Witness the future-predicting powers of Xbox 360 executives and game developers. Just ignore the 1 vs 100 parts. — Microsoft’s E3 2008 Promises Checked -

Those who didn’t promise a ton of new stuff didn’t have to worry about not deliver a ton of new stuff. — Nintendo’s E3 2008 Promises Checked

And then there was Sony. When it comes to promises, we believe the saying goes: “Always bet on Jack.” — Sony’s E3 2008 Promises Checked

What good is E3 hype if none of it comes true?
To get you ready for this E3, we’ve subjected ourselves to re-living the major press conferences of last year’s big show. We’ve pulled all of the predictions, promises and other verbal constructions Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony used to get you excited about their console.
And we’ve seen what became of all those thrilling statements.
Sony, you’re promises are being checked today.

Background: The Sony press briefing occurred on July 15, 2008 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. This showcase lasted more than 90 minutes.

To Start With….
Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America: “As many of you have already written, 2008 is the year of the PS3.”

Verdict: Subjective. You sort it out.

Resistance 2 Will Be Fantastic
Ted Price, president and CEO of Insomniac Games describes Resistance 2’s campaign, promises eight-player co-op, competitive modes and community features: “Bottom line, Resistance 2 offers more than any shooter in 2008.”

Verdict: The features were accurate. The rest is also for you to decide.

Gaming Will Be Huge In 2008

Tretton: “NPD has been estimating that the gaming industry revenue will soar as high as $US23 billion in 2008.”

Verdict: Not Jack’s fault nor research group NPD’s that the figure NPD wound up calculating for the year was $US21 billion.

PS3 Gaming Discounts Coming

Tretton announced that Resistance, MotorStorm, Warhawk, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night Round 3, Need For Speed Carbon, Rainbow Six Vegas, Assassin’s Creed, Oblivion, Ninja Gaiden would all be sold as greatest hits games at discount for the holida.

Verdict: True.

Buzz Coming

Tretton announced the impending launches of Buzz on PSP and Buzz PS3 for September, along with downloadable packs.

Verdict: Yep, this happened.

And For The PS2…

Tretton said a Lego Batman PS2 would arrive in the fall for 149 dollars.

Verdict: Yes, he got this too. Impressed yet?

One Log-In For All

Tretton: Starting this fall, all PlayStation users will have a single sign-on so no matter where they sign in. All their PlayStation information will go with them.

Verdict: Yep.

More On Clank, Soon

Brian Allgeier, lead designer on Ratchet & Clank, discussing the surprise announcement of a downloadable summer sequel: “Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty will give more information about Clank’s disappearance.”

Verdict: Well, yeah. But not that much more information.

Booty In The Summer

Tretton says the new Ratchet is coming this summer.

Verdict: Jack doesn’t flub predictions like these.

PSN Has The Following…

A PSN trailer reel shows Ratchet and Clank Quest for Booty, Crash Commando, Fat Princess, PixelJunk Eden, Pain Amusement Park, Flower, Siren Blood Curse, Ragdoll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic.

Verdict: And wouldn’t you know it? All these games except Fat Princess are now out.

GTTV – Not The Keighley Version – Is Coming
Tretton: Polyphony Digital is launching the pay per view distribution of GTTV [Gran Turismo TV] and Gran Turismo Prologue with a wide variety of content .. this content will be available starting August 1 via Gran Turisom 5 Prologue.

Verdict: On target.

Home Will Be Fantastic

Tretton: I absolutely assure you that when PlayStation Home is publicly available through our expanded beta program your patience will more then be rewarded”… he then mentioned commitments from Ubisoft, EA, Activision, LucasArts, Nike support… and says we can play Warhawk and Uncharted spaces… and a demo reel showed am Uncharted space, a Resistance space with Chimera in tanks, Warhawk.

Verdict: To the outside eye, it may appear that Tretton slipped here. After all, we haven’t yet seen a LucasArts space and the Resistance one is only going live this week. But, hey, that’s pretty good!

Movie Store Coming Today

Tretton hyped the launch – that day – of the PlayStation Network Video store. “This content is portable after you download it to your ps3 you can transport it to your PSP as well.”

Tretton: True.

And A New PSP…. Bundle

Tretton: Starting in October, we’ll be launching our family friendly Ratchet and Clank Size Matters entertainment pack.

Verdict: Accurate, of course.

Resistance Retribution Coming

A trailer shows Resistance Retribution for Spring 2009.

