Whew. We're still reeling from the headiness of the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo! Memories of the scaled down "E3 Media and Business Summits" from 2007 and 2008 are beyond distant as they should be. This show fulfilled imaginations as much as it fed speculations and we just couldn't let the month of June leave the calendar without an in-depth discussion on this event of events. Leave it to your favorite blowhards John Lucas and Mr. Universal himself, Nathan Evans, to huff and puff until we can get our bearings. E3 2010 really blew our house down and we feel like chattering!

With so much to discuss, you know this is going to be a big one.  Best get yourselves nice and snug before the storm hits, because it's going to be a bumpy ride!

Where to begin, where to begin? I'll pick Microsoft since we talked about that first the last time. Well, we finally know the real name. Project Natal is now called Kinect. And man did they push Kinect to the moon at E3! Man oh man. I said it before and I'll say it again. E3 2010 was the make or break for Microsoft's lean green machine. They had no choice but to push it like they did. Horsepower has no effect in the outcome of this generation so moving onto the next generation of consoles under the same mindset would be a waste.

I'll save my response for later, but what did you think of Microsoft's show? And please, don't hold back.

I think I'm going to surprise you with my overall projections of where Microsoft seems to be headed at this point, but as for their actual E3 conference show?  Horrendous, to the point of being a total embarrassment.  The decision to move their official presentation (opposed to their pre-show Cirque du Soleil extravaganza) up one day to get the jump on the others was probably a smart move, but only because it helped guarantee a smaller audience to what was essentially a confused strategy or a platform in a mid-life crisis.

E3 may be the closest thing the videogame industry has to a 'must-watch' event, but that doesn't mean everyone is watching.  The audience is still primarily composed of - and intended for - a particular set of enthusiast gamers who come in with their own set of expectations and wish-lists of what they'd like to see.  Microsoft long ago bet the farm on snatching the 'hardest of hardcore' away from Sony, and has invested billions of dollars to help make the Xbox 360 their virtual home.  To see them pivot this quickly was awkward, as if showing off the latest editions of Call of Duty, Gears of War, etc, was more an inconvenience than spoils of their near ten year investment.

But to be fair, Microsoft was put in the unenviable position of having to jockey between satisfying their core base of 'hardcore' users while embracing the growing - and financially lucrative - world of 'casual' players.  Their mimicry of Nintendo was expected, and having them present virtual copies of the Wii's biggest hits (Wii Sports/Kinect Sports, Wii Fit/Your Shape) wasn't a surprise.  I don't think anyone expected to see them using waggle-enhanced versions of Halo or Gears of War to sell the Kinect to current users.  But it's clear, at least from their presentation, they have a fundamental misunderstanding of the target demographic they so desperately want now, and this came at the expense of the one they already have.  In the end, I don’t think they impressed either.

The actual 'games' shown were little more than tech demonstrations, and none of them (save for Harmonix's Dance Central) looked like much fun.  They may not have doomed Kinect to an early grave, but they certainly didn't sell it as a must-have peripheral.

And trust me folks, he was being nice here. I think I'll surprise you by saying I don't think Microsoft's show was all that bad. "Hardcore" wasn't working. We see it in the sales figures every month (except for this one. Thanks for nothing NPD). Games with high production costs requiring massive budgeted advertising campaigns to help alleviate those expenses. Price drop after price drop and still no lasting change in trajectory. All this investment only to play second fiddle to the supposed "duct-taped Gamecube"? Everyone knew this was coming since the beginning of this generation.

I have to say personally that Kinect impressed me...but not necessarily because of its games. It was pretty neat how people ran their hands across the air to operate the scroll bar on the Zune channel. The voice-operated commands looked fun. I remember the ESPN guy saying "XBox...Go to USC." and it went. Furthermore I thought getting ESPN sports through your XBox Live was a VERY smart move. You can just go to any game you want to and talk with your friends in the lobby. People will make great use of that feature for sure! Makes sense with how many sports fans tend to play more on XBox 360 (thanks to EA's license locks no doubt). Kinect can legitimize itself with the tie-in to ESPN sports.

