There are exciting times ahead in the world of electronic entertainment, although they can be hard to identify in the din and cacophony of the Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3).
The industry's biggest trade fair kicked off with an ear-splitting preview in Los Angeles on Tuesday as row after row of game makers and hardware manufacturers showed off their latest offerings with the help of scantily clad models, booming gunfire that would scare even hardened troops and graphics that edge ever-closer to the hyper-realistic holy grail of computer gaming.
E3 organizers said around 400 exhibiting companies from 70 countries are at this year's show, the 10th annual, which sprawls over more than 48,000m2.
The size of the gathering testifies to its popularity. The NPD Group, which tracks the industry, said videogame retail sales in the US -- including software, hardware, personal-computer games and accessories -- totalled US$11.2 billion last year with worldwide sales estimated to be double that figure. And that was in a down year, when sales were low because major consoles are getting long in the tooth and customers began waiting for the new models to hit the showrooms.
Most of the big news from the four-day confab was well-known in advance. There are upgrades for Microsoft's Xbox console, which is gradually gaining on Sony's PlayStation 2; product announcements from Nintendo and Sony about new portable gaming consoles that will spark a new handheld war for the hearts of male teens and the pockets of their parents; and a host of new game announcements, including new versions of such old faves as Doom and Halo.
The new consoles that will debut at the end of next year will feature revolutionary new processors that will improve graphic power and allow the consoles to take their rightful place in the digital-entertainment networks that are becoming ever more common in tech-savvy homes.
To keep sales up until then, Sony announced it was dropping the price of its PS2 to US$149 to attract more soft-core gamers.
Microsoft, meanwhile, was intent on improving the already impressive features of its Xbox. It unveiled a live videoconferencing feature for its consoles, allowing up to five players to see and speak to each other as they blast away.
Another significant announcement for the Xbox was the news that publishing giant Electronic Arts will finally start to produce games for it.
Since conventional wisdom states that any console is only as good as the games it plays, the deal gives a real boost to Microsoft's dream of surpassing Sony as the industry's leading
console.
"This is what gamers have been clamoring for in the past couple of years," said Cameron Ferroni, general manager of Xbox Live at Microsoft, with only a hint of hype.
Usually sober analysts raved that the deal might actually help Microsoft surpass Sony in console sales for the first time in history.
It could also prove a huge boost to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who hopes that the Xbox can eventually offset Microsoft's slower growth in software sales for personal computers.
Since its 2000 debut, the Xbox has sucked up to US$2 billion from Microsoft's massive coffers, trailing the best-selling PS2 in distant second place with sales of 15 million units compared to 70 million units for the Sony.
But recent industry figures have shown the Xbox to be gaining momentum, and in April, it sold about the same number of consoles as Sony. The Xbox was a huge gamble for Microsoft, and it's finally starting to pay off, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at the
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