I love to play together. Small figurines of Disney characters are used on a special device to allow you to play those characters in a game. You can play as Mickey, Woody, Elsa, Rapunzel, etc. The games are fun and you can collect new figurines. Disney just announced the latest version of the game (version 2.0), coming this fall. Guess which characters they're adding to the game?
That's right, Disney owns the Marvel characters, and they are going to be really fun in the game. Here's a sneak peek at the new characters:
The Disney folks were kind enough to take a picture of me with one of the new characters:
They even gave me one of the figurines, well before they ever make it into stores:
I'm also looking forward to this character - giving my red-headed daughter a fun character that looks like her:
Across the E3 show floor, you can see booth after booth...each one carefully created to showcase a variety of games:
Another big publisher is Activision. They own the Call of Duty franchise, as well as Skylanders. They had a massive theater set up in their booth to showcase their latest game - Destiny. It looks gorgeous:
Next door was another publisher named Ubisoft. They had a very strong showing this year. Some of you may have heard of Just Dance or Assassin's Creed - both come from this company:
One of the newest games coming from Ubisoft is The Crew - basically, it a car driving/racing game that puts you on a team with other drivers. They had a special car simulator in their booth to enhance the experience of recklessly driving the car:
Other games and crazy displays from around the show:
2K Games' Evolve
Square-Enix Booth
An eastern European company's World of Tanks
As you can see from the videos and images, this show is crazy...and amazing. I love coming here and getting a chance to see such creativity from our industry. Lots and lots of money in this business, which explains why so much money is spent at this show to make people notice games above "the noise". Glad I could come to yet another E3!
Thanks for reading....
No comments:
Post a Comment