Nintendo president Satoru Iwata reassured investors earlier last week that detailed announcements regarding Wii U will coming at E3 in June, and not before then. Nintendo has already said it will be drip feeding Wii U information before the event in June, but as expected it’s clear that the big announcements will be kept under strict embargo until then.
“As we will showcase the Wii U at E3 in June this year, the detailed announcements must wait until then.”
Respected UK games industry publication MCV is reporting that an extremely reliable source has told them that both Microsoft and Sony will be showing off their next generation consoles at this summers E3 event. It will mark the very first time in the show’s 17-year history that three fresh, rival console formats will be competing against each other.
“Obviously we can’t reveal our sources. But you have my personal word on this – the source is exemplary, 100 per cent concrete, ultra high level.”
MCV writer Ben Parfitt on Twitter
According to the Game Critics Awards Sony’s successor to the PlayStation Portable proved to be more popular with journalists than Nintendo’s Wii U console. The PlayStation Vita managed to obtain the award for best hardware at the E3 2011, whilst the Wii U went away empty-handed. The Game Critics Awards were voted on by more than 25 members of the media. Does anyone think they may have made the wrong decision?
According to games consultancy group Hit Detection third party developers were told not to show off their Wii U games due to them not looking significantly different from their PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 counterparts. Nintendo decided at the eleventh hour that they would not showcase these games, and would instead direct peoples attentions to their own first party demo’s.
These developers “worked hard to deliver titles running on that hardware to demonstrate live at E3.”
“However, due to titles not looking much better than what is currently available on Xbox 360 and the PS3, Nintendo decided late in the game to not show those titles and focus instead on tech demos.”
EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich has told Eurogamer what we all pretty much know; Nintendo won E3 hands down. It wasn’t just Divinch who was impressed by Nintendo’s offerings, but also outspoken analyst Micheal Pachter who genuinely backed up Jesse Divinchs claim. Did Nintendo win E3 for you, or were you more impressed by Sony’s and Microsoft’s offerings?
“Nintendo won, hands down,” EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich told Eurogamer. “They had great content and a well-executed presentation. No celebrities, no famous rock bands, just straight gaming.”
“Nintendo won with a very cool console innovation and great 3DS software,” Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan analyst, told us.
“People are still skeptical about core Kinect,” Pachter went on, “and with good reason. I had them in third place from a hardcore perspective, first from a business perspective.”
Which leaves Sony “in the middle”. “PSN apology was great,” said Pachter. “Vita price also great.” But otherwise “nothing to get excited about”.
Piers Harding-Rolls, analyst at Screen Digest told Eurogamer that “they all had their strengths”.
Harding-Rolls elaborated: “Nintendo showed its strong ability to innovate and to take home entertainment into new directions; Sony showed its openness to adopting new business models and online games services and delivered on PS Vita pricing; Microsoft delivered a leading mass market content and non-games media message which positions it strongly for this stage of the Xbox 360 cycle.”
Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that the next long awaited game in the Pikmin franchise is currently being developed for the Wii U.
Miyamoto said that the game was originally meant for the Nintendo Wii but he felt it would work better on the Wii U. Miyamoto added that the Wii U’s high definition visuals are the perfect fit for the Pikmin franchise. Miyamoto refused to comment on when it will be released, but he did say it will come out shortly after the Wii U is released.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has told GameTrailers that the Wii U will have similar online functionality to Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network. Clearly Nintendo has realised that the Wii’s online offerings are far behind those of its rivals. Great news, huh?
When it was put to him by GameTrailers that Nintendo consoles’ online functionality have trailed behind the likes of Xbox Live and PSN, he said: “… Now we’ve got a system that will have all of that type of capability built in.”
Asked whether third parties will be able to create their own Wii U networks and online worlds, Fils-Aime said:
“Our approach [to online] will be a flexible one, literally taking the best of what each of our third party partners has to offer, marrying that with the best of what Nintendo does, and bringing that versus a more rigid, a more closed type of environment.”
He added: “We’re going to be sharing what we’re doing from an online perspective over the next few days.”
- Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime
Nintendo announced that a huge portion of first party titles will be hitting the Nintendo 3DS this year. Games such as Super Mario 3D, Mario Kart 3DS, Star Fox and Kid Icarus will all be with us this year. The surprise at the show for the Nintendo 3DS was sequal to the beloved Luigi’s Mansion which originally made its début on the Gamecube. I didn’t expect to see it and I’m sure there were very few who did. What are you most looking forward to this year on Nintendo 3DS?
Nintendo has revealed its successor to the immensely popular Wii console at this years E3. The new system will be titled Wii U. The controller itself looks and acts very much like a tablet but features regular buttons that gamers know and love. The system will be out next year and no pricing has been announced. More details soon!
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Nintendo boxes of all shapes and sizes are currently adorning the Los Angeles Convention Centre. Whilst the majority of them appear to be housing exterior walls for the company’s demo booths, some of them are undoubtedly housing the successor to Nintendo’s immensely popular Wii console. If only someone could prize some of the boxes open and unleash whatever it is that’s inside of them!
