8/3/2008 - E3 2008: Wii Music

Two years ago, Sony gave an embarrassing press conference at the annual E3 conference that led many to think that their $600 Playstation 3 console would be a flop in the marketplace where the XBox 360 has been out for a year already and where the Nintendo Wii would later dominate with its emphasis on casual games. If you watched the press conferences this year at E3 however, you would have no other impression than "Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

Sony has since recovered from its ugly stepsister status with its emphasis on hardcore games and with price cuts on the PS3, of course. The demise of HD-DVD also helped the Blu-Ray playing PS3.

Nintendo still dominates the sales chart with the Wii, however. Games like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl have so far kept the interests of longtime Nintendo fans. But with those core games having been released already, what would Nintendo give us at E3 to show that they're not just catering to the casual gamer? Well, do you know what they gave us? A big middle finger:



Unlike the 2006 Sony press conference videos, this one was not edited to look bad. Nintendo, what the hell were you thinking? You may be printing money with the DS and the Wii, but stuff like this really diminishes you in the eyes of your longtime fans. We grew up playing Mario and Zelda games and stuck with you during the 16-bit wars with Sega. A lot of people strayed to the Playstation and the XBox, but at the time the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube were on par with them hardware wise. You made a decision to emphasize gameplay with the motion controls of the Wii, but after a couple of years of waggling and casual games, it all just seems gimmicky. Diminishing online play with shoddy online support and no voice chat doesn't help you either.

And do you know what the worst thing about this video is? No, it's not the horrible rendition of the great Super Mario Bros. theme. It's that they dragged in Shigeru Miyamoto himself to make a fool of himself in front of the gamers who have so much respect for him. Nintendo, if you are seriously intending to make this kind of casual gaming the focus of your productions in the future, then you will have no future. You'll fall back to third place again and it will be much deserved.