The Big News
After waning Wii sales in 2011, Nintendo made it no secret that it would unveil the Wii's successor today. It's called Wii U (the "U" stands for "you"). And it's been announced in an incredibly confusing fashion. Nintendo didn't even show the Wii U box during its press conference. Instead, they focused entirely on the Wii U controller.
The controller is big. It looks a lot like a dual-analog stick Sony PSP crossed with a tablet. It has a 6.2-inch screen, microphone, speakers, front-facing camera, accelerometer and gyroscope. All Wii games are compatible. All Wii peripherals are compatible too. The U controller wirelessly transmits data from a Wii U base station, so it's not an independent portable. And it won't double as a casual gaming tablet.
What can it do? You can start a game on the Wii U and finish it on the controller—no TV necessary. You can draw with a stylus or use it as a capacitive touchscreen. You can hold it up to the TV for a zoomed-in sniper view while playing a first-person shooter. If you're playing a round of Wii golf, it can become a tee: You set it on the ground, a golf ball appears on the screen and you swing a Wiimote over the top to strike the ball. And somehow, the next Smash Bros. will work on the 3DS and Wii U controller.
However, Nintendo says that just one U controller can connect to the U at a time, along with four standard Wiimotes.
The Small Stuff
Zelda fans, rejoice. Revamps and re-releases of this franchise are on their way to every current Nintendo platform. Mario, Star Fox and Luigi's Mansion reboots are heading to 3DS too.
The Potentially Interesting Curveball
The U is undeniably Nintendo's X factor. With no word on the price or the games—and with an ambiguous launch date some time "next year"—we know very little about this followup to the Wii.
What's worrisome is that Nintendo says it expects third parties to do all sorts of unpredictable, innovative things with the U. But developers never really used the Wii all that well— most of Nintendo's most successful games were developed by, well, Nintendo. The U is at least a step more complicated than the Wii, and on the E3 show floor, Nintendo is simply sharing prototypes of ways the U could be used in the future. So perhaps even Nintendo isn't quite sure how to use something it just built.
That hardware complexity is partly why the U didn't make our stomachs drop like they did when the Wii, with its simple controller full of unlimited potential, was announced. The Wiimote was one of the most intuitive, simple control schemes ever imagined—the TV remote reinvented to support natural human movement. Five years later, Nintendo has built something that's completely opposite of the Wii's original design philosophy. It's a world of balance boards, Wiimotion Plus dongles, heart-rate monitors and the Zapper. And while the convoluted hardware setup might be Nintendo's way of trying to keep competitors from duplicating its setup, in fact the U could bear a striking resemblance to other forthcoming gaming systems—especially if Sony connects Android tablets to the PS3, or Apple decided to link the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to Apple TV gaming.
Sony
The Big News
Sony's sequel to the PSP has been officially named the Playstation Vita. It's loaded with 5-inch OLED display, front and rear cameras, and front and rear touch sensitivity. The price is $250 for the Wi-Fi version this holiday and $300 for the 3G version … exclusive to AT&T. (That last announcement was met with heavy booing from the audience, unmasked by Sony's own video feed.)
One of Vita's most interesting features is persistent, cloud-based game saves that can work on PS3 with supported games.
The Small Stuff
If Sony had a catchphrase at E3 2011, it would be "3D." The company is set on differentiating itself through 3D, including a new 24-inch Playstation-branded 3D TV for $499 that takes on the pesky problem of reduced visibility during split-screen gaming. Sony's new 3D TV allows both players to see their own full-screen images in 2D at the same time.
The Potentially Interesting Curveball
Sony mentioned its upcoming PS Suite, a Playstation-certified seal of approval for Android phones and tablets. Essentially, PS Suite would allow Sony to sell Playstation games on devices like HTC Evo or Motorola Droid smartphones while promising the public that the games will run correctly. PS Suite is also a sign that Sony is hedging its bets on its own new portable, while recognizing a huge opportunity to make some money off Android gamers by pasting a logo on a cellphone box.
Microsoft
The Big News
Microsoft is redesigning the Xbox 360's dashboard yet again, creating an aggressive look that will demote games to a category alongside music and video. The boxy 2D menus look a lot like the interfaces from Windows 7 Series as well as those from the upcoming Windows 8. It's Microsoft's way of unifying the look and feel of their platforms.
Kinect will, at last, drive all general navigation. It will be coupled with Bing to search your Xbox's contents, along with searching newly supported YouTube. Just say "Xbox Bing [whatever]."
The Small Stuff
Microsoft came out game-heavy as always, giving publishers a lot of time to show off new titles. The most prominent trend was the implementation of Kinect not as an independent controller but as an enhancement for normal game control by adding voice commands to many games.
Additionally, Microsoft trumpeted the potential of the Xbox 360 as a DVR, with services like Europe's SkyTV. Unfortunately, the company didn't says how this might affect American customers.
The Potentially Interesting Curveball
Kinect Fun Labs (a name suitably reminiscent of Google Labs), available now, is a permanent addition to the 360 platform that lets you play around with beta features like scanning and importing virtual objects into your Xbox. For now, it's just a reminder that Kinect still has a lot of untapped potential. But seeing Microsoft experiment publicly is a promising sign for the platform.
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