Two hours of nothing perfectly describes the press conference from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. Well ok, maybe not exactly nothing, but there was just nothing that stands out from any of the press conferences. Sure each company boosted different things. Microsoft stated saying all games shown will be out in 2007. Nintendo boosting about their sales and showing off all their fitness games. Then there's Sony talking about how they have all these exclusive titles for only a few months. We saw nothing about the future of where these companies want to bring their console.

When Sony announced the drop of the current PS3 model to 500 bucks and introducing a new SKU many thought this is the time for Microsoft to fire back. The ball was in Microsoft's court. With the consoles a mere 100 bucks apart Microsoft needed to make a big move. The move many speculated was to drop the elite to 400 bucks and the premium to 300, then do away with the core completely. This makes perfect sense. What did Microsoft do instead? Nothing. Why they would do this? Well I can only guess they believe their current game line up and with the upcoming holiday season is strong enough to carry them a few more months at the pricing scheme.

Another great chance they had was to show what they wanted to do with the system. Last year at E3 we saw great xbox live improvements on the horizons. This year, nada. Not a thing about xbox live. Nothing outside of Sonic and Golden Axe, but even then it's hard to get excited about those games. How about more support for more arcade games or a price reduction of arcade games that have been out for years.

Nintendo basically patted themselves on the back. Boosting great sales and continuing great sales long into the future. For me the biggest surprise was that Mario Kart will have a driving wheel included with the game. Which is quite sad. I really wanted to see where they were going to take the Wii's online direction. Hopefully something about Goldeneye or Super Metroid would be thrown our way for the virtual console, yet again nothing. I wanted to see Nintendo do away with the friend's code to a more universal friendly online ID which everyone is so familiar with. Another disappointed was the lack of great game announcements. We all knew Metroid and Mario Kart were going to rock the world with fun. But come on? Wiifitness? I can understand Nintendo wanting to reach a new audience, but let's not forget that some of us want to play games.

Sony arguably was the best of the three press conferences, which isn't saying too much. They had a great showcase of games, but fell flat on their face in a lot of places. The home thing was kind of neat at first but become tired-some quite quickly, along with the terrible one liners. Sony was boosting how they have all these exclusive titles but kept adding "in 2007" at the end. So you have a few titles for a few months before the 360, ok? I have a 360 as well. How does that make me want to buy a PS3? I can simply wait, 2 months upon years is nothing. There was, like the previous two, no talk about the future. I'm sorry but your price drop is not enough. That is a great move and probably the best they've done in all of the PS3's lifetime. The announcement of the new PSP was ok, but it honestly fell short. No on-board memory? The TV out is a neat feature, but not enough to make me buy a new one. Speaking of the psp. Where were the games? They showed like what, maybe six games? Nothing of which interested me. My psp will continue to collect dust I suppose.

I don't know if the new format of E3 just made these companies not try or if they just had other plans to announce bigger things. I enjoyed seeing more of the games I'm interested, but the stage demos here at Gamespot have been far better. I understand these press conferences are for the companies to show off how great they're doing. But for the last few years these have been broadcast everywhere online. I think these companies should keep that in mind that now gamers everywhere are watching these to see where their consoles are going to take them in the future. No great announcements from any company was such a great let down.