E3 over the last few years in my opinion has become less about the games and more about the show.  People on this site have been talking about who's coming out with the best games and which system has the best new control scheme, but I think that they're missing the point.  I have a theory that since gamers already buy the systems that it's the other people that gaming giants are trying to impress.  In order to win them over they enlist the help of celebrities.  It doesn't matter what product they are pushing.  It just matters that they are there.   

Lets look at the five biggest conferences as they happened.  We'll see who they had come onstage to pitch a product and figure out who the big winners were.  Shall we?

Microsoft:

The two remaining Beatles.  +2 celebrity points

Tony Hawk  +1 point

Steven Speilberg +1 point

4 celebrity points for Microsoft.

EA:

Pete Sampras +1 point

Jack Black I'm only going to give a half a point for him because he wasn't there.  I'm feeling generous today and he's lucky that I'm not taking that other half a point away because his sketch wasn't funny.  + 1/2 point

1 1/2 points for EA.

Ubisoft: 

James Cameron +1 point

Pele +1 point

2 points for Ubisoft. 

Nintendo:

No one 

0 points for Nintendo

Sony:

No one 

But I'll give half a point for the Queen intro  +1/2 point

1/2  a celebrity point for Sony

Here's the final tally:

1) Microsoft had four celebrity points and obviously we are in store for some dominance from Microsoft.

2) Ubisoft had two celebrity points and is poised to become the biggest third party developer in the world.  Don't be surprised if they don't have a console of their own in the future.

3) EA also did well with 1 1/2 celebrity points.  Hopefully they can get all of their celebrity guests to show up next year.

4) Sony only had 1/2 a celebrity point and their struggles look to continue this year.

5) Nintendo had 0 points and we can expect the bottom to fall out soon.  Obviously Nintendo doesn't know what the people want and they are doomed.

Remember this.  It's not about the system, games, the control scheme, or the fun that can be had.  It's all about the show baby. 

Feel free to agree or disagree.

Not much to discuss here. Microsoft had more celebrities.

My point exactly.  So does this mean that Microsoft "won"?

If by winning getting main stream recognition? Yes. For gamers, not really. Did they succeed in getting a lot of media attention? From my personal experience no, only web articles, and nothing on CNN. It doesn't have anywhere the same buzz GTA IV had. No casual gamers/console owners are talking about NATAL, or games for any matter in my school.

Is E3 itself even watched/cared about the mainstream? No. I saw 3 articles on the BBC website, and I heard there were more television coverage in the UK, but nothing here in the US.

I think you method of determining the winner of E3 is flawed. For one, how can James Cameron at Ubisoft's conference be considered a plus?

@ akvod Exactly. Spending all of that money on getting celebrities didn't seem to generate a lot of media attention. Now did it? So what is the point in spending all kinds of money on getting them to show up at your conference?

Did you see that?  He must of went on for a half an hour about nothing. 

It was like watching the Titanic sink.

And no Miyamoto even (he's as big a celebrity as some of the other guys so - 2 points for Nintendo.

Wow.  You're going to subtract points for not having someone?  That's cruel.

Seems fair enough.  In any event Nintendo would still be last with nil points so doesn't make much difference.  Unless you are tallying up points for a number of E3s but given that Wii Music scored them minus 5 billion points last year it will take them a million years to make up the deficit.