It's been a very eventful day in the world of online video game discussion.  Perhaps the most sensationalist instance would be the immediate creation of a thread labelled "has Microsoft already lost E3?" at the conclusion of their conference, the thread's implication being that the Xbox 360-centered conference was appalling.

But in order to label something appalling, you'd think a basic examination of what it would take to be successful is necessary?  Apparently not.

The author of the thread, reading between the lines, seemed to be of the impression that Microsoft could only deliver a successful conference if they announced shocking, unimaginable and unprecedented gaming revolutions, whilst keeping these revolutions within the narrow definition of hardcore, new IP targetted only at the most dedicated of fans.  Well shucks, is it any wonder Microsoft failed to meet his expectations?

In reality, the measure of a successful E3 conference is, or should be, somewhat different.  Microsoft (and other hardware manufacturers for that matter) doesn't spent a large amount of capital holding down a large presence at this annual conference because they want to appeal to 10 million people who bought their console first and will purchase every shooter, WRPG and racing game they put out regardless of how impressive their conference is.  They spend a lot of money for the opportunity to appeal to a large audience, mainstream media, in order to sell more consoles, so that more developers make more games for all genres for more gamers.

In this respect, Microsoft had a great deal more success than the author gave them credit for, and certainly more success than Sony's conference had with the PS3 (though we must acknowledge Sony's handicap in having to promote two consoles).  Microsoft talked up the technology that is currently pushing consoles and creating the most mainstream buzz for the platform, Kinect.  I did not see one pre-existing hardcore game get dumbed down by removing controller options in favour of Kinect.  I did not see one hardcore franchise get cancelled in favour of Kinect funding.  Indeed, many hardcore gripes about Kinect, particularly that there are no hardcore games for it and that it cannot be used to properly control the Xbox 360's UI were attended to.

A plethora of hardcore games were shown, some exclusively for Kinect.  Mass Effect 3 had an incredible showing, but the author and his compadres were apparently unenthusiastic because an additional voice feature was added for those who want it?  A brand new Halo series was announced and is in development by a different team, guarenteeing a new direction, but this was not sufficient because the author and his compadres expected it in advance?

Microsoft's goal was to get the word out that it's console is for everyone.  Hardcore games keep rolling out, Kinect and otherwise.  Family games with Kinect-enabled are coming out, media features rival or surpass that of all other devices on the market.  In this goal, the succeeded spectacularly.  Noone outside of web forums will have had expectations, noone outside of web forums will be disappointed.  It remains to be seen what Nintendo offers, but certainly by any non-expectation measure of success the Xbox 360 conference was substantially more impressive than the PS3-centric part of the Sony conference.

The author wasn't alone in his assertions.  A member of the website staff posted an article coming from a similar line of thought, labelling the conference underwhelming.  His thinking too, was based on lofty hopes and dreams, not the more pragmatic goal of raising publicity in mainstream media and audiences, to sell more consoles, to get more games, to make more money.  He too, largely ignored this sensible aspiration.

So there is a clear answer to the author's question, has Microsoft already lost E3?

I'll leave you to figure it out.

I think it lost in a sense that no new hardware was released, and in terms of games there could have been less talk of Kinect Labs, and that abysmal disney game - which kids might like, but who's 5 and watches the E3 conference? Cheezums.

I did love Ryse, Halo:CE, Halo 4 and Ghost Recon announcement, overall I'd say it wasn't too bad and I haven't had much expectations in the first place, although there was too much shovelware for Kinect including Kinect Sports 2 - which had abysmal delay..

After reading up on the Sony conference I can't say that that fared much better either. Nintendo is going to win this, I just had an amusing thought...

Sony and Microsoft now become casual centred like Nintendo was this gen and Nintendo maybe will be hardcore next gen? That'd be amusing.

But to be fair, taking our demographic into account if you had expected those sort of threads not to pop up within 5 minutes of conference finish you're very naive, if MS had ye olde JC play Gears with Cliffy on stage, announced 15 new core titles, people would still find something disappointing about the conference.

Monitoring this thread

I agree with you, and that is the likely reason why a logic-based thread in favour of Microsoft's performance has been largely ignored in favour of the negative ones.

But I didnt want to get into that in the OP because then natural bias in VGC's userbase would have become the issue, distracting from the fact that Microsoft did exactly what they needed and planned to.

well i loved the ryse trailer, tom clancy demo, gears of war demo and halo 4 announcement which got me jizzing .
however i felt they concentrated too much on kinect in a bad way since most titles for kinect where kids games, i do own kinect and will be buying the tom clancy game which is the first game i ever buy from the series and ryse.
also buying halo 4 and gears 3 for sure. overall i would say the conference was 7/10 probably due to me being intested in some kinect games that were shown but if i didn't own kinect i would be so dissapointed.

I look at it this way.

It was an appalling performance from my personal selfish point of view because they didn't showcase anything new that is of interest to me. I am not a fan of kinect and never liked halo or forza. The only thing they show that interest me was Tomb Raider Origin and Gears 3, both of which we already knew well ahead of the show.

Sony's conference wasn't much better though... in fact, I would say its even more disappointing because expectation was higher.

I understand that MS needs to be more pragmatic, I just don't see how that clashing with my opinion suddenly invalidate my opinion. 

I don't play MS marketing strategy, I play their games and they are not making or announcing the ones I want. Therefore MS conference failed.

I would not say that it invalidates your opinion that Microsoft did not cater to your needs.  However, the thread in question, the article in question, and the opinions of some other people on this site extend this assertion to the notion that Microsoft "lost" E3.  If we're going to discuss winning and losing E3 (in general, rather than personal terms), we have to have that discussion in the context of the goals of the three companies at E3, all of which are similar, and few of which have anything to do the personal tastes of people like you and I who have already bought their consoles, or were unlikely to be swayed if we havent.

Ultimately the MS Conference may have failed you, but it succeeded by any reasonable measurement applied to it in general terms, far above and beyond Sony's, at least where home consoles are concerned.

It's an event for gaming press and mainstream. They aren't selling to people on this site, they are selling to the parents who watch the nightly news who are going to be buying Sesame Street and Disneyland.

A bunch of hardcore gamers and media say the same things about the Wii, but I'm sure Nintendo isn't losing a lot of sleep listening to the bleating of losers while they swim in cash.

I agree that most people seem to be going of their personal requirements for success, and that it would be a good idea for them to broaden their view a bit.
It's still understandable if someone finds it underwhelming of course (on fair terms or not) from their own perspective, but I completely agree that Microsoft have managed to show content for all the people it needs to address basically.

I seem to be one of the few who actually liked the conference according to my own perspective though.

well written and i agree with your line of thought on m$ e3 conference, i liked it overall and i cant wait too play alot of the games they showed off.