EVERY BUYER EVERY BRANCH EVERY WEEK Issue 691 Friday June 8th 2012 £3.25 E3: Core blimey Or should that be gore blimey? Big focus on guns, guts and gamers LA show talks to the hardcore, not the trade
by Michael French in Los Angeles
CALIFORNIA DREAMS of broadening the games audience were put on hold in LA this week – as all of the industry’s major players knuckled down on their core titles. Turn any corner at the Los Angeles Convention Center and you would find format holders and third- parties wanting to reclaim and pander to the alpha male demographic that sits at the heart of gaming. Microsoft’s blockbuster-
packed showcase opened with Halo 4and closed with a deafening Call of Duty: Black Ops IIdemo. Sony went big on two new IPs, adult thrillers Beyondand Last of Us, and revelled in a long and bloody God of Wardemo. Even Nintendo, as it
reintroduced Wii U during the week, talked about owned IP for ardent fans while darting between grown-up fare like Arkham Cityand Ubisoft’s ZombiU.
The headline games at E3 were all core titles including Last of Us, ZombiU, Beyond and Black Ops II
“
06 U BETTER BELIEVE IT Nintendo shows off a promising initial line-up of Wii U software, and teases that more is to come
E3 is mainly a show for gamers now.
Alain Corre, Ubisoft
Other third-party titles were on the same guns, gore or girls track, be that EA’s headliner Dead Space 3, Eidos’ torture-fest Tomb Raider, or the new mature- themed Star Wars1313. All the press conferences shut down the casual ranges that have populated other years’ showings, with things like Just Dance, Kinect and new Sony kids property Wonderbookthe only mainstreamers allowed in. The big name firms were more likely to talk live web
broadcasts of their E3 events, feeding hungry fans, rather than offer strategy insight for the trade attendees and media that actually filled the rooms. While visitors left some of the events scratching their heads, core gamers scouring blogs and livestreams were often more clued up thanks to official videos and post- match content.
Ubisoft livestreamed to
YouTube and fielded questions submitted via Facebook. EA and Microsoft boasted
Spike TV support. Sony bussed in hundreds of PlayStation Access fans. Nintendo mentioned its own official E3 content programming five times. How many stats or business insight did it share? Zero. Miyamoto made an oblique reference to the shift, saying “the important challenge for all of us is to show the fun deeper games can offer when consumers are said to be moving to lighter games”. Alain Corre, EMEA MD of Ubisoft, was less vague: “While the market is still broad and the family market is still there, a lot of hardcore games are here, watching E3,” he told MCV. Ubisoft was the go-to partner for format-holders hungry to show some core games cred, with lengthy slots for Splinter Cellat Microsoft and AC IIIat Sony. Said Corre: “After our event we had the top five global trending topics on Twitter – the buzz has been phenomenal. E3 is mainly a show for gamers now.”
OUR VERDICT: THE 9 BIG SURPRISES IN LOS ANGELES. TURN OVER p4 IN THIS ISSUE – E3 POST-GAME ANALYSIS
06 UBISOFT CONQUERS E3 Leading publisher unveils a killer line-up for all platforms, as well as new IP Watch Dogs
07 SONY’S FRESH TAKE PlayStation breaks up the flood of sequels with Quantic Dream’s new project Beyond
07 EA’S DIGITAL DREAMS FIFA publisher rolls out new digital services, but there’s still plenty for retail
08 BLOCKBUSTERS FOR XBOX Microsoft focuses on multi- million selling brands, and unveils its new SmartGlass technology