GAMING NEWS Thread 1

Not at all arsed with how Nintendo connect with the media, but more arsed with how Nintendo connects with me, the gamer. I don't really mind the format or delivery of their E3 presentation - it's all about the content.

I get the impression they're confident about what they've got in store for E3 and beyond. That said, I think Nintendo could announce new everything and still have folk take a shite all over it.

I don't think it's a big as a blow as last year's forgoing of a stage show - Twitch has ROCKETED in popularity over the past year, so a large consumer base will still watch it live. They lose out on the initial press exposure, but that's it really.

Also, loved seeing the Mega 64 lads working with Reggie there - enjoyed that!

It seems they want to compete on their own terms and haven't twigged that most people* see not having a press conference as an admission of defeat.

*By which I mean "militant other format gamers".

I think the only thing they're missing out on is "THE HYPE", but in the long run that's not important in terms of whether or not a game is any good or not.

I like "THE HYPE" though. And I do want Nintendo to do well, and I feel like having a presser would help with that. Obviously not at the expense of games, but I don't feel it necessarily would be. Nintendo need as much media attention as they can get at the moment!

The video was pretty good though.  (Linky.)

I personally love the different approach they are taking as it brings all the focus onto what's important, the games.

Quote :

Nintendo of America, will provide in-depth game demos live and unscripted from Nintendo's booth.

That constant e3 live stream is a brilliant idea & the fact it's "unscripted" should give us a fair look at how the games actually play & not just a cherry picked "best parts" stage show.

It also sounds like big things are a brewing & we all know it has to be.

Yeah - I mean I'd like to see a press conference from Ninty, but I'm not overly fussed if there isn't. At the end of the day, I still get to see games, so I'm contented.

Mega64 are great, talking about that video. This is my personal favourite video from them: Mega 64 - Luigi's Mansion.

Direct link to the Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghEhI4CJjAM&feature=player_detailpage

Press release is here: http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=41525
Quoted some of it below:

Quote :

At E3 2014, Nintendo will offer four unique experiences, all under the unifying banner of "Play Nintendo."

Super Smash Bros. Invitational
2014 will see the arrival of not one, but two new Super Smash Bros. games: Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. To commemorate this occasion, Nintendo is inviting 16 highly skilled Super Smash Bros. players to the NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles to compete in a Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournament. Thousands of fans in the audience and countless more watching a live stream online will see new Super Smash Bros. characters clash with existing favorites in action for the first time. More important than declaring a winner, however, this event is a celebration of all things Super Smash Bros., and a great way for new and veteran fans to take part in a tribute to this legendary franchise. More information about the 16 invited participants in the tournament, the identity of the announcers, and how fans of the franchise can view the tournament in person and via webcast, will be communicated shortly.

Nintendo Digital Event
Every year, Nintendo looks for the best way to show its games and share its news with fans, media and other key audiences. In 2013, Nintendo decided to forgo a traditional press conference and use a video – in that case a Nintendo Direct – to share its news from E3. The company is building on that approach at E3 2014 with the "Nintendo Digital Event," a new kind of video program that will reveal and provide further detail about the gaming experiences on the way for Nintendo platforms in 2014 and beyond. The Nintendo Digital Event will air at 9 a.m. PT on Tuesday, June 10.

Nintendo Treehouse: Live @ E3
This year, Nintendo will offer fans a deeper look at Nintendo's biggest games of E3, with information directly from the source. The "Treehouse," the Product Development department at Nintendo of America, will provide in-depth game demos live and unscripted from Nintendo's booth. This new program will be live streamed during all hours of the E3 show. Fans can get settled in, open their browsers and experience the Nintendo games at E3 like never before.

Super Smash Bros. Smash Fest @ Best Buy
In 2013, Nintendo broke new ground by expanding its E3 activities outside of the walls of the Los Angeles Convention Center and letting fans play some of the games being played on the show floor at participating Best Buy stores. The partnership between Nintendo and Best Buy continues in 2014 and will mark the first time around the world that fans have had the opportunity to get their hands on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

More details about each event, including dates, times, locations and game content will be revealed shortly. To follow all of Nintendo's E3 activities, keep an eye on Nintendo's Facebook page, Twitter feed and YouTube channel. Or visit http://e3.nintendo.com.

Yep, the Smash Bros. stuff is brilliant and a surprisingly savvy move from the company that doesn't seem to appreciate (what seem to me to be) the obvious positives (i.e. MEDIA EXPOSURE) of a press conference.  Get it into people's hands, get the competitive scene involved in what seems to be a more competitive Smash Bros. (than Brawl, anyway): great.

And if Nintendo genuinely are doing the digital thing because they think it's the best way to reward their fans with a media-free showing, then good for them.  Play to your fans!  That, or they think what they have up their sleeves is going to blow everyone away regardless of whether it's in front of the press or not.  (Oh Miyamoto, please let it be that latter one.)

EDIT: So long as the flipping stream works, of course.

I'm always surprised how many people are upset by this.

I'm not going to E3, neither are 99% of commenters, so the only difference for me/them is that instead of watching one stream, I watch another.

Live Press Conference:
- Everybody not at E3 watches a stream
- The Press watches it and writes about it afterwards

Digital Event:
- Everybody not at E3 watches a stream
- The Press watches it and writes about it afterwards

Of course, last year's was marred by the terrible UStream lag, but this year they're using Twitch and Youtube so this hopefully won't happen.

All I - and 99% of other people watching - care about is the games that they announce. The regular Directs to date focus on games rather than corporate back-slapping and, if I remember rightly, that was more or less the case for the Direct at last year's E3 too. I'll be just as excited as I ever am to watch it, live conference or not.

Because media attention seems to be more firmly fixed upon what those at E3 can actually attend.  They need the scent of Reggie's sweat in their nostrils to pay attention.  Or alternatively that's the impression that people have given me, and it's wrong.  I'm happy to be told that it's the latter.  

From the point of view of someone who just cares about the quality of the games, does it make a flaming difference?  Of course not, unless you're a moron who believes that Nintendo have been intimidated into not appearing (rubbish, in my opinion - they came back in the year of Cammie Dunnaway, and in the year after Cammie Dunnaway).  But from the point of view of the fanboy, who wants everyone to pay attention to Nintendo, write good things about it, and encourage people to buy their stuff, does it make a flaming difference?  Absolutely.

That said, of course a rubbish show is infinitely inferior to a game-filled Direct, to even the fanboys (i.e. me).  It probably didn't help that last year's Direct wasn't all that, with only one surprise that looked incredibly underwhelming, although if anything that suggests that this year will be better than last. (And of course DKCTF was pretty sweet in the end, although SM3DW ended up living up/down to my initial expectations.)

Balladeer wrote:

I like "THE HYPE" though.  And I do want Nintendo to do well, and I feel like having a presser would help with that.  Obviously not at the expense of games, but I don't feel it necessarily would be.  Nintendo need as much media attention as they can get at the moment!

This. The presser is part of the fun of E3- yes, E3 is a silly, bloated and technically speaking obsolete concept that has decayed massively from its original purpose, but that's very much its charm.

All the best things that people talk about from E3s past come from the stage shows- whether that's people going off-script majorly (The South Park creators the other year) or minorly (My Body Is Ready) or not getting the reaction they want (Peggle 2)- or just stuff that seems like a good idea on paper turning out not to be on stage (oh god where to begin).

You're not going to get that with a pre-recorded Nintendo Direct, nor are you going to get it from what is ostensibly a studio show that's going to be about as "unscripted" as an episode of TOWIE.

Bizarre as the sentence I'm going to use to explain it is, there's more to games than games- that's why we liked the "Still Playing" bits in NGamer, why people go to conventions and eSports events- and why people give a shit about E3 pressers.

Gamexplain did an analysis of the E3 trailer.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqjL1JQs9aU

Axis wrote:

Of course, last year's was marred by the terrible UStream lag, but this year they're using Twitch and Youtube so this hopefully won't happen.

Praise the sun!

I think E3's close to being on its last legs, myself. I don't usually make Pachter-esque out-of-my-arse statements, but reckon in 5 years none of the console makers, and possibly done of the big publishers, will have a stage conference.


Also, no more Pachter? [sarcasm] Boo hoo [/sarcasm]

What's wrong with Pachter, I've said time and time again you don't get where he is making the wrong decisions / predictions.

Disney Infinity 2.0 Marvel Super Heroes and will be out Q4 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, PC, iOS. Over 20 characters will available confirmed at the moment but the start pack will have Iron Man, Thor and Black Widow, a Disney Infinity 2.0 Base, two Toy Box Game Discs, a Marvel’s The Avengers Play Set piece and a Web Code Card. Yay marvel toy's, I've always liked the idea of the toy based games but none of the toys really applied to me but these do.

Sony has confirmed over 1000+ indie devs are working on Sony platforms.

The long delayed DriveClub will be coming out for PS4 in October. There will still be a PSN+ version.

Xbox One will be the first system to hit the Chinese market.

The original Minecraft on PC has passed 15 million sales.

Watch Dog's will have a Season Pass on all formats apart from Wii U which Ubi will share info on a later date, so maybe the Wii U version includes all the content ans is kinda like a complete edition only problem is that be £40+ and watch dog's will have dropped in price by then on the other formats.

masofdas wrote:

Watch Dog's will have a Season Pass on all formats apart from Wii U which Ubi will share info on a later date, so maybe the Wii U version includes all the content ans is kinda like a complete edition only problem is that be £40+ and watch dog's will have dropped in price by then on the other formats.

Whilst I'd love to think that the Wii U version would be a complete edition, it's rather unlikely. 

Trademark for No-One Lives Forever picked up by Night Dive Studios, who repackaged System Shock 2 on Steam recently.

I did see some bit's on this twitter last night, here's a link from CVG.

I can't see a new new hardware as wasn't the reason they said last year why they weren't at E3 proper as they didn't have hardware to show. So if I had something to show I would want to be on stage. So I'm thinking 3DS redesign in some way, but this is Nintendo could be a tech trailer for Zelda on U2.

Also here's the new COD.

QoL. Calling it now.

Could be just seems strange to go here's are thing and were going to show it in a video then having someone on stage using it.

masofdas wrote:

Also here's the new COD.

Fully accepting this as a sequel to House of Cards, that's my canon for it at least.

Balladeer wrote:

QoL.  Calling it now.

It'd be incredibly surprising if it were anything else. It's QoL or nothing in my book.

You were right, Zero...