New Weapons in High-Stakes Battle for Your Video Game Dollar
S. O'BRIEN: New weapons now in a high-stakes battle for your video game dollar. The unveiling comes at a major interactive electronics expo which is called E3. CNN technology expert Daniel Sieberg live for us at the convention. It's in L.A. Hey, Daniel, good morning.</s>DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Soledad, we are here in the wee hours of the morning at E3, sandwiched between Nintendo and Sony, and although, it's a few hours before the show floor officially opens, some of the big announcements have already come out, including the latest shots fired in the console war.</s>SIEBERG (voice-over): In the multibillion dollar video game industry, there's nothing playful about the latest duel for your dollars. At this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony hey want to convince you why you should buy into their next-generation consoles.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a very -- very careful in terms of where I throw my money. And right now, my money would be with Microsoft.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would have to say the Wii is pretty exciting</s>SIEBERG: It was touchy-feely with Nintendo's Wii, a new name meant to symbolize togetherness, but mainly generating a lot of head scratching, like many of Nintendo's offbeat ideas, including the Wii's game controller, equipped with a wireless signal and motion sensors.</s>DAN "SHOE" HUS, EDITOR, "ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY": Now we're playing games differently. We're not just seeing new games, we're playing new games.</s>SIEBERG: The Wii's controller even made Nintendo's braintrust look prophetic.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's see if our executive team here can make a comeback.</s>SIEBERG: Microsoft XBox 360 launched last year to high demand, but was hurt by shortages.</s>BILL GATES, CHAIRMAN, MICROSOFT: It's great to be invited to E3.</s>SIEBERG: Microsoft used E3 to show off its XBox 360, PC, cell phone promotion, and promoted software lineup, with plenty of buzz around a sneak peek of what's to come in its marquee Halo series. Microsoft also revealed an add-on player for the next generation of DVDs.</s>DAVID HUFFORD, MICROSOFT: We have not disclosed the price just yet on the HD-DVD player. Stay tuned.</s>SIEBERG: Sony steered its announcement towards the graphics power of the Playstation 3, showing how in-game characters, like golfer Tiger Woods, will have more detailed expressions.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what I'm talking about.</s>SIEBERG: And basketball players moving in a more lifelike way. So if hardcore gamers are already in, who's left to buy in?</s>SCOTT STEINBERG, GAME REVIEWER: I think there's actually a massive market out there. It's just grandmothers, it's younger brothers, younger sisters, mothers, fathers, people who wouldn't traditionally be considered gamers.</s>SIEBERG: You'll have to pay more than ever to play in the latest virtual worlds. Sony tips the scales at $600 for the high-end model. Microsoft at $400 for its souped-up version. Nintendo is expected to hit under the $250 mark.</s>MARC SALTZMAN, GAMING JOURNALIST: I think that it's going to really be between XBox 360 and Playstation 3, and you know, evident of we saw here, it's going to be a very bitter fight.</s>S. O'BRIEN: All right, you know what, Daniel. Grandmothers are not going to be gamers. It's not going to happen. That's my theory.</s>SIEBERG: That's not true. I know a couple of grandmothers.</s>S. O'BRIEN: A couple, but it's not going to be like a mass movement of grandmothers to gaming. Let me ask awe question about that. The Wii, am I saying that right? How does that work? I mean, it was so weird to see -- not that I thought were you bad at using it, but you know you...</s>SIEBERG: Yes. it's a very different way to think about playing a game. Definitely gets up off your feet and moving. The days of being a couch potato gamer for Nintendo are over. This is what it looks like. It does look like a remote. They call it the Wii remote. It also has this add-on, so this is like a joystick or an analog controller here, and then the Wii console is behind me. It's very small, so it uses these motion sensors, and I think we have some video of me a couple days ago getting up on my feet and playing some the games, Tennis being one of them. There's one called Excite Truck, where you're actually driving a truck, so you're using it like a steering wheel. So they're trying to have an innovative way of playing games. Now they're also hoping that will appeal to the new gamers, the people who don't play games normally. So it's something that they haven't seen before, a new way to look at games. Now of course, the graphics for the Wii are not as impressive as the Sony Playstation 3 or the Microsoft XBox, but they're touting this as sort of a new way to get into the game.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I could see that. I could see people who already own everything else, they could get this. All right, Daniel Sieberg for us this morning, thanks for the check-in on all that cool stuff. Appreciate it.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Did you guys used to watch "Facts of Life?"</s>SERWER: A little bit.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Twenty-six years ago when it was on, debuted.</s>SERWER: I was very young.</s>S. O'BRIEN: You weren't a teenage girl, back then?</s>SERWER: I liked watching that show.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Oh, you take the good, you take the bad, you take it all, and there you have -- there you go.</s>SERWER: Some of these gals were happening.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Yes, still happening. Blair, she looks hot.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Good hair, great hair. We're going to talk to Blair and to Jo when Lisa Whelchel and Nancy McKeon join us live. They're releasing the DVD of the first and second season. A look at that's ahead. Stay with us.