The Futurelooks team is off to sunny Los Angeles to cover the Electronic Entertainment Expo, known affectionately in most circles simply as the E3 Expo. The 2009 edition of this video game convention isn’t really supposed to be a throwback to its former glory days, per se, but the organizers have indicated that this year’s E3 show will be a fair bit bigger than it has been in recent years.
Not surprisingly, all of the big boys should be in attendance. What is Nintendo going to bring to the table this time? What about Microsoft? How about Sony’s camp? And let’s not forget about all of those wonderful developers, publishers, and video game accessory companies that’ll also be at E3 this year.
There’s really no saying for sure what the show will have in store for us, but I’m not afraid to venture an educated guess.
Pushing Out More Nintendo DSiWare Titles
As you may already know, the Nintendo DSi launched just under two months ago in North America. It’s not a brand new handheld from Nintendo, per se, as much as it is an evolution of the existing Nintendo DS Lite. It brings a few notable changes, like the inclusion of dual cameras, an SD card slot, and perhaps most importantly, the opening of the Nintendo DSi Shop. It’s there that you’ll find the equivalent of an Xbox Live Arcade or Wii Virtual Console in the palm of your Wi-Fi connected hands.
I’m not entire sure what sort of DSiWare titles that Nintendo and other development studios have in the works, but I do know that the DSi will get its fair share of attention at the show. A short while ago, I heard about a game called Ghostwire by A Different Game and it makes use of the DSi’s outward-facing camera. In effect, your real world becomes the environment for the game, except the game world happens to be populated by ghosts and ghouls.
Unveiling the New Sony PS3 Slim
The huge rumor currently making its rounds through the tubes of the Internet is the possible unveiling of an updated Sony PlayStation 3. Just as Sony did with the first PlayStation, as well as the PlayStation 2, word is that there will be some variation of a PS3 Slim.
The leaked spy shot above is meant to depict the box art that will appear on this new slim PS3. Naturally, very little is known about the proposed update to the PS3, but we do know that Sony is currently in a world of hurt and it needs something to get us excited about the brand again. A slimmer, less expensive PS3 could be the way to do that.
That said, we’re still in the middle of the current console generation and Sony didn’t usher in the slim variations of the PSone and PS2 until their respective next-gens were just around the corner.
In this way, as much as I think it would be nice to see a slimmer and more compact version of the PlayStation 3, I believe that it is much more likely that Sony will only present us with a new SKU for the PS3, just as when they adjusted the hard drive size the last couple of years. The new SKU may include some bundled games or maybe a “special version” of the PS3 in some way.
Changing Gears with a Next-Gen PSP2 Handheld
So, if Sony probably isn’t going to introduce us to a PS3 Slim of some kind, are they going to do something about the portable market? For the first little while of the PlayStation Portable’s life cycle, it was able to enjoy a certain level of success. It competed directly against the Nintendo DS and offer more mature titles for people that wanted that kind of portable entertainment.
Unfortunately for Sony, the PSP seems to have fallen a few rungs down the ladder. It’s nowhere near as popular as it has been in the past. I know that my PSP has been collecting dust for some time. Part of this has to do with software offerings, but it’s also time for a hardware update to better compete against the Nintendo DSi and, yes, even the iPhone and iPod touch.
The PSP is in need of some new life and some totally updated hardware may be able to solicit that kind of excitement again. They could toss in a higher resolution (touch?) screen, internal memory, and perhaps a sliding form factor to shrink the footprint. More importantly, it’s time to upgrade the arm of the PlayStation Network for the PSP.
The iPhone and iPod touch have access to the App Store. The Nintendo DSi has its DSi Shop. The PSP, as a mobile entertainment device with Wi-Fi, should be able to offer even more functionality. It should let you buy small games, yes, but also useful apps like Twitter clients.
