by John Constantine

It doesn’t matter how many times Jack Tretton says that 2008 was a banner year, full of momentum and good times, for the Playstation family. There’s no escaping the truth: times are tough for Sony. The PSP continues to sell while its software continues to stagnate. The Playstation 2 enjoyed an Indian summer when its priced dropped, but the system has undeniably entered its twilight. And the Playstation3? Well, growing your audience by forty percent is all well and good but that audience is still very small compared to those of your competitors. Sony needed a big show at E3 2009 and, while the actual show dragged here and there, they had a giant one. Here’s the breakdown.

The Big Demos

Sony’s conference was bookended by spectacular single-player demos of “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” and “God of War III”. Naughty Dog’s made themselves a looker with “Uncharted 2”, which is no surprise, but the action shown in a demo of an early level easily outdid the graphics. Nate Drake and his new AI companion Chloe Frazer had to scramble down a crumbling baddie-infested hotel being dismantled by an assault helicopter. The level was full of the death-defying leaps, shooting, and witty banter that made the original “Uncharted” such a treat, but packed into a dense and dramatic sequence that rarely took control out of the demoer’s hands. “God of War III”’s opening level was classic stuff for the series, with Kratos mauling his way through a city under siege by a giant lava covered Titan. What was new play-wise was Kratos’ new crowd control moves (enemies will dogpile Kratos and he has to throw them off), the new lion-headed gauntlet weapons, and Harpy platforming. (Hop on a harpy, stab it in the wings, leap to the next one. Wholesome family fun, truly.) The demo had two big confrontations against a centaur and a chimera that ended with grisly disembowelings. The game looks like what it needs to be: big, gorgeous “God of War”. There were also demos of “Assassin’s Creed 2”, “MAG”, and the new user-generated-content-driven kart racer “ModNation Racing”, but none of them impressed like “Uncharted” and “God of War”.

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by John Constantine

You’ve got to hand it to Microsoft. In the weeks leading up to E3, the discussion surrounding the house of X was focused on precisely what they didn’t have. Where was their fall line-up? Where were the exclusives that have defined the console? Microsoft had them and then some.

Opening your show with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr instead of closing with them is the probably the most impressive show of corporate confidence in history. With the reveal of Project Natal, Microsoft’s new hands-free controller-camera, the house of green showed that this was no mere act of baseless hubris. They came to play.
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Yesterday I met with members of the Entertainment Software Association to provide feedback regarding the annual E3 trade show. I explain what happened in today's Lunchtime Video -- so what do you think of my idea of a 500-person lottery for the public to attend E3?

(Videos not viewable by users logging in from Canada or the U.K.)

The ESA announced that registration for E3 is now open, and that many exhibitors who didn't attend last year's show -- like Activision Blizzard -- will return for 2009. Read more...

[UPDATE 12:50pm: The ESA has since contacted MTV Multiplayer with some additional clarification.]

There's movement to help reignite some of the fire that used to make E3 such an important event next year.

Hot on the heels of rumors over the annual event's reform, E3's organizer, the Entertainment Software Association issued a press release on Wednesday confirming many details.

It's happening next June, will remain in Los Angeles and appears to be a compromise between the small, business-oriented E3 of recent years and the massive, circus-like E3 it once was.

What the official announcement didn't touch upon, however, was whether early reports were right in saying E3 would adopt the same policies of Tokyo Game Show and Games Convention and allow the public to show up on certain days.

MTV Multiplayer contacted the ESA about this unaddressed point. "This will not be a public event and it is not open to general consumers," said a company spokesperson.

Both Newsweek and G4 reported the public would have some form of access to the new E3, however, so it seems the ESA may simply be waiting until it's figured exactly how that will end up happening. Raffle? Priced admission? Who knows.

When we know more, we'll pass it on.

Earlier today I wrote a post noting how few Japanese-created games and pieces of hardware were nominated for E3 Game Critics Awards this year.

I suggested that, once the winners were announced, Japanese creators might wind up with fewer awards from E3 2008 than from any previous E3.

That's just what happened.

Among the 15 winners announced today only one work from Japan -- Best Fighting game "Street Fighter IV" -- took a top slot. Japanese efforts in the handheld and hardware categories fell short, as did multiple nominee "Resident Evil 5." The awards are determined by tabulating two rounds of votes from 36 game reporters (myself included) who nominate all the titles in contention. I had voted for three Japanese-made works, "Rhythm Heaven" for Best Handheld, "Street Fighter IV" for Best Fighting, and Wii MotionPlus for Best Hardware.

