The Year in Games 2006 - May

We take a look back at the highlights, lowlights and things we'd rather just forget about the past year.

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People outside of the games industry think of May as one of the last pushes before the summer holidays, but for everyone involved with games, May is all about one event: the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

E3, in all its extravagance

This year's show was dominated by talk of the price of the PlayStation 3, which ended up coming in higher than most people had expected. At €500 and €600, the PlayStation 3 is the most expensive mainstream console yet, and many wondered whether people would go for it - especially since the games on the floor didn't exactly wow everyone.

Sony was all accused of copycatism when it revealed that the PlayStation 3 controller would come with tilt-sensing controls, as opposed to true motion-sensing controls for the Wii. The Sixaxis, as it would be known, also dropped rumble, which Sony said was because it interfered with the controller's new features - something Nintendo had no problem with. Most people thought it probably had more to do with ongoing legal wrangling with rumble patent holder Immersion.

Europeans were mostly concerned with whether Sony would actually deliver on its promise and get the PS3 out before the end of the year. The company allayed their fears, even suggesting that the first batch of manufactured consoles would be earmarked for Europe. Sony had perhaps overstated its confidence.

On the other end of the spectrum, Nintendo had an excellent time at the show. The Wii was unveiled for the first time, and most of the big games drew near-universal acclaim. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was still a little clunky at points, but the limited demo for Super Mario Galaxy seemed to do it for the throngs of fans that lined up at the ostensibly trade-only show.

Microsoft didn't have new hardware but it did have big games, including BioShock and Gears of War. Both games were shown to certain showgoers only, but those that did get a chance to play them lost themselves in the pair. Bungie was, perhaps not surprisingly, not at E3, what with Halo 3 still more than a year off.

It was at E3 that Microsoft began boosting the idea of building a 10-million unit lead for the Xbox 360. This was originally predicted to be in place by the time the PlayStation 3 launched, and then it was set as an end-of-year target. There's no final word yet on whether Microsoft has hit this mostly psychological sales target.

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