Nintendo's press conference has just shut down, meaning we've had our big three shows to kick off E3. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all shown their hands and revealed that they've got cooking for the year, and it's safe to say that there are a LOT of opinions floating around.
So, how did each company do? Did anybody "win" E3 this year, as we arbitrarily assign championship to faceless corporations? Well, Destructoid is on hand to review and rate all three pressers, because needless scrutiny is what gaming's all about!
Microsoft
Microsoft was, in a word ... shit. There's no way around that and no point beating about the bush. The company seems to have truly given up as this generation draws to a close, relying on a bunch of television shows and sports, sports, SPORTS in order to drag itself through a tortuous hour of nonsense.
The show was, in essence, identical to last year's waste of time. Halo 4, a sliver of a look at a new Gears of War, then Kinect and sports forever. The fact it closed its show with a huge demo of a third-party multiplatform title says it all -- Microsoft is spent this generation. It's having one more Halo and one more Gears to end out, and other than that, it's stopped caring. At least about games.
If, however, you want half a dozen video streaming services to watch Dr. Who as you watch Dr. Who while watching Dr. Who, you're covered! Oh, and SmartGlass was at least interesting, if a bit of a weak attempt to steal the Wii U's thunder.
South Park looked hot but, again, it is third party and multiplatform. Hardly a coup, especially with Parker and Stone mocking the host company.
Grade: F
Sony
After the mindless pap that was Microsoft, Sony had a fairly easy act to follow, and it helped that the company opened its show with a montage of videogames. Actual videogames, fancy that! The opening montage showcased the PlayStation's properties superbly and really shows the strength of the company's titles. Say what you will about Sony, it has a wonderful range of brands.
It was a solid show. Nothing mindblowing, but almost consistently polished and interesting. All-Stars Battle Royale is a shameless Smash Bros. clone, but I am okay with that, God of War: Ascension was more of the same, but high in quality, and The Last of Us was an astounding closer. Beyond looked intriguing, but with no clue as to how that lengthy cutscene was in any way interactive, I shall remain skeptical of Cage's snake oil.
Let us just forget Wonderbook, though, because fuck Wonderbook. It was just EyePet, made far less endearing, and the amount of time dedicated to it was dreadful. But hey, I can now play Final Fantasy IX on my Vita ... soon.
Strong effort from Sony indeed.
Grade: C+
Nintendo
Nintendo had a fun time this year, and some very heavy hitters. Opening with Pikmin 3 gave it an immense lead as Nintendo went out of its way to please the crowd as much as possible. While we did not get a slew of megaton announcements, there seemed to be few stinkers. Even dark horses like LEGO City Underground looks promising, and NintendoLand, while silly, could be a laugh.
I will say that the number of ports already eyeing the Wii U is concerning. The Wii suffered due to a bunch of slapdash porting and it seems publishers are already savoring another quick and easy buck by shoehorning touchscreen controls into old games. That is not Nintendo's fault of course, but it is nonetheless sinister.
Still, some cool stuff was shown. ZombieU is very exciting, especially thanks to ZOMBIE REGGIE! Still, it is odd that the 3DS was shunted away to its own show at a later date. I understand that Wii U was the star, but the 3DS deserved more center-stage love than what it got. Ah well.
Nintendo had the best presser, in my opinion, though it was, like Sony, more solid than amazing. Microsoft's weakness really made the others look far better than they might have under different circumstances. Still, enjoy your slender victory, Nintendo! You earned it.
Grade: B-
Contest:
12:38 PM on 06.05.2012 | 
thinking of surfing...or watersports
Really hope the 3DS thing tomorrow is good.
MS: B-
Sony: C+
So far, they've been giving me all the videogames I need and love, usually at 69p a go. Shame Nintendo didn't want to even try. Maybe Christmas 2013 I'll get a Wii U, but I'm not holding my breath for it.
See man its just not as fun without konami.
There are quite a few cool things in the e3 - Watch Dogs , Splinter cell , Tomb Raider , Ass 3 naval combat and metro last light hopefully
And dont forget about Bioshock infinite .
I was just thinking to myself in the moments leading up to this article that Microsoft totally failed, but Sony and Nintendo were close, but no where near amazing, with Nintendo edging out Sony simply because they're showing stuff for their new hardware..
