Nintendo - "Everyone is a Gamer"

There's nothing that excites gamers like statistics; pie charts and graphs dominated the opening of Nintendo's E3 conference. Fortunately, the event had more than just business to discuss. They unveiled a 'Wii Zapper' housing that allows the Wiimote and Nunchuck to combine into a light gun, which will retail for about twenty bucks. They showed off a number of third party titles to prove the outside-the-company commitment, such as a Soul Calbur and Medal of Honor (which will be playable online) designed specifically for the console. Hardcore gamers were the focus of the early portion of the conference: Smash Brothers Brawl has a launch date of December 3rd in the US. They heavily hyped online play, with several EA titles and a Pokemon-like Dragon Quest title. Mario Kart for Wii will be launching early next year, will be playable online, and will have a Wiimote driving wheel housing packaged with the game. With the hardcore discussed, the attention shifted to mass market games. A new channel, 'Check Mii Out' will allow for a HotorNot-style voting mechanism and contests to make the most realistic celebrity Mii. There was much discussion of the Nintendo approach to expanding audience; Super Mario Galaxy was brought up as bridging that gap, as a second player can 'assist' the primary player in various ways. Galaxy will be launching on November 12th. Targetted more directly at this 'outside the norm' group was WiiFit, which uses a dedicated device called the Wii Balance Board. It allows for a daily exercise routine, can track data over time (and compare it to other family members) and includes some simple minigames like a soccer heading game. The press conference ended with Reggie Fils-Aimee revealing Nintendo's goal to make videogaming one of the pre-eminent forms of entertainment, across all age groups.

Re:Two years ago

[Osty]

Forward two years from then, and it's Nintendo press conference that made it to the front page, while Sony and Microsoft are nowhere to be found. How things changes...

Nowhere to be found [slashdot.org], eh? Microsoft's conference was last night. Nintendo's was this morning. Sony's is next. Slashdot will cover all three.

Re:Two years ago

[suv4x4]

I remember when the big 3 was announcing their forthcoming console. The Xbox 360 press event made it to slashdot's front page. So did the PS3, while the Wii was tucked away in the game section.

Your memory is apparently doing you a very poor service.

Speculations about Nintendo's controller where all over the news (before they have shown the controller). When they announced the controller with photos, doubly so.

We had fanboys making fake "Nintendo Revolution" videos about what the console might look like.

Then later, when Nintendo announced how they *called* their console, it was all over the news for weeks again.

Re:NinTardDuh

[vigmeister]

Interesting observation: PS3 has been selling at the same rate as the XBox360 if you look at the initial as well as current slopes. And the Wii has been selling roughly more than twice as fast. Which essentially means that the revenue generated by the Wii is probably comparable to that generated by the PS3 and the Xbox. Of course, MS and Sony have been taking losses on their console sales while Nintendo has been making a profit.
Cheers!

Re:Mii Hot or Not?

[the dark hero]

Check this out [kottke.org]

Re:What gamers?

[KDR_11k]

Don't knock Excel, I've once seen Pac Man implemented as an Excel sheet with full graphics and everything. It certainly was more accurate than the Atari version I grew up with.

Re:Does Anyone Really Use Their Wii Anymore?

[ihatewinXP]

The "given up on it gamer"........

Which as the article states is the audience they are now going for.

I totally hear your sentiment, I was one of them too. Hell, I even picked up Zelda and was disgusted after spending 30 minutes to get a goddamned fishing rod and threw it out... But Tuesday night mahjong in Beijing with my far ranging expat crowd has now been replaced with Tuesday night Wii bowling league or Wario Whatever madness.... Laughing the whole time about how my bowling alley serves the finest wine and provides footwear par excellance ;)

Have you actually played this thing? One of our friends just got back from a 4 week stint in the States and it was the first thing she mentioned. I cant even make the word of mouth marketing on this thing up.

Sorry, im sold. This thing is Just Plain Fun -

Re:What gamers?

[LokiSnake]

Here's a blog that talks about Pacman in Excel [hanselman.com]. And here's the link to the original Japanese page [geocities.jp].

Re:Hardcore Gamers don't really matter

[Brickwall]

It was the old people playing videogames for the first times in their lives. It was the parents, gaming with their kids. It was the kids, getting off the couch and jumping around.

Spot on. My two girls, 10 and 13, got a Wii about 3 weeks ago. They will play for two or three hours at a stretch, and yes, they jump and shout and twirl, and generally have a great time. They have plenty of games for their computers, but they rarely play those anymore; they prefer the interaction the Wii gives them.

And I've enjoyed playing with them as well. The sports pack is fun, and I've even tried Mario Party Pack 8.

The girls are already planning "Wii" parties for their friends; I doubt our machine will be gathering dust any time soon.

Re:Expanding audiences again?

[ShaggyIan]

From personal experience, I know of five purchased Wii's, my own included. Two own another console, and the non-me one is my brother in law who is a huge Nintendo fanboy.

One of them is my 74 year old father, who plays more than I do. The only consoles he ever purchased before were for me. He hasn't played one since the Atari 2600.

Actually, I'd bet a significant number of purchasers would say the 2600 was their last one, same sort of appeal.

Re:I've still never even seen one

[ctid]

I don't know where you are in the world but in the UK there are a few sites which do online stock-checking for Nintendo Wiis. Over the last month or so, availability seems to have improved significantly. For example if you just want the console there are several places where you can get one [wii-consoles.co.uk]. There are even more [wii-consoles.co.uk] if you are prepared to spring for a bundle. I've been in several stores recently where they have had signs up saying that they have Wiis in stock. This is in Manchester in NW England.

Re:Does Anyone Really Use Their Wii Anymore?

[DrXym]

Aiming down the barrel won't work because the wii remote simply isn't accurate enough to do it. It might be more or less correct, but if you stand up or move, or if you hold the gun to your shoulder and sometimes hold it by your waste it will lose calibration. And even when calibrated it could still be off by a good margin depending on factors such as your distance from the set, position and so on. I bet games using the zapper still feature an onscreen crosshair.

Re:Two years ago

[LordVader717]

Vagina.

(Posting anonymously because not everyone will get it, and I don't feel like being marked Troll today.)

Just to clarify [penny-arcade.com]. (and maybe there's a bit of Karma Whoring too)

But that was actually only one year ago. Two years ago Nintendo had barely shown the casing, and the big mystery about the controller was left for a few months.