| NJ5 said: http://www.businessinsider.com/nintendo-bombs-at-e3-2009-6 For a company that's led a lot of videogame innovation (and fun!) this decade, Nintendo's showing at the E3 expo this year was a snooze fest. And it was the second boring E3 for Nintendo in a row. Dawdle founder and SAI contributor Sachin Agarwal explains. Yesterday's E3 briefing by Nintendo was the most disappointing performance by far from the three console makers. Nintendo didn't have a focus, and that should be cause for concern for Nintendo investors. I'm guessing "everyone's game", the theme repeated ad nauseum, escaped his notice. The major new peripheral announced at the press conference was a fingertip heartbeat sensor called the Wii Vitality Sensor that connects to the Wii Remote; Nintendo offered no concrete demonstrations of how it would work, leaving it up to developers' imaginations. Coming on the heels of Wii Fit, you could be forgiven for thinking that Nintendo was repositioning itself as a competitor to 24 Hour Fitness. You fool. No doubt that the Vitality Sensor was, at best, weird, but it was not a major new announcement. It was, without question, the biggest sidebar to their show. But the focus was on the imminent launch of Wii Motion Plus, and crowing about the success of DSi. Please try to keep up. The games are pretty boring, too. The "new" Mario game for this year is all but a port of the New Super Mario Bros. released for the Nintendo DS in 2006. The new Zelda game? Semi-announced at a developer event after the keynote. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is next year; what's noteworthy is that Nintendo has only had one successful Mario game per platform since the breakthrough success of Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES -- follow ups like Mario Sunshine have been relative flops. The other major franchise, Metroid, was announced, but Metroid is a game that has always had more success in Western markets than the Japanese market. Again, the choice of Team Ninja to develop it is nice, and should make for an excellent game, but it's no game-changer. Doubleplus moron. They don't need a game changer. They are outselling the competition 2:1. And these titles, predictable as they may be, will all be Platinum titles, and many have a good shot of hitting 5million sales or more (Metroid being the most likely exception). Wii Motion Plus is also shaping up to be a large disappointment. Nintendo hasn't yet announced another major title that requires the peripheral, potentially leaving it stillborn before it ever launches. WiiSports Resort. Tiger Woods (with the WM+ included!), Red Steel 2, Grand Slam Tennis, Virtua Tennis, and, oh, ZELDA! Douche bag. What the problem? That WM+ isn't MANDATORY? Horse puckey. If WMP were forced at this point, you'd bitch about them shutting out current owners. In addition, the Wii Sports Resort demos at Nintendo's booth did not have the longest line; that honor went to the hands-on Demo of the upcoming DS Zelda game, Spirit Tracks. 1. This is a gathering for GAMERS, and its GODDAMN ZELDA! 2. We saw WSR last year. Nothing new to see here. The people playing with Wii Sports Resort had a palpable sense of frustration when they attempted to throw the virtual frisbees at targets; rather than play with the 1:1 controls, it seemed like most people would rather play with the actual plastic frisbees being given out as swag. Ubisoft's Red Steel 2, a sword and gun fighting game, was announced as a Motion Plus exclusive, but nothing additional from Nintendo. Thank God some gamers want some real exercise. But really, pay attention - ZELDA will use WMP. The DS/DSi was also given short shrift, with some new titles, but no real emphasis on new gameplay types that utilize the touchscreen or the dual cameras of the DSi. The DS is Nintendo's most successful platform -- ever -- but Nintendo seems content to let it ride. Maybe that's because IT IS NINTENDO'S MOST SUCCESSFUL PLATFORM EVER? What about posting pictures on facebook, the games that appeal to"blue ocean gamers" (Women's Murder Club, Style Savvy), or the animation game (who's name escapes me)? This is two E3 conferences in a row where Nintendo has dramatically underwhelmed; it's now time to question whether Nintendo has run out of ideas for this generation. I'm a Nintendo fanboy -- I've owned every Nintendo system other than the Virtual Boy and Game Boy Color (I've owned an Advance, Advance SP, and a Game Boy micro). Every single major innovation in console gaming -- direction pads, analog sticks, rumble controllers, motion controls -- has come from Nintendo. (No, new disc media and online play don't count -- they're PC innovations that came over to consoles after the fact.) Nintendo is the company we turn to for major innovations in the video gaming space, but all they have give us are rehashes and remakes for years now. Maybe you didn't notice MS and Sony embarassing themselves trying to play catch up with Nintendo. Maybe you didn't notice how, after the last E3, after being declared the loser, Nintendo went on to print money and steal ALL the media attention with WiiFit, the very thing that everyone was bitching about it. You people need to relearn what "lose" means. Nintendo had an absolutely inspired run with the DS, the Wii, and the Wii Balance Board, but it looks like it's over for now. It's time to sit on the sidelines until they get their act back together again. In three years, they introduced the WiiMote, the WiiBoard, WiiMotion Plus, and two new DS models. I think they can take a year off, given the fact that MS and Sony are still more than a year away from catching up. Sachin Agarwal is the President and CEO of Dawdle.com, an online marketplace for gamers to buy and sell new and used video games, systems, and accessories with other gamers online. Sachin is covering E3 Expo 2009 for The Business Insider.
|
This man is a Ginomous Douche.
