E3 2011: Don't Show What You Don't Have, Nintendo!

[Crazybone126]

Let's take a journey back to E3 2006. The show the games of the Nintendo Wii first appeared at. The excitement was running wild, fans finally got to see the futuristic controller of the console in action with an on stage demo of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Red Steel. People were in awe at how Nintendo could pull something like that off. Then when they rolled the E3 gameplay montage on screen, people were even more amazed. You saw some very interesting gameplay that focused primarily on what the more mature gamer would like to play. Gun slinging, plasma shooting, sword swinging action. Back in 2006, this was much before everyone knew the direction Nintendo was actually going with the Wii. This was well before gamers knew that each week close to 10 games a 3 year old could play would be released, and that you had to dig through the shelves to get the more mature games.

Let's take a look back at the E3 2006 montage. Credit goes to IGN.



Now, some of you are probably saying, "Hey, I wonder what happened to that game!" After I did some digging through Youtube and found the video, I said the same thing. Many of the games either got completely revamped (including new names), or were never released stateside, if released at all. Disaster: Day of Crisis and Project H.A.M.M.E.R, I'm looking at you. I was really excited to see such a mature looking game coming from Nintendo, just to find out it was going to be shelved indefinitely through many months of sources saying it was cancelled and others saying it isn't. For those that didn't know, yes, Project H.A.M.M.E.R. was being developed by Nintendo EAD. I always felt that Project H.A.M.M.E.R wasn't going to be released though. It was the only game that still had a project placeholder as a name in the montage. It's like Nintendo decided to develop a beta just for the E3 press conference, which could be true. Nintendo's known to develop entire levels/demos just for press conference purposes. As far as we know, Project H.A.M.M.E.R could have been just a test for a new engine Nintendo were going to be using. This is all speculation, of course, let's assume this is the case though.

Why does Nintendo feel the need to show off games that they probably KNOW would never be released? It's kind of like what they did with the different colored Wii's at E3 2006. They showed off the entire color spectrum of the Wii, giving off the impression that different colors would be available at launch. Then retract that impression by saying, "We don't want to make our consumers wait and choose with too many colors." Sorry, but if I wanted to buy a new console, color is the last thing I'm concerned about. Having my favorite color available to me would be nice, but it's totally not a deal-breaker.

Back to the question that started the previous paragraph. Some people could say, it's just to showcase the possibilities of the console. Not me. Many of the games Nintendo showed off during their E3 2006 press conference montage didn't release on the console until almost an entire year later. Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Music, and others, I'm staring directly at you. If you're going to show off a new console, show off things you actually have, and not things that'll never come or things that aren't coming for a long while because they're being reworked. Show us things that'll be available closer to launch. During their press conference, Nintendo kind of gave off the impression that a lot of the games seen in the montage were going to be available on the Wii rather soon, but they weren't. Instead, only about 4 of the games were actually available at launch. And of them, only one of them was worth telling your friends about. I think we all know what game that was. *cough* Twilight Princess *cough*.

It's okay giving off a few impressions at press conferences, but giving off a false impression is what makes people so angry and disappointed. For example, Nintendo gave off the impression the Wii Remote was a 1:1 experience, just to launch the Wii and having people find out that it wasn't. Some people, would rather not have anything sugar-coated. Nintendo could have easily said, "It's not 1:1 yet, but we'll eventually get it there." They wouldn't have been lying, either. According to Nintendo, Wii Motion Plus was put into development a few months after the Wii's launch. Subtly telling the truth is much better than lying entirely, because, well, it's still the truth.

Speaking of lying, let's look at Red Steel's E3 2006 trailer.



Boy, don't we all wish it actually turned out like that? For future purposes, let's not pre-render our "gameplay" footage, ever again. Let's showcase the actual footage of the games. I'd rather be a little upset at the unveiling, rather than completely upset after I spend some money on it.

The reason I'm saying all of this is simply because, from all the sources that we've heard from, it does appear Nintendo will be showcasing their next generation home console at this year's E3 event. I don't want Nintendo to do what they did with the Wii at 2006's E3 press conference. I want to see games that'll be available to me closer to launch, I want to see hardware that is completely ready for launch, and I want to see games that won't be cancelled 2 months after the press conference. Nintendo's been having really bad launch line-ups for the past few years. The 3DS launched last month with only one game people actually cared to talk about, which was Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition. Nintendo needs to come into next generation swinging with raw power. At last year's E3, they showed off games that were coming just a few months after the show, they need to do the same with the unveiling of their new console. Most of the games they showcase should come not too far from the unveiling and launch of the next console.

I know, some of you are saying, "They can't go all out at launch, what are they going to do in the future?" Let's look at Nintendo's previous launch games on their previous home console.

GAMECUBE
All-Star Baseball 2002
Batman Vengeance
Crazy Taxi Hitmaker
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
Disney's Tarzan Untamed
Luigi's Mansion
Madden NFL 2002
NHL Hitz 20-02
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Super Monkey Ball
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Wave Race: Blue Storm NST

For the Gamecube, how many of those games did you care to talk about? Probably just one or two. I'm not even going to show you the Wii's launch titles, you all know what game you bought at launch, and it rhymes with "shmelda." It's time for Nintendo to have more than just one game anybody would care about at launch. I would be very pleased if I had a selection to choose from.

If we do see the new home console at this year's E3, all I want is to see some games I know I'll be playing at launch, or at least near it. Tell me about the future titles a little later.

