E3 is bound to have most of you looking out for news of the next big thing, the truth is however, that the Big Two control what you get to see, so this year the big thing is.. "Motion sensors". Yes, when a Kyoto based company says it is, they are wrong but when Tokyo, or Redmond say it is so... well it has to be so.
Rant aside, the Big Two in console gaming have finally got their budgets together and both are unveiling their big motion gaming projects. By now you are probably familiar with how celebrities are able to use these wonderful new tools but what does that mean to you?
The first indications are that MS is really counting on Kinect and believes so much in it, that it is willing to risk going over the speculated ceiling price of $99.00 and will ask gamers to part with $149.99 for it. The motion sensing camera will also be bundled with consoles and if the pricing structure we have been hearing about sticks, the Xbox 360 Arcade console with the "motion" gear will be a mere $299.00. The price for the Kinect kit on its own still seems lower than what Europe will be asked to pay for it, if the Swedish "Game" store (and a couple of others) early listings are any indication ($190.00).
SONY on the other hand has learned to deal with the "expensive" tag and has created an entire school of marketing in its attempts to overcome it. The "Move" gear will come in three offerings (more complicated as the "Eye" is involved), one of which will be a budget offering, bundling the "Eye", the "Move" controller(s) and a game for less than $100.00. So even if the price turns out to be $99.99, it is still a relief to those who had found that getting to see the "SONY" tag on a product had become something of a voyeuristic pastime.
As far as games are concerned, Microsoft is hinting that it does have a "hardcore" gamer title to accompany Kinect; what will be even more useful is if they commit to dates for further "hardcore" titles for the platform as one game will clearly last as long as most hardcore gamers will, trying to play it.
SONY, with a more mature "Move" strategy, has already announced SOCOM 3 and has demoed Move Party and Sports Champions but more importantly, has released an impressive list of 3rd party developers supporting the new platform.
What we need now is some solid dates and titles during E3.