E3, the largest yearly event for the video game industry, took place last week in Los Angeles. Nintendo showed its new Wii U console but, all things considered, it failed to impress most of the public and the media, raising serious questions about its market potential. On the positive side, the Wii U will have a Mario title available at launch, increasing the appeal of the new platform among Nintendo fans.

Microsoft continued its push to transform the Xbox 360 into a multimedia hub that provides access to an increasing amount of non-gaming content. The console will have 35 new content providers including Nickelodeon and Paramount Movies. Most importantly Microsoft expanded its partnership with ESPN, offering live access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and ESPNU. It also showed the SmartGlass technology, which enables the use of smartphones and tablets as controllers/companions for content that runs on the console.

PlayStation focused on gaming content, showing remarkable titles like The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls. Sony also heavily promoted its subscription service for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Plus, by offering 12 full games available to subscribers for download this month. PlayStation Plus has made a quantum leap in terms of value offered to gamers and it will be interesting to measure the uptake of this service in the coming months.