Geek Gestalt

Steve Wiebe, the star of the documentary, 'King of Kong: Fistful of quarters,' working to try, once again, to break the all-time 'Donkey Kong' world record.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)

LOS ANGELES--Steve Wiebe is at it again.

The star of the documentary, "King of Kong: Fistful of quarters," Wiebe's past attempts--and failures--to break the "Donkey Kong" world record have been well documented and discussed.

But now, here at E3, Wiebe is taking another shot at the record--currently 1,047,200 points, and held by the other star of the documentary, Billy Mitchell--courtesy of the TV network G4, which, even as I write this, is hosting Wiebe's record pursuit on its stage at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Already today--while most of the E3 world was focused on the big Nintendo and Sony press conferences--Wiebe had taken at least two shots at the record, and with one, had gotten close: He'd topped 923,000. But both times, he'd come up short.

So now, with a couple hundred people watching and rooting him on, with shouts of "Let's go, Steve!" ringing out, Wiebe got going.

As long as you are at least somewhat familiar with the game, even if you haven't played "Donkey Kong" for years, the music it makes when it starts is oh-so-familiar. It's simple, '80s-era digital music, nothing fancy. Yet it sticks in your mind--forever.

Donkey Kong world record in peril

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Wiebe began his third attempt and he was doing well, playing flawlessly--at least to this amateur observer--and racking up the points. Around me, murmurs of wonderment were flying fast and furious.

"I didn't even know how to do that," one audience member said.

"This is the (level) that always kills me," another said.

Watching Wiebe play "Donkey Kong" is a study in calm. His technique, at least what I could see of it by watching his body language and a live video of the game being displayed on screens all around him, is smooth, calm, relaxed, and patient. He seems to know exactly what he's doing and what's coming at all times. Which, I guess, makes sense for someone who is good enough at the game to have a legitimate shot at breaking the all-time world record.

Every now and then, for example, the G4 crew point their cameras at a section of the audience, encouraging them to break out in a big cheer, which they do. These sudden, loud bursts of applause and yelling don't even seem to faze Wiebe.

"He makes this look really easy," an audience member said.

Within about 20 minutes, Wiebe has broken 100,000 points, a very impressive number for an amateur "Donkey Kong" player like me. But then you realize that it's only a tenth of the record score and that he could be at this for three hours, at least.

Watching Wiebe play, I was struck by how well "Donkey Kong" has held up over time, especially having just come from the Sony press conference, where I saw games with graphics and game play that the folks at Nintendo couldn't even have dreamed of back when they were making "Donkey Kong."

At least a couple hundred people watched as Wiebe pursued the world record score.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

But the game, as well as others from its era--games like "Pac Man," "Frogger," "Dig Dug," "Space Invaders," and others--are still considered classics and seem to be regularly re-issued by their original publishers, or others. I wonder if the same will be true of today's games in 20 or 30 years.

Suddenly, the video screens showing Wiebe's play went haywire. Clearly, there's a glitch. Is this the end of the attempt?

It turns out that the power was inadvertently lost to the "Donkey Kong" machine, ending that attempt. But again, Wiebe looks imperturbable. It's probably good that he was only 100,000 points or so into the game. I wonder if he would have been so calm if the power had gone at 900,000 points.

Actually, though, he wanders over to talk to some of the G4 folks, and I hear him say to one of the nearby spectators, "The pace wasn't very good anyway." Which means that maybe, just maybe, he kicked the power loose. OK, I'm kidding.

After 5 or 10 minutes, the power is back on, and Wiebe takes his seat again. The machine turns back on, play is pressed, and once again, we hear that familiar "Donkey Kong" music.

And then, just like that, he's back up to 100,000 points.

I wanted to see what happened, and whether he'd break the record. But E3 is a busy event for me, and I had to leave. I guess to find out whether he made it or not, you'll have to turn to G4. But hopefully, I'll be able to update this story later with the final results. Stay tuned.

Updated at 5:38 p.m.: Wiebe is now at 903,000, but has just one life left. And he just cleared level 19.

Updated at 5:42 p.m.: He's at 929,600 now.

