Electronic Entertainment Expo curtain raiser
Filed Under Country Curtain | Posted on July 19, 2008
The great and good of the videogames industry will be de-camping to Los Angeles to show what new titles they’ve got in the pipeline for the coming year.
It seems the focus of the show will be on software, rather than hardware, and although we’re unlikely to see any groundbreaking new consoles getting their grand unveiling at the Expo, there are some strong rumours of tweaks to existing machines: Microsoft, for instance, is promising a “major Xbox announcement”, and is thought to be adding a 60GB console to its Xbox 360 line-up; Sony could well show off a new “transforming” controller that snaps into two individual sections and which can be wielded like Nintendo’s motion-sensitive Wiimote controllers; and Nintendo itself could take the wraps off a new slimline DS. Nintendo remains very much the company to beat, and all eyes will be on Microsoft and Sony to see how they respond to the runaway success of the Japanese games giant.
According to the website VGChartz, Nintendo has sold more than 75 million DS consoles worldwide, and just short of 28.5 Nintendo Wiis - that’s well over one hundred million consoles globally, compared to just 70 million machines sold by Microsoft and Sony combined.
Nintendo’s position is not guaranteed, though. Earlier this week, for instance, Apple made a bold move into the handheld console market with the launch of its iPhone 3G.
Several of the major games studios are already porting games across to this new, motion-sensitive platform, in which the on-screen action is controlled by moving the iPhone itself.
The graphics are top-notch, and many publishers will be keen to test the water here, and explore the potential of this new platform. On this basis, it seems the time is ripe for Nintendo to at least discuss future iterations of its phenomenally successful DS console, if not actually rush them out the door.
There are also rumours that Shigeru Miyamoto, one of the senior figures within Nintendo and a videogames legend, could be about to dust off 1980s favourite Kid Icarus, and give it a sparkling 21st-century makeover.
There are high hopes that Take Two’s press conference could yield some more nuggets about the follow-up to Bioshock, which is rumoured to be a prequel, rather than a sequel. And speaking of sequels, both Fable 2 and Gears of War 2 look set to be demoed.
Sega seems certain to have a couple of Sonic titles up its sleeve, Ubisoft will demo Red Steel 2, while there’s sure to be a lot of interest in the new Lego Batman game.
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