As some have noticed, I’m new around here. Thanks for the welcome. However, I’m not one for syrupy, The Notebook-style intros or good-byes, so I’m just going to jump headfirst into the biggest video game/Nintendo-related news of the week: E3.
Or, I should say, the lack of an E3 next year. Douglas Lowenstein, the President of the ESA, called the move a restructuring; a “more targeted approach.” Whatever. With all of the spin going on in gaming these days I thought I was reading something on CNN. I think reality has finally caught up with these lazy, bloated video game publishers. People went to E3 and they got hours and hours of hot air press conferences and game demos (which may or may not have been on actual machines using actual gameplay). Not with Nintendo though.
I think Nintendo handed them their hat, and did it with a “gimicky” little remote controller and a name people couldn’t stop talking about for all the wrong reasons. Nintendo made the displays of companies like Sony and Microsoft worthless. Ho-hum. An afterthought to E3. Just go to YouTube and type “Nintendo E3 running” and you’ll see people going full speed through the convention hall directly past Sony to the Wii.
Now, my word is one thing, so let’s go to today’s developments. GameIndustry.biz is reporting that Nintendo has already committed to the new format. Nintendo UK PR manager Rob Saunders said, “I can confirm that Nintendo will be involved in the E3 expo next year.” Microsoft said it was receptive to the idea. Sony just whimpered. These companies have participated every year they were able, and now they suddenly decline?
Here’s my conspiracy theory: A record number of publishers provided terrible games based on previously overdone ideas and spent millions to advertise them. Then, enter Nintendo, whose never before seen system and interface entered the arena and ran the show. I think Sony led this charge to complain about the E3, and said it had had enough with E3, and blamed the show for a poor showing.
But forget the spin. The E3 model wasn’t broken. Publishers weren’t losing money because the show was “too big” Take this as a sign that the old guard, those bloated publishers that give us remake after remake and sequels are in a panic. Take it as a sign that Nintendo is doing everything right.