Updated at 5:54 p.m.: Wiebe passed another level but died almost immediately after, with a final score of 989,400.

This camera, from Israeli startup 3DV Systems--which has reportedly been acquired by Microsoft--could form the basis of a new motion-sensitive controller that Microsoft is reportedly working on.

(Credit: Jared Kohler/CNET)

Nintendo won't be the only video game console maker with a sophisticated motion-sensitive controller if a report out Tuesday from The Wall Street Journal is accurate.

The report said Microsoft plans to unveil a new video camera that would allow players of its Xbox 360 console to control games by moving their bodies. And if true, it's a clear shot across the bow of Nintendo and its innovative Wii console, which shocked the video game world when it was released in late 2006 with its own motion-sensitive controller.

The camera may well be the product of Microsoft's reported acquisition of Israeli start-up, 3DV, which had developed a motion-sensitive camera.

For months, there had been speculation that Microsoft's interest in 3DV was about taking on Nintendo and the Wii. But neither company would confirm such speculation. On Tuesday, Microsoft declined to comment on the Journal story.

On March 23, thousands of video game developers will stream into San Francisco's Moscone Center for the 2009 Game Developers Conference.

This annual gathering brings together the people who make the games that have been so entertaining to millions of people--the Rock Bands, Grand Theft Autos, World of Warcrafts and so on. But as the leading developers conference in the world, it doesn't just focus on $60 games for the Xbox, PlayStation 3, or Wii. It also has summits that delve deep into the issues involved in making games for mobile devices, in creating virtual worlds, casual games, independent games, and more.

For the last few years, GDC was run by Jamil Moledina, who has now moved on to EA Partners, an arm of Electronic Arts. This year, for the first time, the conference will be run by its new director, Meggan Scavio.

For Scavio, her first time running GDC comes just as the general economy is nose-diving, presenting her and the conference itself with the challenge of staying relevant even as budgets are tightening and people are losing their jobs.

Yet, the video games industry has so far managed to stay strong, with companies like Microsoft and Nintendo, as well as some publishers, showing impressive holiday sales results, even as the rest of the retail economy suffered.

Meggan Scavio is the new director of the Game Developers Conference.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)

Now, with GDC just six weeks away, Scavio sat down with CNET News to talk about how she'll run the conference, about the state of the video games industry, and how GDC can keep its lofty position as perhaps the world's most important games confab.

Disclaimer: I am on the advisory board of the Worlds in Motion summit, one of the one-day events taking place at GDC this year.

Q: How do you expect that GDC 09 will be different than in previous years?
Meggan Scavio: I'm calling it a back to basics year. I want to return the focus to the developers. I want people to continue to find value in it, so we've made a couple of changes this year. We had a new process for submissions, where the GDC advisory board used a two-phase process. That made it a lot more difficult to get sessions approved, which hopefully improved the quality. We're also reducing the number of sessions a bit to create a shared experience for the community, so more people are attending the same sessions. Hopefully they'll be talking about the sessions, and feel that they've all experienced somewhat of the same thing at GDC. We're also adding meeting rooms where after each session is over, if they want to continue the conversation, they can move to this other room and they can keep talking. That just keeps building a community and making it feel smaller than it actually is, because GDC has gotten so much bigger over the years.

What has the attendance been?
Scavio: It was 18,000 last year, and we're hoping for 18,000 again this year. And all signs point to that. It's a little early to tell, and I'm not going to get too excited, and I'm going to knock on wood, but so far so good.

You're the first new official director after Jamil Moledina, who was in that role for several years. How do you imagine that you'll run GDC differently?
Scavio: I don't think I will, really. This is my 10th year working on GDC and there's a core GDC value that follows all of us. I believe in that, and I've seen it work, and I'll continue that. It really is about the attendees and the audience, and the advisory board, and I don't plan on changing that.

For the last couple years, GDC has been the biggest video game event in the U.S, because E3 reduced its size so dramatically. Now E3 is going back to a much larger format, so what does that mean for GDC?
Scavio: I don't think it's going to change. When E3 changed to its smaller format, some people gravitated towards GDC to continue that business here, but that business took place outside of the GDC campus. It was like they were satellite events that took place in hotels. But it didn't really change the format of GDC, or how GDC operated in any way, and the return of E3 as a large show shouldn't change that, either.

