Over the long weekend, Steve and I sat down to talk about our E3 predictions in this week’s Battle of Wits. Who will bring the goods, what will make you roll your eyes, and which company will take the crown as the winner of E3 2009? Here’s a hint… it won’t be Nintendo.

We decided to go in order of the the big three press conferences and started the discussion with Microsoft. Right off the bat, Steve and I disagreed. While we both concur that Microsoft won the show in 2008, I feel they have a lot to prove coming into this year’s show. Of what we know for 2009, the Xbox 360 has the weakest lineup. Microsoft hasn’t done any pre-briefings, so the Redmond giant is looking to bring their A-game to E3. It’s almost a given that some sort of motion sensing camera/controller will be announced, but I think Microsoft has a few aces up their sleeve. Chances are we’ll be seeing a trailer for the new Peter Jackson Halo project, with Microsoft now having a strong internal team working on Halo. Maybe we’ll also get to see a Gears of War 3 teaser.

Nintendo was next on the chopping block, and they weren’t up very long. No matter what people want, Nintendo won’t deliver for the core gamer again this E3. As Steve put it, “With Wii Fit 2 and Wii Sports Resort coming with Motion Plus, Nintendo will be able to buy a small country.” There’s a very strong possibility we’ll see a Kid Icarus game and there’s a long shot of a new Luigi title, but I don’t think we should expect much. Both Steve and I hope they can better flesh out their online system, but the chances of that happening are slim.

Wrapping up the big three was Sony, who has the strongest 2009 lineup currently known. We already know about these triple-A titles, but I have a feeling Sony still has more to show. Expect a new Jak and/or Daxter game and a good deal of information about Team ICO’s project, Trico. Steve and I agree on this point, that “Sony has to justify their high price tag as opposed to cutting it.” Don’t expect a PS3 price cut at E3 (check back at TGS…). I’d also expect some enhancements to both the XMB and the PlayStation Network. Sony will announce some social networking integration and the release of a few much requested features to strengthen the PSN experience. On the PSP side, we all know about the PSP Go!, so there isn’t much to say there.

I wouldn’t hold your breath for too many third party major announcements this year. Most of the blockbuster upcoming games are already out in the open. Konami will announce Hideo Kojima’s next project, which will take him another 5 years to develop anyway. Ubisoft will wow the crowd with a beautiful trailer for the next Splinter Cell and announce the next Ghost Recon title. Otherwise, it will be a good time, but nothing mind blowing.

Will our predictions come true? Most of them will be spot on. Sony will win the show, with Microsoft taking second place. Nintendo will finish a fairly distant third in the eyes of the core gamer, but they’ll still dominate the casual market in a way no one else can match. Check back with us next week as we report from Los Angelas with all the hot news from E3.

[Battle of Wits is a weekly feature from Loot Ninja discussing the current topics in video games, our thoughts, and their implications on the industry. Feel free to join in the discussion and, if you have a topic you want to see covered, let us know.]