Nintendo @ E3 2015

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Also, sounds like something DK related is dropping Thursday in the Treehouse, apparently they avoided talking about the DK amiibo and said they had something on thursday

[Sir Tynen]

Such a foolish act by Nintendo, merely over a lackluster E3 showing, which is surpassed by their Treehouse showings is highly doubtful.

 

That E3 Digital Event was by no mean s the best, but neither was it grave-inducing to any sensible being. Disappointment is understandable, but preaching gloom and doom is such a tired act that has no place here with the current circumstances.

 

Look man, I'm not usually the type to get gloomy over things, or spell out doom saying for that matter, but you gotta understand that it doesn't matter how good the Treehouse is if the conference beforehand was just utterly lackluster. People will not give a damn how the game plays if it failed to impress, and as such, they're probably not gonna have second thoughts in looking it up on the Treehouse. It's not just disappointment, it's failing to want to give people the attention and reason to buy their consoles.

[LongcrierCat]

I'll admit, I expected to see a lot more stuff. The Zelda Wii U game, an actual Samus Aran Lead Metroid Wii U title for example. But to say it was the worst E3 Conference?

 

Did you not see Microsoft, EA, or Ubisoft's yesterday? Sony had to come and save the god damn day. That day was almost a total lull and then Ubisoft had to go and piss on the Rayman fanbase once again and announce nothing of value. 3 more Tom Clancy games. Big fucking whoop. TrackMania But Bigger is cool, but I really cannot bring myself to give a damn.  

 

Really? I think you guys just might be overreacting just a little bit. It wasn't fantastic, but they sure did good enough to be second place to Sony. 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Look man, I'm not usually the type to get gloomy over things, or spell out doom saying for that matter, but you gotta understand that it doesn't matter how good the Treehouse is if the conference beforehand was just utterly lackluster. People will not give a damn how the game plays if it failed to impress, and as such, they're probably not gonna have second thoughts in looking it up on the Treehouse.

Hold your horses, you're thinking waaaay too black and white simplicity there.

 

Okay, seriously, one has to be up to their ears in naivety or just grasping at negativity straws if they honestly believe that the lengthy Treehouse, one of Nintendo's more notable assets, is going to get overtaken and overlooked overall even by a short one hour E3, especially in the long run. And of course since Nintendo actually remembers to heavily emphasize on said Treehouse, it's complete tomfoolery, at least in these conditions and so forth to assume that one measly E3 that was far from being even the worst this year, spells doom for a console.

 

And really, it should be known, since Nintendo practically gave us the heads up that this E3 digital conference didn't have much in its sights for showing anyway, considering where the focus was.

 

And let's not be so quick as to ignore Nintendo's hyped titles already coming out this year.

 

 

Was the E3 lackluster? Yes, it was. Can Nintendo very well rebound from it? They kinda already have.

 

As for the Wii U itself, the system's doing well enough at the moment and, hopefully with the kept momentum from upcoming games, aught to see at least two more years.

[azoo]

People's overreactions to Metroid and Animal Crossing have been so overboard, man. Like for real. Childish.

 

I know it's not what you wanted and I find both to be pretty big disappointments on all accounts (the Metroid one is a bit baffling too, tbh), but the fact that we've actually started pushing the hate train on Nintendo so hard that they had to publicly apologize for two actually inoffensive games existing is actually total bullshit. Like it's one thing if it looks like an abomination, but this is just about pure gamer entitlement fueling this.

 

That and I'm still amazed at how much the hate for that overshadowed anyone's happiness for StarFox Zero, to the point where many people almost act like it didn't even happen and that instead Nintendo shat on everyone's dreams and there was no happiness today. When, you know, it hasn't had a game in well over a decade and it's comeback is one of the most triumphant and overwhelmingly great things Nintendo's done in a long time. Like, come on. They even got Platinum on this. PLATINUM.

