If Microsoft's early announcement of details of the Xbox 360 a week ago disappointed fans hoping they'd wait till the tenth anniversary E3 this week, Sony more than put the show back on the forefront with its own, unexpected even from within Sony, revelation of the PlayStation 3.
Choosing Sony Picture Studios for its conference, the company was literally well placed to show and tell, thanks to the theatre's 23-foot high screen. And show they did, providing real time demonstrations that not even non-Cell CGI game sequences have been able to match in terms of lighting dynamics, and almost Toy Story quality graphical clarity and diversity. Finally, Sony looks to be realising its dreams. And so will gamers if what we saw is what we get next year. Today we also saw a prototype controller, something Sony did not show at is American press conference. Most resembling a Virtual Boy controller in shape, the device is sure to be revised, particularly after both its competitors have shown their hands.
By comparison, Microsoft faltered, not only by showing comparatively primitive gameplay and images, but in sticking to its planned speeches after Sony's delayed conference left it little time to improvise. The rights to claim the most powerful next-generation hardware were already firmly back in Japan, and while Microsoft's week-old words were uttered verbatim, the lack of conviction was evident. Sharing the stage with hundreds of apparently hired cheerleaders did no favours for its efforts to provide an atmosphere of genuine excitement. This would be saved for the after party, and anticipation at what the show proper would reveal from third party developers whose wares were not part of the Monday lineup.
Nintendo, always self-sufficient, omitted third party talk in its fan-club-meeting-cum press conference today and once again focussed on its own IPs, while at the same time showing why it's glad it does its own games by announcing the Revolution, which will be little bigger than the slimline PS2 model, will allow the company's entire console back catalogue to be downloaded and played on the new console. This alone could carve Revolution a niche market and revenue stream large enough to bankroll its next generation hardware investment, but of course we don't know much about that hardware and talk today is that Nintendo has pulled its Revolution display from E3, due to open tomorrow.
Regardless of what we see on the show floor, Nintendo is definitely not talking about console specs, and hardly mentioning features. Whether or not this could allow Nintendo, IBM and ATI to make changes to the innards of the Revolution, at least no-one will be able to make unfavourable comparisons with its competitors. With Nintendo sharing partners with both Sony and Microsoft, however, chances are that it will live up to its promises to provide technology at least on a par with the Other Two.
