Nintendo Wii U, Sony Wonderbook and Xbox SmartGlass – E3 news round-up

E3 is the annual video gaming conference held in Los Angeles. Previous shows have seen the launch of consoles such as the Xbox and Nintendo Wii so what was in store this year?

Nintendo Wii U

Nintendo revealed some more details about its upcoming games console the Wii U. As well as the ability to run two of the company’s new GamePads (featured in the video below) at once, Nintendo revealed a set of HD games that would be released on the console including Assassin’s Creed 3, Mass Effect 3 and Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition, plus a new controller without a touchscreen that looks very similar to an Xbox controller.

It’s not all been great news for Nintendo though, with Engadget highlighting the fact the new controller may only last 3-5 hours before running out of battery.

For more information read our first impressions of the Nintendo Wii U.

Sony Wonderbook

Sony revealed a new set of games to appear on the PlayStation 3 including Beyond – a game from the developers of Heavy Rain – but perhaps more interestingly it also announced Wonderbook, a way of using augmented reality with picture books.

Launching with the Harry Potter The Book of Spells, part-written by JK Rowling, Wonderbook uses the PlayStation Eye camera to recognise the book being read and then adds graphics over the pages and allows users to interact with the story. Watch the video below for a demo of how it should work.

http://youtu.be/AHgev9b5E0A

The Book of Spells will also work with the PlayStation Move controller representing a wand – although once you’ve added in the price of the Eye camera, the Move controller and the book itself it starts to become an expensive prospect.

Sony also announced a Move racing wheel for controlling driving games and a deal with phone maker HTC to bring PlayStation certified games to its handsets.

Xbox SmartGlass

Microsoft announced SmartGlass which will allow you to control your Xbox using a smartphone or tablet. While this won’t be much use for playing games, the company suggests it will help improve browsing the web through the console, as well as controlling films and music without resorting the controllers.

Below is a video of how Microsoft believes you can remove almost all human interaction thanks to the Xbox.

http://youtu.be/D7y_sXD165w

On the games side of things Microsoft showed off a demo of Halo 4, South Park: The Stick of Truth and the latest edition in the Tomb Raider franchise.

More on this…

• Nintendo Wii U – we take a look at the new console
• Sony PlayStation and PSP – review of the PlayStation and PSP consoles
• Microsoft Xbox 360 – review of Microsoft’s games console