E3 – live blogging the Nintendo keynote
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 11:23am by David
Update: the conference is done. Lots of great tidbits and new stuff to digest. Let us know what you thought in our comments section!
Blake is moving into position in Santa Monica as we speak. I’ll be attempting a liveblog of the event as it unfolds. Stay tuned! The keynote is scheduled to begin at 12PM Eastern, 9AM Pacific.
All times Eastern.
1:18PM – And they’re done .. short video montage plays.
1:17PM – Nintendo intends to steal more of our leisure time with their systems.
1:16PM – Nintendo’s turn to lead .. primary target is very wide.
1:15PM – Reggie: “We’re happy, but not satisfied.”
1:14PM – Reggie is owning Shiggy! Reggie wins! Shiggy leaves.
1:13PM – Shiggy vs Reggie: soccer header match using the Balance Board.
1:12PM – Doesn’t tell your weight, just your BMI. Reggie’s BMI was 27 .. his Mii acted a little fat (big laugh). Reggie says, “Muscle is heavier than fat!”
1:10PM – Measures your weight, center of gravity, tracks BMI over time.
1:09PM – Doing live body check of Reggie!
1:08PM – Device is called Wii Balance Board. Measures weight, balance, and shifting weight. It’s wireless.
1:07PM – Live demo of balance game, calibration not setup right.
1:06PM – Live demo of step aerobics.
1:05PM – Live demo, calibration of floor pad is off a little.
1:03PM – Miyamoto takes the stage. Is he wearing a Katamari shirt?
1:02PM – Yoga, pilates, balance, and step aerobics are shown.
1:00PM – Wii Fit announced. Uses pads that you stand on.
12:58PM – WiiSports video montage.
12:57PM – Flash Focus visual test game for DS. My Word Coach from Ubisoft for DS. My Life Coach in development.
12:55PM – Picross DS, MySims, High School Musical, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 are shown.
12:53PM – Super Mario Galaxy comes out on November 12th this year! (I think Mario has a bee costume.)
12:53PM – Brain Age 2 out on August 20th
12:52PM – Family from Texas tested Mario Galaxy, and Brain Age 2
12:51PM – “New gamers forever!”
12:50PM – Miyamoto coming out soon with new game.
12:45PM – Iwata learned to cook with DS.
12:43PM – Iwata takes the stage to discuss non-traditional gamers.
12:41PM – Video of elderly playing games, brain training, etc.
12:40PM – Wii Wheel packaged with Mario Kart Wii.
12:40PM - Mario Kart for Wii, online, Q1 2008!
12:37PM – Mentions Pokemon, Mario Chargers, Madden 08, FIFA 08, DQM:Joker, and Guitar Hero 3 all being online.
12:36PM – New channel: Check Mii Out
12:35PM – WiiWare mentioned.
12:35PM – 5.6 million Virtual Console downloads
12:34PM – another video intro
12:33PM – Back to Reggie .. Talking about ‘getting serious about online’
12:30PM – Live demo of Metroid Prime 3.
12:27PM – Live demo of Phantom Hourglass.
12:26PM – TheHylia webmasters video interview.
12:25PM – Super Smash Bros. Brawl – December 3rd in the Americas!
12:22PM – Showing Soul Caliber Legends, WWE Raw, Ninja Gaiden DS, DQ Swords, Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
12:21PM – $19.99 for Wii Zapper, available this year.
12:20PM – Medal Of Honor will be built to take advantage of Wii Zapper. 32 players in multiplayer mode!
12:20PM – Looks like it’s just a shell without additional functionality.
12:19PM – Combines remote & nunchuck
12:19PM – The Wii Zapper!!
12:17PM – Showing various fan videos and blogs (like WiiFanboy).
12:16PM – “Nintendo is not a fad. Nintendo is the future.”
12:13PM – “That’s a lot of soccer moms!”
12:11PM – Talking about female gamers.
12:10PM – More graphs ..
12:07PM – Talking about market expansion, converting non-gamers with DS or Wii.
12:05PM – “My name is Reggie .. and I am .. happy!”
12:03PM – Intro video with talking NES, Cartman, various YouTube videos, etc.
12:02PM – “..please take your seats!”
11:59AM – “My Way” by Los Lonely Boys is playing on the PA.
11:59AM – “..the show will begin in 2 minutes..”
11:58AM – “Suddenly I See” is playing on the PA.
11:49AM – Perin is running around naked. Sorta awkward.
11:41AM – Nintendo is fittingly playing “I’m a Believer” over the PA.
11:36AM – Blake eats breakfast, courtesy of Nintendo!
[Reorganized .. newest news on top.]
July 11th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I’m gonna need a video of that intro. If not the entire thing.
July 11th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Wii Zapper
July 11th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Awesome.
July 11th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Nice job, David. Stay classy!
July 11th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
That was kind of sad.
