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Friday, June 14, 2013

E3 2013 Winners and Losers

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I'm obviously biased.

Since E3 week is sadly ending, it's time we reflect on the most important week of the year. There really isn't much analysis here — It's fairly obvious who won and who lost.
  1. Nintendo
  2. Sony
  3. Ubisoft
  4. Electronic Arts
  5. Microsoft

Many rational people will argue that Sony beat Nintendo because they clinched the entire new generation console war before it even began by destroying Microsoft. Absolute scorched-earth decimation!

However, think about that. You can't declare the PlayStation 4 to be the winner ALREADY. That's fairly short-sighted. Gamers are still notoriously terrible at maintaining boycotts or assessing value. And counting Nintendo out already is stupid. Yeah, they didn't announce a price cut or show a new console The Legend of Zelda game. So what? Even if I don't like it, they have Mario Kart 8. And they have Super Smash Bros. 4. I don't care if that's not the real name, the current "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U" and "Super Smash Bros. for 3DS" better be work-in-progress names! And everyone KNOWS that the next Zelda is being developed.

You can count Microsoft out, though. They're advocating that people buy the Xbox 360 instead of the Xbox One if you don't like that they're doubling down on their anti-consumer policies. Microsoft is a smart company (Don Mattrick probably isn't), but... they just don't know how to win a console war. They ought to stick to Microsoft Office.




Nintendo obviously didn't win based on their conference — The glitchy Nintendo Direct was a disaster. However, I watched the full video on YouTube afterward and all of the Developer Directs, and there are really good stuff that brings confidence to the Wii U's success! It's not like Sony didn't have their own share of technical difficulties. ...And they went over two hours in a one hour presentation.

Content for content, both companies didn't do much for their handheld (so the 3DS wins by default because Vita is a joke and Pokémon X and Y can solo the competition). On their console, neither the PS4 or the Wii U do anything revolutionary like the Wii did (besides Miiverse). Both are courting countless indie developers and aren't doing many interesting things on the new IP front. They're competing on established IPs, and Nintendo can't lose there.

But didn't the same thing happen with the PlayStation 2 and the GameCube? Nintendo basically had to support the GameCube by itself (which was AMAZING because the GameCube was the best console Nintendo ever made in possibly every aspect besides, you know, attracting sales) while the PS2 nabbed all of the third-parties. It's different this time — The Wii U is the easiest console to develop for now because it's the weakest, as the PS2 was. While Nintendo isn't getting the major third-parties (then again, I don't give a crap about anything EA is releasing), they're getting the innovative companies that matter. They also have the most exclusives.

Speaking of EA, nearly everything they offered sucked, as I predicted. It's just dudebro-appealing game after dudebro-appealing game, with no Madden Curse in sight. The only charming thing was Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. Presentation-wise, they OPENED with that and then, as you can see from KoopaTV's live blog, the rest of the conference was crap. So there was no reason to watch past the first eleven minutes.

Ubisoft knows how to work the audience through people like Aisha Tyler. Nintendo knows, too. They just... inexplicably chose not to do it!

I have no idea how much hype Sony fans have for the PS4. My impression is that they're hyped that it's not the Xbox One. Meanwhile, my hype for Nintendo is based off the actual GAMES. And that's what really matters.


The Miiverse community on E3 is going to close soon. There are so many posts there every minute that you can't find Ludwig if you even tried. You can, however, get a feed of his new posts in your Activity Feed by following him at Nintendo Network ID PrinceOfKoopas!


For a deeper analysis on E3's formatting and how it affects performance, check out this article!
For the 2014 version of this article, look here. Observe the improvement!
The 2015 version of this article is right here.

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