 

Like seriously, the hyperbolized screaming is just so immature of everyone in the Metroid/AC fanbases. Y'all are being some serious little kids about this to actually try to shame developers who really are just trying to give you games you might like. Come the hell on.

 

Especially whenever the Metroid game screams "distraction spinoff game" so hard that when the Metroid U game finally drops into the public eye there's gonna be thousands upon thousands of you guys sticking your feet 10 yards down your mouths.

 

Jeez. I know it was a not so exciting E3 for Nintendo, but get over yourselves. Nintendo didn't see a very high priority to show off everything they wanted to do today and you know it; they're very much ones to dodge the tradition as of recent. Not even Zelda U was shown today! What were you expecting?

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

I agree with Azookara, I mean Star Fox Zero looks pretty sick to me, going for what is the star fox style that's been around since the SNES games really, which is sharp, but detailed fighters that at a base level are straight shapes, but the bosses being a mix of complexity and simple shapes. Throw in the fact that both screens are running at 60FPS while being rendered at the same time is pretty sick.

 

Also, Metroid Prime Federation looks like a fun little distraction to me, I mean Street fighter had a chibi spin-off and it turned out good, and getting spin-offs is a sign of health for a series. It helps build up interest while providing a relief in the gaps between main entries. And there is no reason for it not to be called Metroid Prime, since it shares its basic aesthetic, basic gameplay components(more how it plays than what you're doing mind you), and is in the same style of world as Prime being a 3D game, I mean Prime gives the annotation of third person Metroid, and that's what is applicable here.

 

Also, I think Nintendo may have a little more up there sleeves, they've said they have more collabs planned and major ones, and as of now we have(of newly announced):

Ryu/Virtua Fighter/Tekken in Smash

DK and Bowser in Skylanders

 

returning:

Fatal Frame 5(western stealth release announcement)

Hyrule Warriors 3DS(port)

 

feels like they would have a little more than that

[Sean]

Nintendo's digital presentation was overall pretty disappointing.

But honestly, what I find more disappointing is the aftermath and unprecedented backlash. Before E3, what exactly did Nintendo promise us? Did they ever say anything about a new Metroid or AC Wii U game coming? or a new Zelda?

The stream today was a let-down, I'm not gonna pretend for one second that it was a victory for Nintendo or even one of Nintendo's better E3 offerings. But the kicker is that amidst that, there were still plenty of games shown off that I did want to play. The main problem with the stream was mostly the lack of surprises. Of course, my knee-jerk reaction to Metroid and AC was "ugh why are we getting these instead of main games" (and honestly I still don't think they look that good) but once again I have to remind myself that I was never promised anything and the only reason I held out hope for new main entries was because of baseless fan expectations and self-generated hype. Even as a paying consumer, I wasn't entitled to new entries of either franchise; I'm not entitled to jack shit. Another thing that quelled my initial frustration was the recollection that Nintendo has talked a lot about Metroid as of late. They keep talking about how Metroid projects have started and been cancelled, which is a clear sign that the series is not dead in the water and they're simply trying to figure out where to go from Prime 3. A part of me believes that something else is coming, and I don't want to claim that it's guaranteed, but I really, really doubt that the name Metroid would come up time and time again in recent years just to bring us to a spin-off 3DS multiplayer title.

A lot of the doom-and-gloom attitude overshadows what we did get out of all of Nintendo the past few days. Nintendo World Championships, EarthBound Beginnings, Star Fox Zero, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Ryu/Roy announcement and release, and Hyrule Warriors Legends. Not to mention they totally fucking sold Super Mario Maker, especially to me when I previously couldn't give less of a shit about the game if I tried to on my own. I'm not gonna act like any of these announcements hold up to Sony's triple warhead drop (save for a Platinum-developed Star Fox; thing I hate is how Nintendo didn't make mention of this at all??), but although I'm not one who minds cries of "X WON E3" in the least, it's pretty silly that some people on the internet are turning it into a genuine yet non-existent competition of some sort.

