The Future of Gaming (Why this E3 is more important than you think)

So this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo has come to a close and many different opinions have formed regarding what has been brought to the table for the supposed "future of gaming". Having watched the E3 conference, read all opinion pieces, and all the tech articles about this and that, I feel like I have a fair comprehensive idea of what most people think of this year's E3 convention. Now feel free to correct me on this reflection of E3 if any of you reading this article feel I left something out or if I got something wrong but I like to feel that I got this one right.

I'm not going to go into the specifics of what each of three console companies did, for that you can read my other blog, "Who Won E3 2010", just know that Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony all had segments that appeased their hardcore fans. Microsoft with Halo Reach, Metal Gear Rising, Xbox 360 slim (free for the press who intended also helped), a deal with ESPN. Sony with Killzone 3, Heroes on the Move, SOCOM, Steam(very important), GT 5, and Twisted Metal, and Nintendo brought back a collection of its classic characters to star in their own games and played down the casual wii games in favor of the more classic games gamers played when they were little. And the 3DS was awsome.

With the exception of Nintendo maybe, strangly, this year's E3 was about motion gaming with a slight nod toward the 3D trend. There are tons of articles hailing what was done on Microsoft and Sony's side and articles scolding them for riding on Nintendo's money stitched coat-tails. Of course there were fanboy articles supporting just their favorite company and scolding the others but that's beside the point. The point is however that the two major players of Sony and Microsoft are in on the motion gaming scene, and Nintendo, though playing it down a bit, are still there and will still market their Wii motion plus with all their ability.

Usually universally hated by hardcore gamers, casual gamers and casual games are more important than people think. Hardcore gamers make up a tiny percentage of people who buy games, sorry to say, and because of that you are not the people that drive what the major companies do. Sure you might get a concession here and there, a sweet game, a feature that only you would love, but really it is just the major companies doing enough to keep you on as they put the majority of their investment into what will sell the most units.

So while the hardcore gamer might dismiss the Kinnect or Move based on what they saw at E3 or read from the many articles bashing them or might laugh at 3D making its way into gaming, know that this technology is more important than you might think and will lead to gaming gaining more attention in a mass media world.

While I will agree that motion gaming and 3D gaming, (sorry 3DS but even you aren't quite there yet) this year or for the life of the current tech that these are being showed on isn't going to revolutionize anything or even lead to gaming getting any more recognition than it already has, I do believe that this E3 is an essential step toward where gaming is and needs to go.

The Kinnect's voice recognition and control as well as controller-less control is an important step to sci fi concepts like those seen in Minority Report and Iron Man 1 and 2. While the Move adds nothing to the future of gaming that the Wii hasn't already done for it, it is Sony's commitment to 3D gaming that is important. 3D is just the first step before hologram technology is available. When an image can be interacted with on a 3D level like done in Iron Man 1 and 2, one has to know that this sort of technology needs to start somewhere and 3D gaming is a good start. Just imagine combining the technology of the 3DS, (no glasses, field of depth, etc) Sony's blu ray and great 3D picture quality with improved field of depth, and Microsoft's voice recognition and controller-less interface into one device. Now that is what I call full immersion into a game that the lame arcade "virtual reality" games could never bring. Another consequence of these technologies is that gaming will continue to grow into segments of the media until it finally get's the same respect that the music and movie industries get. That mean's no more fox news stories about why game's are evil and are all murder simulators. No more ignorance from respected new's personalities who are required to know at least the bare minimum about what they are covering. No more will the gaming industry be shunned by newspapers, magazines, and media outlets that are not strictly game media outlets. This is why this E3 may not be revolutionary right now, or even that great of an E3 in terms of what people expect to see every year at E3, but the sort of technology shown reveals that this years E3 is an essential step to the future, and that should be recognized above all else.