Liveblog: Nintendo's E3 Press Conference

[iain62a]

There are survival horror games for the Wii?

Yeah, almost the most prolific genre on the system, did you miss that? Silent Hill Shattered Memories, Cursed Mountain, Fatal Frame 4, The Grudge, ...

Fair enough.

I'll accept that I was wrong there.

 

[A random person]

Hey, better than last year.

Team Ninja better not screw up Metroid by giving Samus absurdly large breasts or ruining the organic level design and exploration. I don't want Ninja Gaiden with Metroid paint.

 

[PhoenixFlame]

an audience that isn't going to make a long term investment intot he Wii by buying a ton of games, due to their very nature of being casual.

That's an oft-repeated meme but other than the circular logic that these people are casual and therefore don't buy many games (the casual label is arbitrary, it's not based on actual behaviour except "I'm hardcore and I don't play their games") there is nothing to substantiate it. What makes you think they aren't going to buy many games?

Not only is there nothing to substantiate it, there's evidence to the contrary, as the Wii has a very similar attach rate as the PS3, despite selling more than twice the number of consoles every week on average.

And besides, even if it were true, it misses the point. If you have 20 million people buying one game each, that's just as good as 5 million buying four games each. Except that in Nintendo's case, because they make money on every console sold as well, unlike Sony, you'd rather have the 20 million.

I never said there was anything to substantiate it now - it's of course a future assumption based upon the logical idea of casual gamers not buying that many games as core gamers do. Casual gamers don't keep up with sites like these or news. Gateway gaming has a larger audience due to being more widespread in terms of appeal, but by their very nature are those that might see a title and sweep it up once in a while. They don't devour news, reviews, and anticipate titles as core gamers do.

Perhaps your personal experience is different, but the people I know, both casual gamers and core gamers, have bought a Wii console and have let it gather dust. The Wii isn't a game console per se anymore and in fact, due to its pervasive nature into the mainstream market has become an appliance, much like a toaster or a refrigerator.

Most everyone recognizes the Wii because they are everywhere, and the console has been moved into most homes. I don't question the Wii's ability to sell consoles - that's proven. What I do question is the Wii's ability to have long term viability given the fact that they've probably already exhausted their market from a console-selling standpoint. Once you've moved a console into households, you need to keep people buying games for the console. Wii Fit was well-received, but Wii Music took a hit and I highly doubt the amount of people who will probably buy Style Savvy, Wii Sports Resort, and the like will make up for increasingly disillusioned core gamers who will seek other consoles for their brand of entertainment.

In short, when the novelty has worn off, I've seen the Wiis I know that are in peoples' households do nothing. Their press conference had Mario games and Metroid to keep a hook into things, but I'm skeptical about their direction into, to take Iwata's examples, hooking "maybe" gamers while making broad assumptions that the "active" gamers will continue to give them loyalty. "Maybe" gamers didn't watch today's press conference, nor will care about a title until it's right in front of them on a shelf. Time will tell.

 

[Lonko]

An interesting-looking Mario game, another Mario Galaxy, another Mario & Luigi, a completely new Metroid, and Golden Sun DS.

That Final Fantasy game might be worth having a look at as well.

The only thing which could make this better is if Nintendo announces the localisation of Mother 3. What with the upcoming DS Zelda game, the Wii Kirby game (hopefully this year), Ace Attorney Investigations and now this, I just can't see anything to complain about this year regarding Nintendo's lineup.

 

[Jumplion]

Nintendo definitely had a better conference then last year's horrid conference. Though personally, I felt that they were lacking somewhere, mainly in the gameplay showing department of some other games like the new Zelda game that they only showed a picture of. But overall it was good.

I, however, made an epic facepalm when I saw the vitality sensor...

 

[electric discordian]

Vitality sensor, hmm the potential for that. For example playing a multiplayer aliens franchise game where one of the players is the squad leader. Seeing the vital signs drop as his squad dies, much like in Aliens.

It would add a certain amount of horror to survival horror