Sony’s 2009 E3 Press Conference can be viewed here.  See also my 2008 Sony E3 coverage. Click on images below for larger views.

Exclusive PS3 Games Shown

 God of War III:  (demo’d – coming March 2010 ) Looks terrific! Except, that is,  for Sony’s continued reliance on quick time events in boss battles. Grrr! But I still can’t wait GoW 1 and 2 were terrific games.

Gran Turismo 5 (polyphony – teaser trailer – still no ship date) – photo realistically gorgeous as you’d expect – first time cars show damage in this franchise – still a SIM that is likely only playable by extreme racing gamers.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (demo’d – naughty dog – no ship date – multi-player beta starting immediately) I’m looking forward to this one! Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is still my favorite PS3 game to date. Demo looked terrific but the female lead has changed. Elena Fisher seems to be gone  

MAG: ‘Massive Action Game’ (demo’d – zipper interactive) – 256 online players can play at once – was announced at last year’s Sony E3 press conference – It looked impressive! I wonder how they’ll ever get teams of 126 people to work together under a few commanders. In my experience, everyone wants to be the commander in online shooters.

Final Fantasy XIV (trailer shown – square enix – 2010) – This being an exclusive was a surprise as was a scheduled 2010 release date – has online play – to be released in the same year as FF13.

MODnation  Racer (demo’d) A customizable cart racer that embodies the play, create, share philosophy of Little Big planet. Users can create and share race tracks, carts and players. They created a track onstage in minutes.

Last Guardian (trailer shown – by Fumito Ueda, creator of Shadow of the Colossus – no date).  A little boy befriends a gigantic dog-creature and take on the world together. That was one compelling trailer!

Agent (Rockstar – announced only) A third party spy thriller coming exclusively to PS3 but not demo’d. No date announced.

Non-Exclusive PS3 Games Demo’d

Assassin’s Creed 2 (ubisoft – holiday 2009) – Set in Italian Renaissance,  in Venice – 30 weapon types – now with guns (or at least ‘a’ gun)! Includes a ‘flying machine’ invented by DeVinci – Looks good. I’m looking forward to playing it on the Xbox360!

Final Fantasy XIII: (teaser – no game play shown – square enix – spring 2010) Looked good – pretty much the same as it looked on the 360 yesterday.

New PS3 Motion Controller

New PS3 Motion Controller: The controller has a glowing sphere that the PlayStation eye-toy can track. The demo was more impressive than the Nintendo Wii Motion Plus demo and much  more realistic than the Microsoft motion control demo.

PSP Announcements:

PSP Go: (no surprise – was leaked days in advance) Will not replace PSP 3000 – slide-out controls – integrated wifi & bluetooth – plays same games as earlier PSPs – 50% smaller & 40% lighter than original PSP – 16 GB flash memory – expandable memory – movie and game downloads – $249 U.S. – available Oct 1. in U.S./Europe

Media Go: PC app store for the PSP Go – used to transfer pictures, music and movies to PSP – All PSP titles to be available via downloads going forward. ‘Sense Me’ application to create custom music playlists on PSP

Movies & TV on PSP: PS3 video delivery service announced last year coming natively to PSP. Note: It’s still not available in Canada  

PSP Trailers Shown

Gran Turismo PSP (polyphony – Oct 1, 2009) 60 fps – 800 cars – 35 tracks – 65 layouts in tracks – single and 4 person multi-player modes – trading and sharing cars.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (konami – 2010) 10 years after MGS 3 – true sequel on PSP – set in the 70s – Kojima writing the script

PS3 Notes

• 22 million PS3s sold globally in 2008 – anticipate 13 million PS3s to be sold in 2010 (I’m not sure if I have these numbers right)
• 35 Playstation exclusives coming this year (presumably including on PS2 games)
• 6.5 million ‘Playstation Home’ users (85% return users) – though I don’t know why. Home bites!

PSP Notes

• Games Coming in 2009: They showed a video of many PSP games coming in 2009 including Resident Evil, Little Big Planet, Socom Fire Team Bravo 3,  Motorstorm Arctic Edge & Harry Potter.
• 24 million users – 11 million in North America
• 200 titles on PSP so far – 90 are exclusive
• Adding Final Fantasy 7 to PSP lineup as of June 2, 2009
• Decreasing price of PSP development tools

PS2 Notes

• Intend to keep PS2 alive beyond 10 years
• sold 9 million more PS2s in 2008
• 100 new PS2 titles coming out in 2009

Live Blog Coverage

• 1Up.com
• CrunchGear
• Engadget
• Gamasutra
• Gizmodo
• Joystiq

My Thoughts

The press conference and list of PS3 exclusives shown were better than I expected. I’d put the press conference on par with the Microsoft press conference.

I was impressed with their marrying of a motion controller with high-end graphics. Though, as with Microsoft’s Natal, they are still only in the prototype stage.

I was a bit surprised that Sony did not announce any social networking functionality like Microsoft and Nintendo did.

The modding functionality of the MODnation game was terrific. The question is, of course, how easy will it be for users to share their mods and what will the limitations be?

The two PS3 game exclusives I’m most looking forward to are God of War III and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Nintendo’s 2009 E3 Press Conference can be viewed here. This has to be the most boring E3 conference I’ve ever watched.  See also: My 2008 Nintendo E3 coverage.

