E3: Product Announcements

In Santa Monica this week is E3 -- highly scaled down from the LA Convention Center E3s of the past, it's still a good way to see the games and peripherals to come in the coming year ahead. In the past, E3 was more like an exhibition than a series of panels and press conferences, but this it seems is what the new E3 has become: keynotes and press conferences to announce new products.In fact, they now call E3, the "E3 Business and Media Summit" In the past, announcements were made prior to E3 via press releases and private meetings, and this move to a more organized format probably makes a lot of publishers happy since they presumably won't need to regurgitate the press release to every journalist who comes by the booth. The last couple of years was really bad for journalists in regards to press conferences by the big three: in attempting to make preempt the competition, the press announcements were made all across Los Angeles and away from the convention venue. This year's seems a bit more civil. Nintendo made their announcements this morning:

• Wii Zapper for 19.99, will be compatible with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad and Medal of Honor.
  
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl releases on December 3rd.
  
• Guitar Hero III will come with a special Wii Guitar.
  
• Mario Cart Wii comes with a Wii Controller Steering Wheel.
  
• Brain Age 2 release date: August 20th, 2007
  
• Super Mario Galaxy release date: November 12th, 2007
  
• Wii Fit and the Wii Balance Board: for getting you in shape.
  

Sony had their Press Conference a few hours ago:

• An update to the design of the PSP, comes in 3 flavors: Piano Black, Ice Silver, and Star Wars Battlefront Special Edition, which comes in white and has a Darth Vader on the back of the unit.
  
• PSP now has a video out so you can play it on TV.
  
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Simultaneous world-wide release, demoing the gameplay next week in Tokyo
  

• Xbox 360 Elite coming to Europe on Aug. 24
  
• Halo 3 Special Edition XBox 360 w/ gray controller.