Also I thought it was pretty cool with videoKinect allowing 2 friends to talk and see each other while watching a movie together or viewing pictures. Maybe I'm just easily impressed but I think those kind of things are where Kinect's potential lies. And perhaps with the popularity of a videogame platform these things will find themselves in other areas outside of gaming. Most likely not under the control of Microsoft but that probably goes without saying.

As for the Kinect games, Kinectimals looks to be something that would work more in a public arena than a living room. It's got a novelty factor that I think would work better in a galleria setting. The Kinect Sports guy and his gestures making cheers from the audience was pretty neat. I think that was a nice addition to this obviously Wii Sports-inspired title. Kinect Adventures looked a little clunky in that demonstration on the 2 ladies’ part and Kinect Joy Ride...well, I liked seeing the woman making the boost motion, that's all I'll say about that.

But their demonstration confirmed my suspicions that they would look at customers under the false "casual/hardcore" dichotomy pigeonholing Kinect in the process. They threw a little red meat to the "hardcore" with the franchises of Call of Duty, Metal Gear Solid, Halo, and Gears of War then all of a sudden here's the little girl calling out for Skittles. Frankly, that was what Microsoft's whole show was about. It was a total about face of the strategy they've been enacting since the beginning of this generation. They want to be like Wii but better and in HD with XBox Live. And honestly, they had no choice but to do exactly that.

As negative as I was towards Microsoft's confusing, often blundering show (and that's me being generous), like you, I was genuinely impressed with Kinect's tech.  I'm just not convinced that Microsoft is the right parent to rear it, however, as I kept getting a creepy "children's beauty pageant" vibe from them.  Apart from the actors pantomiming 'fun' demonstrating Kinect onstage, my mind kept wandering to some future conference where confident developers were allowed to express themselves, and not given marching orders to simply retread well-worn roads.

This really came to me after seeing Harmonix's Dance Central, which was, for me, the most impressive demonstration of what's possible with Kinect, at least from a traditional standard, in that it shows how control-free control can dramatically improve and enhance the experience for players.  But unlike first-person shooters and sports games, real dancing has never required anything other than your own body (and limitless courage) to pick up and enjoy.  I want to see more of that, and less copying of what the other guys are doing.

I don't want to swing my arms and pretend I'm holding a bat, because it's more fun holding SOMETHING in my hands.  I like the weight and feel of something in my hands.  Even baby car-seats offer fake steering wheels for pretend driving, because it’s more fun than imagining that I'm holding something.  My advice to developers is to not waste resources on making inferior versions of today's popular games, but use your new tools to create things that benefit from the interactions that are now possible.

I'm actually excited to see what talented developers can squeeze out of this new interface in the future as they move away from prescribed definitions of what games 'have' to be, and no longer feel compelled (or forced) to simply mimic what's hot and selling elsewhere.  I'm reminded how clunky first-generation Wii and DS software was, and how it took several years - and leaps of faith - to stabilize and prove how effective these new interactions could be.  I think that Kinect, with proper support and development, could offer revolutions in augmented reality that will change the way we interact with software and videogames.

But swinging phantom tennis rackets and baseball bats that aren't there?  That's just prostituting what it's capable of, and the sooner developers get a handle on the tech (and away from Microsoft's market research envy) the better.

One thing that I can say about Microsoft's show is that at least it had some kind of form and reason for being. Sony's show to me was except for key moments...boring. To me, it seemed like Sony was a kid coming to class with a half-finished book report trying to bluff his way through the presentation. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Nintendo's show right before them sucked the air out of the room leaving them breathless. The execs seemed tired and uninspired with eyes glazed over as they reiterated and re-reiterated their upcoming games lists adding a new game to the mix each time. It's pretty sad that their highlight may have been the gaming speech from "Kevin Butler" backed up with the new stereoty– I mean – commercial spokesman, Marcus.

