I am slightly reticent to give my opinion on who will "win" E3 because ultimately, E3 is a trade show for the various hardware and software manufacturers to showcase their latest offerings to the respective press conglomerate that will no doubt be descending upon LA, salivating at the prospect of breaking an exclusive to an indifferent gaming public regardless.
I, for one can barely muster any enthusiasm for the upcoming event except for the utter hilarity that tends to ensue whenever a company is clearly short of ideas and trying to sell it to the audience. Can anybody remember the Wii Vitality sensor and the utter confusion for what the point of such a device was for? How about Ubisoft's Battletag game where they had that tall bloke from the TV show Community to try and sell it to a clearly unimpressed audience? Does the words "fist bump" mean anything to you?
If I haven't made my stance abundantly clear by now, it is of no fault of your own. Perhaps, it's because I have taken the view not to expect any good news whatsoever from this or any expo and to be happy with whatever good news seeps through all the junk and comedy that will undoubtedly happen. I pray that Mr. Caffeine makes an appearance in the Ubisoft section or an encore of the Konami 2010 conference or something to do with Skittles.
I do not have many high hopes for a console being announced by either Microsoft or Sony due to Epic's lukewarm response and demand for more powerful consoles that can in Cliff Bleszinski's words in his interview with Wired "It needs to be a quantum leap. They need to damn near render Avatar in real time, because I want it and gamers want it—even if they don’t know they want it,”
While graphics aren't the be all, end all part of what makes a video game, Bleszinski's words hold a tad more weight than your average developer because his company's Unreal engine has been utilized in a lot of different games since 98 when Unreal first made it's emergence to the scene. So my first prediction for E3 is that there will be no console announcement. My reasoning behind this is that it simply wouldn't be cost-effective at this time, due to the economy being in the stinker, the high-production values being through the roof with the profit margins being too low for it to simply be sustainable.
My next prediction is for Sony to concentrate on the Vita with their various game line-up looking strong with LittleBigPlanet Vita and rumours of Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon and Call of Duty making an appearance. The PS3's line-up is also looking decent with a new God of War game in the works as well as Dust 514 and the Last of Us, with a small flicker of hope for the Last Guardian to make an appearance.
However we may have to make do with Sony's "homage" of Nintendo IPS in the shape of LittleBigPlanet Karting and Sony All-Stars Battle-Royale. Perhaps there will be some room for the Playstation Move, as I have a small hope that there will be some gameplay footage of the Star Trek game that apparently utilizes the PS Move wand.
I don't predict anything for Microsoft; other than to concentrate on showing more Kinect games and concepts, have COD on center stage, maybe a timed exclusive here and there and Halo 4. Microsoft's lack of IPs may be problematic, but there is a small possibility of a new Gears of War game making an appearance. If there is no new Gears game, perhaps there will be a new Alan Wake game that will surely please the fans. Frankly, I believe Deadly Premonition is a far superior game in terms of story and scope, but that's another story for another time. Maybe they will reboot Kameo or Blinx the Time Cat.
Nintedo may have an interesting line-up this time around, especially after the botched launch of the Wii U last year. We may finally get to see what the system will be capable of and what kind of games it'll deliver. Aliens' Colonial Marines is a game that I look forward to with trepidation, considering the fact that the game has been in development hell since being announced way back in 2001. However I will keep an eye on it and hope it doesn't turn into a Duke Nukem Forever type game.
Pikmin 3 has all but been confirmed, with a possibility of a Metroid game being made by Retro Studios and various other IPs to look forward to. If Nintendo plays their cards right and comes out with a system seller at launch in the form of a Starfox game or a F-Zero game; it could be argued that they could "win" E3. However, I have a small interest in how Dragon Quest X will fare; considering that it's an MMORPG that is being developed by Square Enix.
Gotta to admit; it's like ice in the veins.
I have a small interest in some PC games that will be coming out soon as well since a friend of mine has a high-end PC he keeps on taunting me with. I would be interested to see how Dark Souls fares on a PC with a high-end graphics card. Would also like to see more of Planetside 2 and to see how DayZ works out.
A couple of quick predictions. There will be no GTA 5 since Rockstar haven't been at an expo for 10 years. No Timesplitters 4 because the outlook looks rather hazy at best. No Deadly Premonition sequel despite SWERY putting a restraining order on me, Mass Effect 4 will be announced to completely troll their loyal fanbase and there will be no Half Life 3 because Valve are working on more deserving games. (See related video)
All in all, it doesn't matter who "wins" at an expo because the industry is diverse enough to show that there will be always something that will suit a certain player's disposition.
I'd say something cliche such as "I guess gamers are the real winners!" but I won't. I'd just like to remind the reader(s) that since we are all gamers, be it core/casual/Sony/Nintendo/Xbox /C64/PC, hopefully this E3 will be something to smile about or laugh at or be astonished by. I hope everyone has a good time watching it, that you hear a game announcement that you want to hear and to be eternally grateful that you live in a console era where there is no Blinx the Time Cat.
"The FPS battle royale "Blood Strike" is proud to announce that it has reached over 30 million downloads worldwide across different platforms by the end of March." - NetEase Games.
Here's everything you should know about Ninja Theory's long-awaited sequel.
Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment and developer SHIFT UP have released a new trailer for Stellar Blade featuring the game’s Japanese voice-over track.
"I don't predict anything for Microsoft"
What a surprise. Seriously, this sites negativity towards Microsoft and worshiping of Sony is past tedious.
Who do I think will win? Well, as a multiplatform gamer, I'd say me and every other gamer who goes into E3 wanting more than a biased victory, I dont care about exclusives, but I have a multitude of platforms that will recieve them and I am welcoming of that but I also watch E3 for the multiplatforms. The gamers are the winners, the fanboys are the losers...
What exceptional original IPs is Microsoft going to be showing at this event? Other than multi-platform releases, what else doe Microsoft have to look forward to other than promoting Kinect games or anything like that? Exactly. Besides, I'm fairly sure that I've been balanced on each system anyway; so there's no need to be so overtly sensitive. Thanks for playing!
No one will "WIN" E3. There is no award for winning handed out by the promoters of E3. So, basically you are inventing something that doesn't exist and pushing it as if it does. That makes no sense.
To be true, there are plenty of sites that hand out best of E3 awards, or recognize a companies exceptional effort to provide for their loyal consumers.
Just look through your games. I'm sure you'll find one with "best of E3 by _____.com"
The real winners are the devs that can prove to you that their games are worth your money.
From a business sense, Microsoft wins this year's E3. They have such a lack of new Ips and exclusives, yet they can get away with just announcing another Gears and Halo game, and that's all a Microsoft console needs, along with the most important feature, marketing.
Sony on the other hand, will pump out the most games, yet will remain in third in sales, unless you take into account the xbox 360's headstart and worldwide sales, in which case, PS3 has been selling better.
Quality wise, Sony will probably "win" E3 again, like last year, and the year before that.
Nintendo, I rather not waste my time talking about their 100th mario game they'll probably announce.