As usual Nintendo had managed to keep tight-lipped about announcements leading up to E3. The only thing to have been confirmed prior to this evening’s press conference was the Wii MotionPlus accessory.

Cammie Dunaway kicked off the conference by introducing Shaun White to demonstrate the Wii exclusive Shaun White Snowboarding using the Wii Balance Board. Built from the ground up by Ubisoft, Shaun White Snowboarding will be out by the end of 2008.

Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, was next to take the stage. He noted a shift in the global game market since his first E3 address in 2003, as evidenced by what he described as the sale of millions of bathroom scales around the world. He went on to discuss four key areas that have changed this paradigm.

Shifting paradigms

First is the fact that Nintendo is selling games that can sell steady for a long period of time, these “evergreens” include Nintendogs, Brain Training, New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Kart DS. These games proved that two or three years’ worth of sales was possible.

Secondly, not all gamers are after better graphics and more sophisticated content. Iwata pointed out that some gamers do still want this so Nintendo will deliver this, before noting that the teams that designed Mario and Zelda are hard at work to bring new titles to the Wii. However, Wii Sports and Wii Fit have lots of users for different reasons.

Thirdly, the userbase has expanded and changed the seasonal nature of video game hardware sales. “Today game hardware systems are more likely purchased by people for themselves at any time of the year.” Recently 200 000 DS units were sold in a week in Europe “as if every week were a holiday” while 700 000 Wiis have been sold in the US in the last three months, a level previously not seen outside of November and December.

Finally a new form of social interaction has begun where psychological barriers between gamers and non-gamers are being broken down. Games like Mario Kart Wii, Wii Sports and Wii Fit are helping to do this along with Guitar Hero III since the Wii version is outselling the other versions.

Animal Crossing: City Folk

Iwata sums up by saying that Nintendo is taking the challenge to be a pioneer in new paradigms and offer fresh surprises. Katsuya Eguchi then appeared on-screen to introduce a key holiday release which is none other than Animal Crossing: City Folk, headed for the Wii in 2008.

The game includes a town as well as a new city, auction site, fashion designer and even a beauty salon. Communication will be a key element of the game with players being able to write letters and send pictures, not only to the Wii Message Board but to friends’ cellphones, PCs and other towns. A new aspect of the game is Wii Speak which is in essence a community microphone that enables players to talk to other players from around the world.

Sales figures

Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America, begins by discussing a few numbers. Recent NPD data shows that lifetime sales of the Wii in the US stand at 10 million and 20 million for the DS. This brings the total of combined DS and Wii sales to $5 billion at retail in the US. Nintendo is not satisfied with these figures because people want more games and he wants to satisfy both core and casual gamers.

Nintendo expect total worldwide sales of the DS to reach 100 million by the end of Nintendo’s current fiscal year. This will be unexpected for some who thought 2007 would be the peak year for the DS but DS sales in the US this year are 12% higher than 2007’s record.

Fils-Aime noted that sales of hardware are driven by key software franchises. The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series (Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness) sold over 600 000 units in just six weeks while lifetime sales of Pokemon games now stand at 180 million. I guess it’s not surprising then that software sales in the US are 29% ahead of last year. He believes that June NPD data will show that the DS has overtaken Wii sales in the US thanks to the aforementioned evergreen titles and female celebrity endorsements of the DS which led to sales doubling.

Sales of the Wii are also increasing and it is on track to become the best-selling console in this generation in the US. According to Fils-Aime no system has recorded more sales in its first 19 months. While “stable stars” such as Mario and Metroid were used to reassure veteran gamers when the Wii first emerged into the market, new titles such as Wii Sports and Wii Fit soon made non-gamers take notice too.

Third party success

Third party publishers are also finding success with the Wii, 19 third party games from 11 developers have exceeded sales of 400 000. Three new games were previewed although dozens of new titles were promised in the coming months. Game play from Star Wars: The Clone Wars (due out Holiday 2008), Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (making use of Wii Balance Board in skiing and flying games) as well as Call of Duty: World at War (coming soon) featuring a co-op mode was shown.

That wrapped up Reggie’s bit with Cammie back to point out that growth of the Wii and DS is being driven by new gamers. She then went on to show who these new gamers were: in 2005 only 30% of DS owners were female, by 2006 this figure had risen to 46% and by 2007 to 48%, almost reaching parity with males.

New DS games

Nintendo highlighted the universal appeal of the DS, illustrated by Guitar Hero: On Tour selling 300 000 copies across the US in its first week on sale. She introduces Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades, featuring most notably song sharing between different versions of the game, and Spore Creatures featuring a unique and different design for the DS, focused on creature design, player creativity and sharing. Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia was also revealed, stamped with a November 10th release date for America.

A custom version of Grand Theft Auto, subtitled Chinatown Wars, was also announced for the DS and will be arriving this winter. The game is set in modern day Liberty City and features new characters, a custom game engine and the same free ranging game play that has become synonymous with the series.

Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music

Reggie returns to discuss the Wii MotionPlus and in so doing reveals Wii Sports Resort which he describes as “literally a day at the beach.” The game will make use of Wii MotionPlus and promises to “render every slight shift of wrist or arm into game play.” Every copy of the game will include a Wii MotionPlus and a Wii jacket. We got a look at Disc Dog, Jet Ski and Sword Dueling. The game will launch globally in spring 2009.

Smoke machines and a drumming session followed with Shigeru Miyamoto arriving on stage wearing a Mario shirt and playing the saxophone. This was the introduction to Wii Music, which promises to be a slightly different music experience than seen before. There is no need to closely follow music guides as you play, you simply hold the Wii Remote and move your hands and body as you would if you were playing a real instrument. The Wii detects the movement and plays the note.

Players will be able to experiment with over 50 different instruments just by moving their body, for example the piano, violin, guitar and percussion instruments. The drummer turned out to be Robbie Drums (maybe he is famous in Japan), who was playing a separate mode using the Wii Balance Board to activate the pedals.

A player could learn to play the drums in a few weeks thanks to the lessons the game offers. Players will also be able to conduct an orchestra or choir (as Miyamoto did at E3 two years ago) or play note matching games. The game does not evaluate your performance but it can record videos. For example a player could play numerous instruments one at a time for each part in a song before creating their own music video. We then got a performance of the theme tune to New Super Mario Bros.

Cammie concludes by reminding us about Shaun White Snowboarding, Wii Speak in Animal Crossing: City Folk, Wii MotionPlus in Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music. Her final words are “Nintendo simply brings more smiles to more faces” followed by Reggie reminding everyone that the DS is not a fad and that Nintendo will keep coming up with new ideas because Miyamoto and Iwata “built a company in perpetual pursuit of that one thing – the next advantage.”

Stay tuned for more in-depth coverage of the new Nintendo games.