The preceding conference put a damper on Sony's long-designed plans in 3D World but Killzone 3 must have looked impressive in 3D. It looked graphically impressive without it. As for PlayStation Move, what impressed me was the demonstration of Sorcery. Not because of the tech of the Move controller but because of the spell effects with the fire being combined with the whirlwind spell to make a fiery whirlwind. I have to say that was pretty cool. One of the biggest highlights in my book had to be LittleBigPlanet 2. The first game was packed full of entertainment and then they take it to the next level with the ability to make nearly any videogame genre within the game. DEFINITELY a grabber for me!

I was insulted by PlayStation Plus though. I feel they are using this on their fans as a Trojan Horse to renege on the promise that PSN would be a free service. It will start small but eventually they're going to try to usher everyone into Plus and make it their XBox Live. Free PSN was an edge PS3 had over the 360. What do you think about this?

Well, as I mentioned above, I almost felt sorry for Microsoft as they had much bigger chainsaws to juggle with their conference.  That said, Sony's conference was considerably more subdued and company line, and I think given their horrible (and hilarious internet meme-making) conference of 2006, this comes out as a net win for them.  I'm fairly certain that, given a choice, Sony's executives would rather they put out a forgettable Powerpoint Show and impressive floor display than the alternative, with nary a "giant enemy crab" in sight.

3D was the word of the day, as they’re desperately trying to sell everyone on the idea that simply going HD isn't good enough anymore.  Funny, after four years of trying to convince us to buy HDTVs and Blu-ray movies, they've hit the reset button and now want us to buy new 3D HDTVs, 3D glasses, and rebuy our Blu-rays to take advantage of the latest trend.  Just as current HDTVs have now come within reach of the average user, I'm not sure that Sony is going to be successful in selling their latest technological lifestyle to people who are still catching up to their last.

Games like Killzone 3 and Gran Turismo 5 look great in 3D - I was there, trust me.  But they don't require 3D to work and clearly weren't designed to take advantage of the tech.  The same thing could be said about the majority of Sony's Move titles, in that most of them don't necessarily require the new motion-sensing controller to work, or even work well.  Sony was selling 3D and Move as options to the PlayStation experience, not requirements, and I think betrayed whatever external enthusiasm their smiling executives may have faked onstage.

The games on the floor were great, if predictable, and this is where I think Sony really stole the show from Microsoft.  Both were tasked with convincing their current users to consider adding motion-controls to their stables of playing options, and Sony's decision to choose 'additional controls' as opposed to 'control replacement' was smarter.  Their key titles, Killzone 3, Gran Turismo 5, LittleBigPlanet 2, etc, all used Move in ways that seemed to enhance the experience, but wouldn't necessarily require it to use.

The Move-specific games were so-so, and like Microsoft's Kinect were less impressive than they should have been.  Sports Champions was the expected Wii Sports-clone, and nothing else really stood out for me.  LittleBigPlanet 2 should be fairly incredible with motion-controls, however, and I hope Sony realizes this when the two become available later this year.

Sony's various bundles of the Move controller itself were confusing.  Sports Champions may not require two Move wands to play, but the games were clearly designed for them.  Including a single Move wand with the game guarantees that many users first experience will be substandard and incomplete, which is the opposite of what you want when trying to convince them to invest time (and money) in a new control scheme.  Not a single Move bundle includes the 'navigation' controller, which only furthers my theory that even Sony doesn't seem fully confident in their new - and definitely not standard - control scheme.

The Marcus "Step Your Game Up" PSP campaign, while amusing, is straight out of 2006 and felt incredibly tired.  While it was noble to see Sony behind the PSP (3000) and continue their support of the platform, this felt more perfunctory than passionate.  I know our pre-show predictions prognosticated a newer, more powerful PSP2, and I'm still convinced one is coming.  In fact, if anything Sony's conference felt like it was missing a major part of the company's upcoming mobile strategy, as though the next PSP was held back as not to become cannibalized by Nintendo's show-stealing 3DS announcement.  This may just be a conspiracy theory on my part, but I'm sticking to it.

