Topic: E3 2011 Day 1: Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA, Sony Press Conferences

[ShyGuy]

Fact is, It the Vita had launched for a $100 more, it would have been dead in the water.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I heard about a backlash against 3D movies on a podcast where the 2D version gets many more viewers than the 3D one. Sucks for the 3DS.

Not sure there is a backlash, the 2D movies are cheaper to see then the 3D, that is a big contributing factor as well. Like Sixth said the biggest problem is people shoehorning 3D into movies that weren't meant to be 3D.

[oohhboy]

The 3DS is over-priced and Nintendo knows it and we know it. There are already strong signs of market correction with weak sales and falling "eBay equivalent" prices especially true here in NZ where we have a double whammy on price with the USD falling like a rock and NZ exporting more milk/honey than ever before. A NZ dollar now buys 0.81 USD and it's worse in Australia where they have gone past having parity with the USD.

Matching prices in all the territories will in itself help massively increase sales outside of the US, but doing the former and dropping the price to near production + shipping costs would cause the 3DS to explode. I might have a 3DS right now had it been priced traditionally at near cost and I absolutely would have a 3DS right now sans games if it had price parity with the US.

I know the games will be coming, I am not worried about that, but Nintendo got greedy. Sony is going to bleed with every unit sold, but their scarfic will hopefully get a fire burning over in Nintendo HQ.

[Stogi]

I think a bundle deal will solve everyone's problem with the 3DS price. But I repeat yet again, Nintendo CANNOT drop the price.

As for 3D and movies, I deliberately only see 3D movies in IMAX and if I know they are made with 3D in mind from the start. Granted, that doesn't allow me to see many movies, but each time I do I enjoy the hell out of it. The last movie I saw was Tron and while the plot sucked, the visuals and music made it worth my money.

[oohhboy]

Price parity and a game or two would certainly move me in the right direction, however, I have no interest in any of the 3D remakes and without a fairly open choice or even enough games to choose from, the exercise is moot. Also it's an America only solution. It doesn't fix the overpricing issue everywhere else.

The problem with not lowering the price is that both Nintendo and the consumer are playing chicken and neither are going to blink since both know each others bluff. Especially now that there is a potentially viable alternative on the table, the buyer doesn't have to play. I would like a 3DS, but not until I have my terms or some way I can get a close match like I waited for the DS.

[Ceric]

I heard about a backlash against 3D movies on a podcast where the 2D version gets many more viewers than the 3D one. Sucks for the 3DS.

Not sure there is a backlash, the 2D movies are cheaper to see then the 3D, that is a big contributing factor as well. Like Sixth said the biggest problem is people shoehorning 3D into movies that weren't meant to be 3D.

Not to mention that if you have younger kids their not keeping those glasses on.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I heard about a backlash against 3D movies on a podcast where the 2D version gets many more viewers than the 3D one. Sucks for the 3DS.

That's probably because Movie Theaters are charging an extra $5 just watch a movie in 3D and $10 is already asking too much for the regular version. $15 each person makes taking your friends, family or whoever out to the movies far too expensive especially when you factor in money for $10 popcorn and $6 sodas.

What you thought in your head was gonna be a $40 movie night for you and the fam just turning into a $80 hole in your wallet to go see a sub-par movie with sub par effects in a  sub par theater serving sub par food.

[Ceric]

Yeah.  Not even taking Netflix into account its cheaper just to wait till the thing is on Blu-Ray and watch it at home.  Take the money saved and churn it into the Theater System.  Plus you can watch it over if you want or burn it like it  may deserve.  Once you throw Netflix into account it makes no sense at all.

[Stogi]

Man...that reminds me.

I wish more theaters served food. I watched Rush Hour 3 at a theater in New Hampshire. You could order beer, chicken wings, and smoke to your hearts content. It was sooo good in fact, that I thought the sub-par Rush Hour 3 was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. I watched it sometime later and realized what a kinda terrible sequel it really was.

[Ceric]

Man...that reminds me.

I wish more theaters served food. I watched Rush Hour 3 at a theater in New Hampshire. You could order beer, chicken wings, and smoke to your hearts content. It was sooo good in fact, that I thought the sub-par Rush Hour 3 was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. I watched it sometime later and realized what a kinda terrible sequel it really was.