Announcements

• Multiplayer Mario co-op: (holiday 2009 – yawn)
• Wii Fit Plus: 6 new exercise modes, 15 new balance games, available as software-only (fall 2009)
• User Generated Content: Some user generated DS content initiatives discussed:
  • FlipNotes Studio: animation drawing app (this summer)
  • WarioWare DIY: Microgame creator
  • Mario v. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again – level editor and online sharing (DSi – June 8, 2009).
  • Will be able to upload DSi pictures to Facebook this summer.
•  Wii Vitality Sensor: Monitor health, pulse. Some kind of health / relaxation / stress diagnostics tool (no release date)
• Super Mario Galaxy 2: New 3D Mario game

Retreads

The following were previously announced but demo’d at the show.

• Wii Motion Plus: Provides more precision control. This was announced at last year’s E3 press conference.
• Wii Sports Resort – archery and basketball shown (July 25, 2009)

DS Games Shown

• Kingdom Hearts
• Mario Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (this fall)
• Golden Sun
• Women’s Murder Club: video book brought to DS and DSi
• Cop, the Recruit (Ubisoft)
• Style Savvy – (girls fashion game)
• Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

2009 Third Party Wii Exclusives

• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (RPG – Square-Enix)
• Red Steel 2 (exclusive to Wii with Motion Plus controller)
• The Conduit (shooter – Sega – June 2009)
• Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles (shooter – Capcom)
• Deadspace Extraction (EA)

Just One New Nintendo ‘Hardcore’ Wii Game

 Metroid Other M  (2010) That’s it! No other new Nintendo ‘hardcore’ games announced

Platform Numbers

• 15 Million Wii fit balance boards sold
• 100 million DS’s sold
• 1 million DSi’s sold in 2 months in America

Live Blog Coverage

• CrunchGear
• Engadget
• Gamasutra
• Gizmodo
• Joystiq

My Thoughts

This was slow and boring compared to yesterday’s Microsoft press conference.

Their focus was, once again, on audience diversity – bringing gaming to everyone. Little of interest to hard core gamers.

I appreciate their getting into the user-generated content space.

The third party exclusives and their one new ‘hardcore’ game were the only games that were somewhat interesting to me. Enough to purchase a Wii? Not even close.

In my opinion, the biggest Microsoft announcement at E3 today was made after their press conference was over. They announced a new Games on Demand service (coming this August). It has two important features:

1. Full Games Available for Purchase on Demand: Microsoft will start selling full games on-demand via download through the Xbox Live Service starting this fall. Following in the footsteps of Steam (and to some degree Sony), this may be a critical inflection point on the path away from retail game sales. The 30 announced games are all older games (eg: Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed and Bioshock). Games are to be sold at regular retail prices (no disk-free, Gamespot/E.B.; disintermediation discount). Nothing was said about the future availability of new titles day-and-date with retail releases. With the service in place there is, of course, no technological reason why this couldn’t happen. It’s just a matter of time.
2. A Step Away from Microsoft Points: Anyone who is a regular reader of my blog knows that I am a critic of Microsoft Points (see this post, for example). Games purchased through the Games on Demand service will be purchasable with a credit card. No Microsoft Points required. Amen! Let’s hope this is the beginning of the end for Microsoft Points. 

For details see:

• E3: Microsoft Announces ‘Games on Demand’ at Xbox Live Luncheon (Gamasutra)
• Games on Demand Bringing Digital Retail to Xbox 360 (1Up.com)
• Good-bye Games in boxes? Xbox 360 to get full game downloads (CNet)

The Microsoft Press Conference can be viewed here. See also: My 2008 Microsoft E3 coverage.

Big Announcements:

• Halo Reach: Bungie teased this new Halo game, set for a fall 2010 release. Whoo hoo! If its a Bungie shooter, and it has the name Halo on it, I’m in! Is ‘Noble 1’, Will Master Chief?
   
• Metal Gear Rising: The next Kojima / Konami Metal Gear game is coming to the Xbox!!! Holy Cow! The final coup de gras against Sony.  Kojima seemed genuinely happy to appear on stage for the announcement.
• Project Natal: A ‘controller free’ , full body motion capture, item scanning, facial and voice recognition. Will work on every 360. See demo here. I’ll believe it when I see it! I don’t believe the Lion’s Gate Milo demo pictured on right. It had to be heavily scripted (click for larger view).

New Console Features (coming this fall)

• last.fm coming to Xbox Live free (globally available)
• Netflix Queue on 360 will be manageable from Xbox Dashboard (no need to do it on PC anymore)
• HD download library being upgraded to full 1080p
• Instant 1080p HD Movies/TV – Worldwide: Faster movie downloads. Higher high def. Doubling number of countries where HD TV/video content will be available from 8 to 18
• Facebook on Xbox 360 (very much an Xbox 360 look)
• Titter coming to Xbox Live

Microsoft Exclusives Coming

• Shadow Complex – An Epic Games Xbox 360 exclusive arcade – reminds me of Little Big Planet. A side scroller. Bizarre!
• Joy Ride – a free Xbox Live bumper car-type game that uses your Xbox 360 avatar (next winter)
• Crackdown 2 (can’t wait – crackdown 1 was a big surprise when I first played it)
• Left 4 Dead 2 – zombies in the daylight! (Nov 17, 2009)
• Splinter Cell Conviction – Wow! looks very different from prior Splinter Cell games (fall 2009)
• Forza Motorsport 3 (Oct 2009)
• Halo 3 ODST – is it me or are the Halo graphics starting to look dated? (Sept 22, 2009)
• Halo Reach (fall 2010)
• Alan Wake (spring 2010 – looked interesting). This game is from the makers of one of my all time favourites – Max Payne. Can’t wait!

