Kotaku’s Winners & Losers Of E3 2012, Day One


There were a ton of things shown off today at E3, not technically the first day of the show (that’s tomorrow!), but counted as such by virtue of the big press conferences that go down.

Some of it was good. Some of it was awful. Let’s recap and see which was which.

Monday is often the busiest day on E3’s schedule, because it contains not just Microsoft and Sony’s big press conferences, but those of EA and Ubisoft as well.

What you’ll find below aren’t grades on everything that we saw. That’s boring. They’re just our picks for the day’s standouts and lowlights!

WINNERS


WATCH DOGS – Where did this game come from and why won’t it take all of our money, right now? A fresh take on a tired genre, beautiful visuals and an intriguing premise made this one of the most impactful, genuine surprises we’ve seen at E3 in a long time.
You can check out gameplay footage and Watch Dog’s debut trailer here.


UBISOFT’S PRESS CONFERENCEWatch Dogs was an individual standout, but most of Ubisoft’s press conference – human entertainment notwithstanding – was right on the money, from ZombiU’s welcome about face to Rayman continuing his recent renaissance on the Wii U.

You can watch Ubisoft’s complete press conference, or just check out some of the highlights from our team on the ground, here.


STAR WARS 1313 – We didn’t see much of it, and what we did see was running on a PC, but if you think 1313 is a PC exclusive you’re dreaming. This game has “next gen” written all over it, so while official announcements from Microsoft and Sony may have been MIA today, you can always watch this clip a few times to get a taste of what’s to come.

LOSERS


MICROSOFT’S PRESS CONFERENCE – The entire thing. Every last second of it. One of the most dreadful press conferences from any company in living memory. Someone on Twitter (sorry someone!) described it as “contemptuous”, a strong word but one the company’s lack of new and/or exciting announcements (SmartGlass is neat, but comes across as a gimmick) almost deserved.
If for some reason you want to watch the conference again, maybe just to see a train wreck in slow motion, you can do so here.


THQ – THQ doesn’t even really have a presence at E3 2012, mostly because the company is going through some tough times. It still managed to make headlines today though, and for all the wrong reasons, thinking the flood of E3 news would allow them to sneak out news of the surprise closure of an entire studio. It didn’t work.


PLAYSTATION VITA – This was Sony’s big chance to reaffirm people’s faith in its ailing handheld. Show the world that, yes, the big games are coming. Turns out they’re not. Aside from the promising Assassin’s Creed spinoff, we got some cross-platform announcements and a logo for a Call of Duty game, and that was about it. Criminally, one of the platform’s few shining lights, the excellent Sound Shapes, wasn’t even mentioned.


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


30 responses to “Kotaku’s Winners & Losers Of E3 2012, Day One”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *