My analysis of E3 just ran in the Rocky today. The thing was like 60-inches long, or about six normal newstories long for those of you compariing. I broke it up into three pieces on Freeplay to make it more readable.

Part one deals with Nintendo and includes comments from Shigeru Miyamoto and Beth Llewelyn about Nintendo's plans to do for gaming what the iPod did for the MP3.

"We wanted to create a home console that wouldn't so much be just a video game console, it would be a device that would be fun to connect to your TV and very easy for everyone to use," said Shigero Miyamoto, Nintendo's senior managing director and the man who created Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda. "Therefore we wanted the interface, the Wii remote, to be a device that anyone in the family could feel is approachable to the point where you could just leave it on your coffee table and anyone could pick it up and immediately begin interacting with the television set. Gradually, as we began to look at these philosophies, that's how we started to make these decisions about these other options in terms of the control styles and things like that."

It's interesting to note that the Wii fits the description of disruptive technology to the letter. It's a device that's seeking out a new audience and doesn't do everything well, instead focusing in on one untapped area and doing that very well.

The Wii could be huge.

Part two deals with Sony's apparent strategy of relying on technophiles for early adoption of the PS3

It was disappointing that Sony was the only company that didn't grant me an interview for this story, so I had to rely on third-parties and of course my own take on what I saw. What I took away from E3 is that Sony's going to really have to push the technology and games that use it to succeed.

After being hammered at E3 for PS3's price tag, Sony is banking on this sort of inventive game play (Warhawk, Assassin's Creed, Eye of Judgement) to help justify the cost in gamers' eyes and help the PS3 in its battle of next-gen consoles.

The final section of my story deals with Microsoft and includes interviews with Peter Moore and CliffyB and their take on innovation.

Moore says he's not worried about the direction Nintendo, and to a lesser extent Sony, is taking with controller innovation.

"We like to innovate, but we believe innovation is in services and online play and doing all of the fundamental things we are doing," he said.

He points to the Xbox 360's ability to download high-definition video and play it on your TV. During E3, Microsoft made videos of many of their game's trailers and portions of their press conferences available online as soon as the games were announced.

Bleszinski sees Nintendo's introduction of its portable DS and the Wii's new control system as developments that are splitting gamers.

"There is a significant divide between two types of gamers," he said. "You have the Halo/GTA gamers and then the Brain Age, Nintendogs and Kingdom of Hearts gamers."

"I'm happy to be on the Halo-side of things. You need to to do what you like and what you know."

CliffyB's right. The question is whether it's splitting the existing market or creating a second market for games.

Overall, I felt that while Nintendo had the most interesting show and certainly garnered the most positive press and attention, it's Microsoft that comes out the strongest going into 2007.

Here's why: Sony has just priced themselves out of the market. Sure early adopters and PS3 fans will buy the system, but I don't think that price is going to attract new gamers or parents.

Nintendo is taking an enormous risk. Even with the low price, they are betting their console market on a new disruptive technology. It could be huge for them and the industry or it could become the next Powerglove.

Going into E3 no one had any expectations for Microsoft. They stuck to a plan and delivered a lot of software news. As things stand, Microsoft is getting nearly a one year headstart on the competition and they're doing it without taking any risks.

So there you have it, my take on the situation for what it's worth. Brian Crecente

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