18/06/2016 Click

a rowboat on a fun run on London Marathon. Now on BBC News, it's time

to click. This week: The E3

videogames extravaganza! We are headbanging, foot

tapping, lion taming, This is E3, the biggest video game

show on Earth. Every June, the Convention Centre

in downtown Los Angeles fills This is where the next year's big

releases are announced, with high energy, much fanfare,

and gimmicks galore. You can race a car, visit a haunted

house, you can come and You can pick yourself

up a swag bag... For as long as I can remember,

all of the big games companies have scrabbled for our attention

at this But times are a changing,

and not every company is happy shouting over all this noise

when they could have their own event a bit later and control

the message better. Now, there are a number of big names

which are usually at E3 but aren't here this year,

Electronic Arts, Activision, They don't have booths

on the show floor. Turnout's still pretty decent,

though. There are still plenty

of big hitters here. So joining me on the floor

are two awesome end bosses. Colossal Kate Russell,

and monstrous Marc Cieslak. And I wanted to start with something

I think is really innovative. Not VR in itself, but the fact that

someone's finally giving you at home the opportunity to experience

what I'm experience You can now see the world

as I'm seeing it! Come

Where you?

Well, that's all very well for you at home

but what we are experiencing is Spen prancing around in a green cupboard.

But what this does help to demonstrate is one of the big themes

That is that there is are tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of virtual

Now that gamers can finally get their hands on virtual reality

headsets, the games industry has revealed what you'll actually be

This includes old school classics like Battle Zone,

As well as recruiting Star Trek cast members,

past and present, to show off Ubisoft's Star

Here, four players adopt the role of different Bridge officers,

Most of the gameplay mostly consists of operating controls.

Perhaps not as thrilling as a real away mission.

As soon as you can get us out of here I will be most grateful.

Boldly going where few games designers have gone before means

new ways of thinking about games and how we play them

are crucial for these virtual experiences to work.

Sony is going all in with virtual reality.

It is a whole bunch of different experiences across different genres

which are meant to show off what VR is capable of.

They are the kind of games which can only be played wearing a headset

Most of the games in here have been teased over the last couple

of years, but there are two experiences

This is Scavenger's Odyssey, a shooter.

Looks like some kind of mechanised suit.

The targeting is done by simply looking at where I wanna shoot.

But this is where you start to get a sense that this

is a game designed to work in 360 degrees.

When I look around there isn't really any "up" there

It is a bit how I imagine a fly must see the world,

being able to jump onto any surface at any angle, which at times can be

This game is Danger Ball, a futuristic sport.

Now, I don't need a controller for this at all.

And this allows me to move this bat around.

There's more to it than that, though.

You can add spin by flicking the ball when it gets close to me.

You very quickly get used to using your head to hit the ball

It's sort of like tennis if you had to head-butt the ball

Futuristic games with balls, I'm all over it.

Now it's my turn to do VR once again.

Four headsets hanging from these spindles, and the idea is several

people can take part in the same experience at once.

And, although it can be a game, what they are actually aiming

for is an interactive theatre experience, where we all take part

and solve different puzzles and share an experience.

For example, over here, I can pick up this ball.

So I can throw this to yellow.

So, obviously, it is a work in progress.

But the idea is that in the future you can have actors also taking part

in the experience, taking you through different rooms

and helping you to solve different puzzles, for example.

At the moment, I have to say it is both weird and interesting.

The first big announcement came as no real surprise.

With news of the slimmer, more design-centric Xbox OneS having

Serving up 4K HDR gaming, and a customisable controller that

can suit even the wildest of tastes, at $299, this midcycle release may

leave a sour taste in the mouths of families who bought

into the chunkier machine just a few years ago.

The game footage started rolling with some big titles on the slate,

all hoping to win Xbox back some of its edge.

Pushing the cross-platform agenda is at the heart of Microsoft's drive

to bring Xbox and Windows 10 players together in a slieu

Forza Horizon 3 got pulses racing with a demo of its four-player

campaign mode on Xbox and PC, scheduled for September release.

The new IP kid on the block, we got the first proper look at Sea

of Thieves's gameplay, a swashbuckling, shared-world

adventure that looks like it's going to be ridiculous amounts

But there was sadly no release date floated.

Help me out, so more people can do the anchor thing.

A run of big budget sequels, Gears of War IV...

..Whipped the crowd up into a frenzy, almost as predictable

as these rinse-and-repeat triple A's.

They're looking pretty slick, but nothing

Although, Halo fans did get this playable beta demo that

went live for a week, right after the briefing ended.

There's been a lot of speculation about whether there would be any

significant hardware upgrades announced here today.

