As E3 winds down I have a few thoughts running in my head. This E3 was suppose to be huge, yet it seemed pretty lameduck compared to last year. Within this post I will grade each company, discuss pros and cons of each, and what they should be their future plan of attack.

Microsoft

Microsoft had a someone quitely-loud presence at this years E3. They seemed a bit cocky at their press conference, boasting about GTA4 which isn't even going to be an exclusive title for 360. They did announce Halo 3 as expected, but for the most part they took a backseat to the newer consoles on the floor. The major thing they had to offer up to fans was the announcment of their HD-DVD drive. It seems that Microsoft plans to replay the VCR vs. Beta war vs. Sony... who will win? who knows. For the most part the new add-on sounds reminiscent of Sega's failed 32x and Sega CD. Will it share the same fate? Possibly, pending on what their plans are with the console itself. Team Xbox capped it off with an unusal endorsement of Nintendo's product, urging fans to go for a Wii this holiday season claiming that they could buy a Xbox with it and spend less than buying a PS3 (even though the price hasn't been announced yet for Wii).

Pros: An unexpected wide range of games, which dominated the top 100 spots (in page visits) on IGN's Big List. Little to no tech problems on the game stations.

Cons: HD-DVD.. an add on? but why? Cocky facade over its insecurity... advising customers to buy Wii rather than Playstation 3. They are now behind in the new age of controllers.

Plan of Attack:
If The Xbox team plans to be successful they will need to do a number of things. There is no doubt that they are feeling the effects of rushing their next-gen console out on the market. An add-on drive to the 360 poses a couple of problems... how much will it cost? What games will they make now? Two brands for one console? If the new drive is superior, why would you make games for the old one? Will the HD games cost more? This is a big problem for Xbox... these things have never worked very well, but in this new age of gaming you never know. Microsoft will have to drop the price of Xbox when the new consoles hit the market.. they will have to drop it low enough to where you could buy the HD-DVD drive and still end up cheaper than PS3.... otherwise they will crash and burn and find the label of hypocracy stamped on their head.

Grade: C

Sony

The question for Sony is: What Happend? I am a Sony supporter, but I have to say I am a little dissapointed with Sony's offering for E3 this year. It's not that it was bad, but it seemd like they were just being lazy... Yes the PS3 is nice... but the price is not. The higher end one has more advantages than then base model besides just the harddrive, so much that its not even worth trying to save $100 buying it. The games however were pretty sweet looking. Assassin's Creed, while not exclusive to PS3, was still pretty awesome. Heavenly Sword and MGS4 were breath taking, and an old friend in Warhawk made an appearance to show off Sony's surprise. The Motion sensitive Dual Shock was probably the biggest surprise Sony dished out. While its not as advanced as the Wii-mote, it wasn't meant to be in the first place... it is a two handed device. There also seemed to be an issue with the Dev kits crashing on the show floor, that definantly isnt appealing.

Pros: Awesome games, spectacular display of graphical power in some games, and excellent intiative to jump onboard the motion sensitivity, leaving Xbox360 to look a little outdated already. Also props for listening to the fans and changing the controller shape back. oh and MGS4

Cons: Games Crashing and lackluster appearance of others (they were less than have finished provided), Nonchalant-lazy attitude, loss of rumble on the new controller, and price/configuration. Why not keep the flash memory and WiFi on all models and offer a base console with no harddrive? Where was Resident Evil 5?

Plan of Attack:
Sony seems to be overconfident in itself, but should be cautious because of its high price point. This is nothing new to Sony never-the-less as they were the first successful $299.99 console after the era of $199.99 systems. Sony will have to rethink its decision to exclude the rumble feature on the dual shock (its not a Dual Shock without rumble), and also about its base system configuration. They may be #1 now, but as Nintendo found out years ago, you can plummet pretty fast for arrogence. Sony will have to show off more of its exclusive games as they come along in development. More will have to be revealed about its online gaming service and functionality of its new motion sensitivity Dual Shock.

Grade: C+

Nintendo

Oh nintendo, how things have changed for you this year. Yes I know I've said alot of bad things about Nintendo, and many of you probably believe at despise Nintendo and hope like hell the crash and burn. This is not the case. I'm a fan at heart, but a fustrated fan that is tried of years of failure from the company that brought me the games I grew up with. Yes at first glance the Wii-mote was a joke... nothing that Nintendo hyped it up to be. Nintendo claimed they wanted simple games, and looking at the controller stated that they would be too simple... this angered me along with many other Nintendo fans. In the end it turns out Nintendo lied, and in actuality their games are more advanced (gameplay wise) rather than simplistic and upon viewing the Wii-mote in action, I have to say it is quite interesting. Nintendo had an impressive appearance at this year's Expo showing off its new Console along with its accessories. The game list was something you normally dont expect to see from big N as 3rd party support was way better than the last two consoles. Nintendo almost blew everyone else away but fell short of doing so in a couple of ways. After boasting for months on how much cheaper the Wii was going to be than other next-gen options, there was no annoucement of the price... and even more dissapointing was the fact that Super Smash Bros. and the new Mario were not going to be launch titles. Smash was the best selling Game on gamecube, this is a huge mistake by nintendo... but they did manage to do something right in keeping the GC controller as its playing device. In a not so suprising move, they also annouced that the new Zelda will be released at the same time as Wii

Pros: Big N seems to be mending its ties with 3rd parties, They put Solid Snake in Smash, They showed that the Controller is capable of playing advanced games due to its nunchuck accessory, and for the first time in 2 generations, insted of moving a step back they took a step foward. They even influenced Sony's new controller. They may claim they aren't trying to compete, but you know they must be smiling a little bit on the inside.

