Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming: Nintendo E3 presser

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Nintendo E3 presser

Nintendo's E3 presser was geared toward toward "innovation and surprises", and "everyone's game".

Cammie Dunaway started the event, and despite using very biz analytic language like "even Mario is not enough to attract all people to our category", she at least did lead with the company's major strengths, intro'ing a brief Mario retrospective, which was a lead-up to a new Super Mario Bros. for Wii. The game has four-player, drop-in co-op (or not, if you're petty), and is is coming Holiday 2009.

Wii Fit Plus -- An updated, configurable version of the company's hugely successful workout and strength training software. It will be will be available this fall, and ship with the Balance Board, or as a stand-alone title for those folks who were able to get their hands on a Balance Board.

Reggie Fils-Aime took the stage to (re-)announce the MotionPlus add-on hardware (he's a very polished, articulate Nintendo advocate). The precision-control nature of the MotionPlus is, I think, going to very much help with fine-grain, core game mechanics, and the cutesy sky diving demo was a very good way to introduce the Wii MotionPlus Resort pack-in (?). The game is a collection of mini games to demonstrate (and get experience with) the new Wii remote add-on.

the Wii MotionPlus Resort demo lagged a bit from sky diving to archery to basketball, but while the banter lagged in the last demo, at least Fils-Aime brought the smack talk to the mini-competition. (I want him to the bring that snark to Microsoft and Nintendo.) Wii MotionPlus Resort launches in July.

In the next few weeks, Electronic Arts is backing the MotionPlus technology with upcoming titles Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis, and SEGA's Virtual Tennis 2009 will support the tech, as will Red Steel 2 from Ubisoft will only be playable with the Wii MotionPlus.

Square-Enix will be releasing Final Fantasy the Crystal Bearers exclusively for the Wii. They are also releasing an exclusive version of the Kingdom Hearts.

On the DS front, Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story looks like a great RPG, and will finally be out in North America and Europe this fall.

More exciting for me, Nintendo announced Golden Sun is coming back to the DS.

Dunaway came back to the stage to push the low cost of Nintendo DS development, coupled with the the huge install base, as a lower-cost way to take risks. That was a subtle (and I think wise) message to slide in the presser -- "prototype innovative gameplay on the cheap, and if you hit, hit big!"

THQ will be releasing author James Patterson's Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion for the DS. Style looks to smack of the Phoenix Wright franchise, and is obviously going after an exclusive demographic. Interesting.

Ubisoft's Cop: The Recruit looks to be a very slick, stylized GTA China Wars-esque DS offering for core gamers.

There was also a tween / pre-teen girl's game for the DS that I missed, but it plus the THQ and Ubi titles were all about showing the platform demographic and genre diversity. Dunaway kind of hit people over the head with it, but it's a valid differentiator for the handheld.

Dunaway then provided a market update on the Nintendo DSi (surpassing 1M units, plus there were 400,000 DS Lites sold, etc.).

FlipNote -- That user-generated mini movie content software for the DSi -- will be available this summer. I likes.

Mario versus Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (think branded Lemmings) for DS will allow for creating custom , shareable levels, and is available next Monday.

WarioWare DIY -- Glad Cammie told us it was short for "Do It Yourself" :-, is a title that lets you create and share your own games. This one plus FlipNote may make me upgrade to a DSi.

Starting this summer, photos from DSi will let you update photos to Facebook. Facebook is doing well; wonder if they have something to announce with Sony at E3, not that they've covered Nintendo and Microsoft.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks -- A DS gift for the franchise lovers and the Nintendo faithful hardcore.

Worldwide president Satoru Iwata took the stage, interestingly, to talk about Nintendo's research and market segmentation. He said Nintendo's research of North America, Japan, and 6 other countries showed an "Active gamers" (across all consoles) addressable market of 395M, and those that "Might Play" number ~149M -- his point being "for every two people actively playing games, there is a third, waiting to play").

Mr. Iwata said he has a goal to provide games that work for experienced and novice players at the same time. Lofty goal. I support it, as long as it doesn't suck for both.

He also announced the Wii Vitality Sensor, to expose "the inner world of your body". Think one of those pulse thingies you see at grocery story blood pressure stations. But, not as shared.

Dunaway re-took that stage to announce a new 3D Mario for the Wii -- Super Mario Galaxy 2 (another gift for the franchise and Nintendo faithful).

Fils-Aime re-took the stage to announce 3 exclusive titles for the Wii that are more targeted to the Core gamer:

The Conduit -- A great-looking FPS from one of my personal favorite devs, High Voltage Software (published by SEGA)
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
Dead Space: Extraction -- Zorsis's baby. Which looks super slick and scary.

From Nintendo itself (plus Project M and Team Ninja), came Metroid: Other M -- looks to be a great addition to the franchise (Metroid plus deeper story plus Ninja Gaiden-esque gameplay).

And that finished up the presser.

Labels: announcements, E3, E3 2009, events, Nintendo, Wii