From where I'm sitting, looking out over the downtown Los Angeles skyline from my loft apartment, everything is peaceful. Serene. Quiet. On the weekend, downtown L.A. is a virtual ghost town, absent of all the suits and professionals that occupy it during the week. This city isn't as compact as many others. Thousands commute for hours to get here, leaving shells of buildings with very few occupants when the vast majority of businesses aren’t open. Except this weekend.
Slowly but surely, Los Angeles is springing to life. Thousands are coming into town this weekend, preparing for an onslaught of activity that actually starts tomorrow, not Monday, as it normally would. And at the heart of much of this activity is Nintendo.
(L to R) Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime have arrived at E3 2012. (Source: Nintendo)
Led by Satoru Iwata, Reggie Fils-Aime and Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo is seemingly preparing one of the biggest video game showcases we’ve ever seen. Not just from the publisher itself, but in the grand scheme of E3 as a whole. It’s tradition for first party publishers to hold a keynote press conference that lasts an hour or two. Through various means, Nintendo is effectively holding four of these. Four. That’s over four hours of announcements, details and discussion about its current portable platform, the 3DS, and its upcoming console - Wii U. And that’s not counting the various interviews, videos and hands-on impressions that will follow on sites like IGN.
By sheer volume, this seems like it is Nintendo’s E3 to lose. True, the company has much to prove, but it clearly has a lot to say. Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon, it will discuss Wii U’s hardware through an online presentation. It claims Tuesday will be about software, presumably with a strong emphasis on Wii U. That evening it plans to have a developer roundtable - once again focused on Wii U. The next night, it’s hosting a software showcase. By process of elimination, that one is likely locked on 3DS. Despite the need to bring its home console to the show in full force, the publisher can’t forget its portable audience, less it stumble once more with system.
An older version of Wii U's controller, as shown at E3 2011.
Covering a first party publisher like Nintendo is a busy affair at any E3. There are plenty of games to see, even when one platform is struggling, as Wii did at last year’s show. There are plenty of interviews to conduct. Plenty of opinion and perspective to give. This year is poised to be one of the busiest years in recent memory. Even if third parties aren’t quite ready to showcase all of their software - or hold back titles from being playable - Nintendo is ready to share its vision, with the exception of formalizing its precise launch plans.
From a bird’s eye view, Los Angeles is quiet. Only a few isolated cars travel down streets designed for hundreds more. But Nintendo is already here, finalizing its plans for the week. It’s preparing to unleash a storm, to bring a flurry of announcements the likes of which it hasn’t done in several years. It’s dedicating presentations to distinct hardware and software elements, adding more events to its E3 agenda than ever before.
Nintendo is ready.
Are you?
Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com, the leader of the IGN Nintendo team and watches over all things Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and WWE. Follow his E3 2012 coverage and commentary on Twitter, Tumblr and IGN.
Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/02/e3-2012-the-eve-of-the-nintendo-storm
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