Also, I disagree about PlayStation Plus.  I'm on record for not liking Microsoft's Xbox Live pricing strategy, and Sony's new tiered subscription plan reinforces that.  Not only does this free Sony up from having to impose a required subscription on the original PSN (which would have been a mistake), but now allows them to retain their 'free' status of offering the base services of Xbox Live (online multiplayer, demos, communication, services like Facebook, Netflix, etc) without charging, but their paid subscription (which matches Xbox Live) makes Microsoft's current offerings look greedy and prehistoric by comparison.  Just as long as the new PlayStation Plus service doesn't usurp and eliminate the original service, I think this is a giant win for the PlayStation 3.

I think "Straight Outta 2006" is gonna be Dr. Dre's new single in the N.W.A. reunion. That's a joke of course but all of this rehash isn't, sad to say. Both Sony's and Microsoft's aims to beat Nintendo at their own game will always make them look like the runner-up to the champ. But fact is despite what people think of Microsoft and Kinect, Sony is forced to make this transition just as much. In this contest with Microsoft over eroding grounds, Sony is still coming up short despite its improvements since last September's price cut. Move fails to have that WOW factor that Kinect is sure to use in its advertising. Regardless of it being possibly more solid an offering than Kinect's, it's basically Sony's Wiimote at the end of the day. Still it was nice of Sony to give longtime PlayStation fans a helping of Twisted Metal. And also was that Gran Turismo 5 demo real footage or CGI trickery? Those CAN'T be the real graphics! Can they?

And speaking of unreal, what in the skies and heavens happened at Nintendo's conference? WOW! Just WOW, man! They purely delivered at their presentation! From top to bottom they gave you more and more. You could not be bored watching their show. I expected it to be good but they went on to make it amazing! Everything presented had my interest at the very least. And the on-stage Zelda glitch doesn't worry me. Nintendo is not Phillips and this is not the CD-i. They don't make a bad Zelda. I look forward to seeing the promise of Wii MotionPlus exampled in Skyward Sword's gameplay. Rolling bombs like bowling balls is going to be so fun.

The only thing missing from Mario Sports Mix is American football. Maybe they're saving that for a separate release. I'm definitely gonna watch the charts to see whether Dance Central or Just Dance 2 sells more later on this year. But the games that REALLY stirred my interest (outside of Zelda) begin with Epic Mickey and Kirby's Epic Yarn. They really couldn't label them any more appropriately. So fitting that Mickey Mouse's return to relevance would come through the Disney of videogames, Nintendo. And wow wasn't Kirby a breath of fresh air in the midst of very similar militaristic first-person shooters? By the time they rolled out Retro Studios' Donkey Kong Country, the 3DS, and Kid Icarus, I was exhausted.

And to finish the way they did with the models presenting the 3DS and the rising of the Zelda kiosks was the gravy on the mashed potatoes. Something I have long predicted has come true. At this show, Nintendo finally snapped the tension in the industry. They won the argument. They broke the backs of the "hardcore". I think the standoff is over now and Nintendo's success has just begun. What say you?

Nintendo absolutely and completely dominated the show, there's no question about that.  The only people who would say otherwise are the people who weren't there.  But I'm not talking just about Nintendo 2010, but Nintendo 2006.  The impact of that show was felt in both Microsoft's and Sony's conferences, as both companies had to eat crow after years of childish taunts and casting motion-controls as 'gimmicks'.  If anything, this marginalization came back to Pac-Man chomp them in the rump.  Reading online gaming websites and blogs for the past four years has been tedious, as the brainwashed soldiers (most often the 'journalists' themselves) did their best to indoctrinate their readers with the PR spittle coming out of Microsoft and Sony. What a shock it must have been for these easily led sheep to watch their false gods crumble at the hands of supposed 'gimmicks'.