Cons: What is the price, and why wasn't it mentioned? This was a perfect opprotunity to deflate Sony's bubble a bit. Some gamers seemed to experiance problems with the controller getting disoreinted on the show floor, Smash and Mario arent launch title... whats a Nintendo launch without Mario? The delay in the GCN version of Zelda is pointless.

Plan of Attack:
For the first time in years, Nintendo Fans that arent annoying Fanboys have something to be excited about... as for me, I am cautiously excited. I said that Nintendo would have to prove a lot to me at E3, and they did a good job. Nintendo has to compete with the wet dream of all consoles this holiday season weather they are trying to or not. DO NOT LAUNCH AFTER NOVEMBER 17TH! This is key. Announce the price soon, and launch the first week of November in the US and the last week of September in Japan. Hell, launch in mid September everywhere. Get the head start with the lower price. Nintendo cannot beat Sony if they do not get a head start. Nintendo has a golden opprotunity to hold first place even if its only for a few months They definantly are in line to overtake Xbox 360. All they have to do is keep playing their cards the right way. Bring Smash out ASAP

Grade: B

This will make out to be an interesting holiday season, only time will tell in the following months on which way this thing is going to go. The pre-order numbers should be coming in within the next 3 months or so. But until then we can just speculate. As for me? I still plan on getting the PS3 first. I am definantly considering the purchase of a Wii now, however... but I will probably wait until Smash.

Heh, Nintendo really did surprise me this E3. I guess I will be getting a Wii after all, the price of the PS3 means I sure as hell aint getting on at launch and Microsoft did even worse at this E3 then I thought they would, tsk, tsk.

Overall I agree with what DX has to say. However, I would of graded Microsoft a little higher.

Quite frankly I have a place in my heart for XBox where most people won't let it be given the credit it deserves. I was impressed with what they had to say at their press conference (hey, I'm rooting for th new guy out on the field. Kinda want to see the 360 do well). Truly amazed with the announcement of Halo 3 and it's trailer (though a little disappointed that they had to make another game to end the series, it was supposed to end with 2). Was quite impressed with their showing of games this year (Gears of War and F.E.A.R. are really making me consider getting a 360 instead of a Wii).

I'll admit, as a Sony fan, that I was disappointed in Sony's showing this year. The price announcement was somewhat of a blow but expected. Realy don't understand why they need to put out two versions of a console with one basically stripped bare of it's innovative feature. Was truly impressed with their ability to give fans what they wanted by changing the controller back to the old dual shock format and am actually happy with the loss of the Rumble feature and the induction of a motion sensor in the control. I don't think the loss of the Rumble feature is gonna hurt them any, in fact a lot of Sony fans at GameSpot are actually ok with it (some estatic about loosing it). I'm not going to miss the endless rumbling of the controller in certain games, thats for sure (I'm not an FPS man, never have been so not having the rumble feature is not that important to me). Was truly impressed with the game lineup for the PS3. Final Fantasy XIII, Assassin's Creed, Heavenly Sword, Gundam: Mobile Suit, and MGS4 are all looking great. I'm not exactly happy with the news of crashing dev kits but what can you expect, they're not complete PS3's. They're just kits running unfinished games. Not something to place fault on Sony for. All in all I'd of probably graded Sony a little higher.

As for Nintendo I wasn't exactly impressed with the Wii or anything it had to show. Their press conference was boring (and in fact the only one to put me to sleep) and I was somewhat pissed that there was no price on the system yet. As I've said many times I do not like the Wii-mote, in fact I think it's the stupidest thing I've seen a company come up with. I'm impressed with the degree that the motion sensor can be used but quite frankly, as I've said many times, I don't play video games to get a work out. I play them for enjoyment. Wasn't to impressed with the showing of games for the system. Super Smash Brothers Brawl is about the only game that truly impressed me out of all the games coming out on the system (and the only reason I'd ever buy a Wii). Was somewhat impressed with what you can do in Twilight Princess with the Wii-mote but I'll still take the GC version of the game over that. All in all I wasn't impressed with Nintendo this year (and this is hard for me to say. I've been a Nintendo fan since I was 3 (when I first started playing Super Mario Brothers on the good old NES). In fact Nintendo hasn't impressed me since the Super Nintendo first came out).

All in all E3 wasn't as spectacular as what I thought it would of been this year. After everything I saw I'm definately buying a PS3 and after seeing what games are coming up on the 360 I'm really starting to consider getting one instead of a Wii (hey F.E.A.R., Gears of War, Halo 3, and a few others really caught my interest (especially F.E.A.R. since my computer can't handle the game). Nintendo had one thing to show for itself that would make me consider getting a Wii and that was SSBB. If Nintendo can't wow me before they the Wii hits retail I'll bypass getting a Wii for a 360.

