The expo opened with a bang with an amazing performance by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra. After the performance Nintendo Australia's Greg Arthurton provided a short keynote speech on Nintendo's policy going forward, some key games were shown off including Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Greg also stated that Nintendo found that "those who wouldn't normally play games embrace them, for example we've seen nursing homes in Australia embrace Wii Sports. Primary schools have embraced the DS to bring a different and relevant dimension to the classroom." He also commented that the Nintendo DS has been "embraced by more than 100,000 Australians".
Sony had quite a showing..
After Nintendo’s keynote speech (which had quite an audience) Ubisoft demonstrated Assassin’s Creed to a large audience. There were a few industry panels after this presentation but most of the action was happening on the showfloor.
We tried out several games on the floor, including Singstar, Haze and Link’s Crossbow Training. Surprisingly, the lines weren’t quite as big this year as they were last year, possibly because there was a lot more on the show floor to keep those entertained. While there were plenty of games on the floor it seems Assassin’s Creed was the game which was garnering the most attention, with the couch where people sat to watch the game consistently filling up.
Nintendo’s Wii stand was once again rather popular, with unreleased games such as Super Mario Galaxy and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles getting the most attention. Nintendo’s setup was rather similar to last year, but is still the most prominent stand when you walk in the door. Arcade Games Australia is on hand at the expo again this year with free arcade games, in fact Tristan got a sneak peek at a brand new arcade title, simply titled Galaga, sounds deep.
There were plenty of games on show.
Microsoft however doesn’t have much of a presence at the show at all. In fact, our staff member Daniel tried to go up and play Mass Effect and was told by the Microsoft employee that the game wasn’t able to played, when queried why the employee simply stated he couldn’t say why.
It was clear that the expo today was a huge success. With the expo open for only six hours there was a larger turn out than last year and plenty to do on the showfloor. If last year is anything to go by then tomorrow will be the busiest day of the expo and with our staff on hand to provide the latest previews we’ll make sure we are providing you with the latest updates from the expo.
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