Oh, boy. You'd think from reading the press that Nintendo declared its own death sentence yesterday. "The games are pretty boring," they say. "The company was blown out of the water by its next gen rivals," they say. Sony and Microsoft are synonymous with roof-raising blockbusters while Nintendo is left whimpering in a corner.
But of course, as usual, the gaming press is simply out for blood. For whatever reason, they'll never forgive Nintendo for endorsing a game that might be enjoyed by a 9-year-old girl.
It doesn't matter that the third party support is finally bringing its game face (Silent Hill, Dead Space, Cursed Mountain, Red Steel 2).
It doesn't matter that the DS remains the out-and-out king of RPGs (Golden Sun, Kingdom Hearts, Bowser's Inside Story).
It doesn't matter that Mario's treating us to a sequel to what's widely considered the "game of the generation," and to yet another experience that's completely unprecedented in the Mario universe.
It doesn't even matter that Metroid is making a shocking, triumphant comeback under the Team Ninja banner.
Nintendo has ruined gaming.
The impressions from the E3 floor are overwhelmingly positive, but of course what does it matter that the games are fun, if Microsoft Natal will only come along to destroy the Wii a year from now? Who cares that the games are fun if Nintendo doesn't have access to Sony's great exclusives like Uncharted 2 or (scoff) Mod Nation Racers?
How many times does Nintendo have to shrug off the supposed threat of their competitors before everyone finally wakes up and realizes that the game has changed? That the "hardcore" gaming market is unsustainable? That bringing new gamers into the fold is the only way to keep gaming alive?
The only thing that matters is this:
Yes, a handful of "casual" games plus a giant load of core games equals a big lose for the Big N.
And what do you call Sony's laughable, half-hearted attempt at widening its appeal with a token Hannah Montana pack-in on the PSP? Hmm, haven't really seen that one brought up by anyone who's anyone.
Anyway, that's enough ranting.
The reality is that Nintendo gave more than generous attention to its core gaming population. As a daily user of Wii Fit, I'm incredibly excited for the Plus expansion. At the same time, Professor Layton 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Metroid: Other M interest me just as much. All in all, I saw a good dozen Wii and DS games that I'd love to get my hands on ASAP.
Let's not begrudge the scant moments that Cammie Dunaway spent on some Women's Mystery game or a fashion show simulator. Those were tiny snippets of an overall conference which began and ended with the kind of power that only Nintendo brings to the table.
As the owner of a site called Nintendo Fanboy, it's not terribly surprising that I'm flagging Nintendo as the clear winner in E3 2009. But let's face it - no matter who you think "won" the conference (whatever that means), the abysmal treatment of Nintendo's 90 minutes of fame is nothing short of ridiculous.
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I have to admit, Sony had quite a show yesterday. It wasn't the games that impressed me (we knew about pretty much all of them anyway). It is pretty funny that both Microsoft and Sony have a Mario Kart clone in the works, though.
No, the interesting part of this conference was the motion control demonstration using a combination of the EyeToy and a... glorified flashlight.
Sony's new controller kicks Microsoft Natal all over town for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that it looks a lot further along and more in line with what we can expect of modern console technology. (As I alluded to yesterday, Natal is too far-reaching to make good on many of its promises.) But despite what I consider to be a Sony win, there are still a couple of very important problems to overcome.
Perhaps the biggest question is, where were the games? We saw a terrific tech demo, but heard nothing about what kind of software support might be on its way for the hardware - either first-party, or more importantly, third-party. Sure, it looks cool and all, but how can you say this controller comes out next year without making a tangible, good-faith effort to tell us what you're going to do to make it profitable?
Where Microsoft afflicted itself with this same problem at the beginning of the week, remember that Nintendo had multiple games prepared for the debut of the Wii Remote mere years ago. The technology isn't going to sell on its own: you need something fun to go with it.
The second issue, which might not be so important if we weren't talking about a company that's hemorrhaging money out of every orifice, is the question of how this product is going to be packaged and marketed. Sony's motion solution offers no significant advantages over the Wii Motion Plus, yet it's arguably more complicated and possibly more expensive to produce. (This depends on whether Sony ends up using the $30 EyeToy, or whether they need a more sophisticated camera to get the results they want. The "wand" controllers could cost even less than the Wii Remote if they don't include any more technology than was demonstrated yesterday.)
In addition, the Wii Motion Plus comes out next month, and this Camera Wand combination is supposedly at least 9 months away. (My guess is that it will be delayed.) It's clear that neither Sony nor Microsoft will be capturing any of the Wii's casual audience no matter what - it's far too late in this generation's life cycle for that, and the Wii's new attachment is getting a huge head start anyway.
Ultimately, therefore, the success of Sony's new peripheral leans heavily on its hardcore adoption. The potential is there, but it could go either way; On the one hand, the "hardcore" have traditionally raised their noses at any hint of motion control. On the other hand, already we are seeing arguments from both Microsoft and Sony fanboys about which company has the better motion control solution. This means that their disdain might have been simple hypocrisy all this time - not an objection to motion control at all, but rather a jealousy of Nintendo's incredible success with the concept.
We will see in time.
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If High Voltage is trying too hard, Microsoft is trying even harder. After seeing the far-reaching plans on display during yesterday's presentation, it's become clear to me that Nintendo will go another year without competition from the Xbox 360. (Sony will continue to be irrelevant to Nintendo no matter what happens at their conference.)
The Mario Kart clone looked like a desperate attempt to reach out to the casual market, and of course it must be free to have any hope of catching on. This ploy has been in Microsoft's playbook for a long time, perhaps the most famous example being Internet Explorer in Netscape's heyday.
But things turned downright ridiculous when Project Natal was trotted out in front of an incredulous audience. The technology's obviously early, but that doesn't excuse the ambitious video mockups we saw. Here's a recap in case you missed it:
This trailer was fully intended to wow the press and get the critical buzz going (PC World certainly took the bait), but the fine print says it all: "Product vision: actual features and functionality may vary." In other words, we saw nothing more than smoke and mirrors; a number of the features "shown" are likely not even in development at all.
Stephen Totilo at Kotaku gave us another demonstration of how Natal has generated unrealistic expectations. Totilo's describes his experience with Peter Molyneux's "Milo" in a positive light, but two statements simply can't escape unnoticed:
[Molyneux] repeatedly cautioned that some of what I would experience with the game were "tricks."
The Milo demo was partially being manipulated by a developer who was sitting nearby, and I couldn't tell if he was merely calibrating the game or how much he was pulling its strings.
All in all, Microsoft certainly managed to put on a show. But I'll be surprised if Natal sees the light of day even a year from now. Even if it does, it will end up going the way of Sony's EyeToy: big on the promises, underwhelming on the delivery.
Nintendo's conference starts in less than an hour!
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