It's always been a dumb question. But, what if we applied a little math and science to it anyway? If you were in chat during any of the press conferences media briefings showcases, then you may have seen a poll at the end asking you to rate the show from 1-10. Well, I took all that data and used it to determine who the Giant Bomb Community thinks "won E3 2019."

I'm only running data on the conferences that Giant Bomb was present for because the others, while available in chat, had far fewer viewers than these main five.

Unfortunately, there was something wrong with polls during Xbox, so the totals are lower than how many actually voted, but I still think it's enough of a pool to say it's an accurate representation.

Of course, the true winner of E3 was the gamers a tie between Keanu Reeves, Ikumi Nakamura, Bam Bam the Dog, and Gooigi. But, here's the data anyway...

Microsoft

Bethesda

Ubisoft

Square Enix

Nintendo

Overall

Prior to the first GB @ Nite show on Tuesday, I asked everyone who they thought won E3. This was the result:

So, if we take this data and compare it to the data collected after each conference, what do we get?

Hey! They're in the same exact order. That worked out pretty well.

Either way you look at it, Nintendo dominated this year's E3 according to the Giant Bomb Community.

Until next year, <>.

I think we can all agree that Sony won, by not showing up. Kidding ofc, but this sure has been one of the least interesting E3s in a while.

The platforms were held, it seems. It'll be interesting if there are any short or long term ramifications to Sony for skipping out on E3. They've missed out on being part of an enormous amount of conversation, but does that mean they'll actually miss out on sales down the line?

E3 is always such a great time to crank out memes. I love it! And as Jeff said, it seemed empty, but there is a lot of games coming out over the next year that I'm looking forward to.

I don't really understand the disappointment in the Scarlett announcement. Don't people remember the first time they talked about Scorpio onstage? It was the exact same thing, I didn't expect anything different.

Overall, I think Nintendo and Squaresoft won - that order.

I think Microsoft was flat, they didn't screw up, they just failed to really xpress why Scarlet was going to be interesting. I actually think the next set of hardware from Microsoft and Sony will be the most refined, worth of discussion, but they will be done next year.

If I were iD Software, Arkane Studios, or Machine Studios I'd be so angry at Bethesda for dragging their collective reputations down. I think Zenimax needs to sit down and shake up Bethesda in Maryland, their tech is poor, their management is lax, and their quality control is subpar. I know the major executives at Zenimax, are Bethesda Maryland aluminum/founders, but that studio is lost.

Keanu definitely won E3. Seriously, though, I liked Microsoft's showing. Scarlett seems appropriately beefy, the Project xCloud stuff makes it sound like they're actually making good on the "power of the cloud" thing that's up to now been kind of a jokey punchline for gamers, and once again, Jeff's interview with Phil Spencer was rather reassuring as to the direction of all things Xbox. I don't really have a problem with Nintendo getting some love for their showing, either. I personally don't get as amped about Nintendo stuff as many do, but it seems like they're giving their fans what they want, so good on them.

Ubisoft was the definite loser for me. No Splinter Cell? Rainbow Six: Zambies? Ads for TV shows and symphonies? Fucking BOOOOOO. I guess you can throw Sony in this mix as well for no-showing, which reads to me as complacency over winning this generation. It didn't feel the same without them, and I'm concerned that leading into next-gen, they're going to just kinda coast because they feel like they can.

I know the general consensus seems to be this was an underwhelming E3, but man, there are so many games I'm excited for in the next 18 months. Even games I wasn't personally excited for coming in, like Doom Eternal, I see Jeff flipping out over and it's infectious. Sure, looking at the individual press conferences, there wasn't as much there as last year, but the games themselves have me so excited and that's not even taking into account we're getting new hardware next year.

E3 is just in a weird place right now being stuck between a consumer show and a trade show, without really doing either well, it seems.

I dunno... I'd rather say there are some games that I'm really excited for. Looking at the rest of the year I'm eyeing like three, maybe four, games when I'm usually looking at 10+. And while there are a few games lined up for next spring, even if you combine them with the games lined up this year it barely makes for a good fall release. But as I said, most of them look like bangers so that sorta makes up for it.

