So who do you think really won E3 2008 and does anyone think that maybe there was no real winner?

I'm asking because I'm really not sure anyone actually "won" or wins. Personally I think the only possible winner is the person with the limitless bank account that owns all 6 systems (PS3, 360, PSP,DS, PS2 and Wii for clarification) that can purchase any game on it's respective console. Seems to me that someone always loses.

These days with exclusives, one platform is always losing out on something regardless of how much money they make, there's always money they're not making. As gamers, we lose if we don't own all of the systems, and even if we do have them, we can't seem to have all of the features in every game that we want. Case in point, GTA IV only has DLC on 360 so you're forced to buy it from Microsoft if you hope to get that content.

That being said, I'll never advocate for a one console future because then we'd all be forced to buy whatever shovelware was out and would never see innovation in the platforms unless the consortium chose to give it to us.

Year after year we always ask who wins E3, and honestly I see more losers than winners. I'm rambling. Sorry. I just felt it difficult to answer the poll and in the end, chose "other". Thus endeth my rant.

PC. The PC is a system.

Yes I agree that there was no real winner, but I tend to hate designating a winner to something like this.

I voted "gamers" in the poll. Why? Primarily because we learned more about some of the games coming this fall and winter. That information should help to plan purchases and decide which titles you want on which systems (if you have more than one). For example, if a gamer was planning on buying a PS3 only to play Final Fantasy, now he can devote that money elsewhere. Someone who already has a PS3 might decide to forego a game or two to get a PSP for their new video download service. Someone else might decide that based on what was shown they want Dead Space more than Too Human and skip a purchase. Someone else may have decided to go with Guitar Hero World Tour because of compatible drums when otherwise they might have stayed with Rock Band.

Of course, not every single gamer will win. Some will buy into a game company's promises that do not pan out. Either a game will not be as good as it appeared, or something will not be released this year. But as a whole, I think we are now better informed and can make better choices.

Do you really think that gamers "won"? We really didn't get anything except someone telling us where we can put our hard earned dollars if we choose. I suppose that we got something, but nothing IMO that makes us "winners".

We did manage to find out that Nintendo really doesn't care about us. We found out that Sony can't seem to keep an exclusive, so if it's the only system we own, our only benefit to owning it anymore is that it's a BR player and has two or three games the rest of this year that are AAA titles and exclusive. PS3 only owners could have bought a 360 for less money and gotten nearly three times as many games this year. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to just own a PS3, but the incentive to just own that one system seems to keep dwindling.

If your a 360 owner you found out that some of the biggest hype centered around a partnership with Netflix! Woot...oh wait...you mean I can't stream it in HD? You mean I'd have to get a membership to NF to use it? Wait, I've only got a 20gb hdd and it's nearly full because I bought a few tv shows already!

I think that all we really got were more reasons to wish we had deeper pockets, more promises, and a bunch of devs talking to us about their high aspirations. Don't get me wrong, I'm jaded, but there are games coming out this year that I am looking forward to. I'm going to have to pay for them and I'm going to have to have the system that runs them, but far too many people don't. It's hard to explain but I can't see where we actually win anything.

IMTHEONEKILLINU wrote:

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Do you really think that gamers "won"?

Yes, I do. Besides things I noted in my previous post, I found out that Bioshock for the PS3 will not have additional levels, just some challenge mode. I'm no longer torn over whether I need a PS3 to play the additional Bioshock content. I can live without it.

I'm not enough of an HD snob (yet) that streaming SD movies still appeals to me (I like subscription based services like Napster or Yahoo Music). Since I don't need a PS3, I can think about a larger hard drive for my X-Box 360 (or maybe an entirely new box with an HDMI port).

But most importantly, I know:

IMTHEONEKILLINU wrote:

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there are games coming out this year that I am looking forward to.

Maybe this is a "win" to me because I'm older and remember back to when there were fewer developers and fewer games every year. I can remember times when I finished playing a game and there was nothing on the horizon for me to say, "I can't wait until [insert game name here] comes out."

We learned at E3 that 2007 wasn't a fluke year - another 1998 which wasn't going to happen again for 10 years. Instead, 2008 is arguably as strong as 2007 for games, and there are already games on the horizon for early 2009 that will be big sellers and worth playing.

I'm not saying it was perfect. But I'm fairly confident based on the hands on reports from E3 that I'm going to have at least 3 and probably 5 or more games the second half of the year with which I'm going to have a ball. That, for me, is most definitely a win.

Kaworus_lover wrote:

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PC. The PC is a system.

Yes I agree that there was no real winner, but I tend to hate designating a winner to something like this.

The pc is getting prince of persia, fallout 3, far cry 2, stalker clear sky, crysis warhead and left 4 dead, enough to make me very happy

With exclusivity basically dead, none of the Big Three consoles won at E3. Or maybe they all won, depending how you look at it. 360, PS3, and PC all seem to end up with a version of the same titles so whatever system you have you'll be OK. And the Wii is the Wii. It does it's own thing and kills everybody. All in all, there seems to be parity in the gaming industry.

As the owner of all systems except the Ps2 I do feel like the winner at E-3, but as a whole the loser because I'm gonna have to buy all these system exclusives for all those dag-gone systems.I'm not gonna get them all just the game types that I'm interested in.Still 2008-2009 is gonna be great for all gamers, so the Gamers win.....

Kaworus_lover wrote:

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...

Yes I agree that there was no real winner, but I tend to hate designating a winner to something like this.

I guess that's what I'm saying. Sure I suppose it's good that games are coming out, although I still think this is a dry spell as always happens during the summer. But I guess that my biggest problem is that although games are coming out, I don't feel like a winner in the sense that the only thing I won was the chance to spend another crap ton of money this season on more games. WooHoo, I get to spend more money! I think I'd consider myself more of a winner if I had limitless pockets and every system rather than having to make decisions about which games I REALLY want and can afford.

I think that my problem is in calling it "winner". As a 360 owner I'd really have felt like a "winner" if they'd announced Live was free. It wouldn't be something that costs me even more money than I already shell out each year on games. KNowing that great games are coming out and that you just get the chane to buy them, is akin to buying a lottery ticket and the "winning part" was the chance to buy more tickets. I guess I'm just not making much sense and this is far too difficult for me to put into words.

Oh and btw, I'm old too at 37.

IMTHEONEKILLINU wrote:

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KNowing that great games are coming out and that you just get the chane to buy them, is akin to buying a lottery ticket and the "winning part" was the chance to buy more tickets. I guess I'm just not making much sense and this is far too difficult for me to put into words.

There's a flaw in your analogy. When someone buys a lottery ticket, they do so expecting a payoff of money. If they don't get that but instead get more lottery tickets, then they have a right to be disappointed.

To apply this to the subject at hand, what were your expectations out of E3? What I expected was to get some more detailed information about the games that are coming out this fall and longer term so I could plan (time and money are both factors) around what I would want to get. I got that. In that sense, I "won" at E3. I didn't expect XBL to be free. I think it would be a good move for MS and would love for it to happen. But I'm not expecting it.

But, I understand that people who had different expectations of E3 could easily have a different feeling about how it went.

IMTHEONEKILLINU wrote:

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Oh and btw, I'm old too at 37.;)

I've got you buy a few. Not a decade, but not too far from it.

honestly this was a very upsetting e3 the only people that won are the people who probably don't know what e3 is or that it even exsists it's a shame they showed them here but it happens.