Nintendo E3 predictions from around the Net
Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 10:35am by Jack
Game|Life has a whack at some Nintendo predictions for the mini-E3 descending on Santa Monica next week:
I don’t think Nintendo will bother showing off a redesigned DS. They’ve already said that this E3 is going to be software-focused. Plus, they don’t need to do it: the DS Lite is selling like no other game system in history, and people don’t have any real complaints about it [...] Considering that Wii Ware games won’t be hitting until next year, I doubt we’ll hear more than a few comments about the business side of things and a pitch to indie developers during the press conference. I do think we’ll hear some new Virtual Console announcements (Neo Geo games or Virtual Console on the DS). Other than that, it’s tough to tell what Nintendo will do. We know for a fact that several new Wii games aimed at the expanded audience will be shown, but what those will be has been kept under lock and key. I do predict that Nintendo will have the “best” showing, mostly because they’re already riding high on public opinion and just need to keep that going.
It’s important to keep things in perspective next week. This is not the E3 of old. Nintendo is in a relatively safe position right now, so the fact that “no huge announcements” could happen is not a bad thing. Those people who say it is, I imagine, are those people who have invested a substantial amount of money in a system not made by Nintendo. And the reason why it’s going to be so tough to tell what they’re going to do is because they’re sitting pretty right now. That means tons of options, as opposed to being in third where you really have to go all out just to reach second.
But the predictions above are pretty spot on, in my opinion, and anything above and beyond them would be gravy.
I recommend you just sit back and enjoy the show. Ignore the cries next week about “Nintendo is too casual; they let gamers down, etc.,” because there’s been no indication from Nintendo whatsoever that this will be a groundbreaking conference for them (now that I think about it, kind of like there was no indication from them that MP3 would have online). Those other guys (and those third parties!), however, well, they need a shot in the arm right now. That means lots and lots of rendered screenshots and FMV sequences.
July 5th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I’m hoping (but I’m not counting on) hearing something from Nintendo on their online strategy for the future…
July 5th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I hope Nintendo has some sort of news regarding the Wii’s onboard memory. Whether it be a firmware update to allow us to connect an external USB hard drive, or run VC games off an SD card, I don’t care, all I know is that I’m quickly running out of space for my VC games and other game saves!
July 5th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
I used to love E3, it was a gamer fans dream. All that media, all that hype, all those booth babes !!!
So the only prediction I have, is that this years mini-E3 just wont be the same fun as the old ones. Oh well, they were good times as a gamer to watch all the fun. I hope this year goes well for them.
I would be surprised to see a major announcement from Nintendo at mini E3, just software. I want to know if Day of Crisis got canned along with H.A.M.M.E.R.
July 5th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Software will be great, new Mario Galaxy video, MP3 playable, but let’s move on, show us some Wii Sports 2! Or along the lines of “Virtual Console on the DS”, give us DS Download Station Channel.
July 6th, 2007 at 8:53 am
This isn’t the E3 of old, but I don’t think the press conferences will change much. Some years the surprises and spectacular showings are better than others, but it is still a major venue to create anticipation for your upcoming product line through the media and the hardcore gamers who keep in touch with the latest video game happenings (like Infendo readers).
July 6th, 2007 at 8:56 am
I highly doubt Disaster: Day of Crisis got canned. Monolith Soft is an incredibly competent developer and the game idea is brilliant. I’m disappointed that HAMMER may be heading in that direction, but it didn’t seem like a strongly backed project in the first place. Perhaps Nintendo saw that genre was being filled by third parties and decided to devote their resources elsewhere?
July 7th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Yeah, when they announced Disaster and Hammer last year, I actually wondered if the writer of the article I was reading had misquoted someone and they were actually third-party games. They both seem SO out of character for Nintendo.
But it’s really a second-party situation, so I guess I still look forward to Disaster.
I just want Nintendo to announce something surprising that seems silly to me at the time, but 6 or 8 months down the road I along with everyone else will be going, “Of course, how could we have not seen that coming?” Nintendogs seemed really dumb when they first announced it, but then it went and turned a third place company into a first place one and vice versa. If Nintendo wants to stay on top, they better have a big supply of rabbits to keep pulling out of their hat. The consumers who form the core of their strategy are lucrative but fickle.
July 8th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Nintendo will tell us almost nothing new at E3… continuing their lame “don’t show games before to customers so they’ll have to buy it themselves to find out there’s mediocre at best”… sorry but that’s exactly what is happening now.
From a business perspective a very reasonable approach.
July 15th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Well, you were wrong…. they didn’t show anything for the hardcore gamers because they don’t need to sell what sells itself, but they did show Wii Fit, along with the first ski/skateboard type controller the market’s seen for 20 years.
It doesn’t seem that ridiculous to me, though I question how many games will be made for it like any other accessory required for gameplay.
They also showed the zapper, which looks less impressive every time they show it.