Sony and Nintendo E3 press briefings

I have to admit, I don’t own a Wii or a PS3 and I’m not inclined to get either, (though Monkey Island on WiiWare might change that). As such I didn’t really follow either press event closely this year, certainly didn’t try to catch a live stream in any case.

Nintendo

Nintendo is a little more interesting to me. Like many older gamers I have a soft spot for Nintendo gently lined with childhood memories. While I didn’t grow up with an NES or SNES I did have a GameBoy and remember fondly playing NES when visiting other friends and family. (not to mention pirateware C64 ports of NES games).

I also own a DS, though beyond Brain Age and Mario there’s not been a lot there that I’ve really wanted to play.

This year’s Nintendo conference was much more interesting than last. They did a MUCH better job of mixing things to appeal to the Wii’s base, such as Wii Fit 2 and Wii Heart Monitor with things that appeal to long time gamers such as New Super Mario and Metroid.

Still, even though Nintendo offered more for the life long gamer, they still seem like they’re playing to an almost completely different market than Sony and Microsoft are.

Sony

I actually have a strong dislike of Sony at this point, starting with their community management around Everquest and festering over the years in other product encounters. So Sony’s presser is more interesting to me from the standpoint of watching the leader fail than it is for genuine excitement for their products.

To that end the Sony “Waggle Wand”™ is highly amusing. While Microsoft’s Natal project seems to take the idea of motion control and iterate on it in an innovative way, Sony’s solution leaves the impression that it wants to be a Wiimote but not infringe on Nintendo’s patents.

On the software side Sony, much like Microsoft, had more of what their fans love to show off. Where Microsoft had Halo, Forza, Rock Band and Crackdown Sony had Metal Gear, Grand Turismo, God of War and Final Fantasy.

Perhaps it was because Sony’s press conference was second, but it left me with a real sense of “me too!” instead of anything really new and interesting.