A commenter this morning criticized my original post, saying, accurately, that E3 is an American-run show. Regardless, the numbers are real and a four year decline in awards for Japanese-made product at E3 continues. In the 11 years of Game Critics Awards have been issued, this year's total is Japan's lowest.

I do believe this says something about the games made in Japan, the nature of games shown to Americans and, well... what do you think?

(Full Game Critics Awards winners listed after the jump) Read more...

Japanese game developers, arguably the most influential video game creation community in history, are on the verge of nearly being shut out at this year's E3 Games Critics Awards.

The list of 71 nominations for this year's awards lists only 12 nods to the work of Japanese creators, few of which are likely to take top honors when the winners are announced in the coming days.

The 12 nominees includes multiple nominations for "Resident Evil 5" and a heavy Japanese presence in two categories: three of four nominated best fighting games ("Soul Calibur IV" and two versions of "Street Fighter") as well as two of three nominated best new pieces of hardware (Wii MotionPlus and the "Lips" microphone).

Japanese winners have been on the decline for several years. In 2005, Japanese creators took home six Game Critics Awards. In 2006 that number dropped to four. Last year they claimed just two.

With final judges ballots now in for tabulation from the three dozen reporters selected for judging  -- including mine -- Japanese developers may walk away with the fewest wins across the contest's 15 categories in the Awards' 11-year history. And no Japanese developer or company can hope to win the biggest award, Best of Show, because no work from Japanese creators made the cut to be nominated in the final five. (Contenders are "Fallout 3," "Gears of War 2," "Little Big Planet," "Mirror's Edge," and "Spore" - three games from the U.S., one from England and one from Sweden). Japanese creators had taken the Best of Show three times in years past, all for hardware: GameCube, PSP and Wii.

There are many possible reasons for the lack of Game Critics' commendation for Japanese-created work. Could it be Nintendo's failure to connect with the E3 media? Was Sony holding back Japanese-created content for Tokyo Game Show? Or is there a real decline of Japanese development, something that "Ninja Gaiden" creator Tomonobu Itagaki mentioned off-hand to me as a problem during an interview we had at Game Developer's Conference? He is not the only Japan-based game creator to have expressed that anxiety to me.

E3 and the Game Critics Awards have never been dominated by Japanese games, but looking over the list of nominees and guessing at the expected winners, I find it hard to reach any other conclusion than that Japanese game creators had less impact on this E3 than any in recent memory. If this is a sign of a geographic shift of the gaming industry, I imagine it is one that could make our lives as gamers a bit less rich, a bit less creatively interesting, even for those of us who find a way to import "Rhythm Tengoku Gold" for our subway rides home.

There was barely a word about the PSP at E3 2008.

Sony revealed several new products for the portable at their press conference, but third-parties were mum on their support. At E3, I sat down with John Koller, Sony's director of hardware marketing, about the state of the PSP in 2008.

What's coming over the next 12 months? Why aren't third-parties talking? Sony explains...

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I've been attending E3 for more than a decade, but this year marked my first Comic-Con.

Games, like movie and TV before it, have continued to become a bigger deal at Comic-Con every year. Towards the end of the show, it struck me -- this is where the old E3 should end up.

Merging with Comic-Con would allow gaming to become part of the spectacle that was so desirable at the once-mammoth E3. It would fill the growing need for a public showing, giving companies a rare chance to meet one-on-one with their hardcore fans.

It makes perfect sense!

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The nominations for the Game Critics Awards Best of E3 were announced last night. "Fallout 3," "Gears of War 2," "Little Big Planet," and "Mirror's Edge" made the shortlist for Best of Show.

I was one of 36 members of the gaming media who judged and voted this year for the best games of E3. All games had to be presented at E3 and been playable for judges. Last week, I submitted a ballot of my picks for nominees. Everyone's votes were weighted in order to produce the final nominees list.

I have until late Thursday to cast my vote for the winner for each of these categories. I've got most of my picks selected but am still unsure of a few.

(The full list follows, as do my notes on which of my picks for nominations are missing from the list, including the yanked Best Simulation category.)

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