Iwata Apologizes for Bad E3

[Lumstar]

Nintendo tends to move projects to new systems faster than most. So many late N64 and GC games ended up that way.

 

[berlinka]

I would think Nintendo is smart enough to know what's happening, so where some people think Iwata's apologizing, I am sure Nintendo just wanted to cause a bit of a reversed stir. People expected something big, and got nothing....Now Nintendo made headlines by showing nothing. That's an achievement!

 

[yuyuyup]

I think Nintendo E3 this year was way underrated; yeah I guess they blew their wad unveiling motionplus a lil early, but motionplus + sword fighting, good golly that was all I needed. Of course no Kid Icarus, no DS 2d metroid, etc obvious disappointment.

 

[CockroachMan]

Nintendo E3 this year was way too overhyped.. the media and the fans created too much rumors and speculations about what Nintendo was going to show and in the end all those rumors were false.. so, people got disappointed.. the thing wasn't so bad as most people are talking..

 

[Master Mo]

I think Nintendo E3 this year was way underrated; yeah I guess they blew their wad unveiling motionplus a lil early, but motionplus + sword fighting, good golly that was all I needed. Of course no Kid Icarus, no DS 2d metroid, etc obvious disappointment.

I think the really bad thing about motion+ is, that the 3rd party didn`t knew about it and Reggie himself said, that after E3 the 3rd Party would get their Devkits. Why not before? What is the strategy behind such a retarded move? Do they wanted to surprise the 3rd Party...

QUOTE(CockroachMan @ Jul 23 2008, 04:04 PM) Nintendo E3 this year was way too overhyped.. the media and the fans created too much rumors and speculations about what Nintendo was going to show and in the end all those rumors were false.. so, people got disappointed.. the thing wasn't so bad as most people are talking..

I don`t think it was overhyped. If the hardcore knew what they were going to play 2008 they still would say: "maybe we get Kid Icarus".
If it wouldn`t be announced the hardcore would say: "We still got to play this year.

I was expecting more from Nintendo, since they are not overdoing themself with developing. I`m still asking myself, what they do all day long if not developing... I still remember a statement from Iwata, where he said how many games Nintendo was developing... I think that was not true!

 

[Ferrariman]

I WANT FZERO HEAR MY ROAR.

 

[yuyuyup]

Man once you get your motionplus, and you're playing the inevitable lightsaber/sword/whatever game of the century, you will realize this was a remarkable e3 in retrospect.

 

[Celice]

The Motion sensor had little to do with E3 however. They could have easily blown away the crowd at the end of a shitty and boring conference by showing a mock-Zelda battle, where the Wiimote shows the new level of sensitivity, or even Smash Bros. in throwing some punches (watch all the tourneytards panic as now they can't play the game).

 

[Doomsday Forte]

The Motion sensor had little to do with E3 however. They could have easily blown away the crowd at the end of a shitty and boring conference by showing a mock-Zelda battle, where the Wiimote shows the new level of sensitivity, or even Smash Bros. in throwing some punches (watch all the tourneytards panic as now they can't play the game).

They did that once before and people bellyached at Wind Waker for not being what was shown at E3. =P

That and how quickly we forget the delays for Twilight Princess (and Brawl for that matter). It'd be easier to not know you're waiting for something instead of waiting for something that may or may not come out on its given date. And how we will cry when it's delayed.

 

[CockroachMan]

I was expecting more from Nintendo, since they are not overdoing themself with developing. I`m still asking myself, what they do all day long if not developing... I still remember a statement from Iwata, where he said how many games Nintendo was developing... I think that was not true!

They're busy developing games.. Nintendo has just delivered Brawl and Mario Kart this year.. and Metroid, Mario Galaxy and Zelda PH last year.. Nintendo is not like EA and Ubisoft that go releasing annual sequels, they're more like Blizzard.. they take their time to finish a game.. all the teams from the mentioned games should be busy right now, but with nothing yet at a stage that they can show us something, afaik a Mario/Zelda game take at least 2 years to be made..

 

[Vater Unser]

I'm glad Nintendo took note about how their E3 Show sucked.
How couldn't they?
Even though they probably wouldn't have given a shit if gamers and newsmags hadn't complained like that.

If there is any perception that Nintendo is ignoring the core gamers, it's a misunderstanding and we really want to get rid of that misunderstanding by any means
Isn't this exactly the same shit he said last year? Dunno if it was after last year's E3, but this is pretty much just what he said before at least once.

And why is he saying Nintendo wants to get rid of that "misunderstanding" by any means, when they're not even trying? Getting rid of misunderstandings is a public relation, it's a thing they can't do behind closed doors. But that's what he's trying to tell us.
So is this it, a fucking excuse? Sorry, but empty promises won't get them rid of any misunderstandings, especially not if Reggie promised new core games right before E3.

However, the fact of the matter is the so-called 'big titles' need a long, long development period.

