Honestly, I think Nintendo is in the best position of the big 3.

You really should read less into the opinions of bad western analysts.

Nintendo might not be the most atractive piece of stock you can buy, but as a company whose purpose is to make operational profit, they are tremendiously solid. Also, they have a huge stash in the bank that can help them through any situation.

The 3DS may have had a slow start but it has without a doubt cornered the handheld market, crushing all the competition. Did the handheld market shrink because of tablets and mobile phones? Maybe it has, but Nintendo made up for it stealing the market share that the PSP/Vita could have.

The Wii U is looking like a very impressive device if put to good use. If one thinks that the controller can be used to emulated a keyboard, you will see the incredible potential the new console has to house MMORPG's, something almost unpractical on todays consoles because of controller issues (cant beat mouse and keyboard, but the WiiU controller can be used to emulate the keyboard part and the analogs to make up for the mouse).

Also the technology is reaching a bottleneck where its difficult to see the improvements from one gen of systems to the other.

I'm gonna be honest with you. I think Nintendo is in a good position to win next gen (controller and free online play), Sony is second (free online play) and microsoft will come dead last (failure that is the kinect to hardcore gamers, lack of compelling first party software and online play you need to pay a fee for).

The microsoft system might appeal to the mainstrem when it gets cheap, but at a high launch price i dont predict good things for them.

So the thread should read: Will microsoft go under on the games business if they fail to impress on this years E3?

The answer to that is yes, and i think they wont be able to impress anyone. They just dont have the arguments.

My main system is the 360. The Wii was bought as a Zelda box for Twilight Princess, but it has become useful in my house for parties, Wii Fit for my gf, etc. I'm not much of a portable gamer, so I can't argue about the DS or 3DS.

Lets be serious, how many people who purchased the Nintendo Wii and have forked loads of money into Nintendo this generation watch E3? Look at who they were and are marketing at besides us gamers who want specific titles. If they fail to deliver certain games at E3 it doesn't matter as long as they cleverly market things using commercials. E3 is irrelevant in many ways to Nintendo as many of their sales come from a psychographic who doesn't watch or pay attention to E3.

Don't get me wrong there will be people like myself looking forward to seeing the new Zelda on Wii U but yeah for the most part it won't matter what they show at E3 but how the market themselves out of it.

Nintendo's fate hangs in the balance. The Wii-U is Nintendo's last hope for survival. If it fails then Nintendo will either go third party or shut it's doors and bury all existance of it's IP's.

This fate doesn't depend on the core gamer but instead it depends on the casual gamers i.e. Soccer moms, and kids. Why? Because Nintendo has never had the core gamer market and never will! And the reason for this is simple, they didn't create the core gamer market Sony did.

The Playstation brought in a whole new demographic of gamers when it was released, Just like the Wii did. But  unlike the Wii these new gamers weren't moms, dads, or the elderly, Nope they are now whats called the mainstream core gamers. The jocks, teenagers, and adults who otherwise would of never played games. Just look the the SNES and Genesis, these systems catered to Kids and nerds, The mascotts were an Italion plumber and a super fast hedgehog, The games pretty much all had a heavy japanes/anime style that appealed to the kids and nerds. They're weren't any games that attracted adults/jocks.

Playstation appealed to these people. Games like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, GTA and the tons of realistic sports sims, for them these games were mature, featuring volience and adult themes and were ok for them to play because they weren't considered childish or nerdy.

Despite what Nintendo Fans tell you. Nintendo games are Kiddy! They are meant to appeal to kids and it really isn't hard to see that. The average adult gamer doesn't brag that Super Mario bros is his favorite game because in society that is considered to be childish behaviour unfitting of an adult.

An Adult stating that his favorite video game series is Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, Kirby, etc. Is like an Adult saying his favorite TV show is Spongebob Squarepants.This adult would be looked down upon for liking a childrens show because his favorite show should be something that's for adults not kids.

Unless Nintendo releases an Mature rated Mario game they will never appeal to the core gamers.

When Nintendo states that they're going after the hardcore gamer they mean they're going after the Nintendo fans who abandoned them and either went to Microsoft or Sony. Because no gamer who's been playing their Playstation 1-3 or Xbox -360 is seriously going to jump onto the Wii-U. They didn't jump on the N64, sure as hell didn't jump into the gamecube, and didn't jump into the Wii.

Just look at the 3ds, The reason it's not doing so hot is because it's games all are trying to appeal to the core gamers instead of the casuals and Nintendo fans.

So Wii-u is relying on the kids and casuals to buy it up. If Nintendo fails to get them then we can expect to be playing Nintendo games on the Iphone, Xbox 720, PC, and PS4 or sadly not at all.

I think this is Rol with Ryan's account trying to troll us.

Really I'm 34 years old and those are my favorite game series. As for Sponge Bob I know of several 20-somethings at my work that love the show.

No.

I'm pretty sure they failed badly one year yet still won sales quite obviously that year.

We won't get all of them, but we really don't need all of them! 3DS is doing quite well in the West *looks at Vita* without the extra games. 

Add in a pinch of E3 Hype with a sprinkle of Mario and Nintendo wins, again.