Nintendo Blinked? Understanding what really happened at E3 2012

With the Wii -- which has a huge share of the very young and very old gamer markets -- they had the sports-centric group play games in the bag, but those are not the titles that mainstream gamers desire. The proof is in the pudding, and the Wii U flavored pudding has confirmed commitments from Gearbox for its Aliens: Colonial Marines game that includes enhanced graphics and eye-candy for the Wii U version. Ubisoft committed to bringing Ghost Recon Online to the Wii U (and still intends to deliver on that commitment), and also plans to release other mainstream titles for the new Wii including Avengers: Assassin’s Creed III, Battle for Earth, Just Dance 4, Rayman Legends, and ZombiU.

The "core" games confirmed by Nintendo as Wii U launch titles reads like a road map into the serious gamer territory that the Wii has always somehow never managed to reach in the past, with Aliens Colonial Marines, Assassin's Creed, Batman Arkham City, Darksiders II, Dirt, Ghost Recon Online, Metro Last Night, Ninja Gaiden 3, and Tekken standing out on the list, while a number of additional titles that are Wii U exclusives are going to be added as we get closer to launch.

The titles above are the more recent announcements in the campaign -- shortly after E3 2011 ended and the campaign to pull in core gamers and finally shore-up Nintendo's weakest demographic included FIFA, Lego City Stories, Madden NFL, Pikmin 3, Raving Rabbids, and Smash Bros. Collectively many of those games are from developers who traditionally support the other consoles either first or period, but who made the commitment to add the Wii U based largely upon the combination of Nintendo being first out of the gate for the next-generation consoles, and partly due to its game-changing second-screen technology -- which to all appearances it had a lock on.

And then Microsoft announced SmartGlass...

Make no mistake, the announcement of SmartGlass deep inside the contents of the Microsoft Press Briefing was in every respect a shot-across-the-bow and based upon the lack of official response by Nintendo at the show, and Sony's similar reaction, it was not an anticipated move, though to be fair it was not exactly a secret, since word about the app and what it did leaked well before the show. We could chalk it up to the assumption that rumors are almost always inaccurate... Or not.

The die has been cast, and Nintendo has no choice but to continue its already established path even as the experts take a step back and assess how many cars were derailed from the Nintendo marketing train during that five minute segment at the Microsoft Press Briefing. Marketing and PR are not the sort of efforts that can respond quickly to threats or changes in the line-up; much of what we saw at E3 from Nintendo and what we continue to see as they follow the established plan and continue to promote the Wii U and its second-screen controller was set in motion more than a year ago, but whatever the damage is Nintendo will likely come out of this OK.

Certainly Microsoft has stolen some of the wind from Nintendo's sails, and in so doing has now forced Sony to come up with a second-screen solution (which will no doubt heavily feature its Vita handheld system), and in the end all that we are really seeing is history repeating itself, as Nintendo innovates and then Microsoft and Sony respond with their own one-up -- but this time is different in that Nintendo failed to grab the golden ring and get its year out front as the sole purveyor of the new gaming tech like they did with motion control game play, and to a smaller extent the Mii...

Perhaps the more significant of the two surprises at this year's E3 is the fact that Microsoft's response to the Wii U second-screen controller in the form of its second-screen app has basically defined the immediate future of the home gaming console! The writing is not simply on the wall, it was spray-painted in glow-in-the-dark paint -- the second screen and the use of non-traditional devices is going to factor heavily in the future of console gaming! The only remaining question is how heavily?

There are technical aspects to this process that will have to be overcome -- for instance using a mobile screen that you already own combined with the SmartGlass App to view media content and play games is easily doable, but getting those devices to fully-cooperate and function with your Xbox 360? Not so much. To utilize the voice-chat features of the Xbox means having a Microsoft-certified chip that supports the encryption that the Xbox uses -- and the same may be true for the PS3. That being the case it is not beyond the realm of possibility (or likelihood) that early adopters of second-screen gaming will shortly find themselves investing in dedicated second-screen controllers with the Microsoft and Sony brand on them when it comes to game play, with the use of already-owned media devices largely being restricted to media -- movies, TV, and music -- and using your TV to surf the web via the new IE web browser for Xbox.

Prior to E3 2012 it was an interesting time to be a gamer, but by the time this year's E3 ended, it has become all too clear that it is also going to be an exciting decade for gaming as well. Call that our last E3 prediction for the year.