Nintendo courts gamers of all kinds at E3
- July 11, 2007 5:27 PM |
- By Ian Johnson
by Erin Bell, special to CBCNews.ca
"My name is Reggie, and I am happy." With those words, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime kicked of the company's E3 press conference – one that emphasized Nintendo's strategy of blurring the line between casual and hardcore gaming.
"E3 here in 2007 may well be seen as a coming out party for an entire industry," he continued. "The moment when it became finally clear that videogames would take their place alongside TV, movies, and music as a staple of leisure entertainment. Why? Because everyone's a gamer."
Nintendo outlined three key strategies during the conference. First, it plans to increase the market share of its Nintendo DS portable gaming system in recognition of the increasing popularity of handheld gaming, and of the DS in particular.
Nintendo's second strategy is to court older players, because, according to Fils-Aime, "that's where potential lives."
The third strategy is to continue to cater to the female players that make up 33 per cent of Nintendo's market share.
Smash Bros. Brawl (which will launch Dec. 3), The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – a completely stylus-driven Zelda game for the Nintendo DS, and Metroid Prime III: Corruption for Wii will keep its traditional core demographic happy, but Nintendo was clearly focused on expanding that core demographic.
Screenshot from Metroid Prime III: Corruption, for the Wii.
The company announced new "brain games" to follow up on the popularity of DS games like Brain Age and Big Brain Academy. Brain Age 2 will launch an Aug. 20, and Nintendo also introduced a vision-training game called Flash Focus, a spelling and vocabulary-building game called My World Coach, and My Life Coach.
Nintendo unveiled three new peripherals for the Wii: the Wii Zapper light gun, which will be compatible with Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Capcom), Ghost Squard (Sega), and Medal of Honor (EA); the Wii Wheel, which will be packaged with the Wii version of Mario Kart; and a peripheral dubbed the Wii Balance Board which works with the Shigeru Miyamoto-developed fitness game WiiFit to assist in yoga and pilates moves, step classes, and balance improvement exercises.
Nintendo's Wii Zapper light gun.
Fils-Aime called Super Mario Galaxy, which will be available Nov. 12, the first worthy successor to Mario 64, saying that it "sets a new standard for player interface, not just for platformers, but for any game."
Nintendo didn't have much to say about its online strategy, but did note that several upcoming titles will offer online multiplayer, including Mario Strikers Charged, Madden 08, Fifa 08, Guitar Hero III and Mario Kart Wii.
Screenshot from Super Mario Galaxy.
The company was also vague about Wii Ware, the initiative to create unique standalone content that can be downloaded to the Wii via the Shop Channel.
Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co. Ltd., said that Nintendo's next challenge is to destroy the psychological barrier that separates veteran gamers from novice players.
Emphasized Fils-Aime: "We are now facing a wonderful new reality. Everyone's a gamer."
Erin Bell is a Toronto-based freelance video game and technology journalist, and is reporting on her fourth E3.
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Comments (30)
...A zapper? A balance board?
This is Nintendos big announcements at the biggest video game trade show?
Are they even trying anymore?
Psychological barriers between veteren and novice gamers? While some people may still consider video gaming strictly for kids, I don't believe thats the prevalent attitude anymore. What Nintendo has done with the Wii is allow people of all skill levels to play games together because of the simplicity of the controller. Many people who don't play games would probably enjoy gaming but they just can't come to grips with the controllers. 10 or more buttons, multiple analog sticks, d-pads, you know what I mean. Now Nintendo needs to make games that appeal to all these different tastes.
You didn't even read the article did you? God. Nintendo's doing a lot more than that; don't be so biased!
They're working to create a break in the wall that devides the generational gap between gamers! That's extremely note-worthy! As well, they've begun to develop with adult minds in their focus, meaning that, while they will of course focus on the games which draw in the child in all of us, they will now be working on much more mature games and whatnot.
You see the word Zapper and think, oh how dumb lol, but in reality, you're missing the point. Try again!
'Are they even trying anymore?'