So you think there's still room for these two shows to stay independent?
Scavio: Absolutely. We operated independently before, and we'll continue to do so. There's definitely room. We have different audiences, and different agendas.

Can you define what those different audiences and agendas are?
Scavio: Ours is a developer audience, and E3 is more of a press and retail event. And they're showing games. E3 is what's happening now, and GDC is what's happening in two to three years.

But when E3 shrank, didn't GDC pick up some of the content?
Scavio: Not intentionally. We didn't seek anything out. We didn't change our format at all. I think the best example of how it affected GDC, more than attendance, was our business track, which got a lot more submissions, which meant a lot more business types were attending GDC.

So has that dropped off now that E3 is coming back?
Scavio: It has not.

Given the state of the economy today, can you imagine GDC growing?
Scavio: I would find it hard to believe that there would be growth this year. It's not to say that there won't be, since we've said that every single year since I've been here, and there's been growth every single year. But I remain optimistic, and by optimistic, I expect it to be very similar to last year. I don't anticipate a lot of growth, not with what's happening.

Have there been budget cuts or layoffs within your own organization?
Scavio: There haven't been any layoffs, and we've maintained the same budget as last year. The problem that I have with cutting budgets for GDC is that I still need to provide the same value to the attendees that we always have and I will fight for that as long as possible. So, so far, we've had no cuts.

Will you be addressing the recession at all at GDC?
Scavio: There's a new session on how to raise money in a recession and there's a start-up checklist, all the things that you have to pay attention to when you're starting up a new company. And there's a couple other funding talks. We definitely address it in the content.

People talk about the video game industry maybe being recession-proof, and while it does seem to be doing better than most other industries, there have been layoffs and studio closings. What do you see ahead for the industry, your constituency?
Scavio: I see the game industry reacting positively to all of these issues. They turn around and find innovations to get around the economy. So they start developing iPhone games, or they start developing Flash games. They find a way to get out of the hole and to succeed. I think they'll pick themselves up and succeed.

EA said recently that it was going to lay off 1,100 people. But is this going to be a situation where the strongest survive, and the small players don't make it?
Scavio: I'm not sure that's what we're seeing. I think EA's the strongest, and they're suffering. I think everyone's suffering equally right now, and I think the people who are able to manage their budgets and their teams and just ride through it and continue to find new ways to prosper, I think they'll succeed.

How far ahead do you start planning the next GDC? Are you already planning 2010?
Scavio: We have the venue through 2015. But we'll start really nailing down GDC 2010 in the summer, with our first board meeting, where we get together with the advisory board, and they talk about what the trends are for the following year, and where the industry is heading, and the things that they want to see addressed. And then we will call for papers in July. It all happens very quickly, starting about May.

Is it too early to know what might be different in structure, or in content, or theme, for future GDCs?
Scavio: It's definitely too early to say. I do know in 2010, we're changing our format, for one year, to Tuesday through Saturday, instead of Monday through Friday, because the venue is booked. There may be changes in the summits, but as far as our six main tracks, nothing should change.

What's the benchmark for you for success in your job?
Scavio: It depends, really, on whether you want the corporate answer or my personal answer. The corporate answer would be attendance. The personal answer would be attendee evaluations. So the attendees, they fill out the evaluation forms at every session, and we pay very close attention to everything they say, and everything that they grade. And we've had an average session rating of 4.1, out of 5, for a few years. Last year it was 4.2. So I always like to see that increase. That's my goal, to see the quality of the GDC content increase.

That's pretty good, though, 4.1.
Scavio: It can be better, and there's room for improvement. There's several points left that I can get it up.

That higher rating, would seem to be a function of really good screening of submissions?
Scavio: Yeah. The advisory board, these guys are insane. There were 800 submissions this year. They read every single one. They commented on every single one. And graded every single one. And this year, there was a second phase, where people had to submit actual PowerPoint submissions, and they had to read and grade and comment on every single one. It's a lot of work, and they're very passionate about it, and they argue about it. They debate, and they're very invested in GDC and I think they want that quality increasing even more than I do. Because they feel it all rests on their shoulders. I love the advisory board. They're a great group, and they're inspiring.

With E3's return to a large format, it appears certain that we will see huge booths like this one once again.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

As reported on Tuesday, the video game industry's official showcase event, E3, is getting its latest makeover.

On Tuesday, Newsweek first reported that the show, which in recent years had shrunk from its heyday as a mammoth event with a capital E to a smaller, invite-only confab, would be returning to its big, loud roots.

At the time, the Entertainment Software Association, which represents the industry, said it had no comment on the news and would make an announcement when "appropriate."

I suppose that Wednesday, just 24 hours later, was as appropriate a time as any to confirm the changes.

As expected, E3 will continue to be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and the next edition will take place from June 2 through 4.

"After conducting both qualitative and quantitative research, ESA officials stated that changes were necessary to better meet the needs of both exhibitors and attendees," the organization wrote in a press release Wednesday. "These changes include increased booth sizes, increased qualified audiences, and an intensified focus on reinforcing the high-octane growth, innovation, and captivating entertainment that are driving the computer and video game industry."

In its piece Tuesday, Newsweek had said the show would be capped at 40,000 attendees but that it would be open to the general public.

The ESA's release did not make mention of limits on attendance but did indicate that the "public" that can attend will be "all qualified computer and video game industry audiences, including international and U.S.-based media, analysts, retailers, developers, and business partners."

It did not define "qualified," and a call for comment to the ESA was not immediately returned.

Still, it seems clear that the industry has decided that it wants to return to the massive booths, huge crowds, and exhausting energy of the pre-2007 E3. And you can be sure that the controversial, scantily clad "booth babes," the groups of young women hired by the publishers to promote their games, will be returning as well.

After a small and basically banal 2008 E3 that was largely irrelevant--at least for my reporting purposes--I have mixed feelings about E3's return to its former large format.

On the one hand, it will be nice to see more games, more people, and a sense that despite the current economic woes, at least one industry feels that it merits a large-scale trade show. On the other, the old version of E3 left me and most others exhausted, with extremely sore feet and a ringing in the ears.

Either way, it will be interesting to see if this time around, the industry is happy with what is has or whether, once again, it will decide it needs to change course.

The line to get into the Microsoft press conference at E3 in Los Angeles in July, 2008. In 2009, E3 will stay in Los Angeles, but will for the first time be open to the public.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

Update (11:31 a.m. PST): This story now reflects the ESA's response to a request for comment on this story.

If ever there was an event with an identity crisis, it's the video game industry's signature confab, E3.

For years, E3 was known as one of the largest, loudest, and most exhausting industry events in the world. Held each May at the Los Angeles Convention Center, it attracted more than 60,000 people--who had to be at least vaguely associated with the industry--most of whom departed at the end of the week with sore feet from walking long distances between halls and ringing in the ears from the over-the-top displays.

But after the 2006 event, the industry's overlords at the Entertainment Software Association decided to radically alter E3's format, and in 2007, it was held in July in nearby Santa Monica, Calif., with an invite-only crowd of press and analysts. It was far smaller--with well under 10,000 attendees--and by all accounts was an entirely different show.

Not content with that format, the ESA moved E3 back to the L.A. Convention Center for the July 2008 version, but kept it press-only. Of course, the video game press is a rather large, hard-to-define beast, and there were still several thousand people on hand.

Now, after finding that the 2008 edition of E3 didn't really meet its needs, the ESA is once again changing course, and according to Dean Takahashi over at Venture Beat (via N'Gai Croal at Newsweek), has decided to open the event up to the public for the first time, to move E3 to early June and to cap the attendance at 40,000.

The idea seems to be that the press would be invited in starting Tuesday, June 2, while the public would only get in starting on June 5.

Of course, it will still be at the L.A. Convention Center, just to keep some sort of continuity.

For its part, the ESA said it had no comment and said it would make an announcement about any changes to E3 "when it is appropriate.

