Late Night Consoling

Nintendo Co., Ltd. president Satoru Iwata gave a Nintendo-focused keynote address during Game Developers Conference in San Jose today. Iwata's remarks were not focused around specific hardware features, so they do not really lend themselves to bulleted lists, but here are the few major announcements made, followed by a summary of some of the keynote's main points.

- Zelda DS was officially announced, with the title The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. A trailer for the game was shown, revealing that it uses 3D graphics with a combination of fixed-camera 2D gameplay for interior sections along with more of a chase came system for outdoor roaming. Graphically, Phantom Hourglass appears to be somewhere in between the styles used in Wind Waker (GCN) and Ocarina of Time (N64). The game contains sailing, though it appears that the player can now plot out a course to be automatically sailed by drawing it on the map with the stylus. Additionally, the game has a dungeon or overworld map on the upper screen, but unlike most games it seems that the player can take notes directly on the map by pulling it down to the touch screen and writing on it with the stylus. The stylus can also be used to quickly trace the intended path of the boomerang. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass will be playable at E3 and will ship later this year.
- In addition to the previously announced support for NES, SNES, and N64 games over Nintendo's Virtual Console download/emulation service, Iwata today revealed that Revolution will also download and play games developed for Sega Genesis and the NEC/Hudson TurboGrafx console. "Of course, not all of [their games] will be available, but the best of them will," he said.
- Virtual Console will not only support legacy titles, it will allow smaller developers to distribute their own lower-budget games, much like Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service. Specifics of this aspect of Virtual Console were not announced.

Fitting with most of the sentiment coming from Nintendo executives in recent years, the address was largely centered around detailing the company's strategy of disruptive technology and software. DS was the company's first modern system built around those principles, and it dominated most of Iwata's time. The former game developer kicked off the keynote with a story about a company back in the 1980s which saw great success by making fun products that appealed to young people. In the 1990s, Iwata continued, another company dominated market share with a `'bigger brand name and bigger budgets,`' but the first company had another continually popular product line. It used the success of that product line to reevaluate its overall corporate strategy. The audience laughed when Iwata revealed that the company he was describing was in fact Pepsi, but his metaphor was clear. "Pepsi stopped asking 'How can we sell more cola?'" Iwata explained. "Instead, it started asking, 'What else do people want to drink?' Today, Pepsi is number one in bottled water; it is number one in sports drinks; it is number one in health drinks. And, of course, it remains number one in the snacks business that it used to maintain profitability while they executed their disruptive strategy. As every game developer understands, the three basic food groups are Fritos, Cheetos, and Doritos."

Nintendo of America localization developer Bill Trinen demonstrated two DS games on stage: acclaimed designer Will Wright, journalist Geoff Keighley, and GDC director Jamil Moledina came to the stage to play Brain Age for the first time and compare their scores (Trinen, who had been playing the game nonstop for a week, won), and later three developers of the just-released Metroid Prime Hunters (DS) competed along with Trinen in a local deathmatch (Trinen lost). Iwata also revealed that everybody in attendance at the keynote would be receiving a free copy of the company's upcoming Brain Age (DS), the software that has been the strongest driver of DS hardware in Japan.

Towards the end of the speech, Iwata described the process of developing the Revolution controller. It took the company a year of brainstorming and prototyping to come up with the design, with a dedicated team working on just the controller. After the team decided on a one-handed controller, company design head Shigeru Miyamoto suggested the one handed controller be a detachable part of a larger controller. However, the creators of Metroid Prime at Retro Studios did not feel that this would allow for the type of traditionally-controlled games they produce. Dozens of prototypes later, the complete freehand controller plus analog stick "nunchaku" attachment was born.

In more general strategic terms, Iwata reiterated his company's plan to lower the barrier of entry to game development with Revolution. "We know the main barrier is cost," he said. "There is one dominant business model in our industry." This is the model based on selling $50 (or $60) games, requiring large budgets, teams, and marketing efforts. "Nintendo understands the dominant business model," he admitted. "We work with it every day, and future Zeldas and Marios and Metroids are going to be bigger masterpieces than ever before. But this does not have to be the only business model. We want to help you create a new one." He compared the company's upcoming Virtual Console service to Apple's iTunes store.

"It should be our goal, each of us, to reach the new players as well as the current players," Iwata said. "Our goal is to show them surprise. Our reward is to convince them that above all video games are meant to be just one thing: fun. Fun for everyone."

Contrary to some recent rumors, Nintendo did not in fact announce a new name for Revolution during today's keynote. However, this morning various sites reported on some allegedly leaked images containing a logo for something called "Nintendo GO." It features a 3D cube-based design reminiscent of the N64 and GameCube logos, made up of symmetrical crosses resembling the iconic Nintendo d-pad design. Japanese speakers appear to have confirmed that the cut off text accompanying the image is at least not total nonsense. While many are reporting that GO is the final name of Revolution, it seems more likely to be the name of the company's online service--if there's any authenticity at all that is. Readers who remember the absolutely endless barrage of "leaked" Revolution controller and logo designs may be a bit more skeptical.

Sony exec Phil Harrison noted yesterday in his GDC keynote that original PlayStation games and hardware (in the form of the redesigned PSOne console) continue to sell in many markets, especially in lower-income markets. The console first launched in Japan in 1994. Now, however, on the cusp of the PlayStation family's third main iteration, the machine is finally going out of production.

According to IGN Revolution, Spider-Man license holder Activision will be developing a Revolution-exclusive version of the game based on the third Spider-Man film, in addition to the multiplatform title sure to hit the other two next-gen systems. No details were announced, but it's easy to imagine possibilities of webslinging with the Revolution controller.

SNK announced today at GDC that it will be bringing a compilation of classic Metal Slug games to Sony's handheld system. Metal Slug Collection will consist of ports of arcade titles Metal Slug, Metal Slug 2, Metal Slug X, Metal Slug 3, Metal Slug 4, and Metal Slug 5. The game will feature cooperative play over local wireless. It is slated to hit shelves this November.