What Should Have Been At E3

I've spent two posts talking about what's happening at E3, and what I think is good and bad. Here's what should have been announced at E3.

Nintendo should have announced, and pushed hard, the fact that the 3DS can store games internally on its memory. This should have gone hand in hand with an announcement of much greater effort into their online stores and entire networking effort. (Friend codes? Come on...) Also, making it much easier for developers to put games together and into their online store, and an embrace of a wide range of price points (including free). Yup, retailers would have been pissed... but with the prospect of selling 3DS hardware with good margins, and that there would still be a solid flow of games into retail channels, they could have been brought around. Oh, and make the same concessions for WiiWare, so that market can open up. Announce an open-arms policy towards iPhone developers, and a set of tools designed to make it easy to bring their titles to Nintendo platforms.

Microsoft should have launched Kinect at $79 with Halo: Kinect packed in. This latest in the Halo series would have been a new story with some new weapons, and all of it requiring the Kinect. Halo fans would have rushed to get this, and it would have meant a really big Kinect installed base by the end of this year. So third-party developers would be strongly incentized to develop Kinect titles, and even Kinect-only titles. Meanwhile, put more resources into Xbox Live Arcade. Microsoft could have announced support for a wide range of price points, including free; made it easier to get approvals and games into the Xbox Live Arcade; and for that matter, open things up to non-game software. They already have a place in the family room; open the platform to apps. Outdo Google TV and the rumored Apple TV before they even get started. Why not have all the best apps from Android and Apple getting ported to Xbox? Good grief, they might even be able to sell Zunes this way...

Sony should have announced their new PSP2 at the show, and it should have resembled the PSPGo. but the price point has to be $199, and Sony would have to throw open the doors of their walled garden to developers. Sony's got music and movies in-house, for crying out loud; they should have an online store to rival iTunes. Download movies, music and games to your PSP2, and a whole range of apps that we're encouraging developers to port from the iPhone or Android. Hell, make the PSP2 an Android device; that would get some energy in there. The PS3 can adopt a similar strategy to what Microsoft should have done: Make it the GoogleTV/Apple TV killer. Better, adopt GoogleTV into the PS3; absorb and conquer. Android apps through your PS3... control with your Android phone or pad... suck on that, Apple! Meantime, show off a killer 3D display enabled game that offers gameplay elements you only get with a 3D display, and an upcoming 3D TV with a PS3 built into it.

Apple and Google should have been at E3, announcing their new living room initiatives... GoogleTV and AppleTV 2, with full app stores, controllable with all their other devices or through Bluetooth, and generating spiffy game graphics with some Wii-class or better graphics.

Now, that would have been some show. Will any of this ever happen? We may see some small steps in those directions by some of the Big Three, as their sales continue to falter. I think the highest probabilities are for AppleTV 2 and GoogleTV to proceed in the direction I outlined. If that happens, the Big Three are going to be facing some serious market share erosion.