E3 2012 was a little disappointing, it has to be said. I’m not sure what I expected really, but it was a little more than what was delivered – a few good games and Nintendo saying very little about the Wii U hardware.
This alone made the Nintendo press conference wholly underwhelming, but Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime thinks he knows why we walked away wanting more. Because gamers are hard to please, apparently.
Fils-Aime was asked by Kotaku why he felt the press conference received a lukewarm response from fans, to which he replied:
“One of the things that, on one hand, I love and, on the other hand, that troubles me tremendously about not only our fanbase but about the gaming community at large is that, whenever you share information, the perspective is, ‘Thank you, but I want more.’ ‘Thank you, but give me more.’ I mean, it is insatiable.”
“And so for years this community has been asking, ‘Where’s Pikmin?’ ‘Where’s Pikmin?’ ‘Where’s Pikmin?’ We give them Pikmin. And then they say, ‘What else?’ For years, this community have said, ‘Damnit Reggie, when you launch, you better launch with a Mario game.’ So we launch with a Mario game, and they say, ‘So what’s more?’
“I have heard people say, ‘You know, you’ve got these fantastic franchises, beyond what you’re doing in Smash Bros., isn’t there a way to leverage all these franchises?’ So we create Nintendo Land and they say, ‘Ho-hum, give me more.’ So it’s an interesting challenge.”
He has a point. Gamers DO have an insatiable thirst for new games and even new hardware. As soon as a title has been released attention turns to the sequel, and people start talking about next-gen consoles just a couple of years into the current generation.
That being said Nintendo should have done more, and done better this time around. More details on the Wii U would have been nice, for starters.
