So now that E3 has been over for a few weeks and the coverage is winding down, it is time to look back and reflect on what we’ve learned this year. There were a few surprises here and there although not so much on the game announcement front and there seems to be some shifts in the power structure a bit if clues found at the show are any indicator.

The biggest surprise for me was how little I gave a shit about the Wii U. From its first announcement I have been pretty ambivalent and even though we set aside most of Thursday to wait in line for it when the time came I realized I would rather be covering just about anything else. Just a year ago such apathy would have been sacrilege to me but somewhere along the line I just stopped caring what Nintendo was doing. Part of it is that a lot of software for the Wii is just not very interesting as I don’t host gaming parties and I don’t have much use for waggle based party games. The hardcore titles lately have either failed to impress like Metroid or just look like more of the same like Mario Galaxy. I played Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword last year and while it looks nice and feels right I have realized I really don’t want to go through the motions of a Zelda game anymore. It is always reset, you always have to do generally the same things to build yourself back up again and the addition of more precise motion controls is not going to make all that feel fresh anymore. It is starting to really annoy me that every new game in the series is a reboot and I think I might be done. Unless Wii U does something amazing I don’t see myself adopting any time soon.

I was also pretty surprised that the PS Vita looks like something I might want to buy and at a price point I could actually afford. We didn’t wait in line for that either because we had too many appointments and there was too much software to check out but from the previews we’ve seen and the price point, it sounds promising. Of course all of it is dependent on the software and a lot of new hardware promises a great lineup and then defaults when launch time comes. I can’t see myself pre-0rdering this for a day one purchase but I am interested in seeing how it does when it comes out. There may be some promise here.

One of the major differences between this E3 vs last year is how driven by software it was. Last year saw the launches of Move, Kinect and the 3Ds and so much of last year was devoted to those technologies. Certainly they had a presence at this show but it wasn’t nearly as pronounced and it was easily overshadowed by this year’s great batch of games.  If there is ever a year where I think titles will start to slip into 4th quarter after the holiday corridor this is it. There are so many things launching from September through early December we are going to have to see some release days slip or the holidays will cannibalize itself. Which games will go is up in the air but I will be really surprised if release schedules stay the same through the end of the year.

Another trend we noticed was that more and more games were being demoed on the PS3 this year. Last year there was a lot more running on the 360 but with the shift this year and the rumblings of development of new Microsoft hardware I wonder if the 360’s life cycle is coming to a close as the system is starting to show its age. There are still great games coming out that look awesome and seem to be squeezing out every last bit of performance from the machine but there is only so much it can do at the end of the day. Microsoft is already doing stop gap moves like these new higher density DVDs to hold more data and they have accomplished a lot with firmware updates but it is starting to feel like the wind is changing. Microsoft would be wise to get the next thing in the pipeline before intellectual value slips over to Sony. They probably have some breathing room though given the general feeling about Sony on the show floor.

You wouldn’t really hear it from publishers or dev teams but the buzz around the show floor was that this latest intrusion hack has seriously damaged Sony and it may be curtains for them this generation unless something changes. I do not envy the company their private meetings as I am sure they got a lot of tough questions about the security issues and the ramifications of those on their business. For their part, they did what they do and pretended that it was all okay and that they were as strong as ever.

Casual games took  a bigger step forward at this show too. Not casual like you would find on a hand held system or on a cell phone but more robust games using your windows browser or facebook as a platform. These smaller games are looking like they are taking big steps forward and providing smaller but still very satisfying experiences. Downloadable titles on XBL/PSN are looking a lot more robust as well and it seems like these smaller efforts are a solution for the smaller companies that don’t have the budget for a AAA title but still have a lot of great ideas.

Whatever and whomever wins the day, one thing that was clear at this E3 is that the winds of change are blowing even if the direction isn’t immediately clear. In some ways things are business as usual but behind that is much less surefooted territory that is nonetheless offering gamers new experiences that didn’t exist just a couple of years ago. It is an exciting time to be in games and I am anxious to see how it all turns out.