There's a lot to discuss in the wake of E3, like the ridiculously expensive PS3, Nintendo's monstrous Wii line-up, and Microsoft "winning" the show.

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The Week in Review…More or Less

May 21, 2006

Yes, it’s been a while, the lull before E3 was getting silly with its complete lack of things to talk about, and I wanted some time to properly digest all that happened at the show before commenting on it. You can add me to the continually growing list of people who think Sony shot themselves in the foot, and that only those with far more money than brains will actually buy the PS3 anytime in the near future. The software in store for the Wii looks decent so far, but the console still needs more third party support. Also, who would have thought that Microsoft would come out giving a strong sense that they know what they’re doing at this E3 (unlike previous years where they often came off sounding like they were full of it).

Anyway, yeah, the PlayStation 3. Like a lot of other people out there, I was one of those who was of the mind that Sony would have to make one hell of a mistake to jeopardize its position in the next generation console wars. Something truly awful, terrible, scandalous. They’ve done just that by deciding to sell the thing at an astronomical price. In fact it’s two astronomical prices seeing as Sony has decided to split the SKU for the console, with one being a simple, stripped down version of the PS3, and the other with all the bells and whistles. I’ll give Sony some credit about there being 2 SKUs, though. The cheaper of the two is actually quite similar to the high-end Xbox 360 in terms of specs, but the thing still costs about $100 more. Really, I have a lot of trouble understanding how Sony plans to sell this system, and consequently stagger price drops to ensure that units continue to move at a reasonable pace. Obviously the first batch or two to hit retail will sell with little trouble, as technophiles, and the most unswervingly loyal, not to mention well-heeled, Sony acolytes scoop up there shiny, new PS3s, but then what?

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$500-$600 isn’t cheap, and have Sony forgotten that people will need to buy games, which, if speculation holds true, will be a good $60 each, as well as $30 Blu-Ray movies, not to mention extra controllers and whatnot. It isn’t that hard to jack the price up over the $1,000 mark, and that’s just in the US. Sony better hope that country isn’t barreling towards a recession like some economists are predicting, because if they do I suspect video games will be the last

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thing on many consumers’ minds, especially expensive ones. Not only is the PlayStation 3 expensive, there’s a good chance both its competitors will be significantly cheaper by the time the PS3 hits stores. It wouldn’t come as much of a surprise to see Nintendo launch the Wii (that still sounds so very, very wrong) at $199-$249US, nor would it be a shock to see Microsoft lower the price on the Xbox360, even if only a hair, just in time for Christmas. If either of these scenarios play out, Sony’s job will have become that much harder for selling the PlayStation 3.

Which brings us to the Nintendo Wii, the great WunderSystem with visions of a far more active gaming future full of flailing arms, and pantomime. While the overall concept behind the new control scheme of the Wii is fascinating, we’ve only just seen the tip of the iceberg. What we still need to find out is how much of the system’s library will be covered by Nintendo, and how much by third parties. From the games shown at E3, it sure looks like Nintendo will be picking up the slack for now. In a lot of ways, I suspect they will need to prove themselves, and their new hardware much in the same way they had to with the DS. When the handheld first came out, there wasn’t a huge number of developers kicking down the door to try and make a game that took advantage of two screens and a stylus pen. However, now that the DS has sold extremely well for quite some time, developers are getting in line to make games for it. Now it’s the Wii’s turn. Can Nintendo prove that its control method is the future, and not a gimmick? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see. Given that it probably won’t cost too much for consumers, and development costs for it seem a lot more palatable than the PS3, and 360, perhaps that’s just two more incentives to get developers onboard with the Wii.

And now...the Xbox 360. About ten months ago, we were all bemoaning Microsoft’s decision to go with 2 SKUs for the thing, and questioning the hefty price of the console. Now in light of the PS3, the 360 isn’t looking so bad, and if the thing gets a price drop some time in Q4 it’ll look even nicer. What the system really has going for it at the moment, though, is a decent amount of momentum. Microsoft appears to be manufacturing the thing at a reasonable pace for the time being, and the console’s library is starting to shape up quite well with games like Battlefield 2, GRAW, and Oblivion riding high on the sales charts. Now, with the games shown / announced at E3, the 360 is looking even better still. Halo 3 was a given but always welcome, Gears of War and Lost Planet are looking better all the time, and it was a real shocker to see Grand Theft Auto 4 announced for the 360 with no mention whatsoever of a PS3 version. If you told most gamers these things a year ago they likely wouldn’t have believed you, but now look where Microsoft is.

If there’s any one thing that can be taken away from the events of E3 2006, it’s that there is a very good chance that the clout of the major players on the scene is about to realign itself. How, exactly, remains to be seen, but there’s very little doubt that the next five years in this industry will be very different than the previous five.

Mr. Nash


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