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What was Nintendo thinking at E3 2008?

Remember how we all speculated that since they had already released Mario Kart and Smash Bros in early 2008, they must have so many great games to announce for holiday 2008?

And Reggie teased that they had a big game that we'd be very happy with. And that turned out to be Animal Crossing City Folk...

Oh the pain...
 
They were deluded by the Wii success - just like Sony before with the PS2 and MS after with Kinect. Happens every time. This it's just matter of time before Sony looses it and does the whole thing again because of the PS4 success. It's baffling to see how these companies work.
 
I remember my friend who was a huge Nintendo fanboy at the time being extremely pissed about that for a long time, he bought a 360 that year
 
It was so bad in a humdrum, shrug-your-shoulders sort of way that they haven't done a live conference since.

And, to be honest, that's good for them.

The pre-recorded format of Nintendo Е3 2013 presentation sure was caused by lost reputation and bad Wii U sales, but it, combined with 2012's embarrassment, made them think differently and explore new presentation models. And so, the same pre-recorded format of 2014 presentation was their intentional decision, and look how it paid off!

At some point, it's better to be hit really hard to rise with a new and fresh ideas than just slowly go downhill.
 
Phoning in after the success of the Wii.

dat first post

From 2006-spring 2008 the Wii was awesome and provided a ton of all-time favorite experiences for me.

I can count on two hands the number of core first-party Wii games after MKWii came out (Galaxy 2, DKCR, Skyward Sword, Kirby RtD/EY, NSMBWii, Other M). Everything else was a port or Wii ___. They just didn't give a shit until the U's terrible launch woke them up.
 
Dat Blue Ocean money

I actually thought their 2012 conference was worse. When car crash viewing is happening, a la Nintendo '08, Sony '06 or Konami '10, then that in itself is entertaining and worth watching. But what went down two years ago was just flat-out mundane and uneventful, despite the company being on the cusp of releasing a new console. I know I'm not the first to rag on them for ending their conference on a virtual fireworks display through the world of Nintendoland, but... they ended their conference on a virtual fireworks display. It was so bad in a humdrum, shrug-your-shoulders sort of way that they haven't done a live conference since.
That pissed me off to no end that E3. For it to be the grand unveiling of a console, that conference was weak as hell.
 
I think the suckiness of that particular conference was mitigated by the fact that E3 in general was shit with their new bizarre, decentralized and incredibly stripped back format.

Now, of course, Nintendo's '08 E3 presentation was horrible. Seeing how little they had in the horizon (Miyamoto was all but forced to prematurely confirm Pikmin 3's development when the press was pretty much begging him to confirm anything worth getting excited for that year) was one of the deciding factors that pushed me to sell my Wii and get a PS3. But I think the general shittiness of the entire conference prevented people from realizing how truly bad it was until a little while later instead of immediately.
 
I actually thought their 2012 conference was worse. When car crash viewing is happening, a la Nintendo '08, Sony '06 or Konami '10, then that in itself is entertaining and worth watching. But what went down two years ago was just flat-out mundane and uneventful, despite the company being on the cusp of releasing a new console. I know I'm not the first to rag on them for ending their conference on a virtual fireworks display through the world of Nintendoland, but... they ended their conference on a virtual fireworks display. It was so bad in a humdrum, shrug-your-shoulders sort of way that they haven't done a live conference since.

does anyone actually remember e3 2007 and 2008? they were shitty little affairs because someone had their feelings hurt and had the event scaled down. that nintendo didn't overwhelm the gaming public in this time seems a little unfair when there wasn't anything memorable going on at all. entertaining and bad, sure, but their worst e3 really has to be 2012, at least out of the last ten years. you could get away with having a shitty showing in 2008 because no one had a good showing in 2008. doing that in 2012 with a system that was about a year old and a new console launching months away... and doing it in a way that doesn't clear up any confusion about the product at all, is really bad.

2012 was the moment where it should have been clear that they really had no idea what they were doing with the wii u after 2011's warning signs.
 
dat first post

From 2006-spring 2008 the Wii was awesome and provided a ton of all-time favorite experiences for me.

I can count on two hands the number of core first-party Wii games after MKWii came out (Galaxy 2, DKCR, Skyward Sword, Kirby RtD/EY, NSMBWii, Other M). Everything else was a port or Wii ___. They just didn't give a shit until the U's terrible launch woke them up.

no sin & punishment 2, punch-out, xenoblade, rhythm heaven fever, the last story, or pandora's tower for you?
 