I wasn't even really planning on saying anything about the backlash, and would have been content with letting it die down and posting my thoughts on the overall presentation and individual games. What makes me really angry is when someone told me that Iwata actually fucking apologized for today's event. Like... seriously guys? Exactly what does Nintendo have to be sorry for? and what did that apology accomplish? In what way did they wrong people, even as consumers? How was today's showing such a huge fucking mistake that the company deserves to admit their shame to appease a bunch of whiny fucking entitled gamers crying fowl on the internet? Holy shit, like I haven't actually checked out where he apologized but if this is true then that is just fucking horrible, and although this is no Gamergate, it's still a good example of why I just really fucking hate gamers.

tl;dr - today's presentation was disappointing but that's all it was. I'm gonna forget about it soon enough like I forget all E3s, and I'mma focus on the things about it that I am genuinely hyped for, namely Platinum-certified Star Fox and Mario RPG crossover goodness.

[Conando]

Iwata apologized on Twitter about it, apparently. Though I believe it was actually just that Tweet that said "I've heard your complaints and we will think of better ways to show our content" or something along those lines. Seriously though, even driving him to the point of saying that is insane. I think I'm actually a little big scared about how far "entitlement" goes these days. It's video games, no one is stepping all over their rights by making a goofy Animal Crossing board game.

[TCB]

He actually apologized? Oh. Oh wow. Entitlement can only go so far before you lost control of the wheel.

I agree the Digital Event was lacking in the surprise factor, but I didn't set my expectations so high. Personally, that whole thing was getting Mario Maker out there hard, and other than Star Fox Zero (another helpful reminder that, arguably E3 developer of the show Platinum Games is helping with) everything else was sprinkled here and there.

I did mark out for Paper Jam though. Odd there wasn't any Pokemon on there, but I guess Yokai Watch was an adequate substitution.

[Candescence]

Seriously, I'm gonna have to echo that the negativity is seriously overblown. Sure, it was a disappointment, but Nintendo aren't exactly at fault for the fans overhyping things and expecting announcements that weren't going to happen, especially expecting things that Nintendo themselves said weren't going to be shown.

[Conando]

This is what's being referred to. I wouldn't exactly call it an apology, but it is some form of recognition that they messed up. Which is still insane when you think about.

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/06/iwata_vows_to_listen_to_e3_2015_digital_event_feedback_and_work_to_better_meet_your_expectations

 

Of course, if you scroll down even slightly you'll see the types of comments Shauna and Azookara were bringing to attention.

[DarkRula]

My, oh, my. Has it really gone down this route?

I saw the positives as well as the negatives right from the start, though I did pick out that some games were not what we were expecting. After a bit of the Treehouse streams, even those with lacklustre showing in the event I was looking forward to seeing more on.

The doom and gloom gets you nowhere, and if you only focus on the negative, it's going to outweigh you noticing any positives that were around.

[Milo]

Seriously, I'm gonna have to echo that the negativity is seriously overblown. Sure, it was a disappointment, but Nintendo aren't exactly at fault for the fans overhyping things and expecting announcements that weren't going to happen, especially expecting things that Nintendo themselves said weren't going to be shown.

 

I'm at the point where I can half agree and half disagree. Expecting games Nintendo specifically said were a no show and being mad about it not happening, yeah that's stupid. Being mad about hardly any surprises or new games I feel is a different issue, and on the topic of Nintendo's insistence about showcasing games they already revealed for this E3, I think underlies a bigger issue.

 

We've got games for 2015, which is great, though the fair chunk of them being stop-gap spinoff titles does make that disappointing for a fair amount of people. But What does this mean for 2016, especially in terms of hypothetical mainline games people were expecting to be unveiled this year? Zelda U (which was initially planned for a release this year at one point, but due to its development phase ended up being delayed out of 2015) and FExSMT (and even then, reception on that is...divided, to say the least) are the only known high-profile titles coming for the Wii U next year.