I've been to one of those before.  You eat dinner and watch a movie its great.  Here you can watch 2 or 3 current movies for $7 per head at the Drive-in if your willing to put up with some things.  Though its a deal and you can bring your own food if you want.  More theaters should consider the dinner thing.

[Stogi]

Hmm...just thought of something.

Wouldn't it be neat if you went to a place that had private movie rooms, kinda like how Japanese/Korean restuarants have private karaoke rooms? So you walk into a room that has a big wrap around couch and a projector. They take your food, drink and movie order (or you can bring a movie of your own). Then you cool out with whomever you brought.

Best of all, they give you the remote.

[oohhboy]

I would love to have a full on proper meal during a double feature sans the smoking assuming there was a pair of movies you wanted to watch that weren't complete **** for a modest price. Even if it's a drive in it would be pretty sweet too. Too bad it won't happen here, makes too much sense.

[Adrock]

If I was a 3DS owner, I'd be pretty pissed if Nintendo dropped the price in less than a year. Nintendo doesn't absolutely need to drop the price (though it certainly would have helped immensely) because they have more and better games coming out. It should have launched at $200 at the most. Against PSV, Nintendo is fine. Sony isn't Nintendo's worst enemy here. Nintendo is. They priced the hardware above what most people found reasonable. Had they launched the hardware for less, they would have sold more and to paraphrase (I believe) Hiroshi Yamauchi: The hardware is just the box people buy to play the games. Nintendo got greedy. Gaining profits on hardware is great, but Nintendo's bread and butter is software and in a way, Nintendo just fucked over their 3rd party partners. Good job again with that, Nintendo.

Still the biggest problem with both 3DS and PSV is that they currently have nothing in the works that can't be done on home consoles. This is especially troubling for Nintendo since Cafe supposedly mimics the 3DS experience minus 3D. In a way, 3DS is the anti-DS. It's mostly offering home console games at a home console price aimed at a home console audience. What the hell, Nintendo? What made DS such a hit was that they aimed lower and wider. Most of the games were aimed at younger gamers whose parents bought them hardware or for people who could afford the hardware but didn't play home console games, both at a price that people in general didn't mind paying. If Nintendo wanted to reach the home console audience, they could have done so without increasing the price and swaying away from the DS's main audience.

The price for PSV is attractive, but still too much. It offers an experience too similar to PS3. If given the choice between PS3 and PSV, most people will pick the PS3. If someone already has PS3, most of those people will pick nothing. Sony released a full fledged God of War on PSP and it changed nothing. It begs to reasons that Uncharted, Resistance, and Mod Racers will perform in much the same way. The core gamers who buy console and handheld are the hardest of the hardcore. They are in fact the minority, especially in the handheld market. Honestly, both Nintendo and Sony failed on this front. Nintendo is just in a better position because they make better games and they at least have the option to drop the price. It's really not about power. 3DS games still look amazing and PSV doesn't change that.

[MaryJane]

Hmm...just thought of something.

Wouldn't it be neat if you went to a place that had private movie rooms, kinda like how Japanese/Korean restuarants have private karaoke rooms? So you walk into a room that has a big wrap around couch and a projector. They take your food, drink and movie order (or you can bring a movie of your own). Then you cool out with whomever you brought.

Best of all, they give you the remote.

Instead of all that, they're just going to stream movies to TVs. Movie theaters are about to go the way of the dino... PSP Go.


Speaking of which, the PSV is interesting, especially at $250.

[Chozo Ghost]

In my opinion $250 is too much for a handheld, no matter who makes it. Its not a big deal for adults who have a job, but the majority of the handheld gaming market is kids and has always been kids, and $250 puts it out of the reach for most of them. The reason Nintendo has always dominated the handheld market is because their handhelds were the most affordable compared to the competition. Nintendo's handhelds have always been inferior in power, but cheaper in price. This time around Nintendo is inferior in power and equal in price so this is not a good thing.

[Mop it up]

I know how you feel Khushrenada, I expressed similar thoughts after last year's show. I didn't expect this one to be much different.

[Ceric]

I know how you feel Khushrenada, I expressed similar thoughts after last year's show. I didn't expect this one to be much different.

Where is Khush?

[Stogi]

LOL Lara Croft is playing on the TV outside this room and BnM, you're right. At a few points it did sound like she was moaning in a painfully sexual way hahaha

And she does sound chatty, but not in a funny Nathan Drake type of way.