New Skateboard Peripheral

Non-Exclusive Demos Shown

• Beatles Rock Band. Likenesses of the Beatles sing and play along as you play the game.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward – looked great!)
• Final Fantasy XIII (spring 2010)
• Tony Hawk Ride – using new skateboard peripheral (see below)

Live Blog Coverage:

• CrunchGear
• Engadget
• Gamasutra
• Gizmodo
• Joystiq

My Thoughts

I enjoyed their focus on games and not things like console sales or attach rates.  I’m most looking forward to Halo Reach, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Halo ODST, Crackdown 2 and Alan Wake.

I don’t believe that Project Natal will do all that it is promising. It seems to be more a ‘vision’, ‘proof of concept’, or ‘goal’. As far as I know, no actual shipping product was announced.

I’m delighted to see that Microsoft has finally got the last major PS3 third-party exclusive franchise (metal gear) coming to the 360.

I was disappointed that there were no more details about Zune HD integration. I continue to be sad that Microsoft continues on with its ridiculous Microsoft Points system.

 [Update: Post press conference Microsoft announced FULL game downloads for real money (not Microsoft Points) via credit card. This is a big deal! Coming in August. See this Gizmodo post. Still sketchy on details – whether it will apply to other content like HD movie downloads.]

While Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm are nice, I won’t use them on the 360 – especially without a keyboard.

It’s time to create a whole new category for the Wii phenomena. Holy cow– more than 2 MILLION in sales in North America in November is crazy. Yet, to this day there still isn’t a single game on the Wii I’d want to play – not one. Yet you can’t deny those sales numbers.

Video game industry sales are UP 10% year over year. Terrific given the economic downturn.

I was happy to see the 360 outsell the PS3 and PSP combined. Though I’m starting to worry about the PS3’s long-term prospects given its continued poor results. Despite the industry upturn, the PS3’s sale’s numbers are LOWER than its November 2007 numbers.  The PS2 results show its time is coming to an end. I wonder how many months before Sony kills it?  But, it still hasn’t reached the $99 price point. Perhaps it can grasp a few more months of breathe with a price drop before Sony puts it out of its misery.

Meanwhile my copy of November’s top selling Gears of War 2  is collecting dust as I finish Resistance 2 for my review. Gears 2 sold 1.56 million sold – trouncing Resistance 2’s comparatively meagre 385K unit sales. I’m really looking forward to Gears when I get the time – especially online co-op.

November 2008 Console and Game sales results after the break.

Console Results

- Wii: 2.04m 1.237m (154%)
- DS: 1.57m 1.079m (220%)
- Xbox 360: 836K 465K (125%)
- PSP: 421K 228K (118%)
- PS3: 378K 188K (99%)
- PS2: 206K 70K (51%)

Game Results

1. Gears of War 2 – Xbox 360 – 1.56 million
2. Call of Duty: World at War – Xbox 360 – 1.41 million
3. Wii Play w/ remote – Wii – 796K
4. Wii Fit – Wii – 697K
5. Mario Kart – Wii – 637K
6. Call of Duty: World at War – PS3 – 597K
7. Guitar Hero: World Tour – Wii – 475K
8. Left 4 Dead – Xbox 360 – 410K
9. Resistance 2 – PS3 – 385K
10. Wii Music – Wii – 297K

On November 3, I wrote about my Xbox 360 experiencing the Red-Ring-of-Death (RRoD) (original post here). Today, twenty-five days after shipping my unit out for repair/replacement, I received a replacement unit.

• Replacement Unit: The manufacture date of the replacement unit is 2008-05-29. I presume it is a Falcon. I did not receive a new power supply with the unit. It appears to be brand new (not refurbished).
• Much Quieter: The first thing I noticed was that the replacement unit was much quieter than the jet-engine sound coming out of my older unit. This is terrific. I can barely hear the replacement 360 when it is turned on. A welcome change indeed.
• 1 Month Xbox Live Free: In the box was a card that gave me one free month of Xbox Live. Not much of a bonus given that my box was gone for almost a full month of my current subscription.
• 3 Months Warranty: The replacement unit came with an additional three month warranty beyond the original 3 year warranty period that had just ended. The extended warranty ends on February 26, 2009 – 3 months from the ship date of the replacement unit.

• Needed to Re-Download All Purchased Content: In order for my previously purchased Marketplace content (Halo maps, arcade games etc.) to be properly licensed I had to go to the ‘Downloads History’ part of the new XBox Experience Dashboard and re-download all previously purchased content. If you don’t do this, purchased content will not work when you are offline or attempt to access the content from another account on the same Xbox. Instructions on how to do this came with the replacement unit. This isn’t as daunting as it seems. You actually don’t download anything. All that seems to be downloaded is a new license. For each re-download, after 1% was downloaded, it showed download complete. it took only a few minutes to complete this process for all my previously purchased content.
• Temporarily Lost: Normally the replacement process takes just 2 to 3 weeks. My unit was temporarily ‘lost’ for two weeks during this replacement process. Two weeks after shipping the unit in, I received an email from Microsoft saying they hadn’t received the defective unit – though I had shipped it out that day. A dozen phone calls and a week later they found it on the Don Mills (Microsoft’s Toronto repair center) loading dock. Turns out the original person I called (at the 1-800-4-My-Xbox number) typed the serial number into the computer wrong so the serial number of my shipped unit and the serial number that they had on record didn’t match. This resulted in my Xbox being shunted to a warehouse shelf for two weeks until this was sorted out. At week 3 a manager was assigned to the case, called me personally, gave me number to call him back at personally, helped find it and worked with me to expedite the repair and return process. While the repair/replacement process took longer than usual, I was happy with the quality of service to expedite things once the lost unit was found.