 

And while I know future Nintendo Directs exist, E3's supposed to be the year's headlining event. This is the place where you to put in a lot of your promotion for what you consider your biggest titles. This Digital Event seems more like a Nintendo Direct that got shuffled into the E3 phase, or (for analogy's sake, because I like analogies) a DTV film bumped up to a theatrical release.

 

...unless all of those stop-gap titles are what Nintendo perceives to be their biggest titles, which raises the overarching question concerning the Wii U as a whole-if 2015 is going to be the last year it's going to get any substantial support (Splatoon, new Yoshi, new Starfox), and then afterwards it's going to turn into a Wii situation in which -outside of spinoffs and maybe one/two big title-, support for it is virtually non-existent. Which may be great for people who want Nintendo to leave the Wii U behind and focus on the next project, whether it be NX or whatever new console Nintendo has in the works (the writing has been on the wall for a while, as previously mentioned), but will effectively lead to Wii U sales outright imploding like the Gamecube, except in an even worse manner as the Wii U has managed to sell even less than that console (the Wii at least, due to its mainstream popularity, had sales peter out due to its mainstream popularity).

 

The above of which might not sound too bad now, but considers the momentum Nintendo had been building up prior to the Digital Event. Last month, they released Splatoon to positive buzz, and then followed that up with the well-received Nintendo World Championship revival, which included the Super Mario Maker showcase and Earthbound Beginnings Western release-the former of which won over many people who were hesitant or disinterested in getting the game, and the latter was some pretty stellar news for the cult audience of that series. They actually had some positive talk surrounding the Wii U with the mainstream there, only to then reveal barely any new upcoming games, let alone not reveal even one new heavy-hitter. If they wanted to quell any speculation about the Wii U soon being effectively dead in the water (especially with the emphasized theme about "transformation" in this year's Event), their Digital Event pretty much threw them a ton of red meat to feed on. From that perspective, Nintendo managed to finally ring the ball into their court, only for them to drop it.

[Tails spin]

This kind of further cements the idea in my mind that Zelda U was delayed so they could release it for both Wii U and NX . just like what happened to twilight princess

[Milo]

This kind of further cements the idea in my mind that Zelda U was delayed so they could release it for both Wii U and NX . just like what happened to twilight princess

 

The response to that is that Zelda U has been explicitly stated in developer interviews to be developed specifically for that console. (There is also the obligatory reminder that we don't even know if the NX is or isn't a console platform.)

 

With that in mind, if the Wii U didn't seem like it had little else going for it in the following years concerning software support, I assume this view wouldn't be as widespread as it currently is at some gaming sites (*cough*GAF*cough*).

[Gabz Girl]

Totally agree with Azoo and Shauna. I mean, I was majorly disappointed when I watched the Digital Event yesterday, but maybe I did just get hyped a little too much? The Animal Crossing U game that was rumoured for so long turned out to be a fucking party game and the rumoured Metroid game is...well, a Chibi style spin off. But you know what? I've gotten over it and I'm going to ignore those titles in favour of Super Mario Maker, M&L Paper Jam and Starfox Zero! Now I've thought about what happened yesterday and I still think Nintendo's Digital Event was disappointing, but I'm definitely not angry with Nintendo and tbh I never was! I liked the puppets and the Mario tribute at the end, but I was expecting more games and less Developer diaries is all.

 

The whiny asshole gamer crowd that watches E3 should feel ashamed of themselves because they sound like a bunch of spoiled brats who only want HYPE and MEGATON. Sony gets praised because they had that hype that these people feed off of. However, Nintendo never promised any of that. We got some surprises but they weren't what these bastards wanted, so they go to Nintendo's Youtube channel and downvote the hell out of their videos because they think they're SO cool hating on Nintendo. Poor Iwata-san even had to come out and apologise, which I now know is only because of the nasty pissed off so-called "Nintendo fans" who blew up and are now making a petition on, I kid you not, CANCELLING Metroid Prime Federation Force! WTF?

