WITH THE EXCEPTION of the PlayStation Vita being revealed, there weren’t many major headlines at E3 2011 on Monday. That should change Tuesday as Nintendo prepares to unveil its new console. Here’s a live
9:07: Hey, Nintendo’s not fooling around. They started a little late, but they’ve got a full orchestra here providing a soundtrack to various video clips of Zelda, celebrating its 25th anniversary.
9:09: Miyamoto arrives! And with a translator today. Things look like they’re going to get off to a flying start, undoubtedly with some Zelda news.
9:12: They’re just abusing the power of the orchestra here, as they’re using them to play various musical cues and sound effects from the Zelda games. This is already more entertaining than just about anything that happened on Monday.
9:14: New Zelda games for every console! Ocarina of Time for the 3DS next weekend. On the DSi, Four Swords will be a free download, and Skyward Sword for Wii this holiday. And a gold Wiimote to boot.
9:19: After a few minutes talking about the music, Miyamoto is now introducing various producers and team members. Let’s move on, guys.
9:21: I have to say, this orchestra is pretty badass. And it’s a nice change of pace from the usual electronic thumping we’re so used to at E3.
9:23: CEO/Pres Satoru Iwata is up next, talking about what Nintendo feels a new platform should provide. “We’re going to leave the details for … a little later this morning†gets a chuckle out of the audience.
9:25: New Nintendo console coming next year. But first, this year, let’s talk 3DS. Cue the montage!
9:27: Reggie Fils-Aime: “We hear you. You want what you’ve always had, but you want something new.†I don’t recall “cryptic†in there anywhere.
9:29: Mario Kart 3DS, holiday 2011. Maybe it’s me, but I sense there just isn’t a lot of excitement for the 3DS so far.
9:31: StarFox 3DS, with tilt controls and camera support, so you can see your friends’ faces onscreen. September 2011.
9:32: New Mario: Super Mario 3D, with a trailer of gameplay footage. No specific date, but a 2011 release.
9:34: Kid Icarus: Uprising. Good to see this franchise return.
9:37: Luigi’s Mansion 2. Mario’s brother is back, with vacuum.
9:39: A montage of 3rd party games. Tekken 3D. Sonic. Tetris. Snake. Lots of other familiar faces.
9:41: “Virtual Console†is a new downloadable service where you can get old versions of GameBoy and GameBoy Color games, as well as old console titles. Free Excitebike 3D is included for a limited time.
9:42: New Pokemon goodies. Reggie’s explaining something about a new Pokedex 3D, but I’ll be damned if I understand it. Damn, I’m old.
9:46: New console name: Wii U. Or is it Wii-U? WiiU? My god. It’s a grammar nazi nightmare. The controller in fact has a giant videoscreen, however. Whoa.
9:48: Man, the new video-screen, touch-sensitive motion controller is CRAZY. People are going to come up with all sorts of insane stuff for it.
9:50: Iwata is back onstage. The controller screen is 6.2 inches, has trigger and shoulder buttons, a touchscreen, gyroscope and speaker.
9:53: Iwata makes it clear that the controller is NOT a portable gaming system – the images are generated by the Wii U and transmitted wirelessly, “without latency.â€
9:59: I think everyone is just stunned and trying to wrap their heads around this. Is it a new console? Is it just an add-on? Is it HD? Here, maybe this video of a bird will help explain.
10:03: Reggie is back and has been talking about concepts, but one game he can actually mention is LEGO City Stories, an open world game, coming to Wii U and 3DS.
10:05: A video of different developers and exec giving opinions on the new console. Darksiders 2 promised for launch. Arkham City will also be a Wii U title.
10:09: EA’s John Riccitiello has taken the stage. Could this be a major EA Sports commitment?
10:11: No specific commitments from EA, but talk of Madden and Battlefield and HD support will get hardcore gamers excited.
10:15: Reggie wraps it up. I think people are basically in shock. If nothing else, people will be talking about it the rest of the week, trying to figure out what this all means.
I saw a lot of that at the press conferences this week. I think the mentality was, close with the big story, because everything else will feel like a letdown after that. I know the last thing I wanted to hear about after they revealed the Wii U was hear more about the 3DS.
If this press conference includes the announcement of the Wii 2, Nintendo has totally buried the lede of this story. ;-)