Overall: This turned out to be a surprisingly dull E3 overall so far, and I'm not expecting the excitement to get much higher.
I agree with you completelly, Mr. Sterling. Sony and Nintendo were at least focused and serviceable.
...and I'll get the obvious out of the way: Jonathan Holmes MUST SiNG. He must. Wii Demand It.
I think they were all closer than that, actually. Pikmin really clinched it though... for me, at least. Incredible game.
Since we still have announcements and content to be shown tomorrow and throughout the week, I'd say Nintendo has the best e3 presence.
Personally, I'd love for E3 pressers to be judged a year later, after things have gone to market. Not to single Sony out here, but so many times in the last handful of years have I seen Sony declared king of the E3 mountain (not that it ever really meant much, even back in the day), only to have their big reveals absolutely fail to gain traction. It seems like they expended more effort talking about the Move at E3 than they did supporting it once it came out. All I know is that perceived E3 success doesn't seem to mean jack shit a month later.
Also, year of the third person action/shooter with bows and arrows. Jesus Christ, their metrics must say that it's the only thing "core" gamers want.
Nintendo definitely "won" the show this year.
Worst segment= Sony (Wonderbook)
Most disappointing= Nintendo
Who gives a fuck about grades. None of them won. Except maybe Ubisoft.
Thank god Watch Dogs was shown, at least this E3 wasn't a complete waste of time, just 99%.
Mommy, I'm scared!
2. Microsoft (some good stuff, but depressingly average and too much about other things than games. Games MS, GAMES!)
3. Nintendo (what an atrocious showing. You couldn't convince me I need your new hardware and your software was more than lacking)
Mommy, I'm scared!
There's nothing on the Wii-U that's appealing to me right now, I was hoping Nintendo would go all out and really change my mind but sadly that's not the case.
Still I enjoyed it more than Microsoft's train-wreck and I enjoyed Sony's conference quite a lot although the Wonderbook section was fucking painful. Overall like many people have said Ubisoft is the winner for me.
Overall I think Sony and Nintendo were pretty much equal. At least both of them have a couple of interesting games, even though we knew about all of them. Microsoft... Well, you know.
Their 3DS showing was ok but the Wii U is looking god awful. Microsoft showed absolutely nothing but sometimes the best show is showing nothing at all. I'm happy about the obligatory additions to the XBOX making it more media capable
Sony probably had the best showing but they mostly showed obvious things and I'm disappointed by the trickle down strategy for PS1 on Vita
In other news, pigs have spontaneously gained the power of flight!
From what I remember:
Ascend: New Gods
Dance Central 3
Fable: The Journey
Forza Horizon
Gears of War: Judgment
Halo 4
LocoCycle
Matter
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Wreckateer
Sony's conference definitely had more time devoted to games, but it isn't as if Microsoft's lacked games entirely. Nintendo's, on the other hand, had me hard at the beginning but left me begging for more at the end... and not in a good way. And now that I've seen more footage of games implementing the WiiU gamepad, I'm almost certain it's going to be a hindrance at best and a burden at worst.
Regardless, NOTHING beat that Last of Us footage. That alone put Sony in the lead for me. (Unless we're counting Ubisoft, but that just wouldn't be fair...)
But Lego City looks so badass that it makes up for some of the presentation's shortcomings.
Lemme guess:
Microsoft = Everything better with Kinect
Sony = phoned it in, vague, disappointing, probably vitacrapola
Nintendo = Oh look, it's those games you've played dozens of times before, rehashed possibly on new systems
*reads article carefully*
I was pretty close. Noticing that statement on the Wii U and it's controls. Uncomfortably reminiscent of the DS and it's awful stylus controls, and the WaggleBox 2000 with it's waggly badness.
*sigh*
Look it up. Its like pikmin+ little kings story
Sony's was ok, Last of Us showed great, and the AC3 boat demo got me excited. I wanted a more support shown for Vita. They spent too long on the book.
Nintendo's was the worst, nothing interested me. Even if I did care about Pikmin, there was a total lack of substance, for fuck's sake give me something new and challenging to care about.
"All I know is that perceived E3 success doesn't seem to mean jack shit a month later."
You're 100% right, of course, but it's still a hoot to play along.
Don't kill the joy.