Reflections on Leipzig: Why nothing is something

Yeah, I know, the game conference part of Leipzig has only barely just begun, and I’m already on the soapbox doing a “reflections” piece. I felt I had to, because there’s been some venting and ranting (deservedly so) going on here at Infendo, and I felt there was some fire control necessary.

First, the title was glaringly misleading, there’s no defending that. I’ll still concede that because of translation issues (several live bloggers reported the translator feed cut out halfway through), there is a 1% chance that there was some real news that came out of this much ballyhooed press conference that could prove something, anything actually happened there. But, as it stands now, the only news we got from this was that a decent Mario sports title and a live action version of Advanced Wars are coming to the Wii, sometime in the future.

Second, we all need to take a collective breath. Sure, trust has been abused, but this is a company we’re talking about here, and they’re in it to make some cash (unlike Infendo writers, who’s insane, unbalanced love for all things Nintendo is payment enough). They have a plan, and I’m positive things like price and “hidden features” are only being kept secret to hide them from companies like Sony. Seriously, the company’s gaming division doesn’t have a creative bone in its body. I checked. It was terrible. I needed a shower afterwards.

Third, readers of this and similar gaming blogs are what I’d like to call the “upper crust” of the video game industry. We constantly check for updates, we know the specs of our systems, every character in Super Smash Brothers Melee, and who Ridley is. The average person has no frickin’ clue what any of that means. They are the majority, unfortunately, and they could care less about rumors and conjecture and if the Wii is coming out on October 31 or November 12. So, while this press conference was a let down to all of us, remember that for the majority of people who will be buying the Wii, this was a Wednesday.

Fourth, the two games showcased (Wii Sports was as well, fyi) had online functionality mentioned purposefully by Nintendo. Regardless of your personal thoughts on online play, this is a big hook, and I can’t think of a better game to start with than Super Mario Strikers Charged.

Fifth, if something doesn’t happen in September I’m going to start cutting myself or some other batpoop crazy (*keeping it PG for my homies) thing. No more rumors!!!

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go find some scissors.