[Mop it up]

I know how you feel Khushrenada, I expressed similar thoughts after last year's show. I didn't expect this one to be much different.

Where is Khush?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=34579.msg677894#msg677894

I didn't see the last page when I responded, so it was later than I thought.

[Khushrenada]

Looks like I checked back on this thread just in time. I guess I just knew that somehow somewhere on this forum someone must be talking about me.

Well, as I figured, I did enjoy day 2 slightly more but it wasn't so much because of the software. But I did really like what Nintendo showed with the WiiU. As great as the controller might be, what I found most interesting is that Nintendo made it quite close to a PS or Xbox controller in that they have two thumb pads and L and R buttons on the back. As well, by now displaying HD graphics, it should hopefully make things a lot easier for third parties to port stuff over since they were too lazy to do so before. If anything, I think it makes it even harder for third parties to come up with excuses to not port their stuff over to Nintendo now.

I kid you not. When I was done watching the press conference, I thought to myself, this has got be close to the console Ian Sane has wanted Nintendo to make for over a decade. It's got HD and the power of the competitors, it's got a controller that has some features similiar to Nintendo's competitors, third parties seem to recognize this as evidenced by the third party video shown, yet at the same time, it has some interesting new possibilities with it and you now Nintendo is going to find some great ways to utilize it. He should finally get his all-in-one console. No longer missing out on big third party games and still getting the good first party games.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether that third party support will actually come this time or not but after what Nintendo did with the Wii, I think Nintendo has made it hard for third party companies to risk not supporting them again. And again, Nintendo has made it easier a bit more for them to port over their games.


As far as the software, not to much. WiiU software was non-existant. The only Wii game shown was Zelda. While the 3DS had a fine software line-up, there wasn't any major concept that made me very intrigued. Mario Kart, Paper Mario, Super Mario, Luigi's Mansion. We got a bunch of Mushroom Kingdom games. While I am still interested in Star Fox and Ocarina of Time, the fact that I've played them before dampens my enthusiasm a bit. It's hard to be interested in Animal Crossing again and I'm not a Kid Icarus fan. But at least there will be a double dose of Kirby.

The final thing I'll comment on so as to keep this post from becoming even longer is that the press conference really seemed to kill off the Wii. They didn't show much for it but that's because there really isn't much to show for it. Wii has never had the best third party support but with the WiiU looking way more appealing for third party developers, I don't see them wanting to spend much time on Wii games for one year. Reggie's message was that Wii has an 86 million install base. But that large base has never seemed to help get many third parties on board before and I don't see how it will appeal to them now. It's looking like the last year of the Gamecube all over again. I think that's the real reason Nintendo's stock dropped. For it's largest current systems, Wii and DS, it's got very little software for the year and the big focus is on the 3DS which is just starting to grow its base so software sales will be lower at first because the base is just starting to grow. And you know that development in the company is going to be turning over to the Wii U as well now in order to support it through its first year when it hits in 2012. With this shift in focus, I think Nintendo will have a slower year.

[ymeegod]

"It's got HD and the power of the competitors"

It's a bit to late though for last generation and it's a bit to early for next generation.  At best someone believes the WII U to be 50% more powerful then PS3 but that's not an huge gap.  Since nobody knows what MS and Sony's going release but if anything from the past they don't innovate they just bring more power.  Which means the WII U would be hardware king for 2 years but as soon as the others release it's back to "underpowered" again.  Of course that's just going by what MS and Sony's done in the past but I can't see them releasing a console that's only %50 more powerful.

If I had to guess I would say by 2014 MS and Sony will be aiming at 3 to 4 times the power of the Xbox 360 and PS3.

[BlackNMild2k1]

MS is rumored to have an AMD Fusion chip (Krishna based) ready for production sometime next year. These rumors got mistaken for a possible Nintendo console, but now we know better.

It was originally planned for production at the end of the year, but an AMD worker made a comment on NeoGAF about having their schedule moved up to earlier in the year (I'm guessing that they were being rushed by MS, based on rumors of Nintendo having a new console).
MS will launch no later than 2013 as they aren't gonna sit on a finished chip for 2 whole years.
I wouldn't be surprised to see them push for launch @ end of 2012 though.

I have no idea what Sony is up to, but it was rumored that they scrapped whatever they had planned sometime last year and started over. So a 2014 launch is more likely from them, but I expect end of 2013 at the earliest.