That so many of them experienced late-stage conversions of how Nintendo 'returned' to the hardcore is laughable as it is tragic, because I fear they may (yet again) pass off a new bias to their readers again with Microsoft and Sony.  When will they learn they don't have to take sides?  That the very idea of a videogame 'war' is complete fiction, and they CAN have their cake (not just crow) and eat it too?

Sorry about that, but it needed to be said.  Back on track, as impressive as games like Kirby, Donkey Kong, NBA Jam, Just Dance 2, and so many others were (and they were impressive), they almost felt obligatory at this point. While I'm excited to see new versions of their past hits, I had the same feelings of déjà vu that I felt seeing many of Microsoft and Sony games on the floor; been there, done that.  Not that Kirby didn't look deliriously inventive (yarn!) or I wasn't giddy to see a new Donkey Kong (it's time!).  Zelda was gorgeous and I'm sure we're going to love it. But while I'm happy that Nintendo is finally coming full-circle with some of their franchises, I still hoped for something a bit more stylish with their new offerings than with reconstituted Mario Sports or Wii Party games.

Still, I was really impressed with (the trailer) for Kid Icarus, a game that I've waited more than patiently for twenty years, and Epic Mickey was the second-best Mario Galaxy clone at the show.  Second-best because Sonic Colors, a game I had little hopes for going in, was one of the biggest surprises for me as it looked fantastic.  I'm not going to get into the actual games themselves because, while I was there, I didn't actually play any of them.  Not that I didn't want to.

And what else can I say about the 3DS?  We knew it was coming, but the sheer force of its official showing went so far beyond our wildest expectations - and I really do mean that. The third-party support was staggering - no surprise given how much support the original DS received - but its clear the more powerful 3DS would become home to games that rival those found on the Xbox 360 or PS3.  New editions of Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Dead or Alive, Metal Gear Solid, and countless other 'hardcore' franchises guarantee that third-party developers have accepted it, and its ability to adapt current titles (again, using original assets from HD consoles) seems extraordinarily forward-thinking.

Plus, the glasses-free 3D worked; it really did.  That leads me to wonder why such innovation isn't coming from companies like Sony or even Microsoft, both of which are considerably larger and have significant resources at their disposal.  True, the 3DS's tech probably wouldn't work on full-size televisions at this point, but the simple fact that Nintendo/Sharp have achieved 3D WITHOUT THE GLASSES is the single-biggest innovation to 3D since 3D itself.  These innovations should be coming from companies who claim to be invested in the technology, and Sony's insistence that we buy new 3D HDTVs at the drop of a hat felt arrogant and tired.

The lines waiting to try out Nintendo's latest machine were upwards of three hours long, which may not best those of 2006's wait to play the Wii console, but good enough for a strong second-place.  I think Nintendo can live with that.

Yes, what you just said there! Though I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, I had no idea just how total the turnaround in opinion toward Nintendo would be from the outcome of this conference. What was so refreshing was the variety of games shown. You had your fantasy action-adventures, your arcade sports, your party game, your dance game, your RPGs, your FPSs, your 3D platformers, your side-scroller platformers. Each art style was immediately distinct and unique. No parody-filled confusions from side-by-side shots of supposedly different games that look all the same. The enthusiasm was there, the respect for the craft was there, the surprises were there, the fun was there, the magic was there. And I think it took a blowout showing like this to remind those who forgot why the company is special.

You saw the insanity in person while I stayed at home and watched the madness from computer monitors and TV screens. But both of us felt the power of Nintendo's conference. I wished I could have felt some Pikmin power or F-Zero power but I guess they don't want to shoot their whole load just yet. Speaking of that, let's recall our pre-E3 Ping-Pong and see what we predicted right and what we predicted wrong about how these shows would go.