Finally, was 2006 really five years ago?

[Segitz]

Same is basically true for PS3...

Showing game prototypes that didn't make it into full production or were cancelled (Eight Days, The Getaway, Eyedentify), showing off more colors for the consoles, little to no release YEAR games (basically just two, R1 and MS1)... only a year later came games like Uncharted and Warhawk.

[Crazybone126]

You're insinuating you're agreeing with me, so I'll assume you are indeed.

We don't need to see pre-production games or prototypes. What we need to see are games that are nearing their final stages of development. If it isn't in beta, I don't want to see it at E3. Save that for TGS since it's only about 3 months after E3.

We don't need to see game footage that's doctored up because the game isn't anywhere near its final stages of development either (Red Steel, Killzone 2, etc.). Just show me the goods!

[Chris]

While I agree I don't want to see footage of something that cannot (will not?) be done on the system, I don't particularly care if footage of games that are a year away from release are shown. Yes, please show us games that will be available at launch so we have something to look forward to for that, but I'm not going to be upset if games that just started development or tech demos are shown. Especially for an E3 with a system unveiling, it only makes sense to show those things because everyone will want to know what it's capable of.

Although I certainly could've done without that PS3 FF7 tech demos...Square-Enix you tease.

[Otacon305]

If Nintendo had told me what was in the Wii Kool-aid, or what that had planned on adding, I never would have drank it.

It's clear to me now why they changed the name from "Revolution" to "Wii". Because Nintendo decided they didn't want to create a revoltionary piece of hardware that catered to well-traveled gamers with standards and expectations. They realized it would just be easier to squeeze out a gimmicky toy and a ton of shovel-ware, and market it to an audience who wouldn't know a Solid Snake from a caesar salad. But of course, in order to rope in the original audience before time and internet could expose their shoddy work, they showed off tech demos and games that were never to be, conveniently neglected to mention there was no 1:1 motion control right out of the gate, rode on the ported coattails of a big-name GCN game, and claimed that they were trying to bring non-gamers into the fold on a simpler level and grow them into serious gamers (which was either a lie, or a plan they ditched when they realized they could make more money pumping out cheap excrement like Wii Sports and Wii Play).

[AC!D]

Im going to disagree and say shit happens and games get cancelled. Many games get cancelled for many different reasons and as for showing what consoles are capable of like the infamous Killzone 2 and Resident Evil 5 trailers what else can they do when trying to show ppl what they think their new consoles are capable of achieving graphically throughout its cycle?

Now showing a game with just the title like Agent, zero footage and nothing else for 2 years is thick. That has to stop!!!

[masteratt]

I'll be honest, I rather have an exciting E3 than have everything that is promised delivered to me, and I'm sure all companies think the same. As not only Nintendo but the other two do it as well (as does most tech companies in any other industry).

But yeah, AGENT was indeed ridiculous. Another bad planning by Sony. Apparently they were desperate for content and contacted Rockstar at the last minute, who were nice enough to rush a logo back to Sony. Yes, that one logo you saw had to be rushed. *facepalm*
Sony had a terrible E3 year before or two before (can't remember) as well. Seriously, someone should go to Sony's HQ and circle the E3 date on the calender so they know when it's coming. How do you not plan for the biggest show in the industry is just mind bogglingly clumsy business.

[Crazybone126]

@masteratt: Oh no. Sony plans their press conferences, it's just all the stuff they want to show gets leaked before E3 actually happens. It's either that, or Sony's own arrogance gets in the way and they just assume people will like whatever they do.

[Segitz]

You're insinuating you're agreeing with me, so I'll assume you are indeed.

Not just insinuating... I totally agree. Don't show us stuff unless you plan to follow up on releasing it... even if it were just the tech demos (which I'd love to play around with... Sony did it with the PS1 demo discs, which included several tech demos).

I can see why they do it, though... making tech demos is MUCH quicker than actual game development. The preproduction of tech demos is... well more or less non-existant. There's no need to think about how it'll play out over 10hrs...

Also... don't EVER do CG trailers... and I am not just talking Motorstorm and Killzone 2 here... In my opinion CG trailers are just smoke and mirrors... PR people say they serve the purpose of conveying the players the feel of the game... Guess what... showing the game itself can do this MUCH better. (Assassin's Creed, I am looking at you too, although the trailers are cool...)

Also... don't show stuff that won't make it in less than a year after the announcement. There's so much wrong with this. PS3 launch period was horrible. Basically no worthwhile content on PSN... even no demos, which were available on XBLive. If it wasn't for blu ray, PS3 should've been delayed by a year to actually release with more than just 2 games for the first year (and this time could've been used to re-engineer RSX with a more current GPU, too).

[frosty]

Also... don't EVER do CG trailers... and I am not just talking Motorstorm and Killzone 2 here...

Let us not forget Star Wars Kinect... in that case... "Don't EVER do CG trailers, ESPECIALLY with people FAKE PLAYING them!"

[Crazybone126]

Let us not forget Star Wars Kinect... in that case... "Don't EVER do CG trailers, ESPECIALLY with people FAKE PLAYING them!"

Agreed! It just appears unprofessional and lazy.

[Crazybone126]

I just decided to go back and read this and well, didn't a lot of this become true? Nintendo showed off a console that, obviously, wasn't exactly ready to be unveiled so soon, and the other companies did a bunch of CG trailers.