It's not clear why the ESA is making this choice, nor is it clear precisely what the new, new, new E3 will look like. Suffice it to say that because tens of thousands of people will be there, it will almost certainly include the kinds of massive, ear drum-destroying displays the show used to be famous for.

But to me, E3 seems doomed. It's hard to fathom how an event can survive when it changes every single year, both in the dates it's held on and in its size and format.

The ESA is run by the video game industry's major companies, so I suppose they know what they want. But with a slew of major game events around the country and the world each year--such as the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the Tokyo Game Show, the Leipzig Games Convention, the Penny Arcade Expo and so on, it's hard to see why E3 is so indispensable. And by confusing everyone year in and year out by changing what E3 is, I feel like the ESA is simply killing the E3 brand.

But, come June 2, 2009, I suppose I know where I'll be: At the L.A. Convention Center, hopefully sporting good footwear and maybe some earplugs.

As always, when video game industry research firm The NPD Group puts out its monthly numbers, each of the big hardware companies--Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony--find their own unique positive spin, regardless what the numbers show.

But with the July numbers, which were released Thursday, there's little question that Nintendo gets the biggest bragging rights.

That's because, according to NPD, Nintendo's DS handheld gaming machine and its Wii console far outsold any competition from Sony or Microsoft.

NPD reported that the DS sold 608,400 units in July, while the Wii moved 555,000 machines. No other gaming device even made it to 300,000.

These days, however, it's no surprise when the Wii leaves its competitors in the dust. Microsoft and Sony both find ways to claim next-generation console supremacy, but more and more you hear them taking the position that the Wii is not in the same category of machine as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Which, in all honesty, is probably a fair thing to say. But since both Microsoft and Sony originally lumped the Wii in with their own machines, it's a little disingenuous when they do make the argument.

For its part, Sony gets to spend at least a month crowing that the PS3 outsold the Xbox. According to NPD, the PS3 sold 224,900 units in July, while the Xbox did 204,800 sales.

It may not put the PS3 on the same level for lifetime sales as the Xbox--which is far ahead--but it provides Sony executives reason to believe that things could really be turning around for their beleaguered console.

Microsoft, on the other hand, took the opportunity of the NPD numbers release to tout some numbers it considers brag-worthy.

In a press release issued Thursday afternoon, Microsoft said that since the November 2005 launch of the Xbox 360, gamers have plopped down $10.4 billion on the platform in the United States, a 49 percent total share of what I assume it means is the next-generation console market for hardware and software.

Additionally, it said that the Xbox has achieved a record-setting attach rate of 7.9 games per console sold.

Still, Microsoft, which said last month at E3 that it was "declaring" that it would win the console wars, must be wondering what it means to watch the PS3 start to outsell it.

Electronic Arts' vice president of corporate communications, Jeff Brown, holds up a disc containing the first completed code of 'Spore,' the company's long-awaited evolution game from Maxis and Will Wright.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--Electronic Arts announced partnership deals with two independent games companies Thursday, including Gears of War publisher Epic Games.

The news of the two new members of the EA Partners program, which also revolved around Japan's Grasshopper Manufacture, publisher of games like No More Heroes, was part of EA's annual Studio Showcase event here.

During just over an hour of announcements and presentations, EA showed off 17 games it didn't show at E3 last month, as well as unveiled the partnerships.

Grasshopper Manufacture will create an all-new action horror game for EA. It will be produced by Shinji Mikami and directed by game designer Suda51.

It was too early, however, for EA or Grasshopper to go into any specifics about the title, and no launch date was given.

Similarly, the Epic announcement was solely about the relationship and no details at all were given about the substance of that partnership, other than that Epic's Poland-based People Can Fly studio would be building an action game for EA.

Beyond the new partnerships, there was little substantial news.

EA's vice president of corporate communications, Jeff Brown, started off the event by holding up a disc he said contained the first full "gold" version of Spore, the forthcoming evolution game from Maxis Studios and famous designer Will Wright.

Spore went gold Thursday, meaning that development on the game is finished and it has now gone to manufacturing. It will be released September 7.