I'll start it off with my calls on Nintendo since we're on the discussion of missing franchises. No Pikmin or F-Zero but we certainly saw Kid Icarus. We saw a Arwing from Starfox come out of the 3DS so that sort of counts. Miyamoto did indeed come out with Hyrulean sword and shield! And I'm sure the E3 2004 guy was hollering like a madman when he saw it. Like we both predicted Nintendo focused mostly on the software with franchise players (and did they!), stuff for the new audience, and choice 3rd party support (to say the least!). No Vitality Sensor from Nintendo surprisingly and no Ubisoft's thing doesn't count. I knew Nintendo wouldn't come out with an all-in-one MotionPlus Wiimote but you sort of got me with Nyko's WiiWand+ and SnakeByte's Remote XL+.

So we'll call that a draw. Lucky son-of-a...Oh! It was obvious that Nintendo's strategical focus was not Wii but 3DS so that panned out. So much for my reservations about it being "too soon". DSi now rightfully looks like the placeholder before this breakout idea. Nintendo answered my console vs. computer argument on one point by allowing 3D movies to play on 3DS. They may have stemmed Apple's rising tide with that move nevermind Sony. Count off your calls, Universal.

Well, I was right that there's be a combined Wii Remote + Wii MotionPlus hybrid, but it didn't come from Nintendo.  I should have known they'd leave it to third-parties (as usual) to serve those of us who don't like console clutter, and it seems that both Nyko and SnakeByte showed up for duty.

The rest of pre-show Nintendo predictions, more or less, fell along where I thought they would.  Zelda may have been the 'it' game going in, but it was expected to be.  Not so with new editions of Donkey Kong and Kirby, which came out of nowhere and really bowled over anyone who saw them.  Goldeneye was a nice semi-surprise, but apart from a handful of others - led by Epic Mickey - one could make the point that Nintendo's real power was leveraging their past towards their future.  It worked.

Another surprise was the unparalleled software support shown for the 3DS.  I will admit that I didn't expect them to open the nostalgia treasure chest so wide, and it does look like the 3DS will be the requisite retro dumping ground for past treasures (but in 3D) to help make the inevitable wait for 3DS-original software that much easier.  Like the Wii, the most exciting titles seemed to be new editions to popular franchises, especially Kid Icarus, Pilotwings, and others.  Exciting stuff, but we'll have to wait to see if the hype matches the drapes.

I wish I had talked more about it before, because I'd seem like an absolute genius right now if I did, but Ubisoft's Just Dance 2 was an absolute presence.  Even if all eyes weren't on the sequel (as many were), the dancing genre it helped re-create was everywhere on the floor, and many (myself included) felt that Dance Central was the best game shown for Microsoft's Kinect.  Who knew that people would respond to games that keep things simple, fun, and non-intrusive?

I know who knew but let's see what I knew about Microsoft at E3. My 3 points for The Project formerly known as Natal still stand. On the #1 point: Does it work as advertised? Yes. They showed off a controller-less motion control system that responds to the body. The river-rafting part of Kinect Adventures looked a little suspect but I'll give them a pass on that due to all 3 shows having some sort of interference going on. On the #2 point: Is it at reasonable price? No. While it hasn't been spelled out officially all signs seem to point to a $150 price tag. That won't fly on top of a system that costs in current range from $150 to $300. Not while Wii gives you the full meal deal out the box for $200.

On the #3 point: Can they convince their already established audience to give up the old controls? No. And it doesn't like Microsoft is even trying to with the Kinect presentation. Reaction to the Kinect demonstration is largely negative disappointing some of those who were looking forward to it. And the disappearance of Milo from E3 2009 was injury to insult. It wasn't much of a prediction that Microsoft would buy into the phony casual/hardcore market mentality and Kinect is laser-focused on "casuals". No telling about how they're going to package Kinect. It wasn't shown at E3 that they would bundle Kinect into the Arcade models while leaving the old controls for the Elites but we'll see if this pans out later at launch. Got any more, Universal?

