This comment at Plastic sums up my sentiments about E3 and the current console wars quite nicely:
Console company A is first to market with its console of generation N. It’s proclaimed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but critics are somewhat reserved because they know there are at least two competing consoles coming out.
Console company B debuts its product at the next big trade show. Bored with console A, which doesn’t have enough games yet, critics proclaim B to be the obvious winner, since it’s so stunning and they just got their hot little hands on it.
Meanwhile, console company C is showing demos and mockups of their product, and everyone denounces it as the obvious loser and points out that that company must be about to go out of business, or at least that they’re about to go out of the console business.
Some months later at another trade show, company C debuts their console and the pundits proclaim that it’s just not as good as the others.
Consumers, meanwhile, tend to buy the console that has the games they want. The manufacturers consequently have their ups and downs but stay in the game. Sometimes a new company enters the market, and perhaps forces out an old one. But, life goes on.
Look, this is just another round of an old cycle. The Xbox is going to continue to be the console of people who want console games that act a bit more like desktop computer games, the Sony will take the middle of the market, and the Nintendo will be the more family and party game centric unit. The only detail will be that the market will shift a little between the three, until a viable fourth player enters the market.
I’m going to stick with my Atari Jaguar for now, maybe buy a few of the games I don’t have yet on eBay. I don’t have time to spend on a new console, and the games aren’t compelling enough for me.
End of line.
This really isn’t a war anyway. No one’s gonna win, per se, we have our audiences and fans and I don’t think they’re gonna change their minds…
I own an Xbox and a Playstation and both are really good game consoles. Let’s see what are Microsoft’s future updgrades on its Xbox game console.”`~