Then they better be really "big" titles. They had plenty of time to prepare some teasers or trailers. Why did everyone else manage to show off new games that are even bigger than Nintendo's average title? It's not like Pikmin, StarFox or F-Zero are the kind of games that are in development for 3 years or more. And even if they are, there's still no excuse not to at least mention any games like these at E3.
Why did Nintendo manage to surprise us with multiple great blockbuster games at every E3 until 2006, and now they don't?
Even if the "big titles" had development periods of 10 years, since when do games have to be finished before they can be showcased?
I'm not a salesman, but aren't people more likely to buy a console if there's a strong line-up of great games to come?

But most importantly, when are they planning to actually reveal those games they've been talking about for quite a while now?
E3 is over, Nintendo won't be in Leipzig, Nintendo never was present at the Tokyo Game Show and the last Nintendo Space World took place in 2001.
How was the E3 NOT the time to reveal some games?

E3's already taking place 2 months later than it was two years ago...If there are any games to be released in 2009 other than Animal Crossing, why the fuck didn't they reveal them? It's 5 months until christmas, what are they waiting for?
Are they planning to keep announcing games only a few weeks before their release, like they did with Wario Land Shake?
Even a single screenshot, concept art or an indication of any "big title" they're working on would have been enough to satisfy many gamers. They didn't need a screenshot of GTA DS, either.

Of course I believe Nintendo has plenty of core games in development, but I doubt they're as many, let alone as "big" as Iwata wants us to believe. Reggie promised a killer app for christmas to be shown at E3, but where is it? Is it Animal Crossing? Wii Sports Resort won't be released before 2009, so yes, it has to be Animal Crossing. What a joke. A game with N64 graphics and only few (if any) appealing new features is not what I'd define as a "big title". It was just as underwhelming as I expected it to be, and they're calling it a holiday blockbuster.
And who says any of the games they are preparing are planned for 2008? As it is right now, Nintendo's line-up for 2008 is embarassingly bad. It's like they're letting the 3rd parties do all the work.

Just look at what games were released between E3 2007 and E3 2008, two of them (MP3 and SMG) were announced and originally supposed to be released looong before E3 2007. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if Wario Land Shake, Animal Crossing and Wii Sports Rehab will be the only noteworthy Nintendo games to be released in the next 12 months. If Nintendo has any surprise titles up their sleeves to be released later this year, they'll probably just be yet another resurrection of Mario Tennis or Golf...Which wouldn't be a problem at all, if they offer any new gaming experience, which I doubt for some reason (unless they support MotionPlus...but to be honest, I could do without another Mario Tennis and Mario Golf.)

Assuming they're planning to add MotionPlus support to their major titles before revealing them, why didn't they do so before?
It's not like the MotionPlus was invented just a few weeks ago, seeing how they could set up a playable version of Wii Sports Resort in the mean time. The decision not to reveal MotionPlus earlier was fucking stupid, they did nobody a favor with that.

CockroachMan

Nintendo E3 this year was way too overhyped.. the media and the fans created too much rumors and speculations about what Nintendo was going to show and in the end all those rumors were false.. so, people got disappointed..

I had very little expectations of Nintendo's conference and was still disappointed...
Animal Crossing was the only game I knew they were showing for sure, and that's pretty much all they did. I never expected a new Zelda or Kid Icarus to be shown at E3, but I also didn't expect them to show nothing surprising at all, either.
There's a reason why people wait for press events like these, and it's not because they want to see nothing new. Nintendo knows our expectations, they'd be fools if they didn't. Maybe they're playing games with us, but after last year's equally bad E3, I doubt that.

The Wii MotionPlus is nice and all, but what good is a new hardware without any corresponding games?

Wii Sports Resort is just another casual minigame collection, which throws us back to the main problem.

 

[strata8]

Animal Crossing Wii doesn't have N64 graphics...

But otherwise I completely agree with you

 

[shaunj66]

Wow Vater Unser you summed up my thoughts on the matter perfectly. Well written and a good read!

 

[Kusan]

Vate Unser, you rule.

Wise words are those you wrote, and it's exactly what I think. Reggie said, it wasn't a rumor, they'd show a game "every core gamer wants", with "a lot of fans"...it's really a joke if they think we all want Animal Crossing...

At least there are some decent 3rd party games coming for the Wii, like Conduit (i have high hopes on this), Madworld, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (at least I love this games) and Call of Duty: World at War (4 players online co-op sounds like "ownage", even more with the Wiispeak thing)

I really have lost hopes on Nintendo, the lower the hopes, the lower the disappointment is. I'm expecting another Mario game as well. They're missing Mario Hockey, Mario Football (not soccer) and maybe Mario Bowling...¬¬

I don't trust Iwata. If Miyamoto had said so, I PROBABLY would believe it...but Iwata is "meh" for me xD

 

[Japhle]

the original SMB2 was also later released in Super Mario All-Stars as The Lost Levels.

This.

And in response to Iwata's statement, YAY!

 

[feds4u]

Rumors circulate that Nintendo hates the new E3 format. Hence their half assed showing for the past two years.

There is even talk the old show format may return. Peter Moore recently stated that the old format should return. I personally agree with him. E3 was made to be a hype machine. Not a private hand job for the press.