Mission Impossible: E3

So this week was the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. A personal goal of mine is to have a legitimate reason to go…. some day I hope! The biggest buzz was over the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PS3, while Microsoft showed off their “Live Anywhere” campaign dwelling mostly on software. Let’s break it down!

Everyone is saying how much of a risk Nintendo is taking with their non-orthodox controller and “blue ocean” strategy along with the odd name “Wii” for their console (Revolution was such a nice codename, couldn’t we had just kept that?). The thing is Nintendo is a very conservative company. They don’t take really too many gambles (virtual boy aside) and since everyone seems to be really accepting of their controller for the Wii, the risk is minimal. With their strong first party titles, all Nintendo is doing is printing money as far as I’m concerned. And the $250 price on the Wii is sweet, it won’t break the bank like the PS3.

Now here’s the thing, while people think Nintendo is taking the risk, in actuality Sony is. The PS3 will make or break Sony’s much touted Blu-Ray discs and Cell processor. Soy is banking so much on the PS3 to make these technologies standard, that they stand to have the most to loose financially if it flops. Now obviously the PS3 is gong to sell well in the gaming market, but will it succeed in making Blu-ray the standard or will it be UMD discs all over again? The $600 price tag hurts it for getting it under the tree for Christmas when the Wii is almost three times as cheap and the box360 most likely getting a slight price drop around that time. No doubt about it that the PS3 boasts the most power, but how much more life like can things get? and then there’s the software factor to figure in.

There weren’t too many surprises shown on the software side of things. We were kinda expecting teasers for the usual sequels. Let’s Break it down by what caught my eye…

On the Xbox side of things the Halo 3 trailer was awesome. Not much was revealed of course, but we do know the covenant has taken over most of earth only to discover forerunner technology buried under Africa.

Dead or alive Xtreme Beach Volley Ball 2 looked good and titillating as always.

On the Nintendo side of things Super Smash Bros Brawl looks killer, with online play and for the first time ever third party characters.

And finally Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII really stood out for the PS3.

That’s about everything worth showing a video for. The other big announcements were for world of Warcraft’s expansion the Burning Crusade. The Draeni were announced as alliance’s race. It’ll be interesting to see how this is worked into the storyline and how well the race will be integrated into the alliance.