Last year, when we first learned about Wii's (then-named Revolution) unique controller, we published this article explaining why we thought Nintendo was on the right path to regaining the console throne. At that point in time we knew very little about the Wii and knew even less about the Playstation 3. Time has passed and information has been made public about both consoles, albeit more so about the Wii than the PS3. After taking everything in and looking at the current state of the industry we still feel very strongly about Wii's potential to be extremely popular with consumers.

So we claim that Wii will win the console race, but on what foundation? Let's take a look at what we know as well as what announcements are expected to be made at E3 which will help us look into what the future has in store for all three of the latest generation consoles.

First let's look at where the XBox 360 stands in terms of the console race. Everyone knows what the 360 brings to the table, it's been out for 7 months. Despite some early technical problems the 360 for the most part is a very solid system. Microsoft did a great job with the XBox Live integration into the 360's experience and has the online gaming thing pretty much down pat. Of course there is still much room for improvement with XBox Live but so far it is the best online system available for any console hands down. That said, the 360, apart from supporting HD, doesn't really have a "wow factor". The launch titles were "O.K." and even today, 7 months after release, the only other title besides Call of Duty 2 that has made a big splash is Oblivion.

At this year's E3, the 360's thunder will come from Halo 3. Halo 3 is about the only title that I've got my eyes on and other than Halo 3, the future of the 360's game lineup is slightly bland. I'm sure a few diamonds in the rough may appear as time goes on but, other than Halo 3, there aren't too many titles to look forward to. Another possible, although not rumored about at all, announcement would be something to do with the 360's HD-DVD add-on unit. HD-DVD players were recently released to the public, launching the format, so I wouldn't be shocked if we saw something about HD-DVD for the 360.

Let's move on to the mysterious PS3. Last we heard, the controller was being redesigned (thank goodness for that), the speculated price for the console ranges from $300 to $800, and the release date was pushed back to possibly sometime in October. That's about all we know about the PS3 up to this point. As for E3, there is even less known about what Sony will have on display. There was some serious speculation (from a non-reliable source) as to whether or not the PS3 would even be playable at this year's E3. Recently this game trailer was published on IGN of the PS3's Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway and we can guess that it will make an appearance at the show. However, the video features no real proof of running on a PS3 and the preview given by IGN only reveals that the game is planned to be released in early 2007, not much else. There has been a launch title list posted on about.com which features quite a few big name titles like Final Fantasy PS3, Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Tekken PS3. It also claims the PS3 is slated to launch with over 30 games, very impressive.

The future of the PS3 is pretty much unknown and it's quite tough to draw any sort of prediction from "planned announcements" at E3 because, well, there aren't any! What we can conclude is this. The community, especially the Playstation fans, want a final release price and launch date. Period. Showing off the new model of the PS3's redesigned controller wouldn't hurt either. Sadly, if Sony lets the expo go by, while only flashing dozens of non-playable "in-game" demos across large screens, without announcing either price or launch date many people will be very upset to say the least. Fact is Sony knows this, which is why we think that it's safe to expect at least a release date announcement at E3. At worst they could always push the release date back later this summer, once the expo has passed. The best bit of news that the PS3 has, besides the extensive launch title list, is that the first Blu-Ray disc player will be launched May 26th. This leaves some sort of hope that the PS3 will stick to it's speculated release date of October 2006 and won't be behind because of it's Blu-Ray Disc drive.

Finally we look at the Wii, where information regarding the console is abundant. The Wii's release price has been estimated to be between $150-$200 with an official cap of $300. The low price isn't surprising due to the lack of HD support from the Wii as well as the more economical hardware used to build it. The release date of the Wii looks to be sometime in Fall of this year as hinted upon by a large number of sources. The launch title list for the Wii is equally as impressive as the PS3's with somewhere between 20-30 games featured on it. Some potential (no official release dates have been announced) titles headlining this list are titles like Super Mario 128, Super Smash Bros. Wii, The Legend of Zelda Wii, Mario Kart Wii, Red Steel, Sadness, and Metroid Prime 3. It should be noted that Wii will bring mature titles to the table and isn't going to be another GameCube blunder. Nintendo has learned from the GameCube and knows that gamers that grew up on the NES are mature now. Last but not least, we know that the Wii is going to feature the completely unique controller which remains to be seen as to how well it works.

Expected E3 announcements for the Wii are the official release price and launch date. Many are also expecting to hear which titles will be available at launch as well as solidifying which titles are in fact in development. Having a playable Wii at the show is also widely expected and so far it appears as if that will indeed happen. Information regarding the popular Virtual Console system will also likely be provided; hopefully covering how much titles are expected to cost. Nintendo's WiFi free online service will also probably be shown off when certain games are being demoed.

With everything known about the system's summarized, we can easily look at the overall picture of the industry. The 360 is a solid system and will remain on top for a couple years to come, but the PS3 or Wii will end up being the overall leader over the course of the next 5-7 years. To determine who will be the likely winner between the PS3 and Wii let's take a look at each system's strength's over the other.

PS3

The PS3 has three distinct advantages over the Wii with a possible additional advantage to be determined in the future. The three for-sure advantages of the PS3 are its support for high definition video, its Blu-Ray disc player, and more powerful hardware which leads to better looking games (although this point can be argued). The additional potential advantage the PS3 may have over the Wii is that fact that it sticks with the traditional dual analog controller. This is of course assuming that consumers aren't ready for a new controller style.

Wii

The Wii has six distinct advantages over the PS3 with the same potential advantage over the PS3 which will be determined in the future. The advantages of Wii are that it's going to be much cheaper, will appeal to normal gamers as well as the large non-gaming market, will feature the Virtual Console to purchase old titles, has a proven online multiplayer system with Nintendo Wifi, a super affordable development kit ($2000), and has several established franchises in Mario, Link, Samus, ect. The potential advantage is the unique controller. If the controller succeeds in working well, this will be the best selling point for the system.

The future of the Wii is potentially very bright. The success of the console lies in the functionality of it's controller. If the controller works well and isn't sluggish or uncomfortable to use, the Wii will succeed. The excitement of the console has noticeably grown over the past several months with people seeing it's very low projected price, the powerhouse of titles, and the Virtual Console System enabling users to reminisce of days past.