Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft will unleash their latest video game offerings as they battle it out at a premier showcase of new products in the $25-billion global gaming market.
The United States and Japanese computer game titans were among game-makers from 90 countries converging on the Los Angeles Convention Centre for an Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) which begins on Tuesday.
The ”world’s premier interactive entertainment trade-only event” is in its 12th year and about 400 companies have come to tout their software, electronics and accessories in a cavernous space equal to 40 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Industry analysts expected major game-makers including Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Nintendo and Sony to make bids to steal the show.
Microsoft launched its Xbox 360 gaming console with much fanfare last year and was expected to unveil new gaming software as early as Tuesday.
Sony and Nintendo both planned to use the conference to preview their consoles, PlayStation 3 and Wii respectively.
Nintendo reserved a theatre for a Tuesday press conference at which it was expected to debut the new game console dubbed ”Wii”.
PlayStation goes into the fray as the clear market leader, but has to convince gamers its new console is worth a premium price and a wait, since Sony does not plan to have it in stores until late this year.
Exhibitors at the conference will show-off nearly 1 000 ”never-before-seen” games, according to event organisers.
Among the twists at the notoriously glitzy gaming gala will be the sudden star-power of the ”massively multiplayer online role-playing game” (MMORPG) Warcraft.
Unlike computer games pitting lone users against machine adversaries, MMORPGs are played online with people joining forces in armies of virtual warriors.
Teenage boys in California have shown a preference for enlisting in the ”undead” army of zombies which join with trolls and orcs to fight dwarves, elves, gnomes, and humans.
Colleagues-in-arms can instantly message each other to coordinate attacks or defences.
Warcraft was launched in November of 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment located in Irvine, California. The company was a division of Vivendi Universal Games.
Blizzard recently reported having close to seven million Warcraft players, more than 900 000 of which were in Europe.
The game launched in China on June 6, 2005 and became one of the most popular online games in that country, according to Blizzard.
The game sells for $50 in stores and users pay $15 monthly to play online.
Microsoft and Sony Online Entertainment were both reported to be working on new MMORPGs, a gaming genre that dates back two decades.
In keeping with the popularity of communal game playing, Swedish game company Jadestone planned to use the forum to break the world record for the number of people playing on the same cellphone.
As many as 26 people could play the company’s action puzzle game Kodo on a single cellphone, according to Jadestone.
”The idea behind it is to let people have fun and laugh together,” Kodo designer Tommy Palm said. ”Obviously, the more players the merrier.”
For those seeking even higher levels of video-game stimulation, there will be ”Sound Rockers” chairs rigged with speakers and other equipment to enable users to ”feel all the action” and be awash in music and sound effects.
”E3 caters to the most sophisticated gamers,” said Michael Feldman, founder of the Los Angeles company that makes the gaming furniture. ”Our new line of Sound Rockers will not disappoint them.”
Gamers craving nostalgia will have the option of daily Pac-Man play-offs. The dot-chomping arcade game was the rage in the early years of video gaming.
The conference, which is scheduled to end on Friday, will also feature workshops with panels of industry leaders, according to organisers. – Sapa-AFP