New Consoles Dominate E3 2014
June 2014 – This year’s E3 show was the release of the promised next gen games for the next gen consoles. In the past two years the big three – Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony released their new platforms. The intros were met with enthusiasm but not a lot of content. Most of the titles were targeted toward 2014 release and have since made their way into the market.
These first pass games however, did not take advantage of the new connected capabilities and high speed processing of the new consoles. They were basically last gen games that ran on the new consoles. This year however, the E3 floor was filled with high resolution, highly interactive multi-player games that are designed for the features of the new consoles. These new games are set for xmas 2014 through Q1 2016. They are moving to a new level of multi-player and group play.
These titles were being shown by the major studios – EA, Activision, Bethesda with titles such as Call of Duty and the Evil Within. and the next season of NHL / NBA / Football / FIFA franchises. These were supported by new aggregation publishers like WB that was putting out new titles from both US and foreign development companies like CD Project Red’s Witcher. These games were also supported by next gen auto racing games which featured more realistic cars – some based on the actual CAD for the vehicles and advanced high speed details in the driver’s eye view and the front camera view on the tracks. This brings a much more realistic impression of speed.
At the show there were a number of companies with dedicated racing gaming seats with full pedal and dashboard/ wheel / shifter controls. These were connected to large screen displays on the consoles for an immersive experience and a multi-screen (nominally 3 and with the new dual cards 5) for a PC configuration. The PC screens were set in a curved arrangement and the single screens on the consoles were also the new “bendable” or “curved” HDTV and UHDTVs.
A lot of the previews were being shown on 4K or UHD displays. It was not apparent in the final form of the games if they will be supporting native UHD or not. At the show, there were key frames and scenes in the 4K format, but most were HD that were up-scaling at the display. On the consoles, the titles were still targeting HD output (1080p30) and on the PC they wree supporting ut to 4k @ 60fps.
NYKO Ps4 Controllers and Charger
In addition to the increased display resolution and support for higher frame rates, new peripherals for the console were available. Since the Nov release of the platforms, the aftermarket providers – Nyko, Razer, and others were showing light-up, rechargeable, and game personalized controllers for Xbox One, PS4 and wing style controllers for the PC & Steam Consoles.