If Microsoft's conference was a celebration by committee, their actual floor show was damage control.  It was nice to see the Xbox Slim make an appearance (we called that one), but to have this long-awaited revision not come with a paired-down price was a little surprising.

Speaking of surprising, I find it interesting (there I go again) that they declined to unveil the Kinect hardware pricing at the show itself, and only (semi) confirmed the much-rumored retail cost of $149 when pressed to.  I don't think we've seen whatever bundle-magic they have in store to help convince users who might be looking at $199 Black or White Wii consoles to choose the Xbox 360, but I don't think there's enough pack-in games in the world to get the Halo fans to sign up anytime soon.

I wasn't expecting to see an 8-player Halo Party or Call of Duty: Family Adventures to sell to the 'hardcore' (though Your Shape Fitness' subtitle Fitness Evolved was pretty funny), but I didn't expect to see this base swept under the rug so quickly. Microsoft needs to learn to balance their established franchises and exclusives (which are shrinking, thanks to a resurgent PlayStation platform) against chance-taking with their new hardware.  I half-expected to see them mimic Sony's Move by offering some physical controller 'thing' to help bridge the two seemingly different markets, but alas, I was mistaken.

Well, you weren't the only one who was mistaken. I was also mistaken thinking Sony would show the "PSP2" at E3. It was M.I.A. at the show. Perhaps the 3DS explains why. So that throws out my speculations about price and platform focus. As for my 3 points concerning Move. For point #1: Does it work as advertised? Yes. But I don't think it was that much different Wiimote with MotionPlus. For point #2: Is it at a reasonable price? Yes and no. Move controller is $50 by itself, the same as the combined Wiimote/MotionPlus package. But Navigation controller is $30 while Nunchuk is $20. Also those bundles are weak. Only one Move controller without any assistant Navigation controller in either of them.

I know PlayStation Eye is part of the cost but they look bad going up against a $200 Wii megadeal with a $400 console/Move package. It only does everything...but effective pricing. For point #3: Can they convince their already established audience to give up the old controls? Maybe. Sony hedged bets like I expected but unlike Microsoft they seem a little more committed to using Move over the variety of their library. Not just simply use it as the "casual magnet". They still do fall into that trap of thinking of audiences in terms of casual and hardcore but not to the degree of Microsoft.

And to that point, Microsoft did specify that Kinect software would cost around $40 each, at least for the more family-friendly titles they showed.  Again, I think this shows desperation on their part as they attempt to pre-determine the relative value (for developers as much as consumers) before they even hit retail shelves.  It's clear they want to position the Xbox 360 as a console the whole family can gather and flair around, and this can only come at the expense of core users...at least this is what Microsoft seems to think.  But they don't realize that it's not six of one and half-dozen of the other, and that by continuing to segment their popular console into minute demographics comes off as confusing and silly.

As negative as I sound right now, I want to stress that I still love my Xbox 360, and I'll be feeding it plenty of new games come this holiday season.  And I'll continue to support it as long as developers continue to, and I hope that someday this will include my buying a Kinect attachment as well.  But nothing I saw convinced me that will be happening anytime soon, and I suspect that practically everyone reading this will probably agree.  Dance Central aside, the line-up simply wasn't compelling, and I can't see the market they want to capture going for the initial investment ($200/console + $150/Kinect) to essentially play carbon-copies of what they can with the Wii.

Of the two companies I believe Sony came out ahead, not just with a more confident software line-up, but their vision of motion-control augmentation was much closer aligned to mainstream thinking.  I can appreciate Microsoft's forward-thinking efforts to remove the controller from the equation, but we're still in the infancy of motion-controls, and like it or not, people still want and prefer something tangible in their hands when they swing them around.  Wii-clone be damned, the Move control (technically) works as Sony promised and the games that were demonstrated clearly showed this.  The bundles may have been bungled, but the pricing is (relatively) good, and by coupling Move controls into games that don't require them: (i.e. Killzone 3, LittleBigPlanet 2) but could potentially be enhanced by them, Sony's built a much stronger bridge than Microsoft could ever hope to.

