everyday gamer

E3 2008 has already been filled with megaton announcements…and we’re not even through the first day!  Highlights of the day include a new Wiimote motion controller addon presumably featuring 1:1 motion detection, release dates for the second chapters of Fable and Gears of War, the update to XBox Live, and Final Fantasy XIII for the 360.  Yes.  The Xbox.  Dogs and cats living together total hysteria!

From following up on the numerous liveblogs on the major gaming sites, the day started with a subtle and conspicuously timed announcement from Nintendo on their new motion controller, Wii Motion Plus.  Wii Motion Plus is a Wiimote attachment that greatly expands the motion detection on the input device.  Currently, the Wiimote is used primarily to detect shifts in direction.  For example, whether or not the wiimote shifts in one direction, tilts, or in other words moved along a two dimensional plane.  Wii Motion Plus presumably is an addon that adds the third dimension to the Wiimote, giving it (as the boards have stated) 1:1 movement in space.  The best example I can think of is golf swings.  The golf minigame in Wii Sports, although pretty average, was for the most part just a speed detector in how fast the accelerometer moves in one direction.  My best guess is that the Wii Motion Plus will be used for software like an enhanced Wii Sports to track swing followthrough or something else that is very dependent on location of accessories in space.

More important was Nintendo’s announcement of this controller a day before the Microsoft and Sony press conferences, both of which were rumored to announce some sort of motion controller.  While this is a very clear attempt to knock the wind out of the sails of those rumor boats, I find it extra conspicuous that Microsoft didn’t have a motion controller of any sort at this conference.  Hmm.

Microsoft’s press conference was filled with a whole lot of unexpected announcements.  It began with demos of Fallout 3 and Resident Evil 5, two multiplatform titles we knew about.  Much more interesting was Peter Molyneux announcing that Fable 2 is finished and is coming this October.  What’s this about the Fable 3 looking unfinished from the gaming press?  October is awfully close.  Gears of War 2 was announced for this November officially too buuuut we already knew it was coming out this fall.  From the liveblogs, it did not seem like Microsoft focused on Gears of War 2 as much as we all expected them to.

The new XBox Live interface was officially unveiled at the conference as well.  The Mii clone/avatar portion of that interface was leaked weeks ago.  And they most definitely look like Miis.  I suppose it’s a good idea to make XBLive more personable but ultimately Live already controls the online user experience with chatrooms/voicecomm/etc. and Miis aren’t that big of a deal.

What is a big deal is the announcement of Portal:Still Alive for XBLA, which are brand new Portal levels.   No mention of whether or not it includes the original game.  Didn’t Valve announce a few months ago that Microsoft declined Portal on XBLA because of size limitations?  No brainer here, Portal was only the most talked about game of 2007.  Especially good deal for Valve and the Portal kids: the game deserves it.

In probably the smartest announcement of the conference, Microsoft announced a partnership with Netflix to allow Netflix subscribers to watch movies and TV programming over live.  For no additional cost.  Although it was long rumored that something like this was coming along, this is a good idea: the XBox 360 is a perfect trojan horse for media of all kinds.

Closing up the conference was the introduction of Yoichi Wada, head of Square Enix.  First we got more of what we already knew that Square was working on for XBox: Star Ocean, Last Remnant, and Infinite Undiscovery (what does this name even mean?!).   But then the megaton came.

Final Fantasy XIII.  For XBox 360.

The NeoGAF forums are still exploding from this announcement.  FFXIII was at one point a PS3 exclusive.  Coming to XB360.  Megaton.

Or is it?

Let’s break this down a little bit.  XBox has little market presence in Japan and Europe outside of the UK.  The XB360 exclusive titles of Lost Odyssey and Ninja Gaiden 2 were two titles that were aimed at getting a bit more market share in Japan with little success (PS3 install base still outnumbers XB360 install base by about 3 to 1 as of May/June).  Final Fantasy XII is a much more japan-friendly title than either of those two titles.  Will it make the bump in Japan that they think it will?  Probably not, an asston of PS3s and MGS4s just sold and the install base gap is getting wider.

How about in the U.S., the XBox stronghold? First and foremost, FFXIII going multiplatform is a stab in the heart of those who bought PS3s just to play it.  Additionally, it is a strong statement to consumers who will be asking themselves why they would buy an expensive PS3 to play a game they could play on the cheaper XB360.   At the same time, will a traditionally Playstation branded RPG sell on the XBox?  A japanese RPG on a system dominated by shooters, bald space marines, and other live multiplayer experiences?  I’m very hesitant to say yes, but I think the attach rate of the FFXIII on PS3 will be stronger as was the case with Grand Theft Auto 4.

In any case, to quote Shane Bettenhausen on the 1up Liveblog, “Shit just got real.”  This is indeed a megaton.  I cannot wait to see how Sony and Nintendo are going to react.

Edit:  Apparently here’s how the Final Fantasy thing is going to work out.  Exclusive in Japan for PS3.  Then x number of months to localize it to North America and Europe on PS3, not to be released until they finish porting it to XBox.  So, working to XBox’s strengths.

Edit 2: Where the hell is Alan Wake?