And with leaked information about the Xbox OneS coming out

in the last 24 hours or so, slimmer sleeker, more design-led,

you would be forgiven for thinking that was going to be it.

But then, right at the end of the conference, Phil Spencer

Project Scorpio will be the next edition to the Xbox family,

and it is ultimately the next step in delivering our vision

of the future of gaming beyond generations.

Being released next autumn, this beast of a box will support

high-definition 4K gaming and is VR ready, packing the most

powerful graphics card ever put inside a consol.

Microsoft is keeping its options open when it comes to VR headsets.

Our consoles also run on Windows 10, so all of that innovation

and creativity that is happening, we wanted to capture it

We needed the computing capabilities of the six

terraflops of Project Scorpio to make that possible.

So, for us, our strategy is to continue to embrace

the incredible community of VR development on Windows

Microsoft calls it "choice," but are console owners really ready

to upgrade their machines every year in the same way PC owners do?

Fans of the platform can at least take some solace hearing that games

will be playable across all three consoles and Windows 10 PCs, too,

They are just going to look a lot sweeter on the new box next year.

You are trying to fabricate magnetic nanowires,

but you accidentally create sponge-like carbon-rich nanorods.

Yes, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

in the US accidentally discovered these novel structures when one

of their experiments didn't go to plan.

The new nanorods are unique as they are capable of absorbing

water at low humidities and are capable of expelling it

Most materials just keep on absorbing water.

And tech titan, Microsoft, has stumped up $26 billion

for professional networking website, LinkedIn.

The move, which sparked some surprise from commentators,

effectively values each of LinkedIn's 106 million users

Microsoft boss, Sachin Nadella, said that the purchase was all part

of his plan to better integrate Microsoft services in the Cloud.

And commercial space company, SpaceX, broke

While their latest launch succesfully got a payload

into orbit, the company failed to stick the landing

of its Falcon9 Rocketon rocket on its return trip.

It suffered from what the SpaceX CEO called a rapid,

unscheduled disassembly, or rapid explosion, to you and me.

That follows three succesful landings in the past few months.

And, finally, that wasn't the only machine not behaving itself.

A robot in a Russian city of Perm caused moderate confusion

and a minor traffic jam after escaping from its testing

grounds when a researcher left the gate open.

Not everyone is convinced the caper was an accident, with some

suggesting it might have been a publicity stunt,

rather than a desperate robotic cry for help.

Traditionally, the gaming industry hasn't exactly been known

for its unbiased approach to the female of the species.

With diversity a hot topic across the tech sector,

gaming conventions like this have done a lot to clean up their act,

binning the booth babes and generally creating a better

Having said that, too many games on display here still have a long

way to go when it comes to treating female characters with respect.

Impossible anatomies, ridiculously oversexualised

clothing, and not enough strong female protagonists are still things

we still see far too much in the big budget titles.

But as gaming evolves into ever more immersive experiences,

scientists at Stanford University's Human Virtual Reality Lab

are looking at how virtual reality could be used to make people

Since 2003, we have been running psychology experiments to see

if a virtual reality can change how you think of yourself and others.

By running through a body transfer sequence which connects the mind

with the self image in the virtual mirror, subjects can walk in someone

else's skin, becoming older, or a different race or gender,

and even experiencing abusive and threatening behaviour.

This is the type of body that is basically default

Women are forced to play what is called hyper

They are of a shape that is rare to find in nature and they tend

What we have done in this lab is run a series of experiments that studies

what happens to women's view of gender when they are in this

hypersexualised body that affects how they see themselves later on.

One of the goals of the team is to persuade big publishers

to include empathy and diversity training experiences

What if, every 30 minutes of playing, you had to do

a 30-minute public service announcement where you have

to experience sexual harassment as a woman,

or you become a minority and experience the violence

In other words, let's let the games be the games,

but the game makers have such power because this medium is so pervasive.

It is one of the most pervasive media on our youth.

Can we also put in some pro-social messages,

as we are spending all this time playing the game?

Even though current demos are somewhat crude, having been

coded by students on micro-fractions of the budget spent

With more money, and the weight of large publishers behind it,

VR experiences like this could start to change the way gamers think

Chipping away at the ingrained biases and toxic attitudes that have

driven so many people away from gaming communities in the past.

It turns out we have been doing this games controller thing all wrong.

We have been using our hands to control the mouse, keyboard,

the joystick, or whatever, But all this time we should have

It is slightly curved underneath, which means it can rock

The idea is you put your feet on it, and that is how

Now, that seems a bit silly because you still

But in some environments you cannot see your hands, for example in VR.

