Well I'm very suprised I'm the first person to think of this, well obviously not first Nintendo demonstrated it at E3 but it seems very few picked up on its future implications. Nintendo didn't just offer us a cute tech demo at E3, they showed us how game trailers will be released for the next five years if not for longer.

Gone will be the days of watching a single screen trailer where all you can see is what the developer shows you. In are the days where you will actually be able to interact with the trailers you are viewing. Think of the bird tech demo not as a tech demo but a trailer. We saw Nintendo do this with the 3DS now you can download 3D trailers of your games off e-Shop and woolah you have a 3D trailer.

When WiiU launches, trailers will never be the same. Think about the next Zelda, a trailer is released showing Zelda on horseback then fighting a monster in the jungle...etc...etc.. you could then using the WiiU controller pan around the enviroment to see the rest of the level. Imagine panning around hyrule on Links back then being able to look around the forest while link battles a monster being able to see other monsters coming in and stuff.

Heck Nintendo could release easter eggs in their trailers. What if they said in a future trailer we will hint at our next big game coming this fall. Everybody scowers the trailers one by one spending half an hour or so searching through each trailer to find in one game its a starry night and if you look closely enough you notice part of the Lylat system. Suddenly it occurs to you, the next game must be StarFox. Trailers could change for ever now that the developer won't just be showcasing the game in one dimension but now be showcasing it in all dimensions, gamers will be able to look in all directions and see everything the trailer has to offer.

Imagine a first person shooter. Where instead of looking forward as the trailer shows a fire fight. You can instead look around everywhere on rails seeing all the enemies and enviroments the level and game have to offer. Or an RPG where the writing is on the lower screen allowing you to see everything in its glory. Or how about a rails game obviously it will be just like playing the game.

I'm suprised nobody else came up with this, every game trailer could potentially be like the bird tech demo, Nintendo was really tipping us off to the future. This will be as close to actually playing a full fledged demo as were going to get. Man I'm excited to see what Nintendo and third parties can do in their future trailers what about you?

Imagine downloading the latest interactive trailers off the e-Shop and playing around in them for hours seeing the trailer from each vantage point. Its just mind blowing.

I don't think you understand the difference between a video and real-time rendered graphics...

They could still release videos with a higher resolution than the screen can display, and have you 'pan-around' a bit if you want, but this is possible on existing devices today.

The bird demo looks like it's hundreds of megabytes in size, if not more... most people wouldn't download something so big just for a trailer..

The problem with your idea is that they are in fact not trailers, they are demos. And building a demo like this is not as effective as building a trailer, so I doubt very much that it will be taken up.

They work great if you're trying to demonstrate hardware capabilities, but that's really it. Yeah, it can be more fun for us gamers, but a well thought out trailer will be much more effective at catching our interest than a demo with very little interactivity in it.

and a trailer can be viewed from almost any device nowadays, while this kind of demo has to run on the hardware its made for and it needs to be downloaded completely and then started/load like a game and stuff, while videos can be started instantly (depending on you connection ofc) - it's just not user friendly

for real time rendered demonstration it's still better to just offer a playable demo imo

I like the idea, Joe but it's just not feasible.

Recording a video is one thing. Creating an interactive demo is another. 1 takes a few minutes of scripting and then a few minutes of recording. The other requires the packaging of art assets, game code, game engine and an executable into a downloadable file. The video can be streamed from online servers (or downloaded for a few MB's) while the other requires possibly a few hundred MB's to be downloaded.

Even the 3DS videos are not the same thing as the interactive demos seen at E3 2010.

Gumby_Trucker,mentioned a way to pan and scan a video to give a similar look at the demos but you'd get distorted perspectives if it tried to work like an in game camera....as is done in those real time demos.

Awe man and I was so looking forward to watching my trailers with the interactivity of the WiiU controller. I guess downloading the trailer would take up alot of space and time. Didn't think of that I was just so excited about the possibilities. Also I think if Nintendo chose to go this route I still think it could be feasable. Just expensive and time consuming so I guess it probably won't happen....wah!

Well, it would simply fall more on the side of demos than trailers. They could still do this just it's not going to replace standard trailers. Perhaps these could be referred to as Wii U Interactions. Downloadable interactive pieces of the game that give you a little more of the game than a trailer but not quite a full blown demo either.

Hard to say if the time to create and host them would be worth it instead of going the easy route with a trailer or the more technical route and offer a full demo.

^ they are usually referred to as rolling demos

Having an interactive tech demo like the Japanese garden is fine for it's purpose, showing the capacity of the system. Some (me included) might like to have it available for different reasons: decorative, relaxing, etc. We have similar applications in the WiiWare service like those interactive aquariums or decorative fireplaces.

But why go into all these efforts if a trailer is as effective to show what the game is like.  I'd rather have a demo. For example the Japanese garden demo, you could be able to walk around the lake at your own leasure, switch to the bird and fly around the scenery, have a free camera to move around or your interactive trailer.

It's true, because you couldn't use an analog stick to change the camera angle. This is the dawning of a technological revolution for gaming.