[For an Interesting read on the causes of the RRoD see: The Truth about the Xbox 360]

[Update: On November 28, 2008 I received a replacement Xbox – see details below]

I called Microsoft support (1-800-4-My-Xbox – 1.800.469.9269), expecting to have to pay for a warranty repair.  Happily, while the support rep walked me through his trouble-shooting script, I experienced the Red-Ring-of-Death for the first time (see picture below – yes, that’s a Halo face plate on my 360 – sorry for the fuzzy picture). I was able to boot the 360 a couple more times after the first RRoD, but it inevitably failed to the Red-Ring-of-Death state within minutes or seconds.

The reason I say “Yeah!” in the title, and why I’m happy about this, is because I was one of the ‘lucky’ one’s that purchased my 360 on launch day – November 22, 2005. Microsoft’s extended RRoD warranty lasts for three years from the date of purchase. My 360 RRoD’d just 19 days before the third anniversary of my purchase date. As a result, I qualified for the free replacement (see details below).

My Support Experience and The RRoD Replacement Process

The first time I called the support center I connected with a woman somewhere in India that couldn’t speak English well. I decided to call back rather than go through a half hour of translation hell. Thankfully the second support rep spoke English and completely understood my RRoD situation.

He walked me through the trouble-shooting, warranty process. He first took down all my info, including the 360 Serial Number. He asked me to boot up and shut down the 360 several times, asking what I saw, removing the face plate to confirm the specific three red-rings. He got me to remove the hard drive, boot, replace the hard drive, then boot up one last time.

He confirmed it was the Ring-of-Death problem. I was instructed to remove the hard drive and the faceplate and to ship the bare 360 back to Microsoft (no cables, power transformers nor chords need be sent back either either) via UPS according to the instructions which were to be emailed shortly after the call. Within an hour I received an email from Microsoft that included links to:

• UPS return documentation and instructions;
• a UPS mailing label with bar-code for printing out;
• a receipt, tracking info and number; and
• a map showing the closest UPS stores (one just a few blocks from me).

I put the 360 in its original box, printed off the documents, including the UPS label with bar code and walked to the UPS store. The lady at the counter knew exactly what to do. I didn’t have to fill out any paper-work at the UPS store. I simply handed over the box and the label/bar code. That was it.  I was in and out of the UPS store in less than a minute.

So, that’s it. I’m now waiting for a refurbished Xbox to arrive via UPS. The support rep said it would take two to three weeks. That sounds about right. That’s how long it took my friend to get his replacement for a similarly RRoD’d 360 last year.

No Receipt/Proof of Purchase Required

At no point in the process was I required to provide my original purchase receipt or a copy of it. I gather this was the case because, up until November 22, 2008, every 360, by definition, was purchased within the 3 year warranty period. After that, I expect Microsoft to start requiring proofs of purchase.

Falcon vs. Zepher Question

Does anyone know if Microsoft replaces RRoD’d boxes with 360’s that have the Falcon chip yet? Sites like this one and this one indicate that you know you have a Falcon-based Xbox if you see 175 Watts on the Xbox label (vs. the  203 Watts of the earlier Zephyr-based 360s). For obvious reasons I’d prefer the 65 nm Falcon-based units. But, since I am keeping my old power supply, which supplies the 203 Watts needed by the Zephyr, I’m doubtful that the old 203 Watt power supply could interoperate with the requirements of the 175 Watt Falcon? Any ideas?

Replacement Unit Arrives [Added November 28, 2008]

Twenty-five days after shipping my unit in for repair/replacement, on November 28, 2008, I received a replacement unit.

• Replacement Unit: The manufacture date of the replacement unit is 2008-05-29. I presume it is a Falcon. I did not receive a new power supply with the unit. It appears to be brand new (not refurbished).
• Much Quieter: The first thing I noticed was that the replacement unit was much quieter than the jet-engine sound coming out of my older unit. This is terrific. I can barely hear the replacement 360 when it is turned on. A welcome change indeed.
• 1 Month Xbox Live Free: In the box was a card that gave me one free month of Xbox Live. Not much of a bonus given that my box was gone for almost a full month of my current subscription.
• 3 Months Warranty: The replacement unit came with an additional three month warranty beyond the original 3 year warranty period that had just ended. The extended warranty ends on February 26, 2009 – 3 months from the ship date of the replacement unit.
• Needed to Re-Download All Purchased Content: In order for my previously purchased Marketplace content (Halo maps, arcade games etc.) to be properly licensed I had to go to the ‘Downloads History’ part of the new XBox Experience Dashboard and re-download all previously purchased content. If you don’t do this, purchased content will not work when you are offline or attempt to access the content from another account on the same Xbox. Instructions on how to do this came with the replacement unit. This isn’t as daunting as it seems. You actually don’t download anything. All that seems to be downloaded is a new license. For each re-download, after 1% was downloaded, it showed download complete. it took only a few minutes to complete this process for all my previously purchased content.
• Temporarily Lost: Normally the replacement process takes just 2 to 3 weeks. My unit was temporarily ‘lost’ for two weeks during this replacement process. Two weeks after shipping the unit in, I received an email from Microsoft saying they hadn’t received the defective unit – though I had shipped it out that day. A dozen phone calls and a week later they found it on the Don Mills (Microsoft’s Toronto repair center) loading dock. Turns out the original person I called (at the 1-800-4-My-Xbox number) typed the serial number into the computer wrong so the serial number of my shipped unit and the serial number that they had on record didn’t match. This resulted in my Xbox being shunted to a warehouse shelf for two weeks until this was sorted out. At week 3 a manager was assigned to the case, called me personally, gave me number to call him back at personally, helped find it and worked with me to expedite the repair and return process. While the repair/replacement process took longer than usual, I was happy with the quality of service to expedite things once the lost unit was found.

