* Nintendo announces the Wii, and shows the remote, and everyone goes WTF? and laughs it off. It is panned as beyond stupid, it looks like a TV remote and so on. Then, Microsoft and Nintendo get into motion control and everyone goes nuts over it.
Uh, your memory is terrible. E3 2006 was the first E3 where Nintendo had the remote (it had been announced the year prior sometime in the fall but without games), and there was a mad rush to play Wii. Meanwhile PS3 was openly mocked for the price point, Riiiiiiiiidge Raaaaaaacer and Giant Enemy Crab.
* Prior to E3 people were going how Microsoft HAD to show how Kinect would work with core gamers. During this E3, Microsoft does this, and there is a large degree of booing that Microsoft didn't show enough games for core gamers using REGULAR controls.
This is because the games are on rails. And doing things like saying commands out loud in Mass Effect, just to hear the character say a longer version of the line themselves. If the controls are going to be stupid on Kinect, people would prefer regular controls.
* Coming out of last E3, there was mass excitement over the 3D and how it would end up rocking and everyone got one. After release, going into this E3, the talk is how the 3DS, in its opening months is bombing, due to lack of content. Nintendo shows a decent line up of titles from them, plus what is still coming, and the talk is how Nintendo dropped the ball?
First of all, there was a lot of shrugging regarding 3DS last year. This year, what the heck did Nintendo announce? Luigi's Mansion? 3D Pokedex? Mario Kart, Ocarina, Star Fox, Kid Icarus and Mario 3D were all known about last year, as were Resident Evil and MGS and other third party games, and people thought they would be playing them by now. DS was loaded with 2D platformers, top down RPGs and "non-games" like Brain Training, and 3DS is still devoid of these games.
* People wanted a reveal on what the next Nintendo console was, and what it would do, and mostly what the controller would be like. The talk was also about info on whether or not it would come out this year. Also, there was interested in what it would be getting. Nintendo does all this, for a system that is over a year away, and now Ninendo released info "too early", for a system that is over a year away?
People only wanted all this info because Nintendo leaked it all before E3. Everyone knew the console reveal was coming, and assumed Nintendo had the goods to back it up. When Nintendo showed the system without any interesting games, of course then people think it's all too early. The question is why did Nintendo announce it so early. The answer is that there is a lack of excitement about all of Nintendo's recent and upcoming products that is forcing them to announce things early. In fact, they just announced Smash Bros. for both 3DS and WiiU before development on the game even STARTS. They're desperate.
* People talk about winners and losers regard E3 coming out and how much they don't matter in the end. People thought the Dreamcast won E3 in the day when it was shown, just to watch as the PS2 drove Sega out of the console business within a year or so.
I didn't follow E3 1998 or 1999 or whenever Dreamcast was announced, but I do know Sega went out of business because they were terrible financially. If Dreamcast had the financial support of a Gamecube or XBox, it could have performed similarly.
"[Our former customers] are unable to find software which they WANT to play."
"The way to solve this problem lies in how to communicate what kind of games [they CAN play]."
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President. Only slightly paraphrased.
