Oh dear, oh dear . . .

At E3 Sony, Nintendo and now Microsoft have all laid out their plans for the coming year. It would seem that Microsoft have a pretty good reason to smile. Sony’s PS3 is going to be way to expensive to be taken seriously (the 3DO comes to mind), and the Nintendo’s Wii (I still think this is a crazy name) seems to be nothing much more than a Gamecube with a rather interesting controller and an internet connection.

I’m sure Nintendo could point to their DS success as a reason for the limited graphics system in the Wii, but that would respresent a failure to realise the difference between the needs of the TV gaming and Handheld gaming.

The Wii will get off to a flying start, possibly even breaking records, only to quickly disappear altogether. This is probably for the best, as then Nintendo can get on with making great games for all formats, something which they really should have done at the end of the N64 era.

The XBOX 360 coupled with XBOX live is starting to look more and more like a winning combination.