We could see some new Little Big Planet stuff.
Is anybody here going?
EDIT.
Gian Luzio, Play.com’s head of games, tells Next-Gen why this weekend’s Play.com Live consumer gaming show is set to make a major impact, and gives us his thoughts on the current console cycle.
Play.com Live, taking place on Saturday and Sunday at London's Wembley stadium, has attracted pretty much all of the industry’s major players. The likes of Sony, Microsoft, EA, Activision and Ubisoft, to name just a few, are all readying to show off their latest and upcoming titles and allow gamers some hands on time. Luzio says the event, which will also feature live bands and celebrity appearances, is set to fill a major gap in the UK market.
“At the moment there isn’t much of a gaming event in the UK that brings together all of the different games publishers and their offerings for the consumer,” he said. “So this is the first of a yearly show that we hope to put on, which will have the whole breadth of entertainment from games, music, and film for the consumer.”
Luzio says Play.com Live will cater to the entire gaming demographic, with games for the young and old, and for the hardcore and the casual, and he’s expecting big numbers to flood Wembley stadium this weekend.
“The tickets have been selling really well. We are looking at in excess of 20,000 people. There’s been a lot of consumer demand for the event, which will enable people to get their hands on games before they’ve been released, and so we’re really happy.”
Speaking about the current console cycle, Luzio said that, much like last year, all systems are performing “very well” sales wise on Play.com. He also said that he views Microsoft’s recent move to cut the price of the Xbox 360 in Europe as simply part of the hardware cycle.
“Over time the prices do tend to come down and so I just think that this is a timing thing for a machine that’s been out for two and a half years. I think that they’ll sell more because of the price cut but I don’t necessarily think it will be to the detriment of other consoles.”
He also noted that the death of the HD-DVD format isn’t currently having a big impact on PS3 or Xbox 360 sales, and says it won’t do until there’s a decent library of Blu-ray titles available.
“I don’t think that there is a tremendous amount on Blu-ray. I think it’s going to be a case of when the content is coming thick and fast, when there are as many Blu-ray releases as there are DVD releases, then we’ll see a huge uptake in Blu-ray machines, but for the time being the content just isn’t there.”
On the software front, Luzio said he expects Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4 and “personal favorite” LittleBigPlanet to be 2008’s big success stories.