Sony Movie and TV Service: The biggest ‘news’ of the Sony press event was the U.S. launch, today, of the previously announced (see here) video service. Sony, Fox, MGM, Lion’s Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount and Turner Entertainment have partnered with Sony to provide movie and TV content for the on-demand download service. The system uses progressive downloads so users can watch as a movie/TV show as it downloads. Sony says, content is playable a minute or so after ordering. Purchased content only plays on PS3 and PSP. No PC, iPod, iPhone or other device support was announced. No official word yet on how long rentals will be available for viewing – one site mentioned that it will be the usual 24 hours and 14 days to start.

Note: While the previous announcement stated that a service like this would be made available ‘world-wide’, I checked my PS3 in Canada and there was no such content available. Note the "video" button circled in red in the picture above (click for larger view). If it isn’t there, no movies for you!

Resistance 2: They showed a little of Resistance 2. It’s looking good and includes 8 player online co-op support (probably only for certain missions). I quite enjoyed Resistance 1 so I’m looking forward to this one. What is it with the ‘brown’ colour in all the PS3 and 360 games this year?

Massive Action Game ("MAG"): This massively multiplayer shooter looked interesting. MAG supports up to 256 simultaneous players with 8 player squads, ongoing faction campaigns and character growth. The trailer looked great. It’s hard to imagine that 255 players will follow a command hierarchy that goes up to one or two generals. In my experience 8 players will rarely ever co-operate in an online shooter battle. I’ll have to see this one to believe it. See the blatantly pre-rendered trailer below.

God of War 3 Teaser Trailer: A teaser trailer was shown [watch here]. I enjoyed God of War I and II so I’m definitely looking forward to God of War III. I’m a little nervous with the departure of David Jaffe from the project however.

No Killzone 2 Update: Given how Killzone 2 has been played up by Sony over the last several E3’s it was surprising that it wasn’t even mentioned this year.

Worldwide News Service: As part of the movie and TV service the Playstation Network will provide a ‘world-wide’ news service.  This is to be launched by the end of July. No word on whether ‘world-wide’ means available outside the U.S. or not.

Gran Turismo TV via GT5 Prologue: (Aug 1): Yet another TV-like service was announced. Watch real world racing programming through the PS3 – but only if you own the GT5 Prologue game.

Downloadable Ratchet & Clank: Sony announced that there will be downloadable Ratchet and Clank games over PSN.

Game-Specific Theme Lobbies in Playstation Home: The long-over-due Playstation Home was briefly mentioned and they showed a new ‘feature’ where player avatars can "hang out" and wander around with other player avatars inside games – in a Warhawk hanger or a bar in Drake’s Fortune for example. I hadn’t see this before. I’m assuming these are game-specific lobbies. Otherwise I don’t know why any gamer would want to use these.

Developer Testimonials: I found the high-profile developer testimonials to be interesting. There’s been very little praise from the developer community about  PS3 game development. It was nice to see that ameliorated somewhat by seemingly realistic praise from real-world developers. It seems like they are getting used to developing games on the multi-core system.

132 New PS2 Titles: Amazingly, Sony announced that 132 new titles will ship for the PS2 in this, its 9th year.

Additional Coverage: Engadget | Gizmodo

And nothing happened. Nothing captured my interest and certainly nothing was announced to satisfy the hard-core gamers.

New Products

Wii Speak: A microphone that sits atop the TV that picks up all the sounds and voices from a room. This will be used in games in lieu of a headset. But the Wii doesn’t have a system-wide voice system (let alone a decent online game strategy). This will need to be supported from game to game.

Wii MotionPlus: An add-on that plugs into the WiMote to add wrist based twisting motions to its repertoire of recognized real-time movements. One wonders how developers are going to appreciate the burden of developing titles that work with both the WiiMote alone and with the MotionPlus adapter.[gizmodo review here]

Wii Sports Resort: A new game, similar to Wii Sports, but situated at a beach resort. They demoed Frisbee throwing (with a cute dog catching it), sword fighting and lumber chopping. This game uses the new Wii Motion Plus for accuracy. Coming March 2009.

Wii Music:  A new music game featuring 50 virtual instruments was announced. A virtual piano, violin, sax and drum kit were demonstrated. Unlike Rock Band and Guitar Hero, the user doesn’t need to purchase physical plastic instruments. Nor do they follow note patterns on a screen to play. The instruments are ‘virtual’. Waiving/moving the WiiMote around in a manner similar to the instrument being played simulates the instrument. The virtual drum kit (see picture below) that uses the WiiMote and Numchuk as the drumsticks and a WiiFit board as the drum peddle was clever. But the other instruments looked like little more than air-instruments where regardless of what the user does some facsimile of music will be produced. Lame. And it sounded pretty awful. [more info here]

Animal Crossing: Animal crossing is coming to the Wii.

Statistics Can Say Anything

Nintendo used statistics to contrast the first ‘19′ months of sales on each console. For example Nintendo pointed out that in the 360’s first 19 months they had just 126 games on the market compared to Wii’s 246 in their first 19 months. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant because the 360 is in its 32nd month and by the end of 2008 there will be 1,000 games out on the 360 and about 300 for the Wii. 

Nintendo also failed to mention that their attach rate (the number of games sold per console) is the worst of the three current devices with Microsoft doing circles around the other two. Microsoft has sold more games for the 360 than the Wii and the PS3 combined. This is somewhat astonishing given that the Wii has outsold the 360 2-1. Console owners are playing the 360 far more frequently and playing more games on it than they are the PS3 and the Wii. Most Wiis are sitting unused and collecting dust on shelves around the world. Once the initial novelty of Wii Sports has worn off most Wii’s are rarely used again.

