E3: Nintendo Press Conference Breakdown

Games
E3: Nintendo Press Conference Breakdown
By Eli Green
July 13, 2007 - 19:45

Nintendo's press conference at E3 this year was long, an hour and 15 minutes long to be precise. Filled with clips from newscasts, TV shows, print and online articles, homemade YouTube videos, bits and pieces from the Nintendo Shortcuts short film competition and, of course, a lot of information about Nintendo's place in the video game industry and its systems and games, this year's Nintendo press conference was all about the company's success and dominance. But who has time to sit through an hour and a quarter of business talk, game previews and game demonstrations? Well, we do, but that's not the point. The point is that most people don't. So we're bringing you a toned down version the press conference and its main points.

The conference started out with a montage of different clips, from various newscasts to YouTube videos to the South Park Wii episode and even Stephen Colbert saying “I gots me one” on The Colbert Report. From there, Nintendo of America (NOA) President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime came on stage and began talking about the company's market share growth around the world, the non-gamer appeal of the Nintendo DS and Wii, and the growing popularity of Nintendo systems with female gamers and non-gamers alike. Some of the key statistics he mentioned were the current industry growth (69% for Nintendo products, 29% for Sony products and 2% for Microsoft products: Source NPD 2007 year-to-date), the change in sales of consoles vs. handheld systems from 70-30% in 2002 to an exact halfway split in 2006 (23% of which, in 2006, were Nintendo DS sales), the 2007 YTD sales records which show Nintendo DS holding 25% of sales of all video game systems, and the growing number of older players (between the ages of 18-24 as well as player 25+) that now account to a combined 53% of sales so far this year. He also spoke about the fact that Nintendo DS sales hit the 40 million unit mark months ago, and that over the 33 weeks that Wii has been available, it's essentially been sold out worldwide (not due to extremely low production numbers either, mind you), but we already knew that.

The statistic that really blew our minds was the amount of female gamers playing Nintendo systems. Reggie began by showing the 2007 year-to-date ratio of male to female gamers for all video game systems except for Nintendo (80-20% or 1 female gamer to every 4 male gamers). He then proceeded to show the 2007 year-to-date ratio of male to female gamers for Nintendo (67-33% or 1 female gamer to every 2 male gamers).

The original concept Wii Zapper from E3 2006

After another clip montage, Reggie introduced the Wii Zapper (hopefully just a working name). It's one of those accessories many of us have been waiting for since we saw the concept Wii Zapper at last year's E3. He then announced a few games which will be specifically built to work with the Zapper, like Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles from Capcom, Ghost Squad from Sega and Medal of Honor from Electronic Arts, with more to come in the future.

The new, official Wii Zapper

He also hinted to the fact that Nintendo itself is working on its own game for the Zapper and that it will be packaged either with that game or a different one later this year. Finally, just before talking about some more upcoming titles for Wii and Nintendo DS (Soul Caliber: Legends, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword and more), Reggie announced that the Wii Zapper would cost $19.99 USD (most likely $24.99 CAD) when purchased on its own.

He went on to speak about Smash Bros. Brawl as clips from the game played in the background, and then announced its release date, December 3^rd. That's right, December 3^rd.

Another video played, this time with a couple of video game journalists who, after the video finished playing, would come out and stage demo The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption as Bill Trinen, from Nintendo's Treehouse group, explained many details of the games' control systems.

After the stage demos were done, Reggie came back out on stage and introduced the next topic; online play. Another clip montage played, and then Reggie went on to talk about the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, the more than 5.5 million Nintendo DS users who have connected to the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, how many people have downloaded Virtual Console games for Wii, WiiWare, and to introduce a new Wii Channel, called Check Mii Out. Check Mii Out lets Wii users enter their Miis to be voted on by other Wii users, find friend's Miis online and download them to their own Wii. He also announced that there will be contests and promotions, including challenges to create the best celebrity look-alike Miis.

Focusing more on actual online gameplay, Reggie spoke about the current ability to play Pokemon Battle Revolution online, and use the Nintendo DS as a controller and Pokemon exporter. He then talked about upcoming online capable games, like Super Mario Strikers Charged, Madden NFL 08, FIFA Soccer 08, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker for Nintendo DS and, wait for it, Guitar Hero III.

Reggie Fils-Aime unveils the Wii Wheel

To really make his point that Nintendo is serious about online play, Reggie announced that Mario Kart Wii will be available in the first quarter of 2008. It will include real-time online play, including battle mode. When mentioning that the game will have a variety of control choices for players of all skill levels, he picked up the newly designed Wii Wheel, which will come packaged with Mario Kart Wii.

Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata

After Reggie was done speaking about the online games another video montage started, this time about Nintendo DS and Wii's appeal to people of all ages. He then introduced Nintendo's President, Satoru Iwata, to the stage, who then began to speak about casual games, brain training games and Nintendo's plans to make games more accessible to everyone, core gamers and non-gamers alike.

Reggie then came back on stage, after another video with a couple of different families talking about how they enjoyed playing Super Mario Galaxy and Brain Age 2, and he spoke about the two games for a bit. He then announced that Super Mario Galaxy will be releasing on November 12^th. He then continued on, talking about more easily accessible games, like Picross, MySims, High School Musical and Rayman Raving Rabbids 2. He then discussed upcoming brain training games, including Flash Focus, Ubisoft's My Word Coach and My Life Coach, which will be part of a series of upcoming games.

Shigeru Miyamoto talks about Wii Fit

Finally, Reggie introduced a video for Wii Fit, a new health and fitness game for Wii. Shigeru Miyamoto then took the stage, along with Bill Trinen (acting as his translator) and three fitness trainers who stage demoed some of the exercises in the game. The fitness trainers showed off a few different balance and step based exercises before leaving the stage and then Mr. Miyamoto showed off the device the trainers were using to do the exercises, the Wii Balance Board, which comes with the game. He then spoke a bit about how it works, and how it can measure people's Body

Mr. Miyamoto & Reggie Fils-Aime go head to head in a Wii Fit competition

Mass Index (BMI). He then proceeded to thoroughly embarrass Reggie by inviting him on stage in order to measure him. The final measurement showed Reggie as a rather husky guy, though Mr. Miyamoto had messed around with the settings first. Mr. Miyamoto and Reggie then competed against each other in a soccer ball header competition, using the Balance Board.

The soccer ball header competition was the last major part of the press conference before Reggie finished with his closing remarks. The press conference ended with one more clip montage.

We leave you with some videos of the more significant parts of the press conference.