Mario Kart looks great but wasn’t exactly a surprise, glad it’s coming sooner than I expected. WiiFit will sell but I have a gym membership, I don’t need Wii games to make me get off my a**. Too many casual games not aimed at the millions of fans who have been supporting Nintendo the last 25 years. Expand your market Nintendo but don’t abandon the rest of us to do it.
Bummer.
July 11th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Looking Forward to Wii Fit. its gonna make my Girlfriends Family want a Wii even more then they do.
July 11th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I agree with Brian: too much expanded market. I was hoping they would incorporate more new and more traditional I.P. and strike more of a balance.
Speaking of balance, Wii Fit turned out to be much more interesting than I expected — a hell of a lot more variety than I expected, for sure.
July 11th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
that wiifit will sell millions, trust me, and think of the implications for strafing or something in an FPS, or running on the spot for the mario and sonic olympics….
It REALLY INCENSES ME how some fanboys are like IWANTKIDICARUSMARIOGALAXYMETROID3KIDICARUSHARDCORELEVENTYONE!!!!!what people have got to realise is that nintendo is just like any other company in existence, they set out to make money, not to please their fans, no matter how much you think they love you, all that matters to them and their shareholders is money in pocket, and this is precise business sense, this will definitely be a hit, its a genius idea.
July 11th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
It wasn’t great, but it was better than MS. The Zapper, and a game for $20? Sounds good, but we probably shouldn’t expect much from the game. Mario Kart was kind of obvious, but the little tidbit about the # of online players got me excited…Imagine 32 people racing around the track all at once… hell, I’ll settle for 16 or 8.
As for Wii Fit: meh…but the Balance board could be something! If they decide use it in other games, it could really become a whole new aspect.
July 11th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
also, why not cater more for the expanded market, if you look at the percentages, theres a much much much bigger potential market than actual market, it just makes sense to go for them, they know mario glaxy and mario kart will sell, they don’t need to show it off, it is unimportant, especially at a worldwide conference where the world is watching, it is the place perfect for expanded market, wii fit will catch the headlines and imaginations MUCH MUCH better to MANY MANY more people than a MMO or FPS for wii. and in turn this greater advertises the wii, its actually genius by nintendo.
July 11th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
The press conference was barely better than Microsoft’s.
However, Microsoft had nothing to prove unlike Nintendo…
July 11th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
“The Zapper, and a game for $20?”
No. The Zapper itself is 20 bucks. It’ll come packaged with an unmentioned game.
I liked it. It had a pretty funny end. Also brought out some heavy deal release dates. Mario Kart may have been expected, but does that make it any less awesome?
July 11th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
“However, Microsoft had nothing to prove unlike Nintendo…”
Wha?
A console with a suspected 30 percent failure rate that hasn’t had a price drop in almost 2 years and has only shipped 1.6 million units since January has “nothing to prove”. Wow, now I’ve heard everything.
July 11th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
I don’t think the confernce was so bad. I’m pretty excited about Mario Kart, and Wii Fit seems like a fun way to work out. People’s expectations are always really high for this kind of thing, but the days of big E3s are probably over. We recevied some cool new info and lots of news about online games (which should be making a lot more people happier than it is).
Expanded market gaming is going to be a priority now, I think people are going to have to start sucking up and accepting it. Nintendo has a huge year for us, with a ton of big games coming out in the near future, including Mario, Mario and Sonic, Metroid, Smash Brothers, Batallion Wars and Mario Strikers. These are games designed with traditional gamers in mind, and doesn’t include the expanded audience. I fail to see the problem here. It’s going to be a good year.
And comparing Nintendo’s conference to Microsoft’s, and claiming that MS had a better showing, that’s crazy. Microsoft didn’t show anything we didn’t already know about, Nintendo at least pulled out some new stuff for us. It’s not a new hardware year, Nintendo has already made public a lot of their major, upcoming titles, so what did people expect?
July 11th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I saw this conference as simply nintendo planting down more seeds for interactive gaming and making gaming exciting and ‘wow’ again.
No there wasn’t any earth shattering news. But with the Zapper and balance board comes a whole lotta new options for new gaming as well as implementing it into some classic genres of games as well.
And don’t forget that they didn’t breach the possibilty of combining the use of the wii mote and nunchcuk with the balance board.
July 11th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
The best from the Nintendo conference had to be the Zapper and Perrin running around naked!
And where was Battallion Wars for Wii??
July 11th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
“No. The Zapper itself is 20 bucks. It’ll come packaged with an unmentioned game.”
Sure, the wording is a little ambiguous, but it seems to me like the whole package will cost $20.
July 11th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Microsoft had nothing to prove? All of the companies had a big stake this year and they all had something to prove. Microsoft needed to show that their market hasn’t becoming stagnant and choked full of their hardcore player base. Nintendo has to prove that their Wii success and focus on casual games are indeed justified. And Sony has to prove that their system isn’t dead in the water.
July 11th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
I doth protest, sir: the PS2 is live and well…!