Love him or hate him, gamers on all systems must admit that Shigeru Miyamoto is a legend. As the creator of some of the best games series since the industry began, with Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda all to his name, the Nintendo man deserves all the plaudits he receives. Miyamoto has recently given his views on a range of subjects, including the state of E3, the health of the Wii, and catering for casual gamers vs hardcore gamers.

The official NPD US hardware and sales software data was released yesterday, and it shows a couple of very interesting developments in the current-gen console war. Firstly, the Nintendo Wii has now officially overtaken the Xbox 360 in total sales numbers. Meanwhile sales of the PS3 surged massively during June, allowing the Sony console to push the Xbox 360 in to the bronze medal position.

The E3 Media and Business Summit is usually the place to be every year, with each of the big three console manufacturers, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, and most of the games developers there, showing off their wares. And E3 2008 followed that pattern, except for the fact that there was very little excitement, with few surprises, and a total lack of huge announcements for the future of the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

There’s no doubt about it - Microsoft shocked everyone: gamers, industry watchers, and probably even Sony itself, when it announced that Final Fantasy XIII was now coming to the Xbox 360, and was no longer a PS3 exclusive. This has lead to speculation that other big Playstation exclusives could soon be on their way to the Xbox as well, with Metal Gear Solid 4 a name already thrown in to the hat.

With the E3 Expo taking place in Los Angeles this week, some of the attention has rightly been taken away from the ongoing hardware sales battle between the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Games, and new peripherals have instead taken precedence. But the analysts are still arguing amongst themselves over which console is doing the best, and which is likely to do better in the future.

Today, it was Nintendo’s turn at the E3 Expo, coming live from Los Angeles. As well as adding more detail to the already announced MotionPlus, a few big new releases were unveiled, with Wii Resort, Wii Music, and Wii Speak the biggest.

Wow, E3 has only just begun, and already we have our first surprise announcement. Nintendo have unveiled the new MotionPlus controller for the Wii, which turns the standard, run of the mill, Wii remote in to a more accurate motion-sensing device.

E3 is upon us, and the next four days are going to show us what direction the big three of Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are going to take their relative consoles in over the next year. Games will also play a massive part in the Electronic Entertainment Expo coming from Los Angeles, with the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 all getting brand spanking new releases showcased at the event.

Gamer.Blorge is a place for news, views, reviews, console war stories, and commentary on the games industry. But it’s also a place for fanboys of each of the current-gen consoles to have their say, and argue with each other over the finer points of gaming and the merits of each system. And now the word ‘fanboy’ has made it in to the dictionary. Oh dear.

It’s a day of rare happenings here on Blorge today. The games console manufacturers, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, usually avoid confirming or denying rumours and speculation. But, dun, dun, dunnnnn, today we’ve had rebuttals from both Sony and Microsoft.