I really think Sony is going to put the rumble back in the controller if they get enough heat for it. It all depends. It can alwasy be turned off. they better pull their head out of their ass the next few months and start pushing that motion sensitivity more.

Hopefully pre-ordering starts soon.

Same here. Would really like to get mine preordered as soon as possible. Even if the price tag is high they're still gonna sell extremely fast.

Im planning on just trading in all my consoles, and most of my games to set my preorder. that should at least get me around $100 down on it. $500 more to go! X'D

Whats a Wii?isnt it the Revolution?I am not getting a PS3 or Xbox-360.I am going to get Revolution.I hope they have videos for Mario Kart soon.

No its not a Revolution, that was just the code name, they annouced that it will be called Nintendo Wii like 2-3 weeks ago

You basically explained everything I thought DX of Sony and Nintendo. I don't know much about Microsoft, I only payed attention to some of their games because my friends would be talking about it.

Sony basically showed only PS3 games and none of the PS2 sequal games some people were looking forward too seeing, like Xenosaga III. Plus no DMC4 news. ;_;

yeah alot of the PS3 games were missing like DMC4, Resident Evil 5, and Dark Sector.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4767807.stm <-- article on how ' Nintendo steals the show at E3'

Lol, Like I said months ago DX, you would change your mind or at least understand that Nintendo knows what their doing. That’s why I keep an open mind for the most part.

Nintendo never boasted about there low price that’s the web sites talking. Nintendo merely stated that there system would be far less then the PS3. Everyone automatically assumed it would be in the $100-$200 price range. It’s gonna suck if it ends up being $299 lol.

I still don't like how Nintendo hasn’t told their price but I have to admit it's a smart business choice on there part, this is how they will keep the attention on themselves. Everyone will be waiting and checking on Wii more then PS3 since we already know its price(s). This gives Nintendo loads of opportunities to make public announcements about other games since all eyes are on them!

Also Nintendo's private news feed which my friend has access to, recently announced that you can now play your game boy, GBA games right from the Wii. There’s a spot on the side for them. So this basically means the Wii can play past and present Nintendo games also Genesis. (Nes, SNES, Genesis, N64, GB, GBA, Game Cube, Wii). Only down side about the older systems is you know there gonna charge per download from there network. That’s probably where they will make there money back later on.

I think PS3 could easily out sell Nintendo if they pulled the price down lower. I’m sure it’s as low as they can put it in order to make a profit but like most have said...it’s a waste to buy this. My suggestion is if you really want it wait till the price drops. I hate the attitude of PS3’s president. He makes it sound like its way to cheap for something so good.

Anyway I wasn’t planning on buying any 2nd gen consoles but after seeing Wii in action and also seeing some very old games (duck hunt 2) I know and love I may just dish out the $150 or so for it.

I like your grades, DX. I was also a little disappointed about the missing rumble feature. But, like the Sony Psycho I am, I'm going to buy the PS3 when it comes out. Now, thanks to Nintendo's wonderful performance, I'm going to buy a Wii (Probably before the PS3, depending on the price, whatever it is), but Microsoft is out of the question. The only game I would be buying for my brother's 360 is Halo 3.

I'm glad the Wii is getting the attention that it deserved...

Nintendo still has time to screw it up.

If they release at the $299.99 I think it will be met with some dissapointment even thought that is still cheaper than the competition. $249.99 or a doubtful $199.99 would be a success for nintendo and a blow to Sony.

Not just a blow, a freakin pwn.

The local Gamestop is listing the price at $399.99 X'D so we know it will be cheaper than that because they never list prices right when they act like they have the inside scoop. The told me the PSP was going to be $500 and the PS3 $799.99 so take it for what its worth.

If the PSP was to be priced at $500, then God forbid, Sony's on drugs!

good topic.. hmm..

I'm dissapointed in sony. They could easily have setup the PS3 with all it's bad ass technological upgrades and left out the blue ray drive. Yes, its great, but they could have drastically dropped the price on the PS3 by leaving it as a future upgrade like the PS2 hard drive was. In a year or two the blue ray drive would be more mainstream and less of a financial burden to sony. And the blue ray drive obviously plays old dvd style PS2 games, so any games that came out for the PS3 prior to the blue ray upgrade would still be playable. They could have introduced the PS3 at around the same price the 360 came out as, and secured even more of the gaming audience while dealing a harder blow to microsoft's holiday sales. and if that happened, then microsoft would have lowered their console price and we could have seen a repeat dreamcast.

I think sony is too confident that they'll be able to sell blue ray as a standard.. look at how costly the psp was when it came out and they tried to set a new portable standard with UMD. I didn't see a single store sell out of psps and together with weak overpriced UMD sales, I could see a possible scenario with the PS3. btw, I've already seen a HD-DVD player advertised in the sunday ads (along with hd-dvd movies).. hd-dvd already broke into the market and is starting a foothold around $500, and thats at least 50% cheaper than blu ray's $1000 price tag and a month before sony can even release a blu-ray player.