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I have to wonder what Wii U's prospects would have been like if E3 2013 was E3 2012.

if the wii u was launched next to the ps4 and xb1, it would have come out with pikmin 3, lego city undercover, mh3u, nsmbwii, super mario 3d world, zelda tww hd, and nintendo land. not all of those, of course. i imagine several would have filled the gaps in 2014 between dkctf and mario kart, and between mario kart and smash bros.
 
Here was the start of Wii's downfall.

Nintendo totally dropped the ball on this one and was the epitome of their casual-approach and consequently abandon of their core audience. They got way over enthusiastics with Wii ___ line up success and decided to dedicate most of the efforts on this genre/audience at expense of the core, which in the follow years abandoned the system to the PS3/360 and it became, pretty much, a system restricted mostly to party and casual titles. This casual audience later migrated to mobile and Facebook, leaving Wii into a hollow wasteland, causing it's premature death

Wii U's rejection has a lot to do with this direction starting on E3 2008. Wii, at first, had the prospects to use it's controls not only for party and casual titles, but for general gaming as well. That's why it had an initial solid core audience. But later on, Nintendo decided to concentrate their efforts mostly on casual titles. Wii brand got strongly associated to this type of audience. IMO, Wii was one of the biggest missed opportunities in the history of gaming, it had the potential to use the motion controller and bring innovative new concepts to core gameplay. Initial revisions from core ports like Godfather, RE4, Madden 07 were good indications, but the direction Nintendo chose alienated both developers and gamers alike.
 
Sony's e3 was bad in a ridiculous way. Nintendo's was bad in a cringe way and not good cringe like Konami 2010.

Granted Sony's E3's have been boring as hell since 06. 2013 was a good time though.

sony's conferences just go on way too long. they're like interviewing some guy for an art position and instead of showing you his best work from school, they show you everything they made in school. their ps experience thing flew out a dude from japan to talk about the ps4 port of final fantasy vii. they had another dude talking about vita not being dead because it was getting indie ports. pick and choose the best parts to show, holy shit.

2013 was no exception. final fantasy versus xiii being announced a second time was a treat for some people i guess. kingdom hearts iii was a legitimate surprise. but what else was there, the theatrics of announcing that the ps4 did what every other game system did, mocking the competition for being different, and then immediately announcing something shitty that made them like the competition? real neato.

honestly, i think microsoft had the best show at e3 in 2013. nintendo's direct was pretty lackluster, but microsoft didn't do anything wrong with their e3 conference except not 180 from their may conference (i think people confuse the may conference with the e3 conference).
 
You know, this really annoys me. The statements that the Wii abandoned the core when it's utterly untrue. Nintendo produced as many games for their primary fans as they ever did. What was off was their messaging. Their actions however, were spot on as ever and the Wii ended up with an excellent library. It murders my Gamecube and N64 collections combined. To this day I'm still adding to it in fact. But yeah, they missed the mark on what they were saying too often, that E3 being a prime example.
 
You know, this really annoys me. The statements that the Wii abandoned the core when it's utterly untrue. Nintendo produced as many games for their primary fans as they ever did. What was off was their messaging. Their actions however, were spot on as ever and the Wii ended up with an excellent library. It murders my Gamecube and N64 collections combined. To this day I'm still adding to it in fact. But yeah, they missed the mark on what they were saying too often, that E3 being a prime example.
Agreed. I actually feel bad for people who think this. They missed out on a ton of great games.
 
Definitely of a cringe-worthy presentation, but I think the message they were trying to get across was fine. There's nothing wrong with making games more appealing to a wide demographic.

And Wii Sports Resort is a great game. Especially table-tennis and swordfighting in my humble opinion. One of the first games with good motion controls that work. No waggling.

Wii Sports Resort was awesome tho.

Agreed. :)

It was a complete misreading of who actually watches E3 presentations live. Hint: It's not Wii Fit grandma. It was such a fuck-up that they literally apologized for their presentation. Mere months later they announced Sin & Punishment 2, Punch-Out!!, and Bowser's Inside Story, and they probably should have moved those announcements to E3, especially since the prevailing narrative in the media at the time was that Nintendo had completely abandoned core gamers, which was clearly untrue.

Sure a lot of core gamers follow E3 presentations, but mainstream press also follows E3 press conferences. I mean that's what press conferences are, it's aimed at the press and not necessarily at consumers. Mainstream press can write about Wii Fit for example, which in turn can read more the mainstream public.

But they definitely should have balanced it better and I think E3 press conferences should definitely, always primarily be centered around enthusiast / "core" games.
 
