- ZDNet Tags:
- Entertainment,
- Games,
- Game consoles,
SANTA MONICA, Calif.--The major game-console makers at this year's
E3 Media and Business Summit had a similar message: it's not gaming,
it's entertainment.
Of course, the three
companies--Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony--were all eager to highlight
their successes and differentiate themselves from their rivals.
Nintendo is at the top of the heap this year after the wild and
serendipitous rise of its Wii console, a status exemplified by Nintendo
America President and CEO Reggie Fils-Aime's onstage declaration, "My
name is Reggie, and I'm happy."
But beyond that, the "Big
3" at E3 were all about the "E" word. All three presentations stressed
a common goal of establishing video games as a form of entertainment
that's unquestionably on a par with television or film. As a
result--despite the fact that the revamped E3 is smaller, quieter and
more exclusive than its massive predecessor--there was nothing low key
about the console companies' presentations. With massive video screens,
surround sound and fancy lighting, the atmosphere had the feel of a
movie premiere. Game previews, with their emphasis on action and
storyline, were virtually indistinguishable from film trailers.
The
exception was Nintendo, which spent nearly as much time running
third-party clips about the Wii and the DS Lite--from news reports to
YouTube videos to The Colbert Report and South Park--as
it did showing off new games. It's notable, because not only does the
Wii have the cultural impact factor and the potential for
visual-friendly imagery of people swinging "Wiimotes" like tennis
rackets or bowling balls, but it also has the disadvantage of lower-end
graphics that just aren't as eye-catching on a big screen as the Xbox
360 or PlayStation 3.
"Looking
back, E3 here in 2007 may well be seen as a coming-out party for an
entire industry," Nintendo's Fils-Aime said in his speech, "the moment
that it became finally clear that video games would take their place
alongside TV, music and movies as a staple of leisure entertainment."
Peter Moore, Microsoft's corporate vice president of
interactive entertainment, highlighted statistics from
PricewaterhouseCoopers that predicted the gaming industry would surpass
the music industry in the amount of cash raked in this year.
Additionally,
focusing on the entertainment factor was one thing that the companies
could use to get the attendees excited. It was a bit of a catch-22 for
the console manufacturers: the "new E3" was supposed to cut down on the
glitz factor, but at the same time, it was clear that the likes of
Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo needed to use some smoke and mirrors
(literally) to mask the fact that there weren't going to be a whole lot
of shocking moments.
The vast majority of games had already
been announced and many had been previously demonstrated, and hardware
announcements were minor. Sony made some
It
probably won't be clear until the end of the week whether the
eye-catching game trailers and lavish demonstrations like Microsoft's
smoke-machine-laden debut of the Rock Band
will have been enough to keep jaded press members and analysts at bay,
but Microsoft executive Peter Moore's "rendition" of the Hives' Main Offender on the new music game certainly elicited some laughs.
Gaming can be social
Aside from entertainment, the three press events shared two more-common
buzzwords: connectivity and versatility. The companies highlighted
their individual online hubs--Microsoft's Xbox Live, Sony's PlayStation
Network and Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console--as responsible for breaking
video gaming out of its solitary shell and making it a legitimately
social experience. Sony spent a significant amount of time highlighting
the "Home" virtual world associated with the PlayStation 3, with Sony
Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Jack Tretton using his
Home avatar rather than a physical appearance to greet the audience
(though he did walk onstage several minutes later). Nintendo announced
a new "channel" for the Wii completely devoted to players' "Mii"
avatars, which have become a phenomenon themselves.
Microsoft
doesn't have any kind of formal social network associated with the Xbox
360, but the company instead touted the sheer volume of its Xbox Live
network. "This is the largest community connected to the television,"
said Jeff Bell, Microsoft's corporate vice president of global
marketing. "Last year at E3 we said that Xbox Live would grow to 6
million members by now," he said, noting that it proceeded to hit 7
million. "We've added a new member every eight seconds. This community
continues to grow, and before next year's E3, we're forecasting that we
will cross the 10 million member mark."
Then
there's versatility. All three companies cited examples of how their
consoles can be used as living room media centers rather than just
gaming devices: Sony showed off the American Idol-like game SingStar,
coming to U.S. markets for the first time on the PlayStation 3, and
repeatedly emphasized the Blu-ray player built into the console.
Nintendo, following in the success of its Wii Sports game suite,
which deviates even more from the gaming norm by using the console for
aerobics, yoga and even posture improvement games. Microsoft catered
more to the couch potato demographic with its announcement that select
movies from Disney will be available for purchase through its Xbox Live
Marketplace download service, and hyped its new version of the popular
movie trivia game Scene-It, previously available only as a DVD game.
There was still plenty of catering toward the hard-core audience, especially at Microsoft's Halo-heavy
event. But it was clear that expanding the consoles' functionality to
encompass everything like movies, karaoke and even fitness has been a
hot priority for all three companies since their launch. The video game
industry obviously does want to achieve the privileged status--and it's
getting there--of being considered alongside movies and television as a
mainstay of entertainment, art and culture.
But there's
also the simple drive to maximize profit. The more versatile a pricey
video game console is, more consumers, particularly those who don't
consider themselves "gamers" in the traditional sense," will be more
likely to consider forking over the cash for one.
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