@ares42: I can't speak for everyone, but just for me, there are so many more games I'm actively excited for than usual. The big games that came out this past spring didn't really interest me at all, even the well-regarded ones like DMC5 and RE2 Remake, but so many games coming out this fall and early next year are ones I'm so jazzed to play. I can think of at least a dozen that I know for certain I want to play, or at least am optimistic for. But again, that's just me. I think a lot of the disappointment in E3 this year comes from the fact that the biggest games were known-quantities coming in so there weren't many big surprises that captured people's attention like in past years.

Despite the lack of announcements we have good stuff coming I think MS in particular could and should have had a much better presentation. The xCloud stuff was awfully vague and only really confirmed their going to have remote play which nearly everyone has. And the Scarlett reveal was a bunch of talking heads confirming what Sony already said a month earlier the difference we saw Halo but its the second showing and with no gameplay definitely not selling me on the next generation. Despite all that after buying all those studios they have games to show but chose not to, Outerworlds, Gears 5 and especially Bleeding Edge all should have had on stage gameplay demos. I also hate indie game sizzle reels I often have no idea what I'm looking at and have forgotten it immediately afterwards, have Chris Charla or developer come out for 1min explain the get up then spit out the trailer its easier to remember a face with the game.

This poll ads up. I thought Nintendo definitely had the best showing of all the conferences. In a year where many of these conferences didn't show much gameplay (with a few exceptions like DOOM Eternal and FF7R) Nintendo unveiled great looking gameplay for their own games as well as some major surprise 3rd party announcements for games like Panzer Dragoon, John Romero's Empire of Sin and a Dark Crystal Tactics game. Not to mention we finally saw Animal Crossing: New Horizons, got that Banjo-Kazooie Smash DLC trailer and the BOTW sequel trailer to end the show on.

Nintendo completely blew away the competition this year. No doubt.

Nintendo easily because this year is the year the Switch feels like its matured as a systen. Solid 3rd party support and a lot of exclusives coming. The library is going to look incredible by March

Everyone loss, especially anyone who bothered to watch it. So many games are a year or less away and the devs showed no gameplay.

It was a weirdly undercooked E3 this year outside of Nintendo reminding me that I'm on the hook for multiple games of theirs this year. Sure, part of that is because their release calendar was so barren for the first 6 months of 2019, but it feels like things are finally paying off for them in an appreciable way.

I liked Microsoft and (surprisingly) Square-Enix's conferences well enough too, but this really does feel slightly more dire than just a transition year before the new consoles.

I think my favorite was the PC Show.

Nintendo for me, at least 5 interesting titles was shown:

* Mario Maker 2. Looks even better and better.
* Zelda 4 remake. Same as above.
* Zelda "dance mania candence of rythmania". Looks interesting.
* Luigi's Mansion, Nintendo Treehouse showed some cool unique missions, like the movie set where you have to help the ghost director.
* Animal Crossing, I've not played one before, but that looked kinda fun and relaxing.
* Switch Witcher 3 version. Since I already played on PC I wouldn't pick up this, but interesting to see how much they had to limit this version. And how well they done it. The Ark Switch port gotta be the worst port in history.
As I see it, you can put any game on Switch, it's just a matter of find the best match between graphical quality and performance. Witcher 3 can be quite hard on the CPU in big cities, so that will be a challenge.

Some years, the conferences are pretty divisive, but there seemed to be a lot more consensus this year about what worked and what didn't. The numbers shook out exactly the way it felt like they would at the time, and it's no surprise Nintendo is in the lead. They were helped a lot of this year in that, unlike the companies publishing on the Xbox and PlayStation, they weren't waiting on a new console before they could talk about the big news, but they also succeeded in plenty of ways that the other publishers didn't. Their coverage had almost no filler, they had a lot more gameplay to show than their competitors, and their broadcasts were often easier to navigate.