E3 And Excess - Feature Creep Episode 8 By Tarmack
8The Electronic Entertainment Expo is the annual celebration of all that is good in the gaming industry. It showcases the biggest and brightest talent, the newest and most amazing video game technology and features major announcements from hardware and software producers about their upcoming products. Or at least, that's what it used to be. As E3 has grown, it's become harder and harder as a small developer to get any airtime for your game. The show floor became an event of one-upmanship with the big dog companies essentially just showing off how much money they had. I remember in 2004 seeing 3 story high columns of flat screens just for Nintendo to show Mario jumping. And this year was no different in the excess, but so many of the good announcements were overshadowed. E3 had three major themes this year. Amid the dancing hysteria, video screens on controllers and Modern Warfare, Gears of War clones, the event just feels forced. The whole movement speaks of a tired industry devoid of good ideas with too much money to spend. I completely understand where they are coming from with how much piracy must be hurting the bottom line. I may be old fashioned but it seems to me that moving to smaller screens on our controllers is a step backwards, far removed from the reason everybody wants a big screen TV. Small screens and portability are what the Vita and DS are for. As for getting up and dancing with Usher, the people that I know play games to sit and relax. It seems to me that they are missing the target market, unless there is a market for gamers who want more exercise and portable gaming in their living room. So when you want to get up off the couch there's no need to use Kinect, Move or Wii. Just open the front door and walk outside.
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