Nintendo at E3: A comeback is always just a game away

Smash Bros. will sell systems. These games will give those buyers something else to do.

Nintendo

LOS ANGELES—Most of the games Nintendo announced at E3 this year are due at unspecified dates in 2015. This is bad news for any Wii U owners who were hoping for a flood of games to fill the gap between Mario Kart 8 and the new Smash Bros. game at the end of the year, though the Wii U-exclusive Bayonetta 2 bundle in October may ease the pain for fans of its over-the-top action.

If you want to know how serious Nintendo is about turning the Wii U around, though, remember that every single one of the announcements at its Digital Event was about a new Wii U game. Most of those games won't actually come out until 2015 (which is a whole other problem) but Nintendo's energies are now focused entirely on shoring up the Wii U and building some positive momentum.

The only new 3DS title announced at the show, Code Name S.T.E.A.M., was shown not in the Digital Event but at a small, private developer session halfway through the show. Smash Bros. and the new Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire remakes will carry the 3DS through the end of the year, and third-party support for the system is robust enough that it doesn't need Nintendo's full attention right at the moment.

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Sony E3 roundup: A smattering of uninspired exclusives

LOS ANGELES—Coming off last year's E3 success and healthy sales for the PlayStation 4, Sony came in to E3 in a dominant position. It exploited that position with a self-assured press conference that seemed to go on for days, packed to the gills with exclusive announcements and reveals. So it was a bit surprising to get to Sony's booth at this year's E3 and find so few actual big-name exclusives in playable form on the show floor.

Looking back, it's easy to tell that a large portion of the PS4 content Sony had showed off earlier in the week were multi-platform third-party titles, indie titles that are mostly also coming to PCs and other consoles (many of which we'll be covering in a subsequent article), or extremely early trailers for first-party games like Uncharted 4.

What was left as far as PS4 exclusives was a handful of games in extremely different states of completion and polish, many of which won't even be ready until 2015 and not one of which stood out as a real system seller. Software-wise, Sony's message at this year's E3 seems to be that the PlayStation 4 is the place for the nicest-looking versions of big third-party titles, a boatload of interesting indie games, and, for now, a token smattering of derivative first-party exclusives.

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Microsoft E3 roundup: Xbox One doesn’t mark the spot

LOS ANGELES—Microsoft arrived at E3 following a series of strong platform-centric announcements, having reversed course on complaints like pre-packaged Kinect sensors, Xbox Live Gold subscription requirements for media, and new video streaming partners like HBO Go. Fittingly, the company opened its pre-E3 presser with a declaration that its E3 would be all about games, and those games came in droves. But once the dust settled, we started to sort out which of its announced fare was Xbox exclusive and scheduled for this year.

The list, honestly, was shorter than we'd expected, which at least made wrapping up Microsoft's E3 presence an easy task. But the biggest potential series, Halo, will only appear in semi-remastered form in the rehashed Master Chief Collection. What exclusive fare is left to convince Xbox One doubters that this holiday is the time to buy?

Sunset Overdrive

Staying in the air and firing at the same time wasn't as easy as we'd have liked in Sunset Overdrive.

As Insomniac Games' first Xbox-exclusive project edges closer to completion, it stands out as the console's most intriguing entry this coming holiday. Between an E3 trailer that openly mocked military gaming tropes and a Technicolor art style that demands eyeballs, Sunset Overdrive managed to perk our jaded eyebrows. But once we strapped in with a controller in hand, our expectations were thrown onto a rollercoaster.

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