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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Game Gadgetry Abounds at This Year’s E3

More than 66,000 people attended the three-day E3 video and computer gaming trade show this month at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Valley video game publishers, developers, accessory makers and other industry professionals came out to convention center June 11-13 for the yearly extravaganza of all things related to video games that is produced by the Entertainment Software Association. Attendees lined up to play the new games that publishers will release in the coming months, including “Marvel’s Avengers,” from Square Enix Holdings Co. Ltd in Tokyo, based on characters owned by Walt Disney Co. in Burbank. Association Chief Executive Stanley Pierre-Louis said the show was where the biggest brands and the biggest fans converge to shape the future. “E3’s energy and excitement were felt in the halls, on the floors and press conferences,” Pierre-Louis said in a statement. “We broke records, saw incredible innovations and had breathtaking moments that entertained the world.” Among the 200 exhibitors at the show this year was Insomniac Games in Burbank, which was previewing its upcoming “Stormland” virtual reality game at the Oculus Rift booth; the interactive division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, also in Burbank, with its new Lego Star Wars game; and 505 Games in Calabasas. Also appearing at the show was Performance Design Products, a Burbank video accessory developer. The company makes headphones, chargers, controllers, cases and other items for all the major console brands from Nintendo Co. Ltd., Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. and Microsoft Corp. In a meeting room off the main show floors, Performance Design showed off its newest product that will come out in the fall, said Amber VanDyke, vice president of North American sales. “We have some that are scattered throughout the year, but the majority of customer resets are in the fall so we align a lot of our new product launches with that,” VanDyke said. In controllers, Performance Design has new ones for the Nintendo Switch console. Some are branded with Pokemon, Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog characters, as well as “Legend of Zelda.” From its Rock Candy brand, the company is offering Switch and Xbox One controllers in blue, red, yellow and purple. A vibrant color scheme is a part of the After Glow controller for Switch that includes an app so a player can rotate between different colors, choose a favorite one or turn the light off so there is no color at all, VanDyke said. “The packaging is lenticular on the front to showcase the colors at point of purchase,” she added. With its new headsets, the company took what it learned from developing its Victrix eSports headset for the consumer models. Two Victrix models came out last year. The new models are lightweight and include a flexible microphone that can be flipped to mute it and will be available in white, gray and camouflage, VanDyke said. “The wonderful thing about these headsets is they address the two things that consumers care about the most – comfort and the mic,” she added.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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