E3 is over. After watching hours of seemingly repetitive E3 coverage ("Let's go to Adam and Morgan" who then say "Let's go to the floor" and that person says "Let's kick it back to Olivia and Kevin" who banter for two minutes about nothing and then say "Let's kick it over to Adam and Morgan" and so on), here are my thoughts on the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2006--lovingly referred to as E306.
My big winner: Nintendo.
Nintendo's Wii: Stupid name, great system
Even though Wii is the dumbest name in the universe, I'm beyond excited (did I just pass excited? Oh no, turn around!) to get the motion-sensitive Wii-mote into my hands. From the games that use the controller to emulate sporting equipment (tennis racquets and baseball bats) to the shooters that use the controller like a light gun (or Red Steel, which uses the Wii-mote as an actual sword--Can a Star Wars Lightsaber game be far off? Nerdgasm times three billion), the Nintendo Wii looks like the next generation of interactivity. Yes, the graphics pretty much suck compared to the 360 or PS3, but game makers might be learning a valuable lesson soon--we just want to play FUN games... we don't care how pretty they look. Additionally, even though Nintendo didn't give us a launch date or price, they've promised that the Wii will be least expensive NextGen console. If you thought all that was good, don't forget that you'll be able to download every fun game that Nintendo has ever made (for the NES, SNES, and N64, that is) onto your Wii! They also promise toGenesisome Sega Genisis titles! Fun! 
Furthermore, Nintendo seems to have such a firm grasp on the handheld market that I'm seriously considering purchasing a Nintendo DS. From everything I've heard, they've taken the stylus capabilities and added to the gameplay experience that way. Also, they've released some of my favorite old-school games on the DS like Super Mario Bros (and the "New" Super Mario Bros... which is supposed to be a new game just like the really old one) and Excitebike. Oh, hours of my childhood was spent playing Excitebike... building my own courses and jumping hills.
Nintendo DS owns the hand-held market... and your souls
My big loser: Sony.
Sony announced the launch price of the PS3: low-end $500, high-end $600... before taxes and accessories. Yes the PS3 looks great, but you've had over a year since the 360 was launched and the PS3 doesn't look good enough to replace it. Moreover, the PS3 will play Blu-Ray DVDs (the powerful and expensive as-yet-not-released disks) whereas XBox 360 will sell an HD DVD attachment (everyone knows what High Definition is all about... pluse, they're less expensive). Blu-Ray DVDs will probably hold around twice the information as an HD DVD (25GB to 15GB for single-layer or 50GB to 30GB for, what I assume to be, a double-layer), but who needs the extra 10 or 20 Gigs if I have to pay twice as much money every time I buy a movie? (I found an incredibly interesting article on Blu-Ray vs HD DVD at Macworld here. The Porn industry may be who decides which format lives on. Weird, huh?)
I'm sorry Sony, I just don't have the money to play games or watch movies on your system when I could get both the XBox 360 and the Nintendo Wii for roughly the same price. I need PS3 to Wow me at E3 2007 before I get serious about saving up that kind of dough.
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