Finally, Nintendo failed to point out that almost all of the big selling Wii titles are Nintendo franchise retreads. Third party games are largely selling poorly on the Wii.

I applaud their initiative to grow the market to grandmas and non-gamers. But the Wii is no longer a main-stream gaming machine. It’s a mass-market toy.

Now, the DS, that’s another story. Kudos to Nintendo for outstanding sales on an outstanding portable game playing device.

Additional Coverage: Engadget | Gizmodo

(Click image to watch abridged version of Microsoft’s 2008 E3 press briefing)

[Full Microsoft E3 2008 coverage is here]

A new Dashboard Interface for the 360: It’s coming this fall. [ Watch demo here]It’s nicer than, but seems influenced by, the PS3 ribbon. It looks like it will be easier to use than the current blade system. I question whether people will want to learn a whole new interface.

Avatars coming on 360: Looks like Microsoft is trying to bring a bit of the Wii and Playstation Home to the 360. I’m not sure if my adult friends will take the time to create their own avatars.

Integrated Netflix coming to the 360: Netflix users will be able to queue up their Internet ordered videos to be played on the 360. This probably won’t be available outside of the U.S. for years (if ever). Regrettably, it appears that movies will only be streamed through the Netflix service and not downloaded. This means (i) fastforwarding and rewinding will janky; and (ii) the quality of the picture will vary depending on your Internet connection speed.

Final Fantasy XIII Coming to the 360! The hitherto PS3 exclusive franchise is coming to the 360 on the same day and date as the PS3. Final Fantasy XIII coming to the 360 is another Microsoft coup. Other than Sony Studios first party games and Metal Gear Solid, I can’t think of any major game franchise that is a PS3 exclusive any more. Interestingly there will be no Japanese 360 version.

Live Game Shows: Microsoft announced a partnership with the Endemol U.S. subsidiary of the Dutch Endemol, a major game show producer, to create live game-show like games playable during prime time, through the Xbox with up to 100 other participants. Real world prizes will be winnable.

Exclusive Portal Something?: Coming this fall. Something related to Portal will be exclusive to the 360. I originally inferred that new levels would be available. But it really wasn’t clear what Microsoft is offering here. If its just the original Portal game split out of the entire Orange Box package I won’t be impressed. Too bad I’ll need to pay for whatever this is with Microsoft Points denominated in 2006 Canadian dollars. 

New Cross-Game Party System: Just as you can party-up in Halo and play with your friends from Halo match to Halo match, soon you’ll be able to party up with your friends and move from game to game – not just within one game. I have expected this for over a year. It’ll be interesting to see how they integrate this into prior games (if possible). More interestingly, incorporating this function into the interface frees up developers from the burden of recreating the wheel every time they want to add party system functionality to a game. Fantastic!!

Sharing Movies with Friends Over XBox Live: Soon 360 users will be able to pop the popcorn, sit down and watch movies with other 360 users – across the city or across the country. Presumably users will be able to talk about the movie through the headset while watching. The implication of the announcement was that only one user needed to purchase/rent the movie for all the friends to share. If this is not the case and all users have to separately purchase/rent the movie, this will be less interesting. I’m not sure if this will be limited only to movies rented through the new Netflix feature or not. It’s also highly probable that this will not work across international borders or be available outside the U.S.

Music Games: Lot’s of new music for both Rock Band and Guitar Hero was announced. I dislike the trend of tying up bands to exclusive contracts with one game or the other. This in no way benefits the users. It keeps the purchasers of one music game from accessing music that is tied to the other game. Just like guitars that can’t be played from one game to the other, some songs/bands will be exclusive to specific games. Sad. I do like Guitar Hero’s decision to make songs purchased with prior versions being playable on future versions. That is a much needed improvement.

Games: No new blockbuster games were announced.

• Gears of War 2 (exclusive): Gears was the only game that I’m interested in. But I was interested in it already. Co-op will return and bot play is being introduced. (Nov 7, 2008)
• Fable 2 (exclusive): I didn’t like Fable I, so I’m not looking forward to Fable 2. I did like that they introduced co-op into an RPG though.
• Fallout 3 (not exclusive - by Bethesda, the same gang that brought us Oblivion). The demo was disappointing. So far I’m not seeing what all the fuss is about. But then again, I’m not an RPG fan. One thing is for sure. You’ll be able to dismember enemies in seemingly infinite gruesome ways.
• Resident Evil 5 (not exclusive): The wonky Nintendo centric control system, camera fighting and on-rails game play made the prior Resident Evils unplayable to me. This one looks like it may be playable. But killing thousands of mindless zombies doesn’t appeal. As with Fable 2 and Gears 2, I’m happy to see the inclusion of online co-op once again.

I especially like the emphasis on online coop shown in these games. After years of anticipation, online coop now seems to be a permanent feature of major game titles.

Additional Coverage: Engadget | Gizmodo

[Update: June 1, 2009: Today Microsoft announced ‘Games on Demand’. A feature to be launched in fall 2009 where full games can be purchased with credit cards. Finally, one small step away from Microsoft Points! See Gamasutra article.]

Reading several articles today on Sony’s pending PS3 on-demand service (see here, here and here) and Sony’s pending Playstation cards, to be denominated in local currency (here), it occurred to me that Microsoft’s use of points alone is going to become increasingly untenable as Microsoft’s key game/movie/TV show download competitors all offer competing products denominated and purchasable in local currencies.

