E3 2003: Nintendo Conference Report

Earlier today, Nintendo took their turn to update the world on their business and their games. But there's not much to get excited about just yet. Full report inside.

At an acceptable time of day, Nintendo hosted their annual Pre-E3 Media Briefing at Hollywood & Highland. Nintendo's conference was the weakest of the three firstparty conferences - mainly due to lack of new killer apps, and no real surprises.

George Harrison welcomed everyone to the event - including the overflowing mass of fanboy regulars who must have thanked their lucky stars when they realised that no entry badges were needed whatsoever - to kick off Nintendo's proceedings for this year's E3. George commented on how the GBA SP and Zelda have both sold around a million units, and reaffirmed that the company plans to stay loyal to its top franchises such as Mario.

A selection of games footage followed, most vitally including Mario Kart: Double Dash. Pikmin 2 was shown briefly, along with a few seconds of Sega's spectacularly good Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg, the first time the game has been shown to the media. A good selection of GBA titles were also included in the sequence, including Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the fantastic minigame craziness that is WarioWare, SMB4: SMB3, and Donkey Kong Country.

NCL's top brass Satoru Iwata then took the stage to update the industry on Nintendo's business affairs more generally. Iwata took the brave decision to admit that several aspects of the GameCube business have not gone as planned, citing thirdparty support as a particular area for improvement. He said there was a need for more exclusive titles, and that sales for Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime had not lived up to their expectations. However, Iwata emphasised that Nintendo is a company that can adapt as necessary and change with the times, because of their understanding of the industry.

This led onto a display of current thirdparty support - Nintendo was keen to emphasise Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike from Lucas Arts and Factor 5, which benefited from its own video showing. The partnership with Namco and Sega was again underlined as F-Zero GX was shown to rapturous applaud from attendees. And the fact that Link features in the GameCube version of Soul Calibur II was also pitched by Iwata as a coup for the company.

Nintendo offered a video presentation from Capcom's too-cool-for-school Shinji Mikami, who revealed Resident Evil 4, a GameCube exclusive, along with Viewtiful Joe and Killer 7, all of which are promising titles. Nintendo's partner n-Space showed their new FPS known as Geist, before Square Enix demonstrated Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, another GameCube exclusive with GBA connectivity features.

Shigeru Miyamoto was then welcomed on stage. After promising a spectacle 'surprise' unveiling that will surpass last year's Sunshine and Wind Waker demonstrations, it turned out to be highly disappointing when there was no sign of Mario 128 and no new GameCube Zelda - which is what everyone assumed he was talking about. Not very good.

Miyamoto invited Will Wright from Maxis on stage, who revealed details on The Sims for GameCube and GBA, with connectivity between the two vaerions confirmed. EA President John Riccitiello, too busy spending time with SCE executives from the previous Sony conference to make a personal appearance at Nintendo, went through his line-up of Cube titles, including FIFA, NHL, Madden, NBA, SSX 3, Tiger Woods and a new 007 title.

Next, in what can best be described as 'nice', Miyamoto revealed that he had great fondness for Pac-Man and that he'd created a Pac-Man game "without Namco's approval", setting up his invite for Tooru Iwatani, the creator of the classic Namco title, to join him on stage. After a disproportionately lengthy playing session, Iwatani 'approved' the game - which is good news, but hardly the sort of thing to make such a big fuss over.

Eventually, Konami's Hideo Kojima came onto the stage and explained how he would not be in the industry today, were it not for Miyamoto's Mario series, and that he was delighted to be working with him and Silicon Knights' Dennis Dyack - who also came onto the rapidly filling stage - on Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. The video was shown for the game, which is a visually upgraded version of the original PS1 MGS title - and although is likely to be a very high quality game, did not look too hot at all and pales into complete insignificance against Metal Gear Solid 3, which is a PS2 exclusive and looks amazing.

They then presented another video montage of forthcoming titles, most notably including a very brief section of video for Metroid Prime 2, which is obviously something attendees were pleased with in the absence of any other killer app showings.

And, despite a fairly packed conference agenda with ironically strong thirdparty material - that was it. No 'ha ha, we tricked you, here's Mario 128', like last year when we though we weren't going to get any Sunshine action. That was it.

Apart from this: Iwata returned to conclude the event, and stated that Nintendo's next home console is already in development, categorically and adamantly stating that their competitors would not beat them to market this time. This came as a mix of excitement and sadness - as, in many ways, it was a rather blatant, official declaration that GameCube is dead, quite soon.

Gamers are not wooed by GameCube-GBA link up, and they never have been. And although the next Mario and Zelda GameCube titles are still promised, possibly still even showing at E3 in some form, they are not going to be enough to 'save' GameCube. However, Satoru Iwata is not stupid. He knows this, and frankly, sees it as his job to sort things out. And that means fixing several years of questionable management, before his appointment as President of NCL a year ago. And we think he could fix it very well.

He's been very open and honest here for a company that traditionally has always been cagey about everything. In some ways, these last few statements Iwata made at the conferece are the biggest news of E3, because this time next year we are likely to know a lot more about Nintendo's next machine - and if they really do go to market before Microsoft and Sony, then things really will get interesting.

Until then, expect full-scale media blow-out for all the latest Nintendo stuff from the conference and the showfloor. And we'll keep our spies looking for Nintendo's Next.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com