Here I am in some kind of art gallery, and I can fly around just

by scooting forwards, scooting right, and scooting left,

And by doing a weird combination of one heel and one toe,

I can actually go up as well, and then right toe and left heel

I have to be honest, this is making me feel

quite queasy, and I think that is because of the

Can you see I am gripping quite hard on the chair, too?

I will swivel around and say hello to this whale, which

bizarrely seems to have something inside.

I am going to hand over to Marc Cieslak, who has been

LA's historic Shrine Auditorium played host to the PlayStation

event, which bombastically kicked off with an orchestra

playing the theme to the new Norse-inspired

The event then continued with a brief look at

Quantic Dream's latest, Detroit: Become Human.

Please, you've got to save my little girl.

Sony beefed up its VR credentials by announcing the launch date

I am happy to announce that, on 13 October, PlayStation

VR will make its debut in the United States.

As well as announcing 50 games to come out with the thing,

including Resident Evil 7, and VR experiences for

Call of Duty Infinite, and Final Fantasy 15 VR experience.

The biggest applause of the show was reserved for games design

Kojima showed off a cryptic trailer for a game featuring the walking

dead, and lots of dead crabs and fish.

What does it all mean, Kojima-san?

And the hits kept on coming, from crowdpleasing fan favourites,

to lots of new and original games, which the audience at

the Shrine Auditorium absolutely lapped up.

In contrast to the Xbox show this morning, where Microsoft

teased new technology, Sony has chosen to show new games.

However, there is a new, upgraded PS4 in the works.

You just cannot see it at this year's E3.

You have an upgraded PS4 in the works.

Why are we not seeing that at E3 this year?

Just as was the case with PlayStation VR,

we feel that it is important to show people the new hardware,

the new platform, when we have the full range of experiences that

But the high end PS4, code-named Neo, that we are working on,

is an addition to the existing lineup, not a replacement.

And we also were looking at the way in which,

perhaps, the technology and innovation cadence has

And perhaps we have an opportunity to move slightly away

from just a static console, that remains absolutely

the same for, you know, a period of six, seven,

eight years, and perhaps offer, in addition to the current

Every single device will play the same content, is that the idea?

Every single device will play a standard version of

And then we will have the opportunity to have what we hope

will be a large set of games which will also have

So, as far as PlayStation and Xbox are concerned,

there will be more new machines on the horizon than console

So we have also heard from Microsoft.

The other big hardware manufacturer, Nintendo, doesn't make much

They have jiggling fruit on their stand,

They also have this big, new, secret console in the works,

which is still secret, so they will not show it to us.

They have, however, announced a new game,

The hero, Link, awakens after 100 years of hibernation

to a vast landscape, all of which seems to be explorable.

He can now jump, climb and steal weapons.

The game will drop next year, and it will run on the Wii U,

The standout is all these new consoles we are going to have.

A new Xbox, another new Xbox, and a new PlayStation as well.

We usually get one console from a manufacturer

It is an upgraded Xbox, a slimmer model, and a different

It is confusing for consumers, because over the course

of a console's life, the hardware is locked.

It is most sensible for developers and for consumers.

This space where we have several different machines,

some of them with higher specifications than others,

creates a little bit of confusion in the space.

And for me, I don't quite understand what the strategy is moving forward.

Surely it has got to be VR, hasn't it?

Surely we need a box that can cope with VR and 4K.

That is the promise, that VR is going to be coming.

One thing I found interesting about the announcement at the press

conferences on Monday is that Microsoft has chosen,

pretty much a couple of hours beforehand, to make and a now

I wonder if the folks at Xbox are a bit miffed about that,

or maybe it was strategic, to make sure that Sony would not get

Pure speculation, that is totally allowed at the BBC.

I am looking forward to the shared-world gaming content

It is bringing us back to an era of gaming

But unlike open world, shared world means that

you don't have to play with the great unwashed masses.

You can choose your gaming friends to play with,

which can make it a bit more of a customised experience,

And next year we now have these new consoles to play

with, and we have a lot of VR content as well.

Next year we should genuinely see some new machines.

We haven't been able to get our hands on them or play

Next year there is a new machine from Nintendo, there is Scorpio,

we should be seeing next year, and of course the upgraded PS4

But that will have an effect, I think, on the games

Absolutely, new machines to this extent, with VR, means actually

None of this sort of rinse-and-repeat triple-A sequels,

It is not so easy port these new titles to the VR experience,

so we will see, I hope, a whole new genre of games

from the ground up, specifically for VR,

How do you fancy going back to China next

Most of the stuff in there is made in China.

Next year we will show you how and where.

Now, if you will excuse us, let's go and play.

After the intense thunderstorms and heavy showers of recent days, the

weekend is looking comparatively