Kind of like the Wii Music scenario all over again, except that Wonderbook wasn't the only thing Sony showed off. So, I really don't understand the hate.
To be fair, Pikmin 3 does look like a lot of fun. xD It's just that to me, the NSMB games look... bland, and uninspired.
I don't have any objections to Sony showing off Wonderbook. I think it's great for a certain target demographic. What I had a problem with was them devoting three times as much time to it as they did anything else. That demo dragged on horribly long and really brought the whole thing to a screeching halt.
Fair enough. I didn't actually watch the Sony conference itself, I just watched clips from it with the Wonderbook being one of them. But all I see on the internet is hate for Wonderbook itself. People also make fun of some of the demoers on stage but for the most part everyone seems to take personal offense to the fact that Sony was pitching an interactive story book which... seems like a good idea to me? If people were only complaining about the fact that the presentation of Wonderbook was bad and inappropriately long for something that seems very much like a "side dish" to the PS3, that would be one thing, but no one ever says or clarifies that.
My issue with Wonderbook is that yes it is obviously intended for children...so why didn't they have children demo the game? If I remember correctly they had two people in their late-twenties/early thirties on stage playing with an interactive Harry Potter book of spells. It was weird. They had kids on stage showcasing the Sesame Street Kinect game last year because with adults it would've been creepy. That's true. If Nintendo's conference taught me anything it's that the purpose of E3 is to impress investors, not hardcore gamers. That's why they have a big 'pomp and circumstance' around things like Wii Fit U, Sing, Just Dance 4, and NintendoLand. They announce these games as opposed to the ones we all wanted because casual gamers and families will buy those games, and they're the ones that have the most money to spend, thus making investors happy.
Yeah, that's true. Again, I get that the presentation of the Wonderbook was pretty lacklustre but the idea itself is solid. But whenever people are whining about it, they are only complaining about the idea itself and rarely do I see complaints about just that part of the overall conference. So I really don't understand the hate for the product itself. E3 has almost always been about investors and the press, hasn't it? I mean, the conferences are "press conferences" and the press isn't just limited to gaming blogs like the internet would have you believe nowadays. You'll even see all the biggest news from E3 in print newspapers and magazines after the convention. And print journalists are usually more interested in unique things that the public can jump right into like casual games, motion control, media viewing, etc. Each company knows that their hardcore group pays attention to them year-round. They get their news down to the minute from twitter, gaming blogs, etc. They follow the announcements whether they came from Facebook at some random time of the year or from a big convention like E3... but to get themselves heard by the general public, including those who would invest in them? Yeah, they need E3 and similar venues for that because most people aren't going to keep up otherwise. I always keep this in mind every year so whenever people are griping about E3 and how it didn't cater to those of us who would actually join and post on an online forum about video games, I'm usually not too disappointed. The only things I usually want to hear from E3 are release dates so I know when to throw my money at game companies and we never really get dates at E3 anymore so I don't get my hopes up. :p
Well, they didn't impress the investors. The stock dropped (which works for me since I've been thinking of buying some lately, then I could be a legitimate complainer). The investors and analysts won't be happy unless Nintendo announces iPhone games. Won't happen. E3 used to be like the gamer's Christmas until it self imploded a few years back. Then they had a couple of strange years there in a hotel and then when they came back it just wasn't the same. The focus changed. TGS, CES, ... heck we see more interesting announcements at the Spike awards. Nintendo, bring back SpaceWorld. Please!
Who won E3? We posted our impressions of the conferences and gave each one a score. If you've been following Rhys and my posts on the forums, it's been pretty obvious who we thought won the show, but this makes it official.
I'd say Sony had the most interesting conference, even though it wasn't great. It had the most interesting individual items to me - God of War, The Last of Us, Assassin's Creed etc. Nintendo's was the biggest disappointment, especially since that's the one I wanted to really shine.
