Bare Knuckles | Scaled-down expo fell flat

After E3 (the Electronics Entertainment Expo held last week on the West Coast), most gamers suffer a minor withdrawal. It usually stems from complete exhaustion brought on by checking on all the games previewed and then digesting what it will mean for your wallet for the rest of the year and beyond.

This year was a little different. There were more questions than answers after the expo because, for the most part, the organizers pretty much blew it. E3 was spread out all over L.A., and although the smaller event was good for journalists, there was little excitement in the crowds (what little crowds there were).

The big news conferences held by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony had no electricity. Even with the showing of Halo 3, Killzone 2, and Metroid Prime 3, the audiences mostly sat there as if they were being told bad jokes.

But look, this is what the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) wanted. I just hope the group now realizes that without something like the 60,000 people who crammed into last year's E3, developers and publishers won't see the need to go all out. The big names had individual showings in separate hotel rooms. Some didn't even show up, as evidenced by this year's Barker Hanger, the main show floor. It was sparse and without air conditioning.

According to a report on Gamespot.com, at least one rep said "all our interesting stuff is back at the hotel." There were also complaints about the area for third-party publisher conferences, which housed broadcasters with writers.

So what happens next year? Who knows, but in its quest to make this thing less insane, the ESA took the soul out of E3. What was once a Saturday-night-on-South-Street kind of event has now turned into a midday affair at a strip mall.

I just don't see how that is a good thing.

At E3, Sony showed games, games, and more games, something that the PlayStation 3 is sorely lacking now. But the biggest news, initially, was the announcement of a $100 price drop on the 60-gig PS3 for North America. (The system now costs $599, with a 20-gig version at $499.)

Then, we heard this from David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe: "Let's understand what the Americans have done; they are going to introduce an 80GB model at $599 with MotorStorm on Aug. 1, and they've got stock in trade of the old model. They're just selling it off, they're not dropping the price."

This was a pretty significant piece of info left out of Sony's price-drop announcement. It's more like a fire sale, folks. With the price, as of now, still set to be $600 during the holidays.

Stupid McNupid!

Basically, they are telling you to run out and buy the cheaper system (the third configuration of the PS3 in its first year) while supplies last before the price goes back up.

With few games now, many gamers who want it but haven't bought it, are probably waiting for the holiday season. Besides, who can say there won't be a price cut for the 80-gig version, which is slightly less capable of playing PS2 and PS1 games?

I have no idea what Sony is doing these days, and from the looks of it, neither do they.

Finally, MS has admitted a problem with the Xbox 360. Some reports claim as many as a third of the consoles have problems.

The solution is to cover all the consoles for three years with free repairs. Those who have paid to have their consoles fixed will be get refunds at some point.

That's great, if way too late. You see, there is a flaw in the 360 that may cause it to overheat, and that causes problems inside the box. It means that every Xbox 360 has the potential to go bad.

Why didn't Microsoft know this after the first batch of 360s started coming back?