Originally published on Turnstylenews.com, a digital information service surfacing emerging stories in news, entertainment, art and culture; powered by award-winning journalists .
By: Noah J Nelson
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, is right around the corner, and that means lineups are getting set, and the rumor mill has been running at full steam. Turnstyle will be there, and we're giving you a peek at what we're looking forward to, and our predictions for the Big Show.
Microsoft
Oh, Microsoft. What do you have up your sleeve? Do you have anything up your sleeve? The Kinect rubbed most of the gaming press the wrong way last year, only to be the biggest success story the XBox line has ever had.
Only that left developers flat-footed, with no real games coming out for the peripheral for months, and nothing that reaches out to the gaming hardcore. Expect all that to change, as rumors are swirling that Kinect functionality is being brought to some major titles, and a Star Wars game- think lightsabers- is expected to be on hand.
While we know that the fan favorite Gears of War franchise will show its next installment, the talk that has the core gamers perking their ears up is the possibility of an HD remake of the original Halo and a possible announcement of Halo 4. If announced Halo 4 would be the first new game in the XBox defining shooter series not made by original developer Bungie. A lot rides on the Halo IP for Microsoft, and a lack of a Halo game might signal that the next in the series may be held off until the net console generation.
E3 is traditionally the time when Microsoft makes major announcements about its XBox Live service. With the recent acquisition of Skype its a fair bet that we'll see an announcement, if not an actual demo, of Skype on a Kinect enabled XBox. We're also looking forward to seeing if Microsoft is going to throw its hat into the cloud media ring during E3, following in the footsteps of Google and Amazon. If they do, the announcement will be virtually simultaneous with the announcement of Apple's iCloud service at their World Wide Developers Conference. Both the Microsoft press conference and Steve Jobs keynote are Monday morning at 10AM PDT.
Sony
Damage control. That's what we're anticipating. Sony has to make some bold moves to tamp down the last of the PR fires from the ongoing Playstation Network hacking disaster. Sony's E3 should have been all about their new portable console, codenamed the Next Generation Portable (NGP) and rumored to be marketed under the name "Vita".
With an OLED touchscreen on the front and a touchpad on the back (which might just explain the source of the Nintendo rumors) the NGP is set to do what Sony does best: push hardware to the limit and set the bar for what is possible in gaming.
The Playstation 3 game lineup is bound to make the hardcore gamer set the happiest of all: sequels to system exclusives Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, and Infamous are all expected, and the rumor mill has another God of War title and a return of the PS2 platforming series, Sly Cooper.
All of which might just be enough to dispel the shadow that has been cast by the PSN trouble... that is if hackers don't decide to play spoilsport and manage to knock out the network again on Monday. That's a bit of news we wish we weren't anticipating.
Sony's press conference hits at 5PM PDT on Monday.
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