Remind me again, which company is currently winning the new console war with it's new innovative machine?
The Wii is a huge accomplishment for a company who most 'gamers' thoughts was on its way out.
I say cudos to Nintendo for trying new things such as the Wii (and it's new accessories), and for having soft-ware that actually works and won't burn your house down.
I'm pretty sure 360 is winning.
I know they worked hard to make the Wii what it is, but this seems really apathetic. They know it's selling regardless, so they announce a game we all expected (Mario Kart), and some peripherals. Big deal. The zapper seems especially pointless, what with how the Wiimote functions and all.
"Enterbrain found that Wii also outsold Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 in Japan in June by a more than 6-to-1 margin."
Try again?
Looking forward to beating the living crap out of Kerby in Super Smash Bros Brawl, hehehe..
Yeah 360 is dominating the market... Just wait for the next FPS to come out for it...
*shivers*
And of course Wii outsold 360 in JAPAN.. they can by the damn things for 5 000 Yen
Not only are you using just Japan, where only Nintendo sells well, but you're using a number of sales for a period, as opposed to overall sales. Overall sales is what we base it on, and in that respect, the 360 is winning.
I think Garet is talking about total units sold to date. I believe Microsoft has sold just shy of 12 million units since launching. Of course this reflects the headstart they had entering this generation of consoles. The Wii is definitely the hot seller right now though.
I agree with David from Winnipeg. I remember hearing about how Nintendo could never compete with a machine that was woefully "under-powered". Guess the pundits were wrong again.
Actually, the #1 selling system as of this moment is still the PS2. The Wii comes next, followed by the 360, then the PS3 trailing far behind.
While it's true that Wii systems are selling faster than 360s, Wii games are not. People are buying the Wii, playing Wii Sports, but are otherwise NOT buying much in the way of additional software for their machine.
System sales don't mean much when it comes to the bottom line, as most companies lose money on the consoles in their fight to remain competitive with one another. It's with software sales that they make their money, and right now, PS2 and 360 games are the top sellers across the board.
I don't think the PS2 is really relevant to this, considering it is last generation.
As of now, the 360 is winning the console race. I doubt it will last, but it's still in the lead.
I think it'd be cool if all of the consoles worked together. Can you guys imagine what would happen if everyone who played a Wii or a 360 or a PS3 could link up together to chat or play games? Or if there was a universal console link up, so games that are only avaiable on the Wii can still be "shared" through a PS3 or 360? It would be cool... imagine allowing players to play alongside in games Party games that feature Sony-specific, Micro-specific, and Nintendo-specific characters!
Even just being able to chat with PS3ers or Xers via little bubbles that float up the side of the screen while you play, saying things like, there is someone playing an XBox360 in your vicinity! Would you like to say hello? :D
I think it'd be really cool.
Yeah... it may just be a pipe-dream of mine, but I still think it would be awesome if the consoles all unified and realized they would work better together than apart.
Unifying people would be awesome and would help stop people like my cousin from being beaten up for saying he likes Mario in front of a bunch of kids who tell him he should like Halo.
Carolyn, your dream may be coming true at least in some form. Consoles are quickly becoming more like computers, in particular the 360. Several games can be played with PC users and you can use IM in conjuction with Xboxlive now.
All the console are connecting to the internet in a more pronounced way, starting with last generation, and it's not going to stop. Once we have full access to the internet across all platforms, it shouldn't be a problem chatting with anyone, regardless what they are playing.
About playing Nintendo games on 360/PS3 and vice versa...hmmm..errr..well...thats gonna take a miracle I'm afraid. Unless they all collaborate on a single project, or all but one abandons the console business like Sega did, I don't see it happening.
And I hate to say it but even if Halo and Mario were on the same system, your cousin would probably still get beaten up for liking Mario...bullies are stupid like that.
Claudio? Thanks a ton. You're awesome. ^^
Still and all, someday, I hope to see a console called something like "One for All." Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft working together like the Musketeers, all churning out games for people around the world without the fierce console wars that roar out of control so very easily.