I AM THE KING OF THE WORLD

Hubris. They thought they are infallible. They were kinda right though, 2008 and 2009 Wii sales were something completely different. That December when they sold what, 3.8 mil Wiis? IN ONE MONTH. In addition to 3 mil DS. In America alone.

December 2009:

Wii 3.81M
Nintendo DS 3.31M

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA 2.82M
WII FIT PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA 2.41M
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA 1.79M

It's amazing how this insane success went to shit.
 
December 2009:

Wii 3.81M
Nintendo DS 3.31M

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA 2.82M
WII FIT PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA 2.41M
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA 1.79M

It's amazing how this insane success went to shit.

Good lord.

How many Wii Us have been sold?
 
Looking back at that videos is hilarious now, but painful during the actual time. What ever happened to that drummer? He's an icon now but I wonder how he feels about it since it's not in a good way.
I remember he was like the house drummer or something on Howie Do It, which was Howie Mandel's prank TV show, but after that he faded into obscurity.
 
Looking back, 2012 pissed me off a lot more than '08. 2008 was cringy, but to me '12 just shows incompetence. The E3 where they reveal their new console that people confuse for a controller and the biggest "one more thing" troll of the NintendoLand fireworks.

Nintendo-Land-Fireworks.jpg
 
Looking back, 2012 pissed me off a lot more than 08. The E3 where they reveal their new console that people confuse for a controller and the biggest "one more thing" troll of the NintendoLand fireworks.

Nintendo-Land-Fireworks.jpg

Yep that one was awful as well, it's where my interest in Nintendo started to completely vanish for a moment.

Sony's e3 was bad in a ridiculous way. Nintendo's was bad in a cringe way and not good cringe like Konami 2010.

Granted Sony's E3's have been boring as hell since 06. 2013 was a good time though.

SCE's PlayStation E3 2013 media briefing was boring imho. Microsoft's Xbox E3 2013 was actually very good/enjoyable imho, regardless of their inconsistent PR.
 
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2013/02/mj-laughing.gif

I mean, you said YOUR collections, so maybe you don't have any games, but the Gamecube and N64 combined easily trump the Wii's lineup.

Wii has a great library, with 3rd party games included. Gamecube and N64 have more iconic Nintendo titles, but Wii has a great and fairly unique library on it's own. I think it's one of the best just because I love the creativity developers put into the games.
 
You know, this really annoys me. The statements that the Wii abandoned the core when it's utterly untrue. Nintendo produced as many games for their primary fans as they ever did. What was off was their messaging. Their actions however, were spot on as ever and the Wii ended up with an excellent library. It murders my Gamecube and N64 collections combined. To this day I'm still adding to it in fact. But yeah, they missed the mark on what they were saying too often, that E3 being a prime example.

Some one can say Jaguar and 3DO libraries are better than SNES and PS2 combined.
 
Not even taking announcements their direct last year was actually fun to watch. Hopefully we never go back to the days of them doing depressing press conferences because they can sort of get away with not having much to show by making the video at least slightly fun.
 
It was a shitty presentation but in reality Wii Sports Resort, Wii Music, and City Folk ended up all selling a ton more than any Metroid, Star Fox, F-Zero, or Pikmin game could have.

And Wii Sports Resort was awesome.

This is probably true. And another thumbs up for Wii Sports Resort being awesome indeed. :)

I actually thought their 2012 conference was worse. When car crash viewing is happening, a la Nintendo '08, Sony '06 or Konami '10, then that in itself is entertaining and worth watching. But what went down two years ago was just flat-out mundane and uneventful, despite the company being on the cusp of releasing a new console. I know I'm not the first to rag on them for ending their conference on a virtual fireworks display through the world of Nintendoland, but... they ended their conference on a virtual fireworks display. It was so bad in a humdrum, shrug-your-shoulders sort of way that they haven't done a live conference since.

I agree.

Though the Pikmin 3 introduction was super cute. :)
 
E3 2008 was alright in my opinion, lots of casual mentions. Pictures of old people playing the Wii. It made them lots of money, so they didn't really have to try much. It was a fun presentation, though 'offensive' to the harcore gamer I guess. I didn't really mind.

I agree that the 2012 Wii U reveal E3 was Nintendo's worst. Constantly referring to the Gamepad as "the new controller" with not even an image of the Wii U console until after the presentation. Basic demos and not much to show beyond that. They shot themselves in the foot from the get-go.
 
Wii has a great library, with 3rd party games included. Gamecube and N64 have more iconic Nintendo titles, but Wii has a great and fairly unique library on it's own. I think it's one of the best just because I love the creativity developers put into the games.