Verdict: But it came out in mid-March. That’s winter. Liars.

PSP Has The Following Games

PSP reel of highlights “for this and next year” – Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Madden NFL 09, Loco Roco 2, NBA09 The Inside, Super Stardust Portable, Lego Batman The Video Game, Patapon 2, Buzz Master Quiz, Valkyria Chronicles.

Verdict : Finally! A flub. Sort of. Valkyria Chronicles would be coming to PS3, not PSP. Wrong reel!

PS3 Getting Life

Tretton: “We’re set to deliver an entirely new experience that ill allow fans to see worldwide news in real time through a network-connected PS3 and TV in their living room with live news, weather and live webcam feed. We call it Life with PlayStation, it will be available by the end of the month…”

Verdict: He implied July. It launched in September.

MMOs Coming To PS3

Tretton mentions The Agency, Free Realms and DC Universe Online as coming to PS3

Verdict: Could be true. Just hasn’t happened yet.

New PS3…. SKU

Tretton: “Starting in September we will launch 80GB PS3 that has the same functionality as the 40GB PS3. And we’re giving consumers twice the storage capacity for the same price… $US399.99.”

Verdict: True. Always-true-Tretton, we call him.

PS3’s 2008 Line-Up Has This…

PS3 lineup reel beings playing as Tretton says it “will actualize what I’ve been saying here today, that 2008 is the year of PlayStation 3.” It shows Little Big Planet, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, Metal Gear Solid , Quantum of Solace, SOCOM Confrontation, Ghostbusters The Video Game, Soul Calibur IV, Resistance 2, The Agency, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm, Mirror’s Edge, Resident Evil 5, SingStar, Guitar Hero World Tour, NBA 09 The Inside, Buzz Quiz TV, Killzone 2, Fallout 3 and others not named.

Verdict: Mostly on target. But… the Agency? That didn’t come out in 2008.

Kratos Is En Route After The Holidyas

Tretton: “Yes it’s true, God of War III is coming to PlayStation 3.” Says InFamous and MAG are post-holiday as well.

Verdict: We shall see. They certainly didn’t come out early.

Note: Sony did not mention the upcoming screen tweak that would bring us the PSP 3000. They hit all their other big upcoming news.

To Sum Up….Wow. We are humbled by the accuracy of Mr. Jack Tretton. We’d almost give him and Sony an A. Except… almost none of these were big guesses are hard-to-believe, were they? Microsoft reached a little further, got a couple more wrong…. That evens out. Sony, you get a B.

This feature will be back in a year. Please stay tuned.

What good is E3 hype if none of it comes true?

To get you ready for this E3, we’ve subjected ourselves to re-living the major press conferences of last year’s big show. We’ve pulled all of the predictions, promises and other verbal constructions Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony used to get you excited about their console. And we’ve seen what became of all those thrilling statements.

Microsoft, your E3 2008 promises are being checked today — exhaustively.

Background: The Microsoft press briefing occurred on July 14 in the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention centre. This showcase lasted more than 90 minutes.

Big Money From Hardcore Games

Don Mattrick, Microsoft’s senior vice president of interactive entertainment business (i.e. he’s the Xbox boss), starts hyping Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5, Fable II and Gears of War 2: “Combined these games represent over a half a billion dollars in projected sales. And they will drive console demand in the coming year.”

Verdict: Let’s see. Gears sells two million in its first week, so that’s about 120 million right there. Fallout 3 sells 4.7 million copies in less than a month, so that’s about 282 million. We’re over 400 million and we’re not even at Fable or RE5, so we’ll stop counting now. Good first prediction, Don Mattrick!

A Lengthy Fallout

Bethesda lead game designer Todd Howard demos Fallout 3 and says: “This is a huge game with over 100 hours of gameplay.”

Verdict: Sure, that sounds about right, though the main content in the game could be finished in about 40 hours.

Fallout DLC TBD

Howard: “We’re going to be doing substantial downloadable content for Fallout 3 and it will be exclusive for the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows.”

Verdict: True! All three DLC packs are now out for both platforms, and are not out on PS3.

Resident Evil 5 Release Date Confirmed?

Jun Takeuchi, producer of Resident Evil 5, says Resident Evil 5 “will be available in a simultaneous worldwide release in North America and Europe on Friday the 13, March 2009.” (Screen showed March 12 2009 for Japan).