Further still, Sony could very well take E3 2009 as an opportunity to announce the availability of a PSP-sourced download service for movie rentals and digital music downloads. The PSP has always been marketed as a comprehensive mobile entertainment handheld, so this would help to reinforce this approach.
Capturing Motion with Upgraded Xbox Live Camera
For a while, the Microsoft Xbox 360 was regarded as the gamer’s console. It was the place for games like Halo and Gears of War. It was not the place for the casual audience. Well, partly based on the resounding success of the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft shifted some of its focus to see how it could capture the casual gamer market. That’s how we came to receive the New Xbox Experience (NXE) and the Xbox Avatars.
Possibly continuing with this “Mii Too” strategy, Microsoft is going to continue its pursuit of the casual market with a motion-sensitive controller, not unlike the Wii Remote. This much has been confirmed and a slew of games using the “new” technology will be on display at E3. We also hear that a new motion-sensing camera will also be there, improving on what we had previously “enjoyed” with the PlayStation EyeToy and the Xbox Live Camera.
Will either of these be included in the 1 vs. 100 Xbox Live Primetime game?
Escaping to Final Fantasy XIII in 2010
When it comes to role-playing games, the first and last name that always comes to mind is Square Enix. They’re legendary and even though their signature franchise is called Final Fantasy, this fantasy never seems to end. Square Enix has been tugging on the heartstrings of RPG enthusiasts since they first gave us a glimpse at Final Fantasy XIII way back in 2006. With E3 2009, I think we will finally see a playable demo of some kind.
Giant posters and billboards are starting to show up in Los Angeles, so it’s clear that Square Enix is getting a lot closer to putting Final Fantasy XIII on store shelves. I’m thinking that it will hit Japan close to the end of this year and, based on the posters, North America will get the epic RPG some time next year.
Finishing the Fight Again with Halo 3: ODST
If you thought that you were finally finishing the fight with Master Chief when you fought your way through Halo 3, you weren’t alone. However, Bungie isn’t going to let an enormously successful franchise just drift off into the distance like that, right? Many people are already playing the Halo Wars RTS game, but this new update brings us back into the FPS genre.
Previously known as Halo 3: Recon, Halo 3: ODST is a standalone expansion for Halo 3. The first-person shooter will probably feel very familiar for Halo enthusiasts, but you are not fighting as Master Chief. Instead, the protagonist is a UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) and the action takes place just before the story in Halo 3.
The UNSC soldier will not have the same advanced armor and strength as Master Chief, so the game will require a greater level of caution on the part of the player. Naturally, you will be playing in an open world environment.
The current projection has Halo 3: ODST getting launched in Q4 2009, so we could be looking at a playable version of the game at E3 2009. The people who love the Halo universe but are looking for something a little different than what Master Chief has been offering over the years may be able to derive a fair bit of pleasure from ODST.
Confirming and Debunking Rumors Once and for All
In terms of other E3 predictions, previews, rumors, and hearsay, there are plenty of tidbits for us to consider. I plan on visiting the Capcom booth to see if anything new has developed for a potential Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The “versus” franchise at Capcom has provided us with plenty of great fighting games, so MvC3 could be great. I’m not as optimistic about the Wii-bound Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, however.
Speaking of the Nintendo Wii, I’m sure that Reggie Fils-Aime will be talking about the new Wii MotionPlus attachment and possibly new Balance Board-compatible games. I hear that Hideo Kojima might have something about a new Metal Gear Solid game, even though he said that he was done with the franchise. Maybe, like Halo 3: ODST, we could be seeing a MGS game without Solid Snake. Based on a sub-page on Konami’s site, it looks like Big Boss (Solid Snake’s commanding officer in the original Metal Gear) could take on the lead role. We might also see an expansion of the New Xbox Experience, giving our Avatars the ability to have Facebook-like status updates perhaps.
What do you want to see at E3 2009? Are there any specific companies you’d like us to visit? Voice your views through the forums or hit us up on Twitter to let us know and we’ll see what we can find!
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