I was just responding to a post by Leon Cox over on GamerDork, which is worth a read but my response ended up becoming more a summing up of E3 2011 for me, so thought I would save a copy here also:
I think a lot of people misunderstand what E3 is about. It’s about selling products same as everything these companies do. Why did MS cram their presentation with Kinect products? Because the potential sales of Kinect over the next year far outstretch those of the 360.
The part that annoys me most is showing off games that won’t be out until after the next E3, that’s just wasted space. Tell us about them next year not this. Show us things that will be out in the next 6 months that we can maintain excitement for.
Overall I was happy with MS. They finally showed Kinect being used in some ‘core’ apps, and in ways that doesn’t break current gameplay but just augments it, or adds alternative way to navigate none action items like the gunsmith mode.
Sony was always going to mainly be about showing of the PSV, I don’t think anyone was surprised by that, and how they are aligning themselves with a more global presence on devices outside of their own hardware.
Nintendo for me was the weakest. This was the year I expected them to win me back with a impressive new console. However they spent far too little time on it, clearly not having enough to talk about yet. Almost as if they didn’t plan to talk about it this year, but the internet had built up such a head of steam over the idea of a Wii2/HD they felt they had to show something.
The Wii U controller for me shows Nintendo again missing the point. Are touch based devices the future on controllers? Hell yeah, but not with a dedicated tablet I have to have lying around for just that console. I already own touch based devices in pocket and table top form factors. Make use of those things I already own, don’t give me another piece of tat to have lying around..I think Sony are the only ones picking up on that right now.
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