Perhaps the toughest job in the industry is to deliver a press conference and appease developers, shareholders, the media and fans alike. If this years E3 has taught us anything it’s that even big companies such as Microsoft get it mildly wrong in terms of their focus, but at least there is a really mixed opinion from the media and potential customers as to what is being offered. The two publisher conferences (EA and Ubisoft) were the two conferences that worked well. Part of their success is because a certain level of balance was held between announcements. Although Microsoft didn’t have any new hardware to show us, Sony showed off PS Vita in all its wonder. Nintendo on the other hand had the opportunity to steal the entire show with the reveal of the Wii U. Thing is, the only ones smiling are the developers involved. The media and just about everyone who wasn’t at E3 are confused as to what the device does, and shareholders can’t really see the device selling well, especially given the double drop of the share price. Nintendo are potentially in a crisis situation, all because of their press conference. So what went wrong?

“The big elephant in the room turned out to be the reveal of the Wii U.”

Credit where credit is due, they showcased the 3DS games really well. Gameplay trailers of Super Mario 3D and Starfox 64 3D, together with a brief explanation and rough date were good signs. More information on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, including the news it would stay a Wii exclusive (rather than become a Wii U launch title, which was loosely rumoured) and have a release date scheduled for the holidays were also nice touches. Heck, even their celebration of the 25th anniversary of Zelda was at the very least endearing. The big elephant in the room turned out to be the reveal of the Wii U.

When an idea is pitched, the usually idea is dress to impress. The first wardrobe malfunction was the name. When they announced the Nintendo Wii years ago, everyone questioned the brand name choice. It turned out to be a highly successful device, making Nintendo a lot of money in the process, but the name was a complete laughing stock to the gaming community. Adding an extra letter to that brand and then trying to justify that by saying they wanted to “make the console more personal to you” was a little ridiculous.

Then came the console reveal itself. We at Mediakick were discussing the events as they unfolded and the general train of thought was quite simply, “Is this a new console?”. This leads me nicely to Nintendo’s second marketing failure: They didn’t bring anything on stage. Iwata relied on a montage video that just showed the controller and the TV. The result of this was that we initially had no idea as to whether or not the Wii U was the controller itself or a new controller for the Nintendo Wii. Leaving audiences confused, then having Reggie Fils-Ame state after the conference that the Wii U’s console was “just a box” is pretentious, even for a new console reveal. An on-stage demonstration would have not only showed us how the thing worked better than an edited video montage, but also would have saved embarrassing news stories post-press conference.

The third “circle of shame” in my eyes was that although we saw a couple of current generation titles appear in another video sequence, we don’t know the specs of the console. We don’t know how long it could last before it is severely outdated. From the tech demo that we saw of the starling and the lake, it seemed like the current generation of HD was the limit of its power. Nintendo seem to want to recapture some of the hardcore gaming community’s support and while reveals of some of the latest games are a nice touch, the longetivity of the console is certainly called into question.

Leaving audiences confused, then having Reggie Fils-Ame state after the conference that the Wii U’s console was “just a box” is pretentious, even for a new console reveal.

There were a few other issues I had with the entire conference, and a key one was the selection of game reveals for both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Satoru Iwata made what was apparently a slip of the tongue when he mentioned a new Super Smash Bros for both devices, despite development not having started and the game merely in concept stage. Perhaps buttering us up with the promise of this is perhaps an unprecedented level of honesty, but Shigeru Miyamoto’s Pikmin update should have been here as well. But it isn’t what they announced or eventually announced after the conference that bothered me. It was what they didn’t announce. No new IPs for either device, despite Reggie Fils-Ame saying Nintendo was listening to all of its customers. Everything Nintendo is developing at this time is a sequel to something that’s already a sequel in its own right, and while companies such as EA and Ubisoft are showing some fresh ideas, it seems Nintendo have a prolonged writers block.

It comes without much surprise that Nintendo blew their chances of having the conference of the year with an absolute shambles of a reveal, but the subtle touches that should have enhanced the deal were missing in action. When Nintendo revealed the Pokedex application, there was the potential to make a huge announcement. Instead we got a rather lacklustre product shown to us. This was the kind of space they could have used for showing us how the Wii U worked. They could have touched upon the Nintendo eShop by mentioning the important details. There was nothing there we couldn’t see for ourselves hours later.

We know that the bulk of Nintendo announcements turn up at TGS later in the year, but this conference was a missed opportunity. It comes as no surprise that Nintendo are definitely paying for it in terms of their stock market crash and I wouldn’t be surprised if the board of directors are looking a little red faced and worried about their future.