E3 literally in the bag for Microsoft

Yup.

Bah, what a ripoff. Nintendo has been putting stuff in bags since the 80s. I remember when my uncle went to Japan and bought one of the original Nintendo Famicons, he carried it back in a bag. Get an original idea Microsoft.

"Ignoring the Joystiq poll slanted by raving Nintendo fanboys"

Nintendo fanboys on joystiq? No way !

Slanted? Maybe more people realize innovation and fun when they see it. Maybe more than mainstream gaming media types would have us think.

yeah in the bag - douche bag...

They did the same thing the first year of the Xbox 1... and the bag looked almost *exactly the same* as this one. I still have mine.

I'm not really convinced this sort of thing has any affect at all. It's different if you're a small company trying to get your name out there, but is anyone really going home and looking at this bag and saying "doh! I totally forgot about the xbox 360 until I saw this bag!"

I mean it's not like a TV ad or even a billboard - there's no actual information conveyed here. It's just a bag with a logo. It's just reminding you that the Xbox 360 exists. I don't think anybody at E3 is going to forget that, bag or no bag.

Ken,

They gave out the same bag at last year's E3. Where the hell were you?

Microsoft has had E3 in the bag the whole time.

Just "reminding you that the Xbox 360 exists" is an important element of building a brand. It may not seem obvious, but every time you view a logo or trademark, it affects your conscious and unconscious mind subtly. Having your brand on the side of a bag is a tremendous way to gain brand awareness. It's these subtle efforts at brand reinforcement, orhcestrated over a wide variety of media, that can seriously affect a consumer's perception of that brand. Why else do you think companies sponsor sporting events, athletic arenas, museums, parks, concerts, the fine arts, and public events? It's ALL advertising. And when you put it all together, even if you're not consciously aware of it, it ALL works.

What's the point of having a poll if you're going to ignore the results? Unless someone HACKED it or something...

Wouldn't it be MS is e3's bag? And wouldn't alot of companies have stuff in the bag? That was one of the more confusing thing's I've ever read.

Is Ken just bitter because he didn't get to play any Wii? Was he stuck at the Sony conference with Dull GTA Rip Off 3000 whilst his colleagues were playing Mario?

After Nintendo's press conference Microsoft is going to need all the help it can get...

Sony really didn't shock anyone, if anything they turned alot of people away with the high prices and certainly not-blatantly superior graphics that they've been promising. Nintendo didn't tell us anything that we didn't know. I think everyone was expecting nintendo to have some big shock like Sony did with the gyroesque controller change. They didn't...and because of that, it was basically everything we already knew, only we got to see them play it for once. MS focused solely on letting the world know that they have plenty of good exclusive titles coming there way. The Halo 3 trailer was expected, but cool, and the announcement of GTA4 with exclusive downloadable content only on the 360 was a great announcement as well. There presentation was well organized, and once again, they focused on the games.

With that funky controller of theirs, Nintendo needs all the help they can get. Those alternate controllers have failed year after year and I think gamers will like them for the first couple weeks, but will find themselves getting tired of having to swing their arms around all the time.. I love a nice relaxing game with my 360 controller, which many think is the best controller design ever made.

I'll second the part about being sick of nintendo fanboys. I think I'm going to have to stop reading comments until the wii is realease and all the fanboys are too musy waving their arms to type.

Hmmmm, I think alot of people are jumping on the Wii bandwagon before there are too many hands on reviews. I have to say, yesterday I was very impressed. Today I'm leaning more toward "power glove".

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for inovation and I respect Nintendo's move, but couldn't this have all been accomplished with a new controler for the gamecube? (Yeah, I know about the Wi Fi and all that I'm just talking about the controler because that is all anyone seems to be blown away with.)

Things will look fine for the Wii this year, and maybe the next, but I don't know if this concept will have the staying power two years into the next gen. And every year the graphics are going to look more and more dated.

Just my thoughts, I'll admit that I haven't even gotten my hands on the Wii yet so everything might change if I'm blown away by some hands on testing.

I am excited for the content from all three systems, but if I had to choose just one system, I'd have to go with the 360. Why? Games, games, games and more games. Now, of course, this is just my opinion. I want next-gen, high def games and I want a lot of them. Nintendo's got a lot of great games, but I don't want to wave wands. PS3 is going to have some AMAZING stuff, and blu-ray to boot, but I don't want to end my marriage over $1000 (which is what the console, extra controllers and three or four games would cost roughly).

..and talk about innovation, just look at the LIVE anywhere.

the other things exciting about wii si the fact it has a classic controller as well as support for cube controllers..and it will have EVERY game nintendo have released in the last 20 years!!!! available for download. supermarioworld snes style with the classic controller anybody..lmao they got more titles than anybody can compare too.. much like live arcade only big!
also the low rent "core style" ps3 wont even have hdmi anymore or wifi internet or support for the memory cards...needed for ps2 support lol

Hasn't MS been the official bag sponser since 2001?

Wow. Xbox 360 has a plastic bag to offer, while Nintendo has 27 playable games at their booth. Oh man, I gotta go with the bag.

Razor,
"Those alternate controllers have failed year after year"

Maybe, but this is the case of Nintendo supporting the controller full-time in their first-party titles, not some third-party gimmick. The situations aren't the same, so it isn't apt to lump them together.

"and I think gamers will like them for the first couple weeks, but will find themselves getting tired of having to swing their arms around all the time."

Maybe, or perhaps, slowly, gamers will gain muscular endurance as they play these games, with tangible health benefits a la DDR. Then again, I'm sure that titles involving the controller will be play tested to ensure that they don't put too much physical strain on a person.

This is the same bag from last year and the year before.

Wow.... better graphics... they're almost as good as my computer's now... Could you even imagine the next gen consoles after these ones!? I wonder what NEW features they will have. Oh... let me guess.... even better graphics. :|

kyou..... yeah the 360 graphics are probably equal to your computer graphics... thing is though, you probably spent a butt load more on your computer (be honest now!) and as games continue to come out for the PC, they will be at a new graphical standard that you will have to upgrade to over the years, again, and again, and again. Lot of money to be wasted. The games on the 360, on the other hand, will continue to get better and better as they learn how to truly utilize its power and we wont have to upgrade until a new system comes out many years from now. Truth be told, I used to be a hardcore PC gamer until i got fed up with the upgrading costs and if i didnt upgrade, the game quality would suffer. Yeah... PC will always be capable of being better, but man you pay for it! I'm not a rich man... nor am i a spoiled child that has rich parents. Cost does play a factor for some of us. This should not be taken as a rip on you.