Verdict: Incorrect, sir! RE5 came out a week earlier than promised in Japan, on March 5.

Fable II Would Be Awesome

Peter Molyneux, creative director of Lionhead Studios, hyping Fable II: “You’ve never experienced anything like the dog in a game, but what I want to show you is the ability to play co-op over Xbox Live” [Verdict: OK, kind of hard to disagree]….The story will be great. [Verdict: That's subjective, Peter] … Your son grows. Your children will grow up with you [Verdict: Possibly misleading; those kids don't grow up]… Fable 2 will be out in October of this year [Verdict: Correct!]

Gears of War 2: For The World

Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games: “Gears of War 2 will be available worldwide November 7, exclusively on Xbox 360.”

Verdict: True if you count the U.S. and Europe as the world; untrue if you consider Japan part of this planet.

Sony To Be Crushed

Mattrick: I’m so confident in our momentum and our bright future that I’m willing to declare here today that Xbox 360 will sell more consoles worldwide this generation than PlayStation 3.

Verdict: Too soon to say, but so far so good for Microsoft.

A New – sort of – Xbox 360 Coming Fall 2008

John Schappert, vice president of Xbox Live, software and services: “I’m excited to announce today that for the first time in history a consumer electronics device will be completely reinvented through software… When people around the world turn on the Xbox 360s this fall they will be greeted by an entire new interface, an entire new dashboard, creating a brand new Xbox through the magic of software.”

Verdict: The New Xbox Experience did indeed go live in the fall, transforming the Xbox 360 from the inside out.

Avatars Will Be Great, Omnipresent

Brendan, last-name-less Rare software design engineer, describing the NXE’s Avatars: “You’ll see them in the dashboard when you turn on the system. [Verdict: True] You’ll see them in your friends list. [Verdict: Yep] You’re going to see them in games all over the place and you’ll see avatars on websites. [Verdict: We're counting Uno Rush and a Kingdom Kieflings once apiece, ok? Seems that we've got Avatars in a little more than 10 games so far.]

Avatars Will Have Lots of Clothes

Chris, last-name-less Rare producer: “Really, the number of clothes is ultimately going to be limitless. You can expect to see new clothes released in the same way you’d go into a shop and see summer fashion and the winter fashion, you’re going to see the same thing here.”

Verdict: True. New clothes keep getting issued for Avatars.

Prime Time Is Coming Soon

Schappert: “I’m going to take us to a new channel, Xbox Live Prime Time which we are unveiling today and rolling out this fall [Verdict: No, make that some forthcoming month in 2009]… This fall you’ll be able to play along with all of Xbox Live either as the One, the One Hundred or one of the thousands that watch and play this huge prime time game. And the best part, you’ll all be able to win real prizes… Instead of just checking to see what’s on TV this fall you’ll turn on your Xbox 360 to see what’s on Live. [Verdict: Whoa, whoa, slow down there John. Xbox Live Prime Time still isn't live, nor is its launch game show, 1 Vs 100, which is, at least, now in beta.]

XBLA Games Coming

Schappert Announced Geometry Wars 2 for “next month”; Galaga Legions announced as 360 exclusive for “next month,” Portal Still Alive coming in the fall “with brand new levels and achievements,” coming to Xbox Live Arcade.

Verdict: All accurate predictions.

And South Park Too

Announcer in short promo for South Park Xbox Live Arcade game: “Coming exclusively in 2009…”

Verdict: No sign of it yet, but there is plenty more of 2009 to come to keep from the unnamed Announcer to be known as a Liar.

Community Games coming

Schappert: We will launch Xbox Live Community games this fall as part of the New Xbox Experience.

Verdict: True

Netflix 360 Will Be Big

Schappert: “Xbox 360 will be the only game system that lets members who are also Netflix subscribers instantly watch more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes more than doubling our current content offering.”

Verdict: Seemingly accurate, though we haven’t counted to ensure that more than 10,000 movies and shows were added.

Netflix Watching Will Be Communal

Schappert: “I’m thrilled to announce that you can share your movies and TV shows with your Live party. We all can watch TV and movies together.”

Verdict: Uh-uh. This was cut.

GTA DLC Will Be Huge Part Of 360 Fall ‘08 Line-Up

Shane Kim, corporate vice president of strategy and business development (but at the time he was running the gaming part of Xbox: After hyping coming of Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Mirror’s Edge, Pro Evo, Call of Duty, Tomb Raider, Need for Speed, which all came out, [Verdict: True], he said, “The release of the first downloadable episode for Grand Theft Auto IV later this year promises to be another huge event for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live.” [Verdict: Ugh. We think he meant to say "February 2009," not "later this year."

