Every year man-nerds, fanboys and gaming enthusiasts huddle together to debate, discuss and argue over who won E3. This really picked up ever since Microsoft entered the console race with the Xbox, and by the time the Xbox 360 entered the competition it became a full blown war.

This year a lot of people were curious what the big three would bring to the table, especially in regards to innovation and exclusivity. However, two out of three companies disappointed greatly on the software front, and one delivered in spades. Can you guess who it is?

Nintendo. The Big ‘N’ really brought it home this year at E3 not only by announcing a brand new console with an innovative new controller but also by acknowledging that they have abandoned the core gamer and they really want them back. Hardware announcements plus heavy third-party support with a ton of hardcore games on the way for the Wii U makes this new console Nintendo’s most hardcore system since the N64. Also, take note that the Wii U is getting all the same hardcore titles that will be on the PS3 and 360 but with added support for the Wii U controller, meaning that scanning for aliens in Aliens: Colonial Marines could take on a whole new immersive effect just the same as hacking, slashing and dicing in Darksiders II would be insanely fun. HDMI support and backwards compatibility also gave Nintendo an extra edge for converting current-gen users into potential next-gen consumers.



Microsoft lands in second place just because they kept the games flowing in and offered a lot of support for Kinect in third-party, hardcore titles like Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and Mass Effect 3. Still, Microsoft is determined to cash in on the cash cow known as the casual crowd and all those silly Kinect rail-shooters and kids games taking up time at E3 only pushed the core gamer further away from Kinect. Still, with hardcore exclusives like Ryse from Crytek, there’s at least some modicum of expenditure on Microsoft’s part to reel in core gamers with Kinect titles.

Poor, poor Sony. Jack Tretton started off the E3 press conference by wasting a lot of time apologizing about PSN. It’s nice to acknowledge that but bringing up a security issue without announcing anything security related was just kind of pointless. After getting the PSN hacking debacle out of the way the only hardcore games PS3 owners had to look forward to were Dust 514, Starhawk and Uncharted 3. Like Microsoft, Sony spent a lot of time pandering to the casual crowd with second-rate PS Move titles. They recovered from the motion-based misstep by focusing on the PlayStatoin Vita and a fair share of new titles coming out for the PS Vita. The handheld offerings are snazzy to say the least but PS3 owners were left wondering where all the good stuff was for them. No new triple-A IPs were announced and nothing new was said about triple-A games already on the way. For a system struggling to maintain presence in the Americas Sony really should have had more third-party publishers present some new titles or more titles with exclusive PS3 features to at least verify that the console won’t be a marketing afterthought throughout 2011 and early 2012.

Nevertheless, what did you think of this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo? On the software publisher front it was obvious EA and Ubisoft went neck-to-neck with some high profile titles on hand. But concerning the big three, which one did you think came out on top?