Immersive tech pulls players at E3 2010

The annual games bacchanalia otherwise known as E3 recently drew to a close and despite the chaos of multi-story megabooths staffed by both the bizarrely and scantily clad, two important trends were easily identifiable. Here’s a quick overview of this year’s dominant themes.

Motion control

Imagine you’re playing a baseball game. Would you rather push a button that tells the pitcher to initiate a throwing motion or would you rather whip your arm forward and watch the player mimic your movement. Anybody who’s played a videogame in the last 30 years is familiar with the button paradigm; at E3 2010, the games industry was clearly intent on adding the more novel notion of physicality to the controller mix. Continue reading “Immersive tech pulls players at E3 2010”

Hottest trends in gaming

PSP Go video demo

Here are continued impressions from E3.  They are, as promised, thoughts on Sony offerings and the larger gaming trends.

Sony: I got a “hands-on” with the new PSP Go.  I think this device is less a competitor to the Nintendo DSi, and much more of a competitor to the iPod Touch.  The device centers on the concept of digital distribution for games and video – no more UMD disks.  Getting rid of a disk drive has certainly made the device more portable, but it still doesn’t seem as pocket friendly as the iPod.  The ability to leverage a control pad is great, as are the tie-ins between the PS3 and the PSP devices, but I see the device as primarily appealing to the existing PSP owners, much as the DSi has been an upgrade to the Nintendo DS. Continue reading “Hottest trends in gaming”