 

This has been blown WAY out of proportion and I definitely wouldn't call Nintendo's Digital Event the worst E3 they've had because that honour still goes to their abysmal 2008 conference. Hell I don't even think it's the worst of THIS year! Ubisoft imo was much worse because it had pointless filler, Jason Derulo dance party and three Tom Clancy games that ALL look the same (so original!).

[Tails spin]

I've had time to think about things. So yeah, We were on a high. We took over the conductor role and put that Hype Train into high gear. And honestly how couldn't we. We saw the direct earlier in the month making it seem they wanted to move some small stuff out of the way. Then even if we knew about Ryu/Roy it was still amazing to see them in action. Later that day we got the Nintendo World Championship which again fueled the hype. 

 

Now we get to the day of the event and have the muppets/star fox segment and we once again go into overdrive. Then boom we crash when we start getting a developer story. While interesting you could kind of feel they were padding for time. Then , (at least in my eye), things came to a crashing halt when Reggie and that Activision guy talked about Amiibos for Skylanders. At that point we then got trailers for games we knew about (Yoshi's Wolly World, Hyrule Warriors Legend) and more Developer stories and a whole lot of anime. Then honestly for me the hype came back momentarily( I believe some others on the stream had the same reaction) when Mario and Luigi Paper Jam was announced. Along with Mario tennis as well. But then when we got the mario montage thing I knew we were done.

 

Like if the train ran out of tracks to run on and just fell of a cliff without properly stopping.

 

We honestly set ourselves up, Nintendo still has blame in this but the majority should fall on us for expecting more than they could deliver.

[Salamander]

I do think they could have done a lot better at managing people's expectations.  Hyrule Warriors 3DS would have helped a great deal if that hadn't leaked, and it doing so was totally out of Nintendo's hands, but they might have been better off situating Sakura's Smash Bros. presentation after the Digital Event, with the Digital Event itself revealing the bare bones (Roy, Ryu) and the Smash presentation going into much greater detail.  Similarly, I think announcing a Metroid spin-off without having a main game to announce was flat-out a mistake and they either needed to tease a new main series title or not announce the spin-off at all (or not announce it as a Metroid game).  The Animal Crossing game should have been presented as a party game first before establishing it as Animal Crossing, rather than vice-versa.  And honestly, no matter how far off it is, a Zelda U trailer would not have been a bad idea at all.

 

I think the Digital Event's biggest problems were, simply, twofold: First, they announced their biggest hits too early, setting up high expectations which could not be met; second, they created the appearance of main titles, if only for a moment, before revealing them as spin-offs.  These contributed to a sense of not simply being underwhelmed but of being actively cheated.

[CelerinaTheJackrabbit]

I can totally agree with the 'We all hyped up things we thought were happening, but didn't.' I mean, that's exactly what I did.

 

Honestly, I watched the whole presentation late, but I can say that I really did feel the whole presentation was 'Okay.' I expected perfection, but nothing really outright upset me. Except the Metroid thing, a little. I'm over it now though. Same with Paper Jam.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

The whiny asshole gamer crowd that watches E3 should feel ashamed of themselves because they sound like a bunch of spoiled brats who only want HYPE and MEGATON. Sony gets praised because they had that hype that these people feed off of.

 

Honestly I disagree. The reason Sony won is not because they just announced titles but their conference overall was much better paced and was expertly done to keep excitement going. During the Nintendo conference, the Microsoft conference, the Ubisoft conference, the Square conference, and the PC conference, I was so unbelievably bored because of the stupid pacing, and the fact games were given so much fucking time, games especially that were already shown off (Fallout 4), or just weren't interesting.

