Technology 
doesn’t have a sentimental side. As new innovations grab hold of people’s attentions, once-hot gadgets often find themselves relegated to the sidelines. And with the Internet of Everything on the horizon, the cycle seems ready to repeat itself.
There are a slew of things we take for granted now that might not be so commonplace before too long. For instance:
A 
hacker and a kart racer have delivered some unabashedly good news to console makers and game publishers.
Sales of both video game hardware and software were up — way up — in May, delivering the first solid month the industry has seen for some time.
Mario 
Kart 8 is proving to be quite the power-up for Nintendo’s Wii U.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told Yahoo Games that the kart racer has resulted in a significant bump in hardware sales since it hit store shelves in May, and the company has high hopes for that trend to continue.
E3 
is a hydra. There’s so much going on at any given moment that it’s hard to keep up with everything being shown, talked about and hinted at.
While the show is closed to the public, Nintendo once again offered fans the chance to play demos of “Super Smash Bros.” at over 100 Best Buy locations around the U.S. And while that may gave fans a taste, it hardly filled their appetites.
While it’s impossible to fully showcase E3’s eccentricities, here are a few snapshots of the industry’s annual party/trade show to give you a taste.
While 
it’s still anyone’s guess as to when the Oculus Rift or Sony’s Project Morpheus will be commercially available, this year’s E3 made one thing clear: there’s nothing virtual about the fun these devices deliver.
VR may not have been front and center at this year’s show, but it certainly created a lot of buzz. Sony saw huge crowds queing up for Morpheus. The line stretching around the Oculus booth was several hours long.
I tried out a lot of VR games at the show. Here’s what stood out.
In 
theory, the idea sounds fine. Get a personable, well-liked young star to promote the Xbox One, and, even though you’ve unbundled Kinect from the system, feature it prominently in ads to keep awareness high.
In practice, though, Microsoft’s latest Xbox One commercial is driving current Xbox One owners crazy as it tries to sell the system to people who don’t have one yet.
The 
E3 after a console hardware launch is always an awkward one for investors.
The excitement that surrounds new game systems often has a sweeping effect on share prices of companies in the video game space—but it’s hard to get as worked up about game announcements the following year.
The 
worst part about E3 is the waiting.
After ingesting a flood of information for hundreds of titles and watching their excitement levels rise to critical peaks, players now must sit back and be patient. Some of the games won’t be out for months. Others could take years.
Figuring out which will top sales charts is always a dangerous exercise. Publishers show carefully controlled demos of small segments of their games, specifically designed to pique interest. It might be fun in a five-to-10-minute microburst, but truly terrible after an hour of gameplay.
As we do each year, we’ve compiled a list of the games most likely to perform well when they hit stores. That doesn’t mean they’ll be critical smashes, but they’re likely to connect with today’s gaming audience.
Here’s what turned our head at this year’s E3.
Microsoft 
has long painted the Xbox One as a system that’s about more than just video games, saying home entertainment is equally important.
To underline that, a year ago it announced a live-action “Halo”-themed series produced by Steven Spielberg—and has since revealed a fairly extensive lineup.
But the division has undergone changes, and now original video content is being de-emphasized.
Independent 
games don’t rule the sales charts. Their fan base is dwarfed by that of even a mid-level game put out by a major publisher. And the money they make is just a drop in the bucket in an industry whose global revenues last year totaled $93 billion.
But lately, those indie developers have been the belle of the video game ball.
Chris Morris: Journalist 