Wow, I was expecting an exciting E3 this year. The likes of which haven't been seen in years. I was mostly disappointed. However, there were a few highlights. A few shining moments. My usual thoughts are Sony did best, Nintendo second, and Microsoft third. Did I change my mind this year? Continue reading!

I am giving them report card style grades. United States, that is. That's where I live. So A-F. A is best, then B, C, D, and F. A for aced and F for failure. Yes, us US citizens forgot about the E! Lol Well, let's get started! 

Microsoft: Announcement after announcement. They had the longest show of all 3. They proved that a lot of games are coming. Even a few Japanese ones... on Xbox! There's not many of those. Of course they used misleading terminology to make us think they had more exclusives than they do. They were largely timed exclusives. They had a solid showing of games.

Now the other major part of the conference was the official announcement of the Xbox One X. This is were they screwed up! We got the expected impressive specifications: 12 gigabytes of RAM, 6 teraflops, etc. However, the very name is so profoundly stupid that they must have learned nothing from Wii U. Xbox One X? Um... It sounds REALLY similar to Xbox One S. This will cause confusion for some/many non gamers or ppl that don't visit sites like this. Here's an example: 

"Mommy, please get me the new 4k Xbox! It is the most powerful console ever! What's it called, little Johnny? The Xbox One X, mommy! I will think about it, hun." In November at Wal-Mart: "My 5 year old son wants an Xbox One Rex or something like that." A 55 year old electronics cashier with no training says " Uhh, we have like 5 different kinds of Xboxs' mam. Uh let's go look. No Rex... Here's an Xbox One S mam.  It rymes with Rex. My son said it plays 4k. Well, this S one says 4k mam. Guess that's the one your son wants. OK, I'll buy it. And your son will want the best games for it too mam. What are some good games for my son!? Um... This Grand Auto 5 game sells real good. Some racing game or something. And this Resident #7 game sells good to. Somethin about beng a good neighbor to some guy in apartment 7 I guess. To teach kids good manners, I think. I'll buy those too. Thank you for your expertize and help! 

At Christmas: "Johnny, it's time to get up and open presents. I'm already up mom! I was too excited to sleep! I want to open that big one first mommy. Go ahead sweety. Alright mommy! Thank you so mu... Wait... No mommy! This is the bad Xbox! This Xbox sucks! I said the X, not S! But honey, it plays 4k like you wanted. Not 4k games, just movies mommy! Just movies!!!!! Wah hah hah! I'm sorry Johnny! X box One X and Xbox One S sound so similar! And it said 4k! I hate you mommy. I hate you!"

So yeah, the name is stupid. Then they announced the price. $500 dollars. OK MS. I guess you don't want to sell many of those, and you want to confuse ppl. Besides Forza 7, there was little to convince ppl to pay that hefty price either. 

Score: C+

Sony: Well, this was the biggest shock to me. I had a hard time staying awake. A bunch of games were shown... that we already knew about! A couple of minor surprises, like some PSVR games, but this wasn't PAX, this was E3! Nothing announced for hardware. No PS4P (PlayStation 4 Portable to compete with Switch) no PSP2, no PSVita 3000 model. No Vita game trailers. No price cut announced for PS4 Pro or bundle with Horizen packed in. Nothing! Not even a PSVR price cut. There were no special guests, like Microsoft had, just Shawn Layden. He's no Jack Tretton.  Two E3's later and nothing about Final Fantasy 7 remake. The worst Sony E3 in recent memory! Coming from a guy who likes PlayStation the best, this hurts.

Score: F

Nintendo: The lack of effort to have a true E3 conference hurts my score. With that out of the way, I was a little disappointed with the short video, but with the Tree House content, it wasn't horrible. The fact that they are truly continuing to support 3DS pleased me. I thought they would kill it off by year's end like they did with poor Wii U. A decent amount of games were shown, but the biggest and best of their show were the announcements of not one but two Metroid games! A 3DS one with traditional gameplay for ppl like me, and a Switch Metroid Prime for those that like FPS. With the embarrassment of that crap Federation Force game, and many complaints, they listened. 

Score: B-

Well, that's it. Thanks for reading!

People are really divisive on whether or not the 3DS should live and I think it should as well

For Microsoft i agree with the score and i did like how they showed lots of games coming to the xbox one. Game after game. Xbox One X is still a dumb name but ive got used to it. A C+ is a fair score.

Sony showed some good stuff too but your expectations were way too high. There probably wont ever be anohter portable Playstation and FF7R is still a few years away. I'd probably give them a C+

Nintendos showing was solid. Lots of new games.  I liked the short video straight to the point without all the fluff. B- is a fair score.

Anyway this thread should be interesting because of the F that you gave Sony.

an F for making a very wise decision?

Of course they aren't competing with the Switch- it's deadly and would obliterate the PS4P in a manner that would be more humiliating than DS/PSP and 3ds/Vita.

Nintendo has an iron grip of the handheld market. Making a new device would just be pitiful

What were you expecting? I too thought Sony's show was weak, they had the best games but i expected new announcements and Red Dead to show its face. But from what you wrote it seems like you only have yourself to blame.

I think Switch and 3DS can coexist fine. 3DS leaves a cheaper alternative with games that are still nice looking. It is cheaper to develop for as well. That should keep 3rd parties making games for it. I may get a New 2DS XL for myself. Years of great games to play. 

Yes I agree. Especially with the Sony part

If Sony had even announced a 350 dollar Pro with Horizon packed in and an FF7 Remake update, I would have given them a C. 

I gave an F for all of the reasons combined, not just any one thing. As for a PS4P automatically failing. No. Let the great success of PSP remind you that Sony can compete in the handheld market. 80+ million PSPs is incredible against the DS; the second highest selling game system ever. I think the PSP is superior to DS in nearly every way. It is my favorite portable system ever. Now the Vita did far poorer because Sony up and abandoned it, sadly. Plus it had memory cards that were far too expensive. 

I didn't expect all that you highlighted. I had hoped for one of them. It was the whole show that got that F. It lacked personality, surprise, and hardware announcements.