Below I discuss Aaron’s arguments for Microsoft Points and what, to me, are overwhelming competitive arguments against them.

A. Aaron’s Arguments For Microsoft Points:

1. Minimizing Credit Card Transaction Fees: Microsoft doesn’t want to ‘burden’ consumers with credit card transaction fees. Credit card companies charge transaction fees on low and high value purchases. Forcing the consumer to make bigger purchases lowers the relative transaction fee. Microsoft passes the savings on to consumers.

Comment: Amazon and Apple manage to individually charge consumers 99 cents per downloaded song. PS3 owners can purchase downloaded content in their local currency with their credit card through the PS3’s Playstation Store. Surely Microsoft can similarly find a way of charging consumers $2.00 to $20 per content download. Give consumers a choice. If some (arguably most) consumers wish to be burdened, then give them the option to choose between points, cash card or credit card purchase options. My guess is only a small minority would choose the point system.

2. Enabling People Without Credit Cards to Purchase Content: A point system makes it possible for people, especially children, without credit cards to purchase content on XBLM.

Comment: Good point. But gift cards and cash cards achieve the same goal. These are not new. I use my Starbucks card to purchase my $1.55 coffee each day. As mentioned above, Sony will soon be offering offering Playstation cards denominated in local currencies (see here) that can be purchased from retailers nation wide.

3. Points Pricing Permits Unified Global Pricing: Microsoft believes consumers prefer a unified global points-based pricing system whereby everyone in the world is charged ‘the same’ points price.

Comment: Unified points pricing is a fiction. Consumers purchase Microsoft Points in local currency. The price Microsoft charges for points is different in every jurisdiction (see chart). Consumers understand this and know that despite the unity of Microsoft Points, the price they pay out of their pocket is different from the price paid by others in other countries. In our Internet-connected world, consumers see through the fiction. It is especially exacerbated because Microsoft does not adjust the price of Microsoft Points to take into consideration fluctuating currency markets (see below).

Garnett suggested a system whereby Microsoft post a Microsoft Points price on XBLM with the local currency quoted in parenthesis beside. Presumably this would be tied with an ability to purchase the content in that currency. Aaron thought this was a good idea and was going to bring it back to the team.

B. Non-Spoken Reasons:

While Aaron didn’t mention the following reasons, common sense tells us that the following are also reasons why Microsoft has chosen to use Microsoft Points.

• It’s Profitable: Microsoft is a business. Clearly they came to the conclusion that this would, all things considered, be the most profitable payment system for the Xbox Live marketplace, for the Zune marketplace etc.
• Confusion May Lead to Sales: Points keep consumers from knowing exactly what they are spending. 500 Microsoft Points sounds cheaper than $7.75. If a product seems cheaper it probably leads to higher sales.
• Forces Consumers to Carry a Float / Interest Free Loan: The system does not allow the consumer to purchase the exact number of points needed for a given download. So whenever a consumer wishes to purchase an item, they must, by definition, buy more points (and spend more) than they wish. This amounts to both: (i) more unearned cash on Microsoft’s balance sheet; and (ii) an interest free loan to Microsoft.
• Unused Points Means Higher Profits: It’s commonly known in the gift-card industry that a significant portion of gift cards are never redeemed. Undoubtedly a significant proportion of both: (i) Microsoft Points purchased and retained as a float balance (see above); and (ii) purchased/gifted Microsoft Points cards will never be redeemed. This is pure profit for Microsoft that wouldn’t exist if consumers purchased downloads with cash or cash equivalents.
• Technical and Extensibility Reasons: It was probably technologically easier to go this route and possibly more easily extensible to multiple markets than a currency-based payment system.

C. Arguments Against a Points System:

• Points are a Hassle & Confusing: Consumers don’t like them. Consumers do not like not knowing how much they are spending. Consumers don’t want the conversion hassles. Consumers don’t want to be forced to purchase more points than they need.
• Multi-step Purchase Process: Having to maintain a balance of points, or worse, having to stop mid-transaction to recharge a points balance, causes friction and lowers the likelihood of a consumer purchase. This frustrates consumers and lowers possible sales. It’s much easier to purchase items with a 1-click credit card system (witness Amazon’s 1-click successes). Several times I’ve chosen not to purchase an item from the Xbox Live Marketplace for no other reason than I couldn’t be bothered to recharge my points.
• Currency Fluctuation Inequities: The Canadian dollar has been at par with the U.S. dollar for about six months now (much of that time it has been above the U .S. $). Yet the price per Microsoft Point charged by Microsoft still assumes the Canadian dollar is worth 24% less than the U.S. dollar.  This angers consumers. It’s simply not fair to charge Canadians 24% more for the same product when Microsoft chooses not to (or can’t for technical reasons) price Microsoft Points in line with currency fluctuations.
• Points Price Variations Within the Same Currency: I was at Best Buy a few days ago. They were charging $39.95 for a 2800 Microsoft Points card. That works out to $1.42 Cdn per 100 points (by comparison Microsoft charges $1.25 per 100 points in the U.S. (see chart).  When the Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack came out the next day I needed more points because, as usual, the number of Microsoft Points floating in my account were just a few hundred short of what I needed to purchase the map pack. Microsoft was charging $1.55 Cdn per 100 points to purchase the points through Xbox Live Marketplace. Why the 13 cent difference per 100 points from Best Buy’s price? XBLM did not offer similar discounts for bulk points purchases. Had it been anything other than the Halo 3 Map pack, for that reason alone I would have forgone the purchase.
• Competitors Sell in Cash: The PS3’s Playstation Store, Apple TV, Amazon Unbox via TiVo are all direct competitors to Microsoft’s download marketplace business. They all price their offerings in local currencies and let consumers pay with credit cards or with cash cards/gift cards. All else equal (and purchasing identical movies/TV show via downloads are pretty much equal) when given a choice I believe most consumers will use the system that prices downloads in their currency and allows them to pay in cash or cash equivalents. I have three of these devices under my TV. That will be how I decide which service to use.