Lots of 360 Games Coming

Kim: All told, by the end of 2008 more than 1000 games will be available for the Xbox 360.

Verdict: Too tired to count this one, but we are not encouraged by the fact that the ESRB as of today lists only 703 rated games for the 360. Was he counting Community Games?

Fun Games For Families Too

Kim announced Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, Viva Pinata, BK XBLA, Scene It Box Office Smash, You're In the Movies — all of these games are coming this holiday exclusive for Xbox 360. Also from Kim: "You're In The Movies will include an Xbox Live Vision camera when it ships this holiday.

Verdict: Correct!

Guitar Hero World Tour Will Be Great, Launch New Rock Stars

Kai Huang, co-founder of Red Octane, out to hype Guitar Hero World Tour: "On disc we're going to ship with the greatest number of master tracks ever from some of the best bands of all time, more than 85 songs with tons more at launch and beyond [Verdict: True].. Our new music studio in Guitar Hero: World Tour is going to for the first time let people make and share music from around the world. This is going to revolutionize the way people create, share, discover and play new music. And with GH Tunes when that launches it’s going to be the premiere online distribution platform from where a community of aspiring artists are going to become the next big rock stars.” [Verdict: Kinda hard to verify, but we're going to say…not yet?]

And GH Will Have REM

Huang: “Guitar Hero World Tour owners will be able to download an REM track pack featuring three songs from their new album before anybody else.”

Verdict: True

And Metallica

Huang: “Metallica is joining forces with guitar hero in a huge way… for the first time in music and vg history. Metallica’s highly anticipated new album death magnetic is going to be offered as downloadable content in its entirety at the same time the album is released. First for Guitar Hero 3 in September and then again when Guitar Hero World Tour launches in the fall.”

Verdict: Not only true, but proven to be an understatement with the recent launch of Guitar Hero: Metallica.

Lips Will Be Fantastic

iNis founder Keiichi Yano, hyping the holiday launch of the Xbox 360 karaoke game Lips: “It’s breaking new ground by being the first game that lets you sing from your own music collection. It’s going to be great. Imagine plugging in your Zune or your iPod into your Xbox 360 and singing along to all of your favourite songs. [Verdict: True, though not without complaints from reviewers that not all iPods synced with the game] Lips is also going to be the first game ever to feature these wireless mics that light up with your music performance. And these guys are also motion-sensitive so I can do stuff like this (cymbal hit) even when I’m not singing. So it’s going to be fun Lips will ship this holiday featuring best songs from many regions and genres inclusion rock hip hop country r and b, pop a lot of your favourite artists you guys love to sing to. [Verdict: The rest was spot-on.]

Lips Will Be REALLY Fantastic

Kim: Lips is definitely going to be the gotta-have-it gift for this holiday for everyone.

Verdict: Oh, come on. Lips might have been fantastic, but he didn’t really mean that, did he?

Rock Band Sort of Exclusive

Kim: Rock Band 2 will premiere exclusively on Xbox 360 this September.

Verdict: True, since he meant it would be a timed exclusive.

Rock Band 2 Will Have Rose, Dylan, ACDC

Alex Rigopulos, co-founder, Harmonix, discussing Rock Band 2, said, there would be 84 songs on the disc, every single one of them a master recording. He said Axl Rose’s Shackler’s Revenge will premiere in RB2, as would Bob Dylan’s Tangled Up In Blue and ACDC. And, he said, “the soundtrack will also include 20 bonus tracks available for download in the fall.”

Verdict: All accurate.

Rock Band 2 Will Also Have Fine Print

Rigopulos: “We’ve made all of the downloadable tracks from the original game forward-compatible into Rock Band 2.. furthermore, if you own the original Rock Band you’ll be able to export almost all of those tracks into the Rock Band 2 game as well. So no need for disc-swapping… by the end of this year I’m happy to announce there will be over 500 songs available for play in Rock Band 2.

Verdict: True, just note that he said “almost.”

Square-Enix Will Have Three RPGs For Xbox 360

Yoichi Wada, president of Square-Enix: dropped some release dates for Infinite Undiscovery — September 2, in NA, 9/5 in Europe, 9/11 in Japan and Asia — Star Ocean for the spring, and Last Remnant for November 11 with a TBD for it coming to Games For Windows.

