31st May 2009

Canadian Presence Strong At Upcoming E3 2009

CanadaCanada – Our inbox has received a number of notifications from a wide variety of Canadian studios alerting us to their presence at next week’s E3 Expo, and we are reminded of how strong our interactive media industry truly is – and equally envious that we are not able to attend this year’s convention. I’ve scoured the ‘net trying to find and confirm all of the Canadian products which will be shown at E3, and I think I’ve found everyone – however, I’m sure that I’ve overlooked a studio or two, especially for those studios who are working on projects for other houses. Some studio and game appearances may fall under the “conjecture” category due to typical pre-show “rumours” and while I did make every effort to confirm E3 studio appearances, some requests went unanswered – so we will just add to the perpetual pre-show “will they or won’t they” speculation – after all, that’s part of the excitement and anticipation for the annual unveilings, is it not?

So, without further ado, here, I think, is a comprehensive list of who is going to E3 2009:

Relic Entertainment will be at the THQ zone in Booth 5300 showcasing their newly announced Warhammer 40 000 title, Space Marines which takes place in the brutal, science fiction setting of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe. In the 41st Millennium, humanity faces extinction at the hands of horrific aliens and demonic hordes. Only one force offers salvation, the superhuman Space Marines. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is an intense Action-RPG featuring epic battles where players take direct control of the ultimate defender of humanity, the mighty Space Marine.

Radical Entertainment’s [PROTOTYPE] will be front and centre as one of the most-anticipated new IP titles of the year – I’ve been waiting for this title since Kelly Zmak first mentioned it at the 2008 Game Design Expo, and I’m really looking forward to it’s release date. Another Canadian-developed product to be featured at the Activision booth (#5322) will be Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Montreal’s Beenox Studios is working on the Windows PC version of the game, whose release is slated to coincide with the upcoming movie of the same title.

Ubisoft Montreal will be showing off several titles at Booth 1022, including Assassin’s Creed 2 (another game I am really looking forward to), along with the latest Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell title, Conviction and Shaun White’s Snowboarding: World Stage. Ubisoft Vancouver will be debuting their first title, Academy of Champions. It appears that Ubisoft will be publishing two games possibly being developed by Ludia – The Price is Right 2010 and Press Your Luck 2010.

Frozen North Studios will be making an appearance with their new title, Flip’s Twisted World which is currently under development for Majesco Entertainment, who will be located at OFMR #4972. Blue Castle Games will be residing in dual locations: Booth 4522 at the CapCom camp, showing off their latest zombie hunter, Dead Rising 2, and at OFMR 5172 where their latest sports title, The Bigs 2, will be displayed by 2K Sports.

Right next door to Ubisoft will be Disney Interactive at Booth 1001, where Vancouver’s Propaganda Games will be showing off bits from their new project, Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned. Slant Six Games will be over at the Sony Entertainment Booth (4622) with their latest SOCOM title:  U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3.

EA Bioware will be  debuting one of the deadliest creatures in their new title Dragon Age: Origins, as well as demonstrating how romance can have a significant impact on the adventure over at EA’s E3 residence, Booth 1501. For their sequel to Mass Effect, Bioware will be revealing the fate of Commander Shepard’s in the explosive debut of Mass Effect 2, where players must recruit a diverse team of specialists who possess their own distinct and powerful skill sets as they embark on a suicide mission to save mankind. Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic will also be putting in an appearance over at LucasArts, in Meeting Room 309.

EA Sports will be demonstrating Canadian developed EA Sports Active, an innovative, virtual fitness product that offers personalized, customizable workouts that can be done from the comfort of home. Also appearing from the EA Canada campus will be FIFA 10, EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis, NHL 10, and Fight Night Round 4.

EA Montreal will be taking the ultimate two-man private military team of Salem and Rios from Army of Two: The 40th Day to E3, demonstrating the duo’s fight to survive a carefully orchestrated series of catastrophes that are dragging the city of Shanghai to the brink of disaster. When they’re done blowing things up, the crew from EA Montreal will make their getaway with the fast cars from Need For Speed: Nitro for the Wii and DS.

Word has it that Vancouver’s United Front Games will also be making an appearance at E3. One can only surmise that they will be found at the Activision booth talking about their new action title which will take place in Hong Kong. This is where I say “Come on guys, a few more details would be really nice!”

While A2M isn’t listed as an exhibitor, one of the games they are currently working on will be making an appearance through lead studio EA Visceral Games. Dante’s Inferno features a highly responsive, addictive combat system, which players will need to take Dante through a gauntlet of unimaginable evils as he fights to recapture the soul of his beloved Beatrice.  Another A2M project, the upcoming title WET, is rumoured to be among the titles which publisher Bethesda Softworks will be showing off over at Booth 4300, and there is much conjecture as to whether or not another A2M project, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings will be making an appearance over at LucasArts.

Babel Media, a game outsource house will also be present at E3 in OFMR #4678 – and while Babel is not headquartered in Canada, the company does have a studio in Montreal which provides localization, QA and other gameplay services. Cambre Products – Game On from Toronto will be showing off their gamer products and accessories at Booth 541, as will Stratford Ontario accessory manufacturer Icon. Canadian game publisher Dreamcatcher will be promoting their titles and looking for new properties from their base in Meeting Room 516, and D-Box Technologies will be demonstrating their Motion Technology products at Booth 2817. Over at Booth 2828, Entertainment Liquidators of Canada will be publicizing their wares and services to all.

Quebec’s Enzyme Labs will be at Booth 447, reminding everyone about the importance of QA testing and Toronto’s GelaSkins will be showing off some very nifty product skins in Booth 2934. Sony Entertainment will be showing off Ghostbusters, a game which has strong Vancouver ties through Threewave Software and Rainmaker Entertainment, who also worked on the trailers for [PROTOTYPE] and WET. Take Off CSH, another well-known outsource house with a Montreal studio will be at Booth 1246. Take Off CSH has worked on such titles as [PROTOTYPE], Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Assassin’s Creed, and provides services such as design creation, localization, video production and execution.

Vancouver’s IUGO Mobile Entertainment will also be present at E3, showing off their very well-done iPhone and iPod game titles along with two new titles – Starhogs and A.D.D. – and after E3 is over, the studio will be heading to Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference.

Deep Fried Entertainment‘s Brenda Bailey is also attending E3, so if you see her at the Women In Games booth or mixers, please say “Hi.”  Attendees will also most likely see Victor Lucas and crew wandering the show floor conducting interviews for Electric Playground. I’m sure that there are many others in our Canadian interactive media industry who will be traveling to E3 but not exhibiting – if you are, we’d definitely be interested to hear about your experiences at E3, just click on our Got News link and drop us a line. On a side note, the 2010 Olympics will also be making an appearance at this year’s E3 as a part of Sega’s game line-up. However, as we all know, the game is not being developed in Vancouver, but in England by Eurocom. Tsk Tsk.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Business News, Events, National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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