This year’s E3 may be the most important since the 2006 E3 before the launch of the PS3 and Wii since we have a number of hardware announcements that will affect these platforms for the next few years. Sony and Microsoft have new motion control peripherals that are seeking to bring a new audience to the PS3 and Xbox 360. Nintendo and Sony have successors to their current handhelds to announce and/or reveal. Then there are the third party publishers that will be announcing support for all of these devices and systems that will make this a very busy show with a lot of potential.

Microsoft – Monday, June 14 – 10:30 AM PST/1:30 PM EST

Microsoft starts the show with their main press conference on the morning of Monday, June 14. The current rumors suggest that a Slim Xbox 360 will be shown that will have a much slimmer profile than the current iteration of 360s and hopefully be less susceptible to hardware failures. The games that we will probably be shown are Gears of War 3, Fable 3, Halo: Reach, Crackdown 2, and third party games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Rock Band 3, and others that are sure to have some form of exclusivity in the form of early DLC like in the past. Summer of Arcade will probably return once again with a handful of the bigger upcoming XBLA games like Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Comic Jumper, DeathSpank, Shank, Limbo, BattleBlock Theater, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, or a number of other rumored games that could be big sellers like last year’s crop of games. We’re also expecting some dashboard updates that could add a new Hulu channel and possibly a refresh of the dashboard to streamline the interface with Natal’s arrival later this year.

Nintendo – Tuesday, June 15 – 9 AM PST/12 PM EST

Nintendo kicks off the morning of Tuesday, June 15 with their press conference where they will have a lot to talk about. They will follow through with dropping the prices of the DS Lite, DSi, and DSi XL like they did in Japan, as they need to have a spot under $200 for the Nintendo 3DS to reside for its launch sometime in the next year. The DS probably won’t see much in the way of big Nintendo DS games outside of third party games, Pokemon Black & White, and Golden Sun since the 3DS will take center stage on the portable front for this show.

We really don’t know what to expect of 3DS games since the rumors place it as being more powerful than the Wii, which would be interesting to see a handheld that’s more powerful than a console. The 3DS is probably the reason why there hasn’t been much in the way of high profile Nintendo releases since Spirit Tracks last fall, so we do expect some big series to return for the new system that will take advantage of the system’s 3D capabilities and better visuals. We’re not sure what to expect from any demonstrations or trailers that Nintendo has in store for us, as 3D isn’t exactly the easiest thing to show off to everybody at the show and those that are also watching from home.

The Wii might steal the show even with new hardware being shown off just because the new Legend of Zelda game is expected to be shown, which is supposed to be Nintendo’s attempt at refreshing the series after complaints that Twilight Princess was little more than a rehash of Ocarina of Time. We hope more Nintendo IPs make a return at the show like Kirby, Pikmin, and some long shots like Star Fox to give the hardcore fans plenty of reasons to be excited about the Wii for the rest of the year beyond the upcoming Metroid and Zelda games. The Vitality Sensor will probably make an appearance with whatever few games it may require, though we hope Wii Motion Plus gets a much bigger push this year than it had in 2009. Expect this conference to be the biggest of the major shows due to Zelda and the 3DS alone.

Sony – Tuesday, June 15 – 11:30 AM PST/2:30 PM EST

Sony follows up the trio of shows with their press conference that starts a few hours later that will have a lot of ground to cover on the PS3 and PSP. The PSP2 probably won’t get a full unveiling, but we expect to at least see a mention by Sony that there will be a full announcement at TGS later this year. The original PSP will get a price drop for the first time in over three years to help give the system some more life as games like Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and God of War: Ghost of Sparta hit the system for the rest of the year. The PSP Go could also use a price drop if Sony is expecting that system to be more than just an extremely poor-selling niche that drives people to the other PSP. We’re also hoping to see that Sony’s announcement of the PSP Favorites line of $9.99 means that they’ve figured out that smarter, cheaper pricing of their new games will lead to better sales.

The PS3 will get the focus of the show with 3D and the Move getting a lot of attention along with a bunch of new games to announce and/or show off. The new 3D firmware will probably get dated with the release of several patches for games like Wipeout HD, Super Stardust HD, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, MLB 10: The Show, and other games that will be available right away to give early adopters of 3D TVs a way to check out the initiative as it stands right now. We’ve heard mixed things about how those games have turned out in 3D due to how they are retroactively adding 3D, as Wipeout HD reportedly features a drop to 30 frames per second to accommodate the new visual style. We hope the games that will be shown at the show will handle 3D better since developers will be able to work it into the normal development schedule.

