EVERYONE IS TALKING about E3.
It’s been trending on Twitter worldwide since last night. We are here to explain what exactly it’s all about, and whether you need to care.
So what is it?
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, more widely known at E3, is the annual business convention for the gaming industry. It’s been held in LA since 1995 and last year almost 50,000 people attended.
Why is everyone getting so excited about it?
Over the years E3 has become one of THE places where gaming companies make their big announcements about upcoming games and consoles. For the gaming world, it’s a kind of equivalent of the giant Apple showcases where we learn about the new iterations of the iPhone and iPad.
Do I need to care?
Well, if you enjoy the odd bit of gaming, then yes. But these tech developments affect the rest of us too – and not just because you’ll know what bit of plastic those teenagers are messing with down the back of the bus.
Like how?
Last year Microsoft’s huge press conference showed that the tech giant was marketing their Xbox One console not just to gamers, but for the whole family as a multimedia station and even a way to watch TV.
This year, the company appear to have rowed back on that – so the combination games console/movie viewer/TV hub for the family living room may be a little further off than we thought.
So what’s happened this year?
This year’s conference is just getting started – the show only starts officially today. However we’ve already had some of the major press conferences, including the headline new games for the Xbox One and the Playstation equivalent.
Major developments so far include the global rollout of the Playstation TV, a low-cost ‘microconsole’ (it will retail in the US for $99) that connects to a TV and will allow gamers to play classic Playstation titles as well as recent releases for Sony’s handheld consoles.
On the gaming front, we saw the first footage from the new version of classic fight-em-up Mortal Kombat (called Mortal Kombat X and featuring some of your favourite characters. Remember Sub-Zero?)
There’s also the latest iteration of Call of Duty, the first details about Halo 5 and – one of the most-hyped announcements – a bizarre and highly original-looking game called Sunset Overdrive.
What are we still waiting for?
The only remaining big press conference is Nintendo, who’ll be making their announcements this afternoon Irish time. However, gamers will be looking forward to the live gameplay demos coming over the next day or two.
Some of the biggest are Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Assassin’s Creed Unity and Metal Gear Solid V.
Oh, and there’s the small matter of a new Star Wars game, which has been greeted with a universal ‘meh’.