D. Conclusion

When Microsoft was the only video game/movie/TV show download game in town, they could afford to impose a points-system on consumers. But as competitors (Sony PS3, Apple TV, TiVo/Amazon Unbox/Blockbuster etc.) enter the race, offering a more consumer-friendly transaction system, I believe most consumers will choose the alternative.

I think the writing is on the wall. Microsoft will either have to abandon the points system, or, at least, offer cash-cards and credit card-payment alternatives, to compete.

[April 8, 2009 Update: In a step in the right direction, gamers can now purchase Xbox Live games, add-ons for cash through Amazon.com. See stories: Kotaku | Gizmodo | Ars Technica]

I’ll start with the answer to the titular question. After firing up the PS3 with your new Dual Shock 3 (DS3) controller:

• start Resistance Fall of Man (RFoM)
• choose “Multiplayer”
• choose “online game” – the following notice will appear:

“An update to Resistance: Fall of Man is available. This update is required for online play. Download update?

• choose ‘yes’
• exit the game when the download is complete
• start it up again.

You’ll finally have 10 year old technology in your sparkly new PS3 – yeah!!!

Who came up with this clever idea? How are people that want to play the single player campaign offline supposed to know this?

Now for the back-story.

I purchased RFoM with my purchase of the PS3 about a year ago. After an hour or so of single player play, I decided I didn’t want to play it without rumble. Having followed the Sony-Immersion lawsuit on my video game law blog, I assumed that one day a dual-shock 3 controller would allow me to play the game with rumble.

The day finally arrived yesterday.

I purchased the over-priced DS3 at Best Buy ($54.99 Cdn) and returned home eager to finally play RFoM with rumble.

As almost always happens with my PS3, when I turned it on, it required an update. So, after that 25 minute oft-repeated teeth-pulling exercise, I started Resistance Fall of Man – but no rumble.  I searched around the Internet and there were vague posts about the need to download a patch for the rumble to work.

OK. unlike 360 games that automatically update themselves on start, I had to hunt down the patch. I did a few Internet searches and nothing. I looked to the official Sony rumble compatibility announcement – nothing.

Based on some earlier blog posts, my next thought was that the patch might be available in the new Playstation Store. I headed to the Playstation Store to see if there was a patch section. The store was down for maintenance. I checked back several times yesterday but the store remained down – ALL DAY!! [Update: Seems I got caught in the middle of this]

Today I tried again. I booted up the PS3 and guess what? I had to install still another fracking PS3 update – enough already!!!

So I let that download go and started up the Xbox 360 to download the new Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack – that took me all of 2 minutes to accomplish (the maps are terrific – see video demos here). After more update teeth pulling, user agreement accepting (why do I have to accept a new Terms of Service agreement on every update? – Microsoft doesn’t require this), a reboot and and still another install, I finally got into the Playstation Store. The new Playstation Store was a nice improvement over the old.  But, there was no patch to be found.  Only after another 10 minutes of Googling did I find the answer to my question in an obscure forum post here. .  Sheesh!

Sony … just copy everything Microsoft has done on Xbox Live already – I’m serious (except the regrettable Microsoft Points idea). Sony is so far behind. It really shows when little things like this are such a major pain in the behind.

I’m gathering I’ll need to solve a similar riddle for every existing PS3 game I want to work with rumble. God help me.

The new PS3 Playstation store is a much needed improvement over the older store.

The Old Playstation Store:

The old store (pictured to the left) booted slowly, was unresponsive, had tiny print and was almost unusable. It relied on a ‘mouse’ like interface with a pointer that needed to be moved around the screen with the PS3 controller’s analogue stick. It was very difficult to use and imprecise.

The New Playstation Store:

• The new store boots up faster
• Thankfully, the mouse-pointer interface is gone
• The main menu now presents a grouped items column on the left
• Selecting an item group brings up a much easier to read sub-menu (see the “New Releases” submenu below).
• The submenu has a navigable list of possible selections on the right
• Selection details show up in a big, easier to read, panel on the left.

• Everything is faster and crisper (more pics on joystiq here).

No Points Required

I must give Sony kudos for not following Microsoft down the ‘points’ payment system road. Thank you Sony for allowing me to pay for my downloads in dollars. What a concept.

[April 18, 2008 Update: Sony is announcing that the new Playstation Store will soon provide a movie/TV show on-demand service (see here, here and here). Sony will also be selling pending Playstation cards, to be denominated in local currency, for purchases through the Playstation Store (see here).]

Downloading Needs Work:

While downloading is easier than before (the whole mouse navigation paradigm has been replaced), the interface still requires you to press too many buttons to download your selection. One click on a selection ’should’ be enough. But no … on the PS3 you must:

1. select the item you want to download
2. select download (sometimes you have to select it twice)
3. choose where you want to download – why ask when all that is attached is a hard drive?
4. choose  if you want to download in the background or not. Why would I want anything else? It should just download in the most optimal way.
5. When complete you can’t access the newly downloaded demo or video from the download screen (as you can on the 360). You have to leave the Playstation Store and find the download in the PS3 ribbon.

Still, compared with the old store, I’m happier with the new Playstation Store – but, as with virtually every other PS3 online ‘feature’ – it still needs work.