Verdict : Wada nailed it.

Make That Four

Wada: “An Xbox 360 version of final fantasy xiii , the latest in the final fantasy series, that has more than 85 milion units shipped worldwide, is planned for release. We believe that releasing an xbox 360 version for Final Fantasy XIII will allow us to provide a game to even more fans in the two regions in North America and Europe.”

Verdict: No reason to think this won’t happen.

Note: No mention was made during the press conference of 2008 games Too Human, Braid or Dead Space, despite the latter two becoming two of the most acclaimed games on Xbox 360 in 2008.

Next Victim: Nintendo

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Manscaping is what a man does to maintain his appearance, generally referring to certain places that shall remain nameless. Aren’t you dying to know our answers? Hit the link below to see McWhertor, Ashcraft and I handle the question with varying degrees of tact, and be sure to check out the whole series for more opinions we’ll probably regret having put to video later.

My Video Scrapbook of Precious E3 Memories Part 8: Do You Manscape? [GayGamer.net]

“Do awards translate into higher sales? The answer is yes, but not always. Additionally certain categories have a higher correlation between awards and sales. Since these awards began in 1998, the Best Console title has sold an average of 2.42 million units life-time in the U.S., according to NPD”, Schachter explained.

Poor Jet Grind Radio. Had my beloved Dreamcast not taken a fall you would have been right up there as well. Schacter goes on to mention that while this works for Best Console title, it doesn’t work across all categories, notable Best In Show, with past winners including the PSP and Gamecube, both of which performed poorly in the face of competition.

If you ask me, it isn’t so much the receiving of an award that causes the jump in sales. The E3 Critics awards are an indicator of what games the press and reviewers were most interested in. The games the press get the most interested in are the games the press write about. The more positive coverage a game gets in magazines and online, the more likely people are to buy it. It isn’t so much people buying the games because they won the awards…people buy the games because the press love them.

Isn’t that a rather self-important view, you ask? If you look back at some of my favourite games over the past couple of years you’ll see that there are obvious exceptions to the rule. Going to exclude myself from this based on Iron Man alone.

Do E3 Awards Translate into Big Sales? [GameDaily]

Fallout 3 landed the coveted Best of Show award as well as Best Role Playing Game, while LittleBigPlanet landed Best Console Game and Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game. However LBP was passed up for Best Original Game, with Mirror’s Edge getting the nod instead.

Hit up the jump for the full list of winners and feel free to look back at our votes and the full finalist list, to see how they compare.

Today, I turned in Kotaku’s official ballot for who we think the winners should be. I have to say this was one of the harder years to judge. In particular you had games like Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3 and LittleBigPlanet all vying for the same awards and let’s not forget Spore, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, LEGO Batman, etc, etc.

Hit up the jump for our official ballot and then chime in to explain how we got it all wrong.

Best of Show
– Fallout 3

Best Original Game
– LittleBigPlanet

Best Console Game
– Fallout 3

Best Handheld Game
– Resistance: Retribution

Best PC Game
– Left 4 Dead

Best Hardware
– Lips Microphone

Best Action Game
– Left4Dead

Best Action/Adventure Game
– Dead Space

Best Role Playing Game
– Fallout 3

Best Fighting Game
– Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Best Racing Game
– Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Best Sports Game
– Skate It

Best Strategy Game
– Tom Clancy’s EndWar

Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game
– LittleBigPlanet

Best Online Multiplayer Game
– Left 4 Dead

It’s too early to tell if the shrinking E3 has helped bolster id’s own id-centric annual show QuakeCon. Usually id Software waits until the Saturday of the show to get official attendance numbers.

But Hollenshead is already sure that QuakeCon is the right way to host a gaming conference.

“I think we struck a balance of being vendor supported and still being in touch with the gamers”, he said. “We had over 6,000 hours of volunteer time, that’s like the polar opposite of E3,. which is all about business”.

In fact id Software only officially showed up at E3 as a single announcement during the Electronic Arts press conference. They were there to tell the world that EA would be publishing their upcoming id Tech 5 game, Rage.

And even that had to be modified to fit in with what E3 and its attendees expect from the show.

“We were told you can’t show this stuff because of these five reasons”, Hollenshead said. “Last night (during QuakeCon) we had the bigger, better, more hardcore, not suitable for investor conference (announcement) for Rage and Doom”.

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