By Lou Keston
LOS ANGELES (AP) --The 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo wasn't as dramatic as last year's, when Sony and Microsoft were battling for attention in advance of the fall debuts of their new game consoles, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
This year, the focus was on new games to play on those machines, so those of us who attended E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center this week had a lot more fun. And the competition is far from over. Here are some winners and losers from the video-game industry's biggest convention.
— PLAYSTATION VS. XBOX: Consumers have bought a few million more PS4s than Xbox Ones, but that doesn't mean Sony can rest on its laurels. Upcoming PS4 games include the steampunk thriller "The Order: 1886," new installments of the popular "Uncharted" and "LittleBigPlanet" franchises, and a promising batch of games from smaller studios, like the psychedelic journey "Entwined" and the sci-fi exploration game "No Man's Sky." The Xbox One countered with the goofy "Sunset Overdrive," the haunting "Ori and the Blind Forest" and new chapters of the "Halo," ''Forza Horizon" and "Crackdown" series. WINNER: Xbox, by a very slim margin.
— NINTENDO VS. THE SKEPTICS: The Wii U has had a rough time in the market, but Nintendo rewarded its diehard fans this year. There's a new "Legend of Zelda" game (finally!) on the way. "Splatoon" brings Nintendo-style whimsy to the online shooter. "Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker" is a delightful puzzle game. And the Amiibo line, which connects real-world toys of Mario, Donkey Kong and the rest of Nintendo's heroes to their digital counterparts, has collectors psyched. WINNER: Nintendo.
— OCULUS VS. MORPHEUS: The most heavily hyped technology at E3 involved strapping on a headset and immersing your senses in 3-D virtual reality. Sony showed a few simple demos for its Project Morpheus device, letting you swing swords at a dummy or luge down a busy highway. The Oculus Rift inserts you right into Sega's terrifying "Alien: Isolation," a Mario-style platform game called "Lucky's Tale" and the time-bending shooter "SuperHot." I'm still skeptical about VR's viability — neither headset is particularly comfortable — but Oculus is clearly further along. WINNER: Oculus.
— MULTIPLAYER VS. SOLO: The buzziest demos at E3 were 2K Games' four-versus-one monster hunt "Evolve," Ubisoft's five-on-five SWAT team drama "Rainbow Six: Siege" and Nintendo's four-on-four paintball competition "Splatoon." There were a few solo acts like Sony's "The Order" on the floor, but if you want to play the hottest games this year and next, you had better find some friends. WINNER: multiplayer.
— MOVING VS. SITTING: Motion-detecting game devices that force you to get off the sofa were all the rage a few years ago, thanks to Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Kinect. But now that you can buy an Xbox One without Kinect, you can sit down. I saw just one new Kinect game — Harmonix's "Dance Central Spotlight" — and nothing in the Wii U lineup will burn any calories. WINNER: sitting.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More