Brown also joked that in the aftermath of the much-hyped signing of football quarterback Brett Favre by the New York Jets, EA had decided to post a new version of Madden Football online, since the boxed version had just come out featuring the then-retired Favre wearing his iconic Green Bay Packers uniform.

"Within two hours...100,000 people downloaded the new cover," Brown said. "That's not a lot of people for the Internet, but about 75,000 people more than went to the last Jets game."

Brown said that 100,000 people had downloaded a new digital version of the box cover for 'Madden '09' with Brett Favre in a New York Jets uniform, joking that that was '75,000 more than went to the last Jets game.'

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

There was also a short presentation on The Godfather 2, the sequel to EA's The Godfather, and it appears that that game will be released in February 2009.

Later, Paul Barnett, the creative director for Mythic, which is producing Warhammer Online, a full massively multiplayer online game, for EA, said that the title will be released on September 18. He also said that more than 800,000 people had signed up to play the game and that there had already been 120,000 pre-sales.

All in all, that was the extent of what seemed newsworthy. But it's not surprising that there would be a lack of big news, given that the E3 conference was just a month ago. Things move fast in the video games industry, but not that fast.

Among the dominant trends at E3 in Los Angeles this week were music games. Everywhere you looked, publishers were announcing new ones, and players were rocking out to them.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

As planes packed with video game industry people start heading out of Los Angeles in droves after this week's E3 convention, the question is, What really transpired during the confab?

If one thing was clear, it was that the industry largely played it safe this week. Sure, there were a few big announcements--perhaps led by Microsoft's announcement of its planned revamping of the Xbox Live architecture--but for the most part, this was a pretty uneventful E3, an unsurprising reality given that we're a couple of years into the "next-generation" of consoles already and the fact that all the expected big games for the year have long since been announced and previewed and tested and showcased.

There were, of course, some themes that dominated the show, and for anyone who's been paying attention to the industry the last year or so, they shouldn't be surprising.

First, music games are taking off in a very big way. This is hardly shocking, given that Activision's Guitar Hero franchise and its first cousin, Harmonix's Rock Band, have brought in many, many millions of dollars in sales and have turned the industry on its ear.

Now, Activision has a new version of Guitar Hero coming out called Guitar Hero: World Tour, for the Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 3. Among its innovations will be an entirely new guitar controller as well as a drum kit and, more interestingly, a system called Tunes which will allow anyone using the game to create their own all-new music and then upload it to a network where other users can listen to it and rate it. The upshot of this is that there are almost certainly going to be future rock stars emerging from the Tunes community, much the way that some stars have come out of the YouTube world.

Brian Bright of 'Guitar Hero' developer Neversoft demonstrates the Music Studio element of 'Guitar Hero: World Tour' during the Activision press conference Tuesday evening. This is the part of the game that will allow players to create their own music and share it online through what is called the Tunes system.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

But Activision wasn't the only one riding the music wave. Nintendo, too, has jumped on the bandwagon and announced at its press conference on Tuesday that it will be releasing a game called Wii Music that will have some of the same elements of the next Guitar Hero, including the ability to create and share new music. And with the Wii's huge popularity, I think it's safe to say that Wii Music will be a gigantic hit, especially because it's the kind of far-reaching game that will appeal to core gamers and non-gamers alike.

And Rock Band was able to make some waves of its own with announcements of the set list for the forthcoming Rock Band 2, which will include tracks from AC/DC, Bob Dylan, Guns n' Roses and more.

'Resident Evil 5'

Another obvious trend was the emergence of cooperative, or "co-op" play in many games being showcased at E3. Such games included the next Call of Duty,MAG for the PS3, Resident Evil 5, Fable II. As my colleague Dan Ackerman wrote on Crave, "This year's big (E3) buzzword is 'cooperative gameplay'--meaning gamers play together, but are collaborating, rather than competing, to complete the game's goals. This often happens online, where gamers connect via Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network from remote locations."

This is an important trend because it ties gamers together, no matter where they are, making the experience more meaningful for being less of a solo thing. And this, clearly, is the promise of connected play on systems like Xbox Live and, the PlayStation Network.

