And The Winner Is...
Not Eric Cantor... but more on that perhaps tomorrow. I'm talking about E3 today and it's Nintendo. Yup, Nintendo. They've done it again, like they have for so long.
Yesterday I talked about how the kick-off to E3 didn't have much anticipation behind it. The hardware was all announced so no new hardware announcement was likely. We got a half announcement from Sony with the PS TV. Nevertheless, as I noted yesterday, there wasn't anything shocking or surprising that you didn't know or hear about already on the way.
Then Nintendo made its mark today.
Nintendo has suffered, and I mean suffered, derision and criticism. PC folks hate all consoles period, and the other two of the Big 3 have generally been somewhat dismissive of Nintendo, who one might easily forget is the juggernaut of the gaming industry. The reason has mostly been the same. PC folks always complain about how little power consoles have, and Sony and Microsoft constantly try to one-up each other with talk about how powerful their consoles are. But this contest between them all comes down to a misplaced focus.
I would say that for Sony their misplaced attention has at least not diminished their ability to score where it counts. But for Nintendo it has been a rough ride. I am of course talking about what a gaming console is supposed to be about - having fun gaming.
I noted yesterday that one of the problems the gaming industry has is too many cooks in the kitchen. One of the outcomes of that is the misguided push for graphics power as the end-all, be-all of a good game. Over the last few years, you can probably say even going back more than a decade, the graphics push began to crowd out the other considerations in game development. It has come to the point that, for the Xbox more so than Playstation, a game that does not meet or approach the pinnacle of graphics power risks being forgotten or ignored.
This is mostly to do with fans, or at least the most vocal among them, demanding it. Many of these are PC gamers who want to justify the expense that went into their top-end builds.
Nintendo played along with this game for a while. But with the Wii and Wii U it was apparent that Nintendo wanted to go a different direction. Nintendo seemed to be focused on finding new ways to get people to have fun. Unfortunately, despite intriguing ideas, and the great boon had by the original Wii in its first few months/year, Nintendo failed a single key point. They didn't have any games.
That has been the story of the Wii U thus far. It has had few stellar, or even good, games coming out regularly.
At E3 yesterday Nintendo announced a number of new games that will be coming out. You look at the list and you see a theme. They aren't the utterly most graphics superlative games. They aren't in the mold of something like Uncharted, Metal Gear, or Titanfall. The games from Nintendo are simply fun. They aren't worried about realism, or being super gritty or any such things. They just made fun games for people to have fun. Period. They showed off a nice teaser of the next Legend of Zelda game due out next year. They announced Hyrule Warriors, which is pretty much Dynasty Warriors set in Hyrule. They updated us on Smash Bros., a new Kirby game, a new Yoshi game, updates on Bayonetta, new Mario, new Xenoblade, new Star Fox, and more to come.
That's what gaming is about. Consoles don't need to be PCs. A PC costs less for everything else that is pegged onto consoles nowadays, not even counting the fact most people can do much of that on their phones. It has been a struggle, and they've danced with losing their way more than once. But it seems Nintendo is getting back on track with what they need to do; make great games.
For that, Nintendo is the winner of this year's E3. Here's to hoping they keep it up.
Yesterday I talked about how the kick-off to E3 didn't have much anticipation behind it. The hardware was all announced so no new hardware announcement was likely. We got a half announcement from Sony with the PS TV. Nevertheless, as I noted yesterday, there wasn't anything shocking or surprising that you didn't know or hear about already on the way.
Then Nintendo made its mark today.
Nintendo has suffered, and I mean suffered, derision and criticism. PC folks hate all consoles period, and the other two of the Big 3 have generally been somewhat dismissive of Nintendo, who one might easily forget is the juggernaut of the gaming industry. The reason has mostly been the same. PC folks always complain about how little power consoles have, and Sony and Microsoft constantly try to one-up each other with talk about how powerful their consoles are. But this contest between them all comes down to a misplaced focus.
I would say that for Sony their misplaced attention has at least not diminished their ability to score where it counts. But for Nintendo it has been a rough ride. I am of course talking about what a gaming console is supposed to be about - having fun gaming.
I noted yesterday that one of the problems the gaming industry has is too many cooks in the kitchen. One of the outcomes of that is the misguided push for graphics power as the end-all, be-all of a good game. Over the last few years, you can probably say even going back more than a decade, the graphics push began to crowd out the other considerations in game development. It has come to the point that, for the Xbox more so than Playstation, a game that does not meet or approach the pinnacle of graphics power risks being forgotten or ignored.
This is mostly to do with fans, or at least the most vocal among them, demanding it. Many of these are PC gamers who want to justify the expense that went into their top-end builds.
Nintendo played along with this game for a while. But with the Wii and Wii U it was apparent that Nintendo wanted to go a different direction. Nintendo seemed to be focused on finding new ways to get people to have fun. Unfortunately, despite intriguing ideas, and the great boon had by the original Wii in its first few months/year, Nintendo failed a single key point. They didn't have any games.
That has been the story of the Wii U thus far. It has had few stellar, or even good, games coming out regularly.
At E3 yesterday Nintendo announced a number of new games that will be coming out. You look at the list and you see a theme. They aren't the utterly most graphics superlative games. They aren't in the mold of something like Uncharted, Metal Gear, or Titanfall. The games from Nintendo are simply fun. They aren't worried about realism, or being super gritty or any such things. They just made fun games for people to have fun. Period. They showed off a nice teaser of the next Legend of Zelda game due out next year. They announced Hyrule Warriors, which is pretty much Dynasty Warriors set in Hyrule. They updated us on Smash Bros., a new Kirby game, a new Yoshi game, updates on Bayonetta, new Mario, new Xenoblade, new Star Fox, and more to come.
That's what gaming is about. Consoles don't need to be PCs. A PC costs less for everything else that is pegged onto consoles nowadays, not even counting the fact most people can do much of that on their phones. It has been a struggle, and they've danced with losing their way more than once. But it seems Nintendo is getting back on track with what they need to do; make great games.
For that, Nintendo is the winner of this year's E3. Here's to hoping they keep it up.
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