Sony PS3 Slim, PSP Go! and new Wii to rock E3?

Posted by Al Warmington on Thu 28 May 2009

What does the games industry mega-bash have in store for 2009?

Next week, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, aka E3, will open its doors to a flood of eager gamers, anxious to get their mitts on the latest and greatest digital delights.

There are more reasons than ever to get excited about this year’s E3 event – and not just because we’re expecting Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony to be demoing their latest goodies. No, this year, the real E3 is back. The last two years have been scaled down, low-key affairs that were, by all accounts, utterly rubbish.

Fortunately, this year, E3 organisers it’s going back to its roots; so expect all the queues, sweat and booth babes your nostrils can stand. T3 will be covering the show, of course, but first here’s a quick round-up of the likely top announcements:

Sony

Sony’s conference has the most potential to be exciting, because after so many long years of build up, the PS3 finally feels like it’s reaching boiling point, still riding on the back of a successful launch of LittleBigPlanet late last year and it has healthy line-up of new titles in the pipeline.

But it’s hardware that has been the source of most of the speculation. Firstly, the PSP. It has been widely rumoured by that Sony is debuting a new handheld, to be called the PSP Go!, featuring a sliding screen, and flash memory storage.

The PS3 is also reckoned to be in for a refurb. A new slim-line model has appeared in supposedly leaked images, which strongly indicates a brand new SKU and could finally pave the way for the mythical PS3 price cut that never arrived.

Furthermore, the PS3 has had its own share of motion sensing controller rumours; Sony could be about to take the wraps off its own Wii-killer peripheral.

Microsoft

The pressure is on the Redmond Giant this year, as the sun just about seems to be setting on the console that kicked off the current generation, the Xbox 360.

Hints have been dropped about a possible motion sensing controller, although precise details have been hard to pin down. Some whispers point to an advanced 3DV camera that can detect movement like no other. Others say that Microsoft has a very special Wii Wand rival in the making. Either way, with Ninty snatching such a big chunk of the gaming market with its family friendly console control scheme, there’s an obvious temptation to go one better.

Nintendo

Eyes are on Nintendo this year, and Reggie and his team are expected to go for something a little more ‘core’, as they put it. As in they’ll show off a game that people who had heard of Nintendo before the Wii might actually recognise, like Mario and Zelda?

Finally, Wii Fit, which feels like it has been topping the UK games charts since the dawn of man, is believed to be due for an inevitable upgrade, possibly in the form of the Wii Fit Plus.

So keep your eyes glued to T3 next week, where we’ll be bringing you all the latest gaming news from Los Angeles, as fast as our blistered fingers can manage.

Link: E3

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