TANKs BLOG : nintendo conferece liveblog

OK works pretty hush here right now since it's early still, so i think i can cover Nintendo. Party starts in about 5 minutes ...

A little pre-show stats, top game sellers on Wii

WiiPlay sold 11. million

Mario galaxy sold 6.1 mil

Mario party sold 4.8 mil

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Started : big screen with being shown having fun playing wii

Cammie Dunnaway on stage

SHAUN WHITE SNOWBOARDING

Shaun White snow-boarding announced, being demo'd

Uses the balance board... Shaun White sucks on the balance board :lol:

Shaun White looks like Carrot Top. He's talking about how he gave the devs direct input on how snowboarding should work/feel

Cammie is getting on the balance board

Cammie's shredding the half pipe. I dunno the motion on the board doesn't seem to really translate to what's going on on the screen. She's just leaning and the character is doing flips and stuff. weird.

Shaun leaving stage.

Cammie says game will be available by year end

BUSINESS NUMBERS

Owata on stage now, Nintendo's President

Talking about last year's E3 and how everyone thought they were going down last year

Wii success has done way better than anyone at Nintendo every believed it would

Talking about long shelf life of DS games like brain age, nintendogs, mario kart ... still selling well after two years

Nintendo continues to try and meet the demands of the gamers for better looking and more sophisticated games

But innovative games like Wii Play and Wii Fit get a lot of support for using different concepts for playing games

Intuitive interfaces help bring new people to gaming that normally wouldn't game

Game systems used to be gift items but now they are purchased by the gamers themselves. In EU 200,000 DS's sold per week. In US 700k Wii's have been sold in the last 3 months. Strong sales outside of the holiday season never seen before

Nintendo wants to bring down the barrier between gamers and non-gamers. Mario Cart, Wii Fit, Wii Play and Guitar Hero 3 help this cause. GH3 on Wii outselling all other console versions

What's next ... People get eventually tire of the new and want something else ...

Nintendo wants to be a pioneer of new ways to interact with gaming to engage gamers in new ways

ANIMAL CROSSING

Katsuya Eguchi on-screen talking about Animal Crossing

Wanted to create a game where gamers could talk togther and play together

Animal Crossing coming this year

The " town" is where your character lives and you are free to do things your own way at your own pace

Even when you're not playing, the game is still playing so when you re-join the world things have progressed

The 'city" is a place to explore. There's auctions where you can buy stuff or put your own items up for sale. Academy were you can find out what other players are doing. Fashion Designer or a beauty salon where you can change your hair style or try on masks.

You can write letters with pictures to other players in other towns, cell phones, personal computers

Microphone WiiSpeak device announced. You can talk with other players in other cities anywhere in the world.

Fishing contenst being demoed, you can hear people like you're on a speakerphone who are also playing

When you go to someone's town you can see the players personality through decorations, cleanliness, setup ...

Wants players to have the freedom to create their own worlds and communite with others in many ways and share their world.

MORE BUSINESS AND GAME PREVIEWS

COO Reggie on tage

Nintendo pleased but not satisfied ....

Pleased with marketplace momentum, today in USA Wii hardware sold 10 million systems, DS 20 million

Total sales of 5 billion in the US alone combined.

By end of next march 09 expect DS to have sold 100 million systems

2 out of every 3 handhelds sold in US are 2 out of 3. DS selling 12% ahead of last years record.

Pokemon helped fuel sales , sold 600,000 units in just 6 weeks.

Total DS solftware sales this year in US are 29% ahead of last year

Recognizes the fight between Wii and DS as 1st and 2nd best sellers month after month according to NPD

Wii sales pace increasing, expecting Wii to be crowned best selling console in america this June when NPD numbers release

New dynamic emerging on wii software sales

19 different 3rd party games ahve exceeded 400k units in US from 11 different publishers

Wii library growing faster than any other console

Going to preview just 3 new games taht take different approaches to the interface on wii

Star Wars Clone Wars anime game being demo'd, movie tie-in game probably will suck but will sell well

Gamers swinging wii controllers around to control light sabers ... that's cool

Rayman Raving Rabids on screen. Uses balance board and wii controllers for the different mini-games

Call of DUty 5, WaW on screen now, looks decent for a wii game visually especially since everything else is mosty cartoons

