E3 09: Recap

So there you have it folks. E3 09 is now over, and in it’s wake, we have such an outstanding number of new games and hardware to look forward to. It’s just blown me away! The big three have left us with a plethora of information for our minds to decipher, while some third party developers have shown us the new an innovative creations they’ve been working on for the past millennium –as it seems.

Over the last few years, this industry has taken the form of three big companies competing neck and neck to get their respective platforms out of the starting gates and into our living rooms. Recently though, we’ve been starting to see them branch out in their own separate ways and take on completely different markets. Sony is out there showing the breadth and width of gaming with their strong lineup of games. Microsoft is setting out to be the console for for everyone, with it’s vast amount of partnerships to enable a social-networking, media center extender that also plays games. Lastly, Nintendo is chasing their own audience, completely separate from what we may consider the gamer crowd. They know the market they are targeting and they are going to continue doing that, even while putting itself at odds with their original fanbase.

So what can be taken away from all of this? I think what we should have learned by now is that we need to get accustomed to a ten-year life cycle for this generation of gaming. All the companies are thinking that way, so we need to as well. These are the platforms we are going to have for a long time to come. I believe this year’s E3 has just been the fork in the road where they all have decided upon their paths and will now venture out to separate parts of these woods. They will strive to bring us unique experiences and content, although they may still cross the same path here and there. The age of directly comparing them has started to fade and now it’s all about how each company will innovate now that they have their own corners of the woods with time away from the so-called “console wars.”