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E3 - Electronic Entertinment Expo 2002 May 27, 2002 Los Angeles: Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2002 filled the Los Angeles Convention Center with the newest, best and often the loudest (our ears our still ringing) offerings in the $6.3 billion electronic entertainment industry, encompassing both video game consoles and PC platforms. More than 62,000 people from 70 countries came to the annual event, a showcase for the more than 1,000 new titles being introduced this season. We were there for two days of the three-day event to search out family oriented, productivity, entertainment and educational programs. Here’s a sampling of what we saw: Sports are BIG. The new Madden NFL 2003 (Electronic Arts) includes all the updated stats with new patter from John Madden and Al Michaels. Tennis Masters Series 2002 (Microids) sports incredible 3D graphics and actions. New versions for trick bike, skateboarding, wakeboarding, soccer and a host of other sports (even chariot racing) were also shown from various publishers. You can now edit videos, photos, slides and more using MovieShop (Broderbund, makers of the popular Print Shop). This new offering features drag and drop simplicity, real-time previewing and simultaneous display of both a story board and time lines. The program has a wealth of ready-to-use content including titles, frames, themed sets (birthday, wedding, baby and much more), transitions and more, all in a great, easy to use interface. Broderbund is also releasing the latest version of Print Shop (version 15), available in both the multi CD-ROM stand-alone version and a new broadband version. The broadband version eliminates disk swapping by allowing you to download art and projects as needed from the Print Shop Web site. New war simulation and strategy programs give you a chance to fight historical battles. The Age of Fables (Microsoft), has you invoking the gods to help your Roman and Greek warriors, or Battlefield 1942 (Electronic Arts), where you can fight World War II historic battles on foot, in a tank, on a boat, in the air and more, switching as you go. War & Peace (Microids) is a more involved Napoleonic Wars simulation encompassing entire national strategies. A new combat flight simulation, Jane’s Attack Squadron (Xicat) accurately models 14 World War II fighter planes and gives you the chance to fly them against the enemy. The cockpit displays are authentically reproduced, and the radio chatter is in the language of the plane’s origin (English text is included to help if you don’t understand Japanese, German, and the like). A surprising entry into the war game market is America’s Army, produced by the U.S. Army as a marketing tool to demonstrate to young men and women what the Army does. The graphics in some of the new programs are astounding. Notable is Syberia (Microids, a French-Canadian company new to the US market), a role playing mystery adventure set in Europe, past and present, with 15 locales depicted in exquisite detail. Sound is very important to the overall effect of many of the programs, so we previewed new speakers, EVSonicsXS (Electrovoice), and were impressed with their performance. We also heard a new sound processing device, the SoundMax, a chip that comes on the motherboard of many new computers and creates very realistic sound. It also paves the way for true, easy, reliable voice command and recognition. For children, a number of worthwhile offerings are coming: A fantasy space adventure for ages 5 to 8, Star Flyers (The Learning Company) combines fun and game play designed to spark children’s imagination and help them build logic skills. For the 8 to 12 year group, Liberty Kids (The Learning Company) makes history come to life in a series of adventures set in the time of the American Revolution and includes events such as the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence and five others. For Reader Rabbit and Clue Finders fans, The Learning Company now includes additional adventures in a second CD-ROM packaged with the programs. Click & Create With Mia (Topics Entertainment), features Mia, the award-winning mouse, hosting this new arts and crafts program for ages 4-8. A wonderfully creative section has children using a variety of geometric shapes to form everyday items such as a fish, chair and many others. Finally, a brief look at what’s happening in the video (Play Station, X-Box, Nintendo, Game Boy) and PC (computer) gaming world: The top-selling video games in 2001 were sports titles, followed by action and strategy titles, all accounting for more than half of the sales. For the PC platform, strategy titles were the best-sellers, followed by child and family genres. Almost two-thirds of all titles sold for video and computer were rated E (Everyone) by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). Only three of the top 20 selling games were rated M (Mature 17+, which is equivalent to an R movie rating). More than two-thirds of PC gamers were older than 18, and a bit more than half the console gamers were older than 18. The vast majority of games were bought by people older than 18, with the buying split almost equally between men and women. Because of the recent steep cuts in prices in all the game consoles, the industry expects explosive growth in both sales of game consoles and game titles, with software sales alone predicted to top $11 billion by 2005. Stay tuned. |
