Big E3 videogame expo calls it quits

The main organizer of E3, a long-running videogame trade show, on Tuesday said the event will no longer take place, ending a 20-year run.

"After more than two decades of serving as a central showcase for the US and global video game industry, ESA has decided to end E3," said Stanley Pierre-Louis, President and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association.

"ESA’s focus and priority remain advocating for ESA member companies and the industry workforce who fuel positive cultural and economic impact every day," he added.

The Washington-based ESA had sponsored the big gathering annually since 1995, usually in Los Angeles, but canceled the event in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and held a virtual version in 2021.

At its height, the show was a major launchpad for new releases from the biggest video gaming players.

According to the Washington Post, the Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles were each showcased at a 2005 show, for example.

More recently, major gaming players announce their own digital gatherings and gaming titans such as Xbox, Nintendo and Sony had declined to attend last year's attempt to revive the event.

Agence France-Presse

'Fortnite' frenzy reigns at E3 gaming expo

LOS ANGELES -- The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) wrapped up in Los Angeles on Thursday with the video game "Fortnite" knocking out other contenders to emerge as the star of a show which highlighted the surging interest in competitive eSports.

"Fortnite" maker Epic Games has found a groove with its "battle royale" title in which scores of players fight against each other to be the last one standing in a post-apocalyptic world.

"Fortnite" was the focus of a pro-am tournament which packed a Los Angeles stadium during the annual E3 video game extravaganza and Epic Games has put up $100 million in prize money for competitions.

Reasons for the popularity of "Fortnite" include that it can be played for free on a range of devices including smartphones, personal computers and consoles. Nintendo added "Fortnite" to its Switch consoles this week.

"Battle royale is a proven and popular game style," Twitch eSports program head Justin Dellario told AFP.

"Fortnite" is the most popular game now on Amazon-owned Twitch, with more than six billion minutes of play in April alone, according to Dellario.

Hip-hop superstar Drake set a streaming record at Twitch in March drawing 628,000 viewers for a live stream of him battling for survival in the shoot-'em'-up adventure with players including Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, one of the emerging stars of the sector.

"Fortnite" became an eSports phenomena after the release late last year of a free "Battle Royale" mode that lets up to 100 players vie to be the last character standing on ever-shrinking terrain.

Players in the spotlight

"Fortnite" was crafted to be easy to jump into and fun including goofy stunts, for example, such as riding rockets or shopping carts, according to Celia Hodent, who worked on user experience at Epic Games before leaving late last year.

"There is no recipe for making for sure a game is a huge hit, but now you have specific ingredients you use," Hodent, author of the book "The Gamer's Brain," told AFP. "What you are talking about is more a social phenomenon; when something is very popular then more people want to play it."

The three-day E3 event, once restricted to members of the multi-billion-dollar video game industry, was open to gamers for the second year in a row with 15,000 tickets sold.

Throughout an E3 gathering rich with eye-popping game software, players themselves were in the spotlight.

Live game action and pithy commentary were streamed online television studio-style by platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and Mixer.

"Game publishers understand their community is fundamental and allow the players to contribute to the games themselves," Facebook director of console and online gaming Franco De Cesare told AFP.

French video game giant Ubisoft announced at E3 that it is teaming up with a firm founded by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt to crowd source material for a forthcoming title.

Ubisoft has long tapped into feedback from players while designing games, but the latest step will allow some to make content woven into scenes.

An invitation to collaborate went live on the website of Gordon-Levitt's Hit Record, with the first project being to make music that one might hear on a space pirate radio station in Ubisoft's "Beyond Good and Evil 2," a science fiction shooter crafted to be a space opera.

"These growing communities of players are already present," Ubisoft chief executive Yves Guillemot said. "Hundreds of millions of people are part of eSports; build shared maps block by block, or battle for victory in online arenas."

A coming sequel to the blockbuster "Fallout" franchise will be an open world hosted online and populated by other players instead of computer generated characters, Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard said at E3.

In the game "each of those characters is a real person," Howard said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Cloud play on the horizon in changing video game world

LOS ANGELES -- Console makers long at the center of the video game universe are adapting to an exploding constellation of ways to play, with the cloud looming on the horizon.

Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony remained stars, with rival Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch gaming hardware respectively, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) show floor that opened in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

But the premier industry gathering was very much focused on games themselves, and the idea they can be played as a service hosted in the internet cloud using an array of devices from smartphones to personal computers.

The annual E3 event "occurs against a backdrop of disruption in the console market," according to IHS Markit games technology research director Piers Harding-Rolls.

"As the market becomes more digitally enabled and service based, console companies and publishers are starting to map out their longer-term strategies including the building out of subscription cloud gaming services," Harding-Rolls told AFP.

Companies interested in cloud gaming see it as a way to reach broader audiences, adding to console businesses instead of taking away from them, according to the analyst.

"I see consoles being around or the foreseeable future," Harding-Rolls said.

Shifting terrain

But the competitive landscape will tilt away from console-market leading PlayStation to terrain more favorable to Xbox, he reasoned.

Microsoft has built a powerful platform for hosting computing in the internet cloud, making such service a thriving part of its business.

“We commit and harness the full breadth of our resources at Microsoft to deliver on the future of play," Xbox team leader Phil Spencer said at an E3 briefing.

The Redmond, Washington-based technology veteran has also invested heavily in machine learning, naming its Cortana digital assistant after an artificial intelligence character in blockbuster Xbox video game "Halo."