I was wrong in thinking that Sony needed to have a sensational show, and that they needed to show off new hardware to compete with Nintendo's 3DS.  While, like you, I still think the PSP2 exists and it was purposely held back (a wise decision), Sony's show simply rang of confidence in their core product, namely the PlayStation 3.  Games like Killzone 3, InFamous 2, LittleBigPlanet 2, etc, may have been expected and less surprising, but consider how far that Sony has come since their disastrous 2006 showing and you'll see their Aesop-like approach to climbing back on top.  They seem to have accepted their tortoise role in this race, and while Microsoft and some extent Nintendo show off their flashy, razzle-dazzle wares, the PlayStation 3 has quietly become the safest platform for traditional and progressive players out there.

One thing I was spot-on about (toot, toot) was Apple's presence, although I was right in ways even I couldn't have imagined.  Sony's insidious 'Marcus' campaign positioned the iPhone as a direct competitor to the PSP, and it was easier to count the gaming media that DIDN'T have iPhones or iPads to work on than those who did.  Apple's phone/device has become a real contender in the market, and while its software may not carry the same cache as a DS or PSP title, the emergence of a completely independant platform (i.e. non-console based) is a great thing for smaller and catalog developers.

Well as far as I'm concerned Apple's stuff has always been PSP's prime focus which is why they were blindsided by the DS. But at this point PSP is moot. When will Sony put out the PSP2? If they want to keep up with Apple and Nintendo's new 3DS, the old PSP ain't gonna cut it.

But PSP's not Sony's whole problem. Look, I'm going to be honest. Sony will fall flat on its face with Move. They didn't make it the standard control, they didn't price it competitively. Potential looks better with them in how they allowed optional support for a variety of its games but you cannot get away from those 2 sticky issues. Because Move will ultimately fail to live up to its potential, Sony will have nowhere left to go for the PS3. A PS3 which still fights a pointless battle with the 360 over a waning audience...and loses. Despite improvements, XBox 360 still outsells PS3. If Move doesn't ignite PS3's fortunes, then eventually they will be forced to either make a whole new console starting another generation or drop out of videogaming altogether.

The 360 is not in a much better boat. Kinect will ultimately fail despite Microsoft's heavy advertising. It actually takes away genres that could work under those controls. It seems to be best with dance games and anything with free-range motion. This lack of gaming versatility combined with its pricing and non-standardized controls will make sure it bombs in the marketplace. And just like Sony, Microsoft will end up fighting over spoils that are spoiling. That's absolutely irrelevant now. Nintendo broke the industry standoff at E3 2010 and now their Revolution is finishing its mission. We cannot have 3 major competitors existing like this forever. Two of which still mirror each other in almost every way.

Sony has the most to lose and it all depends on Microsoft's insistence that they stay in this business. No matter how much Microsoft is under attack from all corners in its total business they still have Windows and until that is broken up Microsoft can continue to be Daddy Warbucks. This means that one of those two is going to leave this race. My thought is Sony first because of the money backing.

Both of these two confirm Nintendo's approach to the market and that can only boost Nintendo. In the home console market, Wii will continue to break records and defy expectations while in the handheld market Nintendo has begun to answer Apple with 3DS. They will undercut Sony's 3D plans forcing them to depend on Move to boost PS3. The key to this victory rests in 3DS's price. Nintendo has been getting a little greedy lately overpricing the DSi and DSi XL. This might be delusional but I'm looking a price of $200 at best. With $200 and under, the world is theirs. A new competitor will show up within the next 3 years to usher in the 8th generation which I believe will be unrecognizable to the 7 before it. In the meantime Nintendo will run out the rest of the 7th generation in firm control.

The only thing that can stop them is arrogance and greed. Just like last time when they had the world in the palm of their hands.

This article originally appeared at Playswitch.com