E3 day two: Sony and Nintendo

More big news coming your way from the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. First, let's check in with Sony.

Sony's press conference leaves me with mixed feelings. Although I was a bit disappointed with Home still being MIA at this year's expo, I was pleased to hear about the new video rental system now available at the online Playstation Store.

Kotaku reports that Sony worked out agreements with Warner, Fox, Lion's Gate, Disney, MGM and several others to bring video and TV rentals to the PS3. Not only can you view the downloaded content on your PS3, you can transfer it to your PSP for viewing on the go. This gives Sony's video store a lead in functionality when compared to Microsoft's video offerings. In the end, however, it comes down to content to determine a winner.  Pricing is $15 to purchase, $6 to rent in HD, and $4 to rent in SD.

Sony's other big news? According to Reuters, a new "Core Pack" Playstation 3 with "the same functionality of the 40GB" will be going for $399. So what happens to the current 80GB? My guess is we'll be seeing a 120GB-160GB version of the PS3 priced at $499 to hit later this year.

And finally, the games: 1up.com notes in its liveblog that God of War III is officially in the works, Little Big Planet is scheduled for October 2008, and a slew of PSP titles, including a Resistance title, LocoRoco 2, and others, are all in the pipeline at Sony. Word of a "massive action game" featuring 256 simultaneous players should be on the way.

Overall, not bad Sony, but get that Home out ASAP! On to Nintendo...

Nintendo's press conference was a little lean when compared to its bigger brothers, but a few diamonds in the rough were definitely sighted.

First off, Joystiq reports that Shaun White and Ubisoft will be releasing a Wii Balance Board game called Shaun White Snowboarding (creativity points for the name). Although not much is known about the game, I'm a little skeptical on how fun the game could be without any force-feedback in the balance board. 

Also in the works is Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music. The first looks to be somewhat of a sequel to the original Wii Sports, but it will feature games with a "fun day at the resort" theme. Wii Music gets in on the music video game craze by bringing 50 different instruments to the Wii without adding a single piece of hardware. Pretty impressive stuff.

And now, the brightest gem of them all: Animal Crossing for the Wii! IGN reports that Animal Crossing: City Folk (otherwise known as the biggest, virtual-world time-suck) will be hitting store shelves sometime this year and will feature a new hardware device to enhance interactivity. The "WiiSpeak" microphone will allow players to use vocal communication when meeting others in player gatherings. Very cool stuff. Expect WiiConnect to also be a big part of this game.

That about wraps up our coverage of the big three here at Yahoo! Tech. (If you missed out on Microsoft coverage, check that out here.) Who do you think walked away this year as the big winner? Let us know in the comments below.