Live blog: Nintendo's E3 press conference
At the famous Kodak Theater in Hollywood, the Wii maker gets set to show off the best of what it has to offer this year and beyond.
LOS ANGELES--And so we wait. Some more.
Here at E3, the video game industry's official Big Time Conference, there's a lot of sitting around, filling seats while executives get ready to come out on stage and tell us what lies ahead for their companies.
And this morning, it's Nintendo's turn to keep us in anticipation. And in a couple of hours it will be Sony.
For now, there are hundreds, if not a thousand or more, sitting in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood for the Nintendo press conference. No one really knows what the Wii maker is going to announce, but there are those who think that whatever it will be could become the talk of E3.
Stay tuned to this live blog for regular updates as the press conference evolves.
Update 9:22 a.m.: A video is running showing Animal Crossing: City Folk, a new version of Nintendo's hit game that will run on the Wii and feature WiiSpeak, a speaker system allowing multiple players to communicate live while they play.
Animal Crossing: City Folk will also feature some Sims-like abilities: Letting players create their own worlds in a sort of pervasive-type system. The game will feature live auctions where players can buy or sell items, and write letters to other players, attaching pictures, that can be sent to mobile devices or other computers.
Update 9:32 a.m.: Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime is on stage now talking about the success of the Wii. He says Nintendo expects that when video game research firm NPD releases its June sales numbers on Thursday that the Wii will move into first place as the best-selling next-generation console in North America, surpassing the Xbox 360.
Fils-Aime also said that the Wii has the fastest-selling set of game titles in console history. And that the success of its software titles is only growing.
Update 9:43 a.m.: Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing, just said that this fall, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will debut exclusively on Nintendo DS. The game will be set in a modern day Liberty City, with a custom game engine and new character.
Update 9:47 a.m.: Fils-Aime is now talking about how Nintendo will be releasing a new sports game, Wii Sports Resort that is geared for the new Wii Motion Plus controller, which the company announced yesterday.
Fils-Aime said that Wii Sports Resort will be available next Spring.
Update 9:55 a.m.: Now, legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto is up on stage showing off the new Wii Music, which will come out this fall.
This game is much like Wii Sports in that it is designed to allow anyone to play musical instruments with the Wii remote.
Update 10:01 a.m.: Now, Miyamoto is talking about the various features of Wii Music, which will include over 50 instruments, such as the piano, violin, percussion, and so forth.
But one nice element of this is that it features a system that will teach people how to play instruments, so, he said, players should be able to learn to play the drums in a matter of a few weeks.
Another cool feature is one that will record video of players' performances. This should be fun for families, given that they will be able to play music in the privacy of their living rooms and then show off videos of their best performances.
Update 10:10 a.m.: Fils-Aime has wrapped up the press conference. The highlights were clearly Wii Music and Wii Sports Resort, both interesting and cool games that will likely sell many, many copies as well as drive sales of the Wii itself.
But there was no huge piece of news, and nothing, I think, that will be the talk of E3 all week.
On the other hand, with the Wii doing as well as it has been, maybe Nintendo didn't need that as much as, say, Sony does.