E3 is only days away and I’m here to tell you what’s going to happen with the BIG 3 Consoles.
We already know what games each system will have for its Holiday launch lineup: Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Lair. For all 3 consoles E3 will focus on the lineup for 2008 and beyond.
With the Wii there’s already Mario, Zelda, and Metroid – so what’s next? We’re not going to be seeing sequels to any of these titles, it will be all about the spin-offs. Mario Kart is a must. Since both the Wii and Mario Kart scream,”Party time!” it’s a no-brainer. We could also see Nintendo going to their secondary stars Donkey Kong and Starfox, although a big show stealer could be a new Pilot Wings or Wave Race game. Nintendo could also show off some indie games for its upcoming WiiWare channel. Nintendo themselves could be developing games for this downloading service. Potentially sequels to their low profile games like Luigi’s Mansion and Pikmin. Hopefully they’ll solve the storage issue that the Wii faces in light of this and the Virtual Console services.
On the Xbox 360 front, I predict Microsoft will be stealing the show. Halo 3 is Halo 3. Future titles such as Alan Wake will expand games into the territory of compelling storytelling with satisfying action-adventure gameplay. Not only that, but titles such as Atari’s Alone In The Dark 4 will show that the 360 doesn’t have to rely on shooter games to survive. Microsoft will tout its Xbox Live system and it’s casual games service, as Microsoft aims to broaden the appeal of the Xbox 360 to all types of gamers.
A lot will be going on in the Sony camp as they try and reposition themselves in the gaming market. They have to show off a new slim PSP model that will compete with Nintendo’s DS Lite. Other than that they need to prove that KillZone 2 looks just as good as the 2005 E3 trailer did. Remember the “Is it pre-rendered or in-game?” fiasco? Well, now is the time for Sony to prove that those were in-game graphics. For Sony it won’t be about showing we have X sequels – well, maybe I’m wishing too much, maybe that’s for E3 08. I hope that Sony realizes that it needs original and exclusive titles in order to compete with Xbox 360 and Wii. I won’t predict anything else for the Playstation because I expect them to talk about many things that have never been seen before.
In the end E3 07 will be about showing off why gamers need to own all 3 consoles. Each manufacturer will sell itself out to prove how their console is different if they want to keep up with the competition for seasons to come.