And it is becoming increasingly obvious that these kinds of innovations are crucial for the industry, especially as Nintendo has proved that it has opened up video gaming to entirely new markets with its Wii.

That success has a clear ripple effect, perhaps best seen in the revamping of Xbox Live, which Microsoft announced Monday morning at the first major press conference of the week.

Xbox Live will feature an entirely new look and feel starting this fall. It will have an avatar motif that reminds many of what Nintendo has done with its hit console, the Wii.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

With the introduction of an avatar-based interface for the new Xbox Live, it was obvious that Microsoft has decided that the mainstream appeal of the Wii is something it wants a part of. Microsoft says that it isn't trying to copy anyone else, and that it is just trying to open up its system to the broadest possible market of consumers. But to anyone watching the industry, it is evident that the Wii was on the minds of the designers of this new architecture. As one commenter on my Xbox press conference story put it, Microsoft's announcement could easily have been called "Mii too," in reference to the Wii avatar system.

Sony, while having the least newsy--at least from this corner--of the week's major press conferences, did still grab a few headlines.

Among those headlines was the announcement--without any promised release date--of God of War III, the follow-up to a very popular franchise; and it also announced that it was going to start offering its 80GB PS3 for $400.

Although it did not announce a publication date, Sony said 'God of War III' would be coming to the PS3.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

For its part, Electronic Arts gave the first glimpse of The Sims 3, the next major iteration of its monstrously-popular franchise. It also unveiled a new system in its next NBA game, NBA Live '09, called "Dynamic DNA," which will incorporate real-life stats on a daily basis in the game. The idea here is that players can see their playing experience change day to day, improving or regressing during the NBA season as the real players go through their year. Those changes will be reflected in the video game in how the digital point guards and power forwards perform on-screen depending on what happens on courts around the country.

But with all that news, there's no question that E3 was really kind of quiet and conservative this year. As I mentioned above, this wasn't a big surprise, but it did make the experience of walking through the halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center feel kind of flat and lacking energy.

This actually is kind of a relief after years at the convention center where being there was completely draining. But if anyone expected to come to Los Angeles this week and have their socks knocked off by the industry's giants, they most certainly did not get what they came for.

Nintendo's Wii is now said to be the top-selling next-generation video game console in the United States, having reached 10.9 million units sold during the month of June.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

On Monday morning in Los Angeles, attendees at Microsoft's E3 press conference heard Xbox head Don Mattrick "declare" that that video game console would win the so-called next-generation console war.

But if the latest sales data put out by NPD mean anything, Microsoft's road to victory could be a little harder. That's because, according to Nintendo, the Wii in June surpassed the Xbox 360 to become the best-selling next-generation console in the United States.

According to Nintendo, NPD's numbers show that during June, the Wii hit 10.9 million units sold in the U.S.

In May, Microsoft announced the Xbox had hit 10 million units sold first, a milestone the company said has historically been reached by each console generation's eventual winner. And in its quarterly earnings release Thursday, Microsoft said it had sold 1.3 million Xboxes during the last quarter. But it's been clear for some time that the Wii is outselling both the Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 3 on a monthly basis. And given that the Xbox has been out a full year longer than the Wii or the PS3, Nintendo's news is all the more noteworthy.

Of course, in an interview Tuesday, Shane Kim, Microsoft's corporate vice president of strategy and business development for Microsoft's interactive entertainment business unit, told me that Mattrick's declaration applied only to the battle between the Xbox and the PS3. Mattrick himself didn't make any such clarifications during the press conference.

And in Kim's defense, it's true that most people think of the Xbox and the PS3 as being in a different category of video game console than the Wii, despite all three often being lumped together.

Additionally, Microsoft and Sony both surely have their own positive spins on NPD's numbers, though I haven't gotten those missives yet. Nintendo wins this round, at least, for quickest NPD-related press release (that I got, at least).

Either way, you have to tip your hat to Nintendo for the success of the Wii, and for the console's having reached the top spot in the U.S. For now, at least. Who knows what the next press release will say.