Spring is in the air, and with this season comes something that everyone in the gaming community looks forward to like Charles Parsons waiting for his latest Magic: The Gathering deck. This exciting event is none other than the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) that is held in Los Angeles each May.

This year’s offering is easily the most anticipated E3 in some time, with all three gaming giants showcasing their next generation consoles this time around. Details are sparse at best so far, but the few bits of information released so far have proven to be interesting.

After spending a good week of debating things between ourselves, we at Nerd Alert decided to share whatever details we’ve uncovered and speculate about the race long before the entrants have been showcased. Who will win the next generation of console wars? Nobody knows. But we’ll be damned if we don’t have a lot to say about it.

Nintendo Revolution

Very little is known about Nintendo’s supposed “revolution” so far. They have promised to change the face of gaming, but their means of doing so are still unknown. Always tight-lipped about their projects, Nintendo has yet to announce what format their software will be in. After finally caving and ditching their beloved cartridges with the GameCube, Nintendo will likely continue their efforts to avoid piracy.

The only real news rumored concerning the Revolution involves the controller. In what could be an innovative move, the controller would feature a touch screen, similar to that of the DS. Buttons will be customizable for different games, allowing developers to create completely unique control schemes for their games.

On one hand, this sounds like a great idea. But leave it to Nintendo to sour what seems to be a sweet creation. Word is that they are only allowing developers to create titles for the Revolution provided they use the touch screen controller in unique ways. I know Nintendo loves being able to tout their newest creations, but forcing developers to utilize them is a different matter. Unfortunately, Nintendo could likely drive away their third-party support through their own stubbornness.

They’ve long been known to utilize compatibility between consoles, and one would tend to think that things wouldn’t be any different with the Revolution. The fact that touch screens play a major component in both the Revolution’s controller and the DS makes linkage almost obvious.

In the end, Nintendo will probably hold on by a thread through yet another generation of consoles because of their first-party titles. Zelda and Mario can only do so much, however, and only time will tell if third-party developers will put Nintendo back into the race.

Xbox 360

Similar to its competitors, Microsoft has revealed very little about the follow-up to their successful Xbox. Gamers were quick to embrace the Xbox, and chances are Microsoft will look to expand upon its already massive fanbase.

Recently, a web site has been garnering massive amounts of attention from the gaming community. Similar to the viral marketing campaign that promoted “Halo 2” through a web site (www.ilovebees.com), www.ourcolony.net features a playable game where contestants win points by getting their friends to join. Players are rewarded for playing the game with pictures showcasing items that bear an uncanny resemblance to pieces of an Xbox. While all signs seem to point to Microsoft as the creator, they have neither confirmed nor denied the rumors.

Microsoft seems to be leaning toward once again utilizing DVDs for its software, which puts it at an immediate disadvantage to competitors. Whereas a Blu-Ray disc is capable of storing some 50 GB of data, DVDs are still limited to 8 GB. This seems to put Microsoft out of competition before things even get underway, but nothing is set in stone. For all anyone knows, they could have an ace up their sleeves that nobody knows about.

Speculation points to the Xbox 360 being a complete entertainment system. Aside from playing games, DVDs and CDs, Microsoft is likely to include DVR capabilities similar to TiVo and a possible removable hard drive that could compete with Apple’s iPod.

Much to my chagrin, Microsoft not only survived their first entry into the console race; this next generation of systems is not going to make or break Microsoft, but it could put them in a prime position to overtake Sony as the king of the hill.

Playstation 3

Let there be no doubt, PlayStation 2 has won this round of the console wars. With a vastly larger market share and a monstrous library of titles, PS2 is the everyman’s system — it’s the no-brainer choice when deciding which of the three major consoles to buy. With such tremendous success, Sony has quite a lot to live up to when crafting its successor, officially unofficially named the PlayStation 3.

With the recently revealed “cell” processor, details surrounding the systems probable power indicate that the competition may be overwhelmed from the get-go. Foregoing the standard media of the current generation, DVD, Sony has instead opted for the PS3 to use Blu-Ray discs instead. So no — it is very unlikely that this PlayStation will be backwards compatible with older titles, nor DVDs. Instead, with the PS3, Sony may just launch the next media revolution.

The first DVD players, back in the days of our forefathers, cost hundreds of dollars — some thousands. For many people, the PS2 was their first introduction to the world of DVD — a feat responsible, at least in part, for the rabid success of DVDs overall. Sony hopes to repeat their success with the PS3, introducing Blu-Ray into homes at highly competitive price, bringing true HD quality movies en masse to consumers for the first time. (Oh yeah, in case you didn’t know, DVDs don’t run in High Definition. Bummer, right?)

Regardless of the success or failure of Sony’s attempted coup in the media business, the PS3 will likely continue Sony’s dominance of the video game market.

And, perhaps strike a fatal blow to at least one competitor along the way.

Ryan Gauthier ([email protected]) and Zach Stern ([email protected]) are hopelessly addicted to all things involving video games. Zach has been playing “Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory” and “Lumines.” Meanwhile, Ryan is amusing himself with “WWE: Smackdown! vs. Raw.”