E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, takes over the entire Los Angeles Convention Center once a year. Finding a specific new game is a fairly straightforward process—just find the exhibitor who created the game and drop in for a visit. Of course, if it is a popular title you may find several thousand other fans with the same idea.
Many titles spawn supporting material, and if you are a true fan, of course, you must have them all. Licensed products can turn up almost anywhere. At E3 there are whole areas devoted to manufacturers large and small who produce everything from simple printed items to the most sophisticated peripherals.
For Disney fans the process can turn into a combination of CSI and a treasure hunt. Licensing is nothing new for Disney—the Company has been doing this formally since 1932. Their first video license was in 1981, to Nintendo for Mickey Mouse Egg Catching in their Game & Watch series.
This year there were a few licensees at E3 with new products coming up. Disney’s Fantasia: Music Evolved, for example was displayed not only at the Disney Interactive booth, but also at Microsoft for its Xbox 360 and Xbox One with Kinect. These are the only platforms for which Disney Interactive Studios and Harmonix will release Fantasia: Music Evolved on October 21.
Meanwhile, over at Sony one could find the latest entry in the popular Kingdom Hearts series. Kingdom Hearts 2.5, available exclusively for the Playstation 3 was developed by Square Enix and is scheduled for release in the United States on December 2.
Gamers at E3 did not have to wait until December to see previews of this amalgam of Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded. Most players went straight to the Nightmare Before Christmas segment, which found Sora and the gang joining Jack Skellington in Christmastown. Also offered was a visit to the Beast’s castle and a battle sequence set in the romantic ballroom. Players will be surprised to find that in addition to the Heartless, they will be tangling with a treacherous chandelier and rows of evil columns.
Performance Designed Products expanded on their line of Disney Infinity Accessories with new items for 2014. There was an emphasis, naturally, on the new Disney Infinity: Marvel Superheroes line. The Play Zone includes a fold out mat, storage, and “portable protection” for Infinity Figures and Power Discs. PDP also had other storage solutions and carrying bags for this latest version of Disney Infinity
