E3Expo Conclusion
Written by: Chieu Lam
I must admit, I like playing computer games. I am not what you would call a gamer, far from that, but I do like playing computer games, along with watching movies, and cartoons; yes I do have a Peter Pan complex. With all my interest, this came to mind after I finished watching this year’ E3 Exp0 press conferences; E3, Electronic Entertainment Expo is the world’s premiere trade show for computer and video games and related products. The main focus of the E3 Expo is the press conferences of the big three gaming companies: Microsoft (Xbox), Nintendo (Wii) and Sony (PlayStation). I must say there are some fun games on the horizon; also there was one consistent tone. The gaming industry is trying to broaden its interest beyond gaming.
It seems that they are shifting from providing not just a gaming unit but a single unit for all your entertainment needs. An all-in-one unit, where you can download and watch movies, listen to music and surf the net. Some of these features are present now; accessing your music and photos from your gaming console, both Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox has this feature and the PlayStation has a web browser. Now combining all your home entertainment needs into one single unit. This will give cable and satellite providers a good scare. Today I have a cable (or satellite) box, a PC and a few gaming consoles. Will tomorrow bring just a single gaming console with internet, where I can browse the net, watch shows and movies on demand and most importantly get my gaming in—all from my Sony PlayStation?
The advantage for the gaming industry is the service they are offering; downloadable movies (Netflix), downloadable games, personal profiles (integration of Facebook). Are the big three trying to be the premier console unit in all homes—killing cable and satellite boxes? The deal breaker is that the cable providers own most, if not all, the infrastructure that these services are accessed in homes. Because everyone wants a piece of the pie, let’s make a deal!
Posted on June 5th, 2009 in Community, News.
3 Comments for E3Expo Conclusion
Nice write up Chu Baka! One pillar of entertainment is surely gaming and this battle between Nintendo, Wii, PC, and Microsoft will be very exciting in the years to come. But, let’s not forget the mobile platform(s) like iphone and once these other phone giants catch up with Apple they will all focus on browser based games to offer and capture market share…You got me thinking Mr. Gammer….Ali
Nice write-up. I think that before long we will not be able to tell where the gaming system ends and media intensive entertainment begins.
We are just about to the point that we do most of our media viewing on an XBox 360 MediaCenter extender and switch between Live, Media Center Content and Xbox specific content and games without much thought. Archived TV shows — get them from XBox live; watch them on demand — now you can share them with friends in a virtual “home theater” — now that’s cool – I think that we’ll be ditching traditional cable content delivery soon.
Natal is going to wipe the other consoles off the planet — can you image (I know you can) an Natal version of Campfire Scene from Blazing Saddles that includes your XBox Avatar that’s been inserted into the scene?
Chu Boo – excellent points, I think that I will be getting the Netflix add-in for the PS3, I know you can't get 1080P yet but it will push 1080i which is plenty I have my FIOS through HDMI and it only does 1080i anyway, but the Blu Ray's look awesome from my PS3 with the HDMI cable.