E3 2008 has already been filled with megaton announcements...and  we're not even through the first day!  From following up on the  numerous liveblogs on the major gaming sites, the day started with a  subtle and conspicuously timed announcement from Nintendo on their new    motion controller, Wii Motion Plus.

Wii Motion Plus is a Wiimote attachment that greatly expands the  motion detection on the input device.  Currently, the Wiimote is used  primarily to detect shifts in direction.  For example, whether or not  the wiimote shifts in one direction, tilts, or in other words moved  along a two dimensional plane.  Wii Motion Plus presumably is an addon  that adds the third dimension to the Wiimote, giving it (as the boards  have stated) 1:1 movement in space.  The best example I can think of  is golf swings.  The golf minigame in Wii Sports, although pretty  average, was for the most part just a speed detector in how fast the  accelerometer moves in one direction.  My best guess is that the Wii  Motion Plus will be used for software like an enhanced Wii Sports to  track swing followthrough or something else that is very dependent on  location of accessories in space.

More important was Nintendo's announcement of this controller a day  before the Microsoft and Sony press conferences, both of which were  rumored to announce some sort of motion controller.  While this is a  very clear attempt to knock the wind out of the sails of those rumor  boats, I find it extra conspicuous that Microsoft didn't have a motion  controller of any sort at this conference.  Hmm.

Microsoft's press conference was filled with a whole lot of  unexpected announcements.  It began with demos of Fallout 3 and  Resident Evil 5, two multiplatform titles we knew about.  Much more  interesting was Peter Molyneux announcing that Fable 2 is finished and  is coming this October.  What's this about the Fable 3 looking  unfinished from the gaming press?  October is awfully close.  Gears of  War 2 was announced for this November officially too buuuut we already  knew it was coming out this fall.  From the liveblogs, it did not seem  like Microsoft focused on Gears of War 2 as much as we all expected  them to.

The new XBox Live interface was officially unveiled at the conference  as well.  The Mii clone/avatar portion of that interface was leaked  weeks ago.  And they most definitely look like Miis.  I suppose it's a  good idea to make XBLive more personable but ultimately Live already  controls the online user experience with chatrooms/voicecomm/etc. and  Miis aren't that big of a deal.

What is a big deal is the announcement of Portal:Still Alive for  XBLA, which are brand new Portal levels.   No mention of whether or  not it includes the original game.  Didn't Valve announce a few months  ago that Microsoft declined Portal on XBLA because of size  limitations?  No brainer here, Portal was only the most talked about  game of 2007.  Especially good deal for Valve and the Portal kids: the  game deserves it.

In probably the smartest announcement of the conference, Microsoft  announced a partnership with Netflix to allow Netflix subscribers to  watch movies and TV programming over live.  For no additional cost.  Although it was long rumored that something like this was coming  along, this is a good idea: the XBox 360 is a perfect trojan horse for  media of all kinds.

Closing up the conference was the introduction of Yoichi Wada, head  of Square Enix.  First we got more of what we already knew that Square  was working on for XBox: Star Ocean, Last Remnant, and Infinite  Undiscovery (what does this name even mean?!).   But then the megaton came.

Final Fantasy XIII.  For XBox 360.

The NeoGAF forums are still exploding from this announcement.  FFXIII  was at one point a PS3 exclusive.  Coming to XB360.  Megaton.

Or is it?

Let's break this down a little bit.  XBox has little market presence  in Japan and Europe outside of the UK.  The XB360 exclusive titles of  Lost Odyssey and Ninja Gaiden 2 were two titles that were aimed at  getting a bit more market share in Japan with little success (PS3  install base still outnumbers XB360 install base by about 3 to 1 as of  May/June).  Final Fantasy XII is a much more japan-friendly title than  either of those two titles.  Will it make the bump in Japan that they  think it will?  Probably not, an asston of PS3s and MGS4s just sold  and the install base gap is getting wider.

How about in the U.S., the XBox stronghold? First and foremost,  FFXIII going multiplatform is a stab in the heart of those who bought  PS3s just to play it.  Additionally, it is a strong statement to  consumers who will be asking themselves why they would buy an  expensive PS3 to play a game they could play on the cheaper XB360.  At the same time, will a traditionally Playstation branded RPG sell on  the XBox?  A japanese RPG on a system dominated by shooters, bald  space marines, and other live multiplayer experiences?  I'm very  hesitant to say yes, but I think the attach rate of the FFXIII on PS3  will be stronger as was the case with Grand Theft Auto 4.

In any case, to quote Shane Bettenhausen on the 1up Liveblog, "Shit just got  real."  This is indeed a megaton.  I cannot wait to see how Sony  and Nintendo are going to react.

Edit:  Apparently here's how the Final Fantasy thing is going to work out.  Exclusive in Japan for PS3.  Then x number of months to localize it to North America and Europe on PS3, not to be released until they finish porting it to XBox.  So, working to XBox's strengths.

No surprises here: this past weekend’s Blizzard Worldwide Invitational saw the company announce the next game of their money-printing triumvirate of games with Diablo III.  After a week of teasing via splash pages on the Blizzard web site, was there really any surprise?  They had already announced WoW: Wrath of the Lich King and Starcraft II: the only real thing left was the Diablo series.

The screens look exactly how I expected them to look like: a hi-res Diablo II.  Which honestly is how I would handle the beloved franchise as to not be subjected to the ire of the millions and millions of Diablo fans.  Myself one of them.  If the original formula isn’t broke, why change it?

At the same time, I find myself to be a bit lukewarm to the announcement.  My college days involved me playing a LOT of Diablo and Diablo II, getting totally immersed in the story and the lore.  Undoubtedly, I will play through Diablo III to see the continuation of the storyline.  However, I can’t help but feel that they’re hitting the same tried and true formula a little bit too well: the barbarian video was basically the previous game rendered in hi-res graphics.  To Blizzard’s credit, the videos and screens look absolutely gorgeous.  But at the same time, I do not see myself spending nearly as much time with Diablo III as I did with the previous games.  Which has nothing to do with the quality of the game but rather the ground already seems well tread.  And this is coming from a HUGE Blizzard fan.

Perhaps these feelings will change when I head to Blizzcon in October.  But till then, I’m holding back the horses just a little bit.

What I would love to see from Blizzard is a return to some of their older franchises.  How about modernized version of “The Lost Vikings”?  How about venturing into the stealth action genre by officially resuming work on Starcraft:Ghost?  Or…how about a new IP?