 

Sony on the other hand had big shocker announcements that everyone was hoping for. It isn't just a case of building hype. Shanmue 3 for example and The Last Guardian were both games that everyone wanted, because they were part of a series, and long thought dead, and suddenly, BOOM, here they are alive and kicking. Thanks to Sony, Shanmue 3's been kickstarted in less than 24 hours. That's 2 million in less in 24 hours. The attention from the conference just booted everyone straight up. 

 

Then Sony had it done in a way to keep excitement through out. They had a massive opener with Last Guardian, a legendary game known for it's development hell, which basically says ''Oh, that game you guys been waiting for? That's only the start of this''. Then we got gameplay of some really cool new games like Horizon, with the bombshell announcements sprinkled in. Their pacing was done so stuff like Street Fighter V and Hitman, games that didn't need much time weren't given that much time. It keep the pace and by the point Playstation Vue came up, you were already so excited for the other announcements that you were just like ''huh, that's cool''. Even then, it was only about 5 minutes of the conference in total.

 

Sony knew how to do it by keeping it focused on the games, announcements, and gameplay. Nintendo did that yes, but the games they announced were all cruel jokes to the fans. I mean, how the fuck do you hear Animal Crossing U, and come out with cheap Amiibo Party cash in?. 

 

I don't know. Just my personal thoughts anyway.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Well here is something interesting

http://gonintendo.com/stories/236177-rumor-next-level-games-has-a-wii-u-project-in-the-works?page=1#comment-9544

 

RUMOR - Next Level Games has a Wii U project in the works

 

17 June, 2015 by rawmeatcowboy |  Comments: 3 

 

Tamaki  ‎@Doctor_Cupcakes 

Their show was pants yesterday and I was hoping we'd see Next Level's other project, but whatever. Great E3 overall!

3:28 AM - 17 Jun 2015

  

2 2 Retweets

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Nbz  ‎@Lordnbz 

@Doctor_Cupcakes The fact that Next Level has another project does make me happy. Those guys are fucking awesome

 

  Follow 

  Tamaki  ‎@Doctor_Cupcakes 

@Lordnbz It's a Wii U game too, although the fact that it wasn't shown concerns me. Could be moved to NX now.

8:46 AM - 17 Jun 2015

 

 

Again, this information comes from one of the gang behind Unseen64, so they certainly know their stuff. Makes you wonder what's up with that Wii U project...

[DarkRula]

They said at the Treehouse that they have some free slots for today. What that means is anyone's guess, but they did also mention surprises.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Well here is something interesting

http://gonintendo.com/stories/236177-rumor-next-level-games-has-a-wii-u-project-in-the-works?page=1#comment-9544

 

A Little curious, but could be they simply decided to wait to reveal it. Doubt its been moved to NX, if its close enough to be revealed at E3, no way is it going to be moved with at least 2 years left on the Wii-u. Either Nintendo decided to wait to show it(whether later this week, or in a month or so in a direct), or thought it wasn't ready to be shown. Should be interesting to see what it is

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

We have official Europe release lineups from NOE, Fatal Frame V is confirmed for a Europe release

[Spooky Mulder]

I'm fine with the backlash Nintendo is getting over this conference and this E3 if only because it's become clear this company is in need of a serious wake up call.

I have no doubt that Nintendo has the talent, skills, and resources to develop incredible games. The company may be facing losses but they're sitting on loads of cash, so it's not really a problem. The sad thing is that success should come to Nintendo a lot more easily than it is.

Its incredibly obvious what people want from them, which is why it's all the more baffling that they are consistently letting people down lately. I pray the NX represents some sort of course correction for the company, because although I've enjoyed my first party Wii U games, they are too far between and there's nothing on the horizon that interests me (except maybe Yoshi's Wooly World.)

One bad press conference does not earn a company this kind of backlash. However, years of baffling decisions followed by the signs of hope we got last year with games like Smash and MK8, make this all the more disheartening.