E3 2008, Day 2: Everything You Need To Know

Author: by Staff

Still fed up with 20-post summaries of E3 press conferences? Following our handy Day 1 round-up, Gamasutra returns with a full round-up of the major announcements, press events, and kerfuffle on Day 2 of E3 2008. Tuesday at E3 was dominated by the press conference from hardware giants Nintendo and Sony - while Ubisoft also showed off its line of titles and announcements from publishers such as Disney also debuted. - First up was the Nintendo press event, and Gamasutra's bulleted announcement guide explained the major reveals, from from Animal Crossing: City Folk through the WiiSpeak microphone, GTA: Chinatown Wars, the 2009 debut of Wii Sports Resort and its bundled MotionPlus accessory, and even Wii Music. - Our own Brandon Sheffield then analyzed Nintendo's announcements, concluding of the incrementally innovative new products shown: "It’s perfectly acceptable to go with what works for some time – after all, that’s what everyone else is doing, by and large. Small innovations work well. Large disruptions can only come every once so often." - Next was Sony's press conference, and again, we boiled down the major announcements into a simple document, from the company's new $399 80GB PS3, the launch of its video download service, new PSP titles Resistance: Retribution and Valkyria Chronicles, and Zipper's MAG (Massive Action Game) for PS3. - Gamasutra's Christian Nutt then took a closer look at the action, suggesting, somewhat concerningly, that "While SCEA president and CEO Jack Tretton promised "a lineup that features the biggest exclusives in the industry"... his promise that "we've just begun to scratch the surface on what we intend to deliver to consumers in the years ahead" was probably the most important message at the conference." - In addition, Ubisoft's E3 press conference revealed a new 'survival adventure' title, I Am Alive, from French studio Darkworks, as well as new ranges of casual games, from Monkeyz through the Ener-G girl-targeted DS game series. - Elsewhere at the Summit, a number of other smaller announcements, including Disney's announcement of its line-up and - particularly interesting for developers - AiLive's debuting of its LiveMove 2 tool for the Wii's MotionPlus add-on - also debuted. Stay tuned for a similar Gamasutra-authored summary for subsequent days of the E3 Media & Business Summit from the Los Angeles Convention Center.