Move will get a big unveiling with a full suite of games and launch details that should include some of the stuff we’ve already seen at GDC. Pricing is expected to be tiered based on whether you need just one of the individual parts (PlayStation Eye or the Move Controllers) or one of the bundles with the camera, controllers, and a game or with a PS3, too. Expect the full bundle to be under $100 with multiple bundles that feature different games to appeal to different tastes. The games will be the big question mark since we’ve already seen a few at GDC that ranged from interesting (SOCOM 4, Eye Pet, Sports Champions) to questionable (The Fight: Lights Out, The Shoot), but we’re expecting some Wii-style remakes from third party publishers along with some bigger games from Sony’s own developers. We hope that PSN becomes a big means for the smaller games from smaller studios to stand out amongst the crowd of retail releases. This conference probably won’t change the minds of anybody that were already soured on the idea of Move.

Sony’s been adamant to announce quite a few sequels before E3 with the likes of Infamous 2, SOCOM 4, LittleBigPlanet 2, and Killzone 3 being confirmed while MotorStorm 3 is currently rumored with some leaked screenshots. The known games that Sony will also be showing off will include The Last Guardian, Gran Turismo 5 with a release date, and maybe even DC Universe Online or The Agency from SOE. Starhawk could be the most interesting unknown for Sony, which is the rumored Warhawk sequel from the team that made Warhawk for the PS3. One of the big rumors for the PS3 is PSN+, a new subscription service that seeks to add some extra value to PSN that will still keep online play free for the foreseeable future. A new XMB (XrossMediaBar, pronounced as CrossMediaBar) is also rumored, though we don’t see the need for it to be remade outside of the possibility of a Move-specific interface to take advantage of the new peripheral much like what we expect from Natal.

Project Natal – Tuesday, June 15 – 12:30 PM PST/3:30 PM EST

Microsoft caps the big press conferences with their Project Natal unveiling, which starts soon after the Sony press conference on Tuesday, June 15 on MTV. This is probably the conference we’re most unsure about since we know nothing about what Natal can do and what to expect, especially with the announcement that Cirque du Soleil is helping out with the show in some capacity. The current rumors peg the peripheral at $150 and a bundle with the Xbox 360 Arcade for $300 with a release date in October that is also a resource hog, so don’t expect the games to look as good as Gears of War 3, Fable III, and the other big Xbox 360 games that will be shown the next day. The price is probably higher than what will be announced, so expect exact details at this show along with the device’s final name.

The only specific game we’ve heard being rumored for Natal is an XBLA version of Sonic Riders, which we hope isn’t a sign of the level of games that will be shown off. You will probably see a number of the big publishers announcing games of various genres along with some Microsoft internal developers like Rare and maybe even Joy Ride re-appearing as a Natal-exclusive game. We do hope XBLA will be a big part of the show so that the games can be more concise in design and pricing to prevent numerous overpriced retail releases that would be sure to sell poorly. There is also likely to be a new Natal-specific dashboard that will take advantage of the device’s ability to track voice and hand motions to control various parts of the interface before getting into a game.

Third Party Publishers

The third parties will also have some big things to announce during the show. Capcom teased an announcement of a sequel that will be a bombshell, which we can’t see being anything but a new Resident Evil game from the way they phrase the magnitude of the announcement. Rock Band 3 is another big game for the show since Harmonix hasn’t been all that modest about the big changes they’ve made for the latest mainline Rock Band game, which seems to include a revamped world tour mode, new modes, a new instrument, and more from the few hints they’ve given before E3. The biggest games of the show are likely to be the many big sequels that have been announced over the past few months (Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Batman, Arkham Asylum 2, Gears of War 3, LittleBigPlanet 2, Killzone 3, Infamous 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Fable III, Red Faction: Armageddon, and many, many more) that will garner a lot of attention next week.

We’re greatly anticipating how the big press conferences will play out and what new games will be revealed. We will be live-blogging the press conferences on our Twitter account, starting with the Project Natal conference on Sunday afternoon.

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

Related posts:

1. Pre-E3 2011: Sony Preview
2. 2009: The Year in Screenshots
3. E3 2010 Preview – Dead Space 2 (PS3, Xbox 360)
4. E3 2010 Preview: NCAA Football 11 (PS3, Xbox 360)
5. Cleveland Browns’ Peyton Hillis Wins The Madden NFL 12 Cover

About This Author: Chris Selogy

Share This Post: