[by RTT News]

The Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 trade show begins in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The three-day trade show, a yearly video game expo and conference, is a major trade event for the gaming industry. MicrosoftCorp. (MSFT: News ), Sony Corp. (SNE: News ) and Nintendo Co. Ltd. (NTDOY.PK: News ) are expected to dominate the event with new games and gadgets.

Microsoft kick-started the pre-expo press events on Monday with a glimpse of “Halo 4”, the second wave of Kinect games and a new interface for the Xbox 360. Microsoft’s preview of “Halo 4” showed a space marine on the edge of a damaged space ship. “Halo 4” will be the first of a new trilogy of Halo games and will be released in the holiday season of 2012.

However, the company’s presentation was dominated by Kinect, with new games that players can control using full-body gestures and voice commands. The hands-fee Kinect gaming systems was released last year and Microsoft said in late November that it sold more than 2.5 million units worldwide in the 25 days after its launch.

The company announced that Xbox will have Live TV starting this fall. Meanwhile, Xbox Live will get a few more features such as YouTube, Bing for search, and voice control. Xbox 360 users will be able to navigate menus using a controller, physical gestures or their voice. Microsoft also announced that YouTube is coming to Xbox Live, starting this fall.

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) said four coming sports games, including its Tiger Woods golf, Madden Football, FIFA soccer and an unannounced title, will use Kinect.

BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts, announced that a science-fiction epic, “Mass Effect 3”, will arrive at retailers worldwide beginning March 6, 2012. The game will use voice-recognition technology in Kinect.

See the complete story here: http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=1640287

[by Paul Tassi, Forbes]

With the exceptionally low bar that Microsoft set earlier today, it’s no surprise that Sony did better, but it was nice to see the company rebound a significant amount after the PSN disaster.

It was good to see a contrite Jack Tretton get out there and apologize, and I think after this, fans and critics alike are going to be able to move on and start talking about other things. That is, unless they get hacked again.

While practically Microsoft’s entire presentation revolved around the Kinect, Sony’s was a little more varied. Yes, they pushed Move and 3D a lot, but often both took a backseat to the games they were being utilized in, as it should be. Uncharted 3 looked amazing, and I got excited aboutDust 514, though I’m told by EVE fans its not going to be as cool as I think.

Sony has really been pushing 3D and is now tackling one of the biggest barriers to adoption, price, with a significant announcement here. They concocted a $500 package that includes a 24 inch 3D TV, shutter glasses and a game (Resistance). It’s way, way cheaper than any 3D TV out there now, which cost well into the thousands, but I’m still not sure it’s going to do the trick. $500 can currently get you a much larger 40-inch 1080p LCD TV, and 24″ is only a little bigger than the computer monitor I’m staring at now. And for the broke college student this is supposedly aimed at, $500 is still a lot.

Also I think the bigger obstacle to 3D is 3D itself. Between Sony’s shutter glasses (which have made me literally nauseous after using them) and the fact that it just doesn’t add all that much to the experience, I think we’re seeing more of a backlash toward 3D than we are an upswing in adoption. Blame overpriced and underlit 3D movies in part for that, and the theater rebellion certainly isn’t going to spur the purchase of more 3D TVs at home I can’t imagine.

The TV has additionally been praised as it has the pretty cool technological trick of letting one player see one image from one side, and the other a completely different screen from a few feet over. It seems like wizardry, but I’m worried the practical applications aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. While screenpeeking may have been infuriating when I was nine in 1997 playing Goldeneye with my friends, I can’t think of too many titles this would be particularly useful for now. Sometimes in co-op situations you actually WANT to be able to see your friend’s screen to see what they’re up to, and there aren’t too many vs. LAN titles these days.

Move is another interesting case, as Sony is sticking to it despite it seeming almost antiquated at this point, even though it’s only a year old. Nintendo, the company Sony took the idea from, is moving on, and now waggling motion controls just don’t feel cutting edge any more, and seem like last year’s news.

I think Sony found the most success with their Vita presentation, the handheld formerly known as the NGP. The graphics looked stunning, the games accessible to casual and hardcore markets, and it looked like something I’d certainly consider picking up. Combine that with recently sluggish 3DS sales (see, there’s that anti-3D mentality again), and a low price point (only $250 for the WiFi model) and Sony might end up with a hit on their hands.

Overall a good job for Sony, and now all eyes turn to Nintendo, who by far has the most hype to live up to with the big reveal of Project Cafe.

See the original post here: http://blogs.forbes.com/insertcoin/2011/06/06/sonys-2011-e3-keynote-3d-move-and-vita/