Cammie Dunaway (hope I got that name right) is the head of Nintendo PR, for the curious. I'm sure she was included as part of the presentation to demonstrate the obvious fact that Nintendo wants to sell Wiis and DSes to everyone. That includes middle-aged, household mothers. Having Dunaway up there for the typical gamer was probably like having their own mother up on stage: awkward, somewhat clueless, clearly not a "gamer". I think that's why the reaction here in this thread is so viciously negative; if anyone can play games, teen males no longer have their own "secret tree fort" where they can brag about how leet they are. It's obvious who's really being childish here...
Anyway, look at the Microsoft and Sony presentations. All male faces (with the one Microsoft exception), mostly in their 20s and 30s, aside from the CEOs like Jack Tretton. I watched the Sony presentation in full this afternoon, and it was striking how different the whole tone was from Nintendo's morning event. Sony's event featured lots of trailers playing; it was rather like watching movie previews. Nintendo's presentation was all about people PLAYING the games (often badly!) to demonstrate the motion controls.
If you want a difference in console philosophies, look no further. Nintendo's presentation was all about creating games where a 40-year old woman with no talent can have fun. Sony's presentation focused on pushing hardware specs to the limit and delivering "kickass" games. (Tretton said that himself!) Unfortunately for Sony, the number of "kickass gamers" is actually pretty small. And that's why Nintendo's Wii is so successful right now.
End of 2008 totals: Wii 42m, 360 24m, PS3 18.5m (made Jan. 4, 2008)