Spencer also said that Microsoft is working on a cloud service for streaming console-quality games to internet-linked devices.

"If you agree that the eventual future of games consumption is through cloud gaming services, then those companies with a strong position in cloud are likely to be best placed to benefit from the transition," Harding-Rolls said.

"In this context, Microsoft's cloud division gives the company a natural advantage when trying to build a profitable business."

Sony and Microsoft have each put out word they are working on next-generation consoles, but planned capabilities have yet to be revealed.

PlayStation 4 has dominated the current console generation, briskly outselling Xbox One.

But if the video game world shifts to Microsoft's strengths, its new competition in play could become cloud and AI titans such as Amazon, Google, Tencent, and Alibaba, according to Harding-Rolls.

Learning from mobile

The video game industry is seeing its biggest investment ever, with the three big consoles "very healthy," according to Electronic Software Association chief executive Michael Gallagher.

The ESA trade group organizes E3, with 60,000 industry insiders and gamers from some 100 countries expected to attend the three-day gathering.

Video game industry revenue worldwide tallied about $116 billion last year, according to the ESA.

Console makers have been taking lessons from mobile games, building online communities of players who provide feedback; stream play; subscribe to services, and spend money on digital content such as dance moves or funky clothing for characters.

"Mobile has been a fantastic growth point for the industry," Gallagher said.


Console video game titan Bethesda is unabashedly bridging the divide between console and mobile play with versions of blockbusters "Fallout" and "Elder Scrolls" for play on smartphones or tablets.

"I can't wait to play it," Gallagher said of "Elder Scrolls: Blades" that will be available free for iPhones or Android-powered mobile devices when it is released later this year.

Another sign of console-quality play making its way to mobile devices came in the form of telecom giant AT&T showing off ultra high-speed 5G wireless data capabilities on the E3 show floor.

Super-fast internet service is seen as key to rich, seamless game play.

"Exponential increases in computing power, storage and speed will lead to the streaming of realistic, systemic, densely populated and persistent game worlds to any screen," said Yves Guillemot, chief executive of French video game powerhouse Ubisoft.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Virtual reality to get real at E3 video game show

An attendee tries on the Oculus VR Inc. Rift Development Kit 2 headset at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, in this file photo. Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Files/Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO -- Virtual reality and the battle to stream play online will take center stage at an Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) video game extravaganza kicking off in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Blockbuster video games will once again be the main event at the industry's biggest trade show, but in the wings attention will go to the promise of stepping into the games virtually and streaming them as spectator sport.

"Like every year, E3 will be about the marquee video game titles that will take the world by storm," TechSavvy analyst Scott Steinberg told AFP on Saturday.

"But, there are side battles going on. YouTube is making a play to be the absolute destination for gamers, but Twitch has a strong position. Of course, you have virtual reality."

Analysts expect this E3 to be a coming-of-age of sorts for virtual reality, which has been around for decades but remained an unfulfilled promise for gamers eager to immerse themselves in fantasy worlds.

Facebook-owned virtual reality firm Oculus has promised hands-on demonstrations of games at E3.

Oculus aimed squarely at video game lovers on Thursday as it unveiled Rift headsets that it will begin selling early next year. However, it did not disclose pricing for Rift, which will come with an Xbox controller due to an alliance with console maker Microsoft.

"There was always this distance between players and the game," said Oculus Studios head Jason Rubin. "Virtual reality lets you step through that window."

Sony's big presence at E3 will include demonstrations on Project Morpheus virtual reality headgear it is readying for market.

"Immersive technologies have a lot more to offer than video games, but it is a great place to start," said Gartner analyst Brian Blau.

"Game developers know how to get people immersed in graphical simulations better than anybody; it is natural to think they will be first in line to create content."

Blau expected the virtual reality market to be fiercely competitive.

YouTube takes on Twitch

Meanwhile Google-owned YouTube will be facing off with Twitch at E3, where it will preview a version of its video-sharing platform tailored for gamers.

YouTube is creating an online arena devoted to video game play, jumping onto a hot "e-sports" trend and challenging leading video game play broadcasting platform Twitch.

YouTube Gaming will debut in Britain and the United States in the coming months, according to product manager Alan Joyce.

"YouTube Gaming is built to be all about your favorite games and gamers, with more videos than anywhere else," Joyce said in a blog post.

Similarly, Amazon-owned Twitch will have a strong presence at E3, with plans to live-stream press conferences, demos and interviews.

Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon last year for $970 million in cash, will augment its English-language broadcast with regionalized shows from partners including Rocket Beans TV in German and Jeuxvideo in French.

San Francisco-based Twitch streams games being played for non-playing viewers to watch and hosts gaming events. It also allows viewers to chat with the players and others, lending it some of the qualities of social networking websites.

Twitch capabilities are built into new-generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles.

'More ambitious than ever'
US video game titan Bethesda is holding its first-ever major media event late Sunday in the Dolby Theater, best known as the home of the Academy Awards.

Bethesda has promised to show off a keenly-anticipated new installment to the "Fallout" post-apocalyptic action game franchise.

"We know what this game means to everyone," game director Todd Howard said in a release. "The time and technology have allowed us to be more ambitious than ever."

In keeping with years past, the day before E3 officially opens will be packed with theatrical media events revealing scenes from new versions of much-loved games on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or Wii U consoles.

Winning game franchises getting new installments will include Batman, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect and Call of Duty.

"You are going to see more of the same, only better," Steinberg said of game makers' trend towards safe bets on franchises with strong followings.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com