...of course... then people would argue over who represented which Musketeer and whice Musketeer was better...
...I need to stop thinking so much. (and being so corny!)
Aww, thank you Carolyn ^^
Anyway the thing that bothers me about "console wars" are the super-aggressive fanboys. You know the ones, they hate a particular console just because? Forget about reasoning with them because it just won't happen, and then they hurl every swear word in the book at me because I don't agree with them!
But I do think it's good to have competition between game companies because it means (or should mean) better games for you and me. They'll want to outdo the "other guys" to keep us from buying the competitors game.
Remember the industry's crash in the mid 80's? (ahem...showing my age here a bit *blush*) No competition = alot a crappy games. It took Nintendo to come along and, well, the rest is history.
Oh, you're not that old if you think THAT's showing your age. I remember how overjoye I was when I got to play Link to the Past... only to be thouroughly furious when that.. other company... made those two... horrible... games... which I will not in any way think of as Legend of Zelda games.
Heck, I still remember playing Legacy of the Wizard for hours and hours on my NES!
But yeah, if the console wars were more like the console challenges and friendly competitions as opposed to all out war (people get stabbed over these things!!), I'd be a lot happier.
And yes, I still remember beating Donkey Kong and seeing Earthworm Jim's blaster beside a trash can (inside of said trash can were Sonic's shoes!)
Have you played the CD-i games?
I know exactly the two games you're talking about and I'm nearly busting a gut re-reading your post. Yeah, those were a couple of AWFUL games.
Actually, I still regularly play Link to the Past. I can still remember how surprised I was when I was attacked by a couple dozen chickens after smacking one around for a bit. Ahhh, good times ^^
One more thing, I don't know what people had against Windwaker but I thought that game was awesome!
I loved Windwaker! The Redeads in that game scared me silly.
I can't wait to bomb some Dodongos!
Great! I'll grab my stuff!
That game made my soul cry.
The biggest problem with consoles working together would of course be lack of competition. If all three companies worked together they would have no reason to drop the prices on consoles or offer special incentives (larger hard drives, system/game bundles, movie players, etc.) to get people to buy their systems. In the end, the gamer would lose.
As far as who is leading the "console war" is concerned, it would be more relevant to compare Wii, 360, PS2, and PS3 in their first 6 months of sales. 360 may have sold more units to date than Wii, but it has also been out for more than a year and a half.
Why would it be fair to take out of consideration one of the 360's advantages?
"Garet
Winnipeg
Why would it be fair to take out of consideration one of the 360's advantages?"
It wasn't an advantage at all. They release a faulty system that practically blew up, then lost a good chunk of their market when they wouldn't give refunds for their mistake. If you count from the starting line for the current Next Gens, it's a much brighter light on all of them.
Xbox is winning currently because it has the advantage of being out first.
XBox hasn't sold many at all, man. The Wii has sold the most.
"The Wii has sold 2.8 million units domestically since then. The PS3 has sold 1.4 million consoles. (To boost sales, Sony slashed the price on its 60-gigabyte model PS3 on Monday by $100, to $499)
Microsoft, meanwhile, has missed its own targets, selling 11.6 million Xbox 360s worldwide, short of the company's goal of 12 million units. The console was first released in late 2005.
"
See?
The Wii is doing even better than I'd imagined. MAn, I can't wait to play the new Smash Brothers and the Metroid games for it... of course, this would require buying one and not just borrowing my niece's...
Why are we arguing about who has sold more? Does it even matter when all three are selling millions of systems? I know we all have our favourite system (sometimes because that "one" is all we can afford) and of course we want that console to be the best, but all three are good game machines.
Yaaaay! Claudio to the rescue! You're completely right... eheh... sorry, I guess I just got caught up in the article and the overall need to defend Nintendo. Considering the popularity it's got, I don't need to defend it as much as I do. It's in no way crippled at all and the argument that it's a kiddie-company simply doesn't hold sway to the fact it comes under high demand. :D