I agree that the Wii has a good lineup, I just question the statement that it "murders" the N64 and GC's lineups combined. I think people are just forgetting how many good games, including 3rd party, were released on those systems.
 
I bought a wii day 1. But by 2008 it was obvious that they had lost their touch. I never watched this conference, but im not suprised that it sucked.
 
I agree that the Wii has a good lineup, I just question the statement that it "murders" the N64 and GC's lineups combined. I think people are just forgetting how many good games, including 3rd party, were released on those systems.
The N64 had some of the most revolutionizing games of all time, but there wasn't enough of it. I feel like the Wii has the perfect balance of quality of quantity. The games weren't as groundbreaking (nothing will ever be), but they were still truly outstanding.
 
mj-laughing.gif


I mean, you said YOUR collections, so maybe you don't have any games, but the Gamecube and N64 combined easily trump the Wii's lineup.

I agree with her. The only things the GCN have over Wii are a better Paper Mario, Melee and F-Zero GX. N64 has the StarFox 64 and Rare shooters. Everything else was either done better on Wii or got an up port to it.
 
Nintendo's conference was depressing because of how little it really mattered.

Sony's conference was funnier because of how much it mattered.
 
I mean, you said YOUR collections, so maybe you don't have any games, but the Gamecube and N64 combined easily trump the Wii's lineup.

the n64's library in 2015 consists of games that have mostly aged poorly. some extremely so. even classics like ocarina of time and super mario 64 have problems that 20 years of game development in 3d space have fixed. have you played banjo-kazooie recently? it's not really a platformer as much as it is a mini-game compilation. playing it on the 360 again was a pretty depressing realization. perfect dark doesn't hold up. goldeneye certainly doesn't. mario kart 64 has been improved on by its sequels, aside from the battle mode. maybe paper mario is still fine. i guess rayman 2 is still a great game. i don't know. it just seems like the n64 is best left in the past (and i do actually *want* to play dk64 again but i'm really afraid of how that will work these days).

the gamecube's library isn't a whole lot better. nintendo, in that era, was rushing out software and as a result we wound up with a crummy mario kart, a crummy 3d mario, no 2d mario, and a crummy 3d zelda. basically from 2002-2003, nintendo was in a pretty bad place creatively. they didn't begin to turn things around until 2004. four swords adventure, paper mario 2, pikmin 2, and dk jungle beat were all good games. all you were left with after that were poor ports of third-party games and not even all of them, and a few quality exclusives like resident evil, tales of symphonia, and metal gear solid: the twin snakes.

now the wii never got the best multiplatform games except for a few rare cases where it's debatable (like ghostbusters the video game). however, it made up for it in unique and interesting games from people trying new things. games that in the previous gen would have been experiments on the ps2 instead. stuff like endless ocean, no more heroes, red steel 2, madworld, and zack and wiki. it even gave us the first good console sonic game since the genesis era in sonic colors, and brought out other fun platformers like klonoa, a boy and his blob, and nyxquest. nintendo's output was on-point, either creating internally or collaborating with other companies to make games like sin & punishment 2, xenoblade chronicles, super mario galaxy 2, and new super mario bros. wii. i look back and see the wii as having a rather diverse and unique library. these are the kinds of games that largely aren't made anymore in the console space.
 
Ahhh yes... I remember very well that Reggie kept pushing City Folk, after that E3, as their big holiday title. I was shaking my head any time he opened his mouth about how that game was for the core audience. Maybe Animal Crossing faithfuls, yes, but not Nintendo faithfuls. AC doesn't appeal to every Nintendo fan and to be frank, it was a stark contrast to what they launched at the beginning of 2008 with Smash and Mario Kart Wii.

It would be almost like if Nintendo launched Smash 4 and Kart 8 and then followed those two up with a Wii Music sequel at the beginning of 2015.

The end of 2008 was a rough time to be a Wii owner who wasn't interested in AC or any of the Wii ____ titles. To this day I still can't believe they released Wii Music and it wasn't even a content-filled game to warrant the $50 price-tag (at least I recall it being $50, could have been $40 but even if it was $40 that's still asking way too much). I didn't even ever try it because I knew it was bad.

Just an embarrassing E3 for them and one I remember more for being worse than 2012 -- 2012 was just odd and baffling. 2008 was just plain bad and facepalm inducing.
 
The directs sans E3 in early 2014 weren't that good to me they kept stringing us along with the same games over and over, show a bit of footage, give no release date, people still hype.
 
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