May 10, 2006

Nintendo at E3 - good, but not great

Earlier, I trounced Sony's showing at E3 (as did Wired), and I openly wondered how Nintendo would fair. Well, I watched a good chunk of their E3 presentation, and it while it was certianly much better than Sony's, it wasn't necessarily as good as what I was hoping for.

I think that Nintendo did a great job highlighting some of the games that are coming out for their new console, the Wii. And to a long-time gamer like myself, they had me salivating over the new Zelda, Mario, and Metroid games. And the new controller looks like fun. I won't know for sure until I get my hands on it to try it out.

The main point of Nintendo's presentation, however, was that gaming is still basically a "niche" thing. I can't remember exactly how the presentation went, but basically Nintendo made this point: try to think of someone that you know who has never seen a movie. Now, try to think of someone who has never played a video game. At least for me, I can't think of anyone in the first category, but I can think of several people in the second.

So, I definitely think that Nintendo has a point, and that there is room for expanding the size of the gaming audience. What disappointed me, however, was that nearly all of the games that they showed were aimed at hardcore and/or longtime gamers such as myself. Sure, the controller appears to be more accessible than past controllers -- but it is going to be the games that are going to draw in first timers, not controllers.

And to that end, I think Sony has actually been doing a better job of getting 3rd party software on their system to expand gaming's reach. I'm thinking of games like Karaoke Revolution, Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and possibly even Katamari Damacy. These are games that appeal to non-gamers, work well in groups, etc. And these are the kinds of things that Nintendo is going to have to bring to the Wii, if they are to succeed in their quest to expand the size of the world-wide gaming populace.

But, I wouldn't count Nintendo out. The DS didn't ship with Nintendogs or Brain Training, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Nintendo comes up with some sort of innovative, market-expanding game at some point in the Wii's run.

Miscellany:

  • I'm sorry Nintendo, but the "Wii" name is still stupid. During the E3 presentation, they made the point that a lot of "stupid" names like Lexus and Google are now accepted by the masses, but I think that's missing the point. Nintendo could call their new console "woozle-wuzzle", and people would still buy it. But that doesn't mean that it is a great name. Unfortunately, the Nintendo corporation is too stubborn to figure this out.
  • I'm also disappointed that Nintendo didn't have the stones to announce the price or launch date of the Wii. You pre-announce your revolutionary controller, allowing Sony to steal it, but not the price? C'mon guys, I don't think that Sony is going to steal that one....
  • But on the upside, new Metroid. Wow. I really think that Nintendo might have nailed how to control FPS games on a console -- at least to this snobbish mouse + keyboard gamer's satisfaction. :)
Bottom-line: I think that Nintendo has solidified my lust for their next console, but I certainly don't think that they have the next generation of the "console wars" locked up. In fact, this next round of the battle is shaping up to be pretty interesting -- there could, in fact, be no clear winner.

-Andy.

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Posted by andyr at May 10, 2006 11:59 PM