Using the new Wii gun mount thing that you put the controller in for aiming and firing. Looks pretty sweet

Cammie back on tage

NINTENDO DS NUMBERS AND PREVIEWS

Portable games every year take a bigger piece of the overall sales pie

in 05 30% of all DS recipients were female

in 06 increased to 46%

in 07 increased 48%. DS appeal universal which is driving sales of DS hardware and software

DS Guitar Hero sold 300k copies first week

GH On Tour Decades announced as coming

Spore also coming to DS

Demo's on screen

DS GUITAR HERO

Two guys playing GH On Tour Decades

Players can song share between versions of the game. GH On Tour and GH On Tour Decades can share songs

DS SPORE

Spore on screen

Spore on DS is more about the create game not the full blown Spore game.

Focus on player creativity and sharing so you can make your own creatures using DS Creature Creator

You can share your creatures with your friends so they can put your creatures in their zoo

Cammie back ...

DS POKEMON

Pokemon Rangers Shadows of ALmea coming on Nov 10th 2008

DS GRAND THEFT AUTO

GRAND Theft Auto China Town Wars announced for DS this winter.

Set in modern day Liberty CIty, custom game engine and new characters as well as open world gameplay

DS EXPANSION TO OTHER AREAS

What if DS and Air Travel came together in a differnet way?

Why can't DS tell me where to get my luggage or connection gate?

How about resteraunts or atm locations?

Being tested .....

At Seattle ballpark, you can get scores for other games going on

You can even order sushi from the stadium resteraunt

DS COOKING NAVI coming to US

Could DS have a home in your kitchen?

English version of Cooking Navi is coming for DS this winter

Reggie back on tage

Wii-MOTION PLUS accessory

Reggie showing a wii-mote and an accessory that plugs into the bottom

new device is Wii-Motion Plus which makes the controller more accurate and precise

Going to demo device using WiiSports Resort designed to take advantage of Motion Plus

WiiSPORTS RESORT announced

WiiSports Resort will come with a Wii-Motion Plus add-on and extended jacket.

Wrist Rotation accuratly reflected on stage

When she moves her arm around the Mii arm location is precisely mimicing

They're playing frisbee

Little dog ran after the frisbee to catch it

Jet Ski racing being demoed by Reggie. Holding the wii controllers like handlebars twisting wrist to throttle like a real jetski

Fencing being demoed

You can chop vertically , horizontally or pretty much any angle. You can also block

Actually it's sword dueling not fencing,

Reggie beat down Cammie

Trash talking ensews for round two

Cammie wins

WiiSports REsort to have many other beach / resort type games

WiiSports Resort launches globally in Spring of 09

WiiMUSIC announced

New game up on screen guranteed to generate smiles .....

Looks like some type of drum kit on-screen using the wii remotes as the sticks

Damn not buying this game for my kid .......

The game is Wii Music.....

Miyamoto on stage now 'playing' the wii-mote as a saxaphone , drummer dude now more quiet giving some background beat

Wii Music designed for the whole family to play together without the need for extra bulky controllers

Most music games require you to press buttons in precise timing

Wii Music isn't as hard core. It's designed for everyone. You don't need to follow the rythum guides, all you have to do is hold the wii-mote and hold it like the instrument you would be playing. The wii senses if you're doing it right

In Wii Music you will be able to play 50 instruments just by moving your body in the motion of playing that instrument

Showing piano and violin and guitar. Air guitar baby with the wii mote ! lol

Now demoing a bongo drums or something, works similar to the drums shown earlier

Drums will use the wii-fit board if you have one to control the foot pedals

ALso will have an orchestra mode and a choir mode as well as some note mini-games

Each player can record their part and you can assemble it into a music video

They're going to do a full band song. They've got 6 players on stage to play. Looks like 4 play at a time. They're playing the mario theme

It sounds like something your kids would play if they all got ahold of instruments for the first time and tried to play something

WRAP UP

Reggie & Connie back on stage doing a wrap up

Nintendo brings more smiles to more faces .....

Reggies says Nintendo is not a Fad especially since now immitation is entering the market

Nintendo built on providing the 'next advantage'

DONE

Epic Fail on G4TV's video feed ... it hosed out a minute in and never came back reliably. Had to switch over to another feed .....