Nintendo's Press Conference (7/15/2008)

Nintendo's conference was set to begin at 9:00AM PDT, and it began shortly thereafter.

The conference begins with a video slideshow showing an assortment of people enjoying Nintendo's products. The video concludes with the following line of text: "We promise to keep people smiling..."

Cammie Dunaway comes on stage to kick off the presentation, making a quip about her name not being "Reggie." She gives personal story and sentiment that lead up to a presentation of Shaun White Snowboarding featuring none other than Shaun White himself giving the demo on stage from a Wii Balance Board.

A brief interview with Mr. White details some of the gameplay, and another hands-on (or, more accurately, feet-on) demonstration of the game is given. The game is said to release by the end of the year.

Global President of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, is now brought on stage. He begins his speech by stating that "a true paradigm shift has taken place in the global market." His speech initially focuses on Nintendo's success in the changing market, and then moves on to define the changes that have taken place in the market. He focuses on Nintendo's dual-focus of providing games to established gamers and pick-up-and-play causal gamers and non-traditional customers. Iwata-san speak of destroying the barrier between gamer and non-gamer with Wii Sports and similar titles. His speech of the challenges presented to the industry lists three responses that customers should have: They should be engaged, enriched, and enthused.

Iwata-san moves on to discussing the products that Nintendo is developing to gain these responses from gamers. Community-focus and creativity-focus in game design are deemed key. He then gives the floor to a video interview with Katsuya Eguchi, creator of Animal Crossing. The video marks the announcement of Animal Crossing: City Folk, with a 2008 release. The video begins to show gameplay footage focusing on the town-aspect of the game. Graphically, the game follows in the footsteps of Wild World and features fairly simple environments. The video moves on to a new landscape of the game, the city. The city includes an auction site and a place to see what other gamers are doing. Costume and character presentation options are available from the city. Communication via the game is considered key. The ability to write letters to other players, and to other Wii Message Boards, is mentioned. Immediately, a significant announcement follows: WiiSpeak. A microphone that captures audio of the entire room instead of a simple headset.

The video concludes, followed by the introduction of Nintendo of America CEO, Reggie Fils-Amie. He begins with sales information. He declares that, despite successes, Nintendo is committed to progressing. He iterates the need to value newcoming and veteran gamers alike. His marketing commentary points out the advertising focus of interesting females. His commentary moves on to discuss the software direction of Nintendo. He iterates the company's dual focus. He then points out the third-party success on the system, promising "dozens and dozens of new titles in the coming months." He promises that the conference will focus on three new games that make different uses of the Wii's gameplay options.

He introduces a trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The video focuses heavily on lightsaber duels. The game is dated for the 2008 holiday season. The next part fo the video is for Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party. The crazy antics of the series are back, and the gameplay is shown to make use of the Balance Board. The game is set for a fall 2008 release. Next up is Call of Duty: World at War. The game is shown to feature Wii Zapper support along with a co-op mode.

Cammie Dunaway returns to the stage. She begins giving market data on the DS and its software sales. She refers to Guitar Hero: On Tour: Decades, introducing a video for the game. The game is going to features the ability to share songs across versions of On Tour. The video then moves into a brief preview to Spore Creatures. The video emphasizes the creativity and connectivity design philosophy. Next, a new entry into the Pokemon series is announced. November 10th marks the release of Pokemon Ranger. One more announcement takes place: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be DS bound this winter. The game features new characters, sandbox gameplay (with a new engine), and will be set in Liberty City.

Mrs. Dunaway begins to speak of the DS and its usage in airports. She details features used in Safeco Field to provide game-goers with game updates and even the ability to order Ichi Rolls from the stands. A November release of a new Cooking Mama game is said to feature the ability to use it as a real cookbook.

Mr. Fils-Amie retakes the stage. He wastes no time in revealing the Wii Motion Plus. The new peripheral provides more realistic motion tracking. He then announces Wii Sports: Resort. "Literally a day at the beach," he says. Three games from Resort are set to be shown. The first game is a game of fetch with a virtual dog. Motion control is shown in detail with real-time mapping of motion to the gameplay character. The next game shown is a jet-ski style game similar in style to Wave Race. This game demonstration leads to a sword fighting game within Resort. The sword fighting game looks similar to Wii Boxing, but the motion mapping looks great.

Returning to the discussion of Wii Motion Plus, Mr. Fils-Amie declares that other developers are looking into ways to make use of the 1:1 motion control offered by the device. Wii Sports Resort is set for a release in Spring next year.

Mr. Fils-Amie states that one more significant game will be released this holiday season: Wii Music. Lights dim and a rock show presentation seems to take place. A virtual drumset appears on screen, and a man on a stool begins to play said drums using the Wii Remote and Nunchuck in free-form fashion. Game director begins playing a virtual saxophone along with a virtual jazz band. Wii Music has been around, in concept, since Wii Sports and Wii Play. The game experience is promised to be different from that of other music games. Wii Music is not precise and demanding in the way that other music games are. Playing the songs within Wii Music simply tracks with gesturing and plays notes in a way that works with a predefined music track. Over fifty instruments will be in the game. There is a separate mode that makes use of the Balance Board that simulates an entire drum set. The mode includes full lessons to teach real drum skills. Other modes, including a symphonic director mode, will be present. The ability to create music videos is also included in the game. Up to four players can play the game at once. A demonstration showing off the improvisation of the game features a familiar Mario theme song.

Mr. Fils-Amie and Mrs. Dunaway retake the stage. They recap the new hardware and software coming to the Wii. Mr. Fils-Amie concludes with an argument for Nintendo's staying power, stating that it is not a "fad" as the DS and Wii were once labeled. He again pushes for Nintendo's drive to gain advantage after advantage in the industry.