As we pass the half-way mark in our countdown to Wii3 - Er, I mean, E3, good news comes to us from all angles. Not only is the DSlite going to be $129.99 in June, game announcements and leaks are all starting to fall out of the cracks of the big N, which makes us wonder, what will they really be showing at their press conference? We've got the name of the Revolution, Wii; we've got the DSlite launch date and price, I mean, other than Wii centric stuff, there's not much else that they can focus on - and that could be a good thing.
This year is all about the Wii and what it can do; it's make or break time for Nintendo, and we at N-Sider have faith Nintendo is going to walk away from this E3 doing exactly what it wanted to do from the getgo: Disrupt the industry, and finally make us understand why.
Today Dean looks back at E3 2004, the unveiling of Reggie, and the Nintendo DS.
The next day began at 6:30am, not only because we had to wake up, but Jason and Neale finally arrived, and we quickly shuffled to Hollywood for the Nintendo Press Conference. If you got last year's DVD, you may remember that Nintendo had the escalator on the way up to media registration blocked off by a lowly and simple rope, which we easily passed and were among the first to be upstairs. This year, however, they had a full fledged 'warning' yellow barrier, and instead we took the elevator up, thinking we were just as clever as before, were greeted with a huge ass line for registration. After what seemed like an eternity, Nintendo finally opened its doors and let us in. Luckily, we were among the first inside and quickly secured ourselves on the beanbag chairs (originally reserved for VIPs, but media took over) near the front of the ballroom, which gave us the best view of the people, and the huge screens. I'm sure a lot of you already know what happened at the press conference: The almighty Reggie dropped the megaton with the DS and Zelda, Miyamoto made every Zelda fanboy splooge in their pants (including Cory), and the Reggielution was born (interesting side note, during our E3 chats, everyone was joking about it, but those of us who were at E3, and hadn't been checking websites were totally lost as to what the whole Reggielution was all about, until the last day). After the press conference we hung around Hollywood for a bite to eat, but quickly remembered that Mike would be waiting for us at the hotel (Another one of Jason's friends, but flew instead of took the bus). We met up with him and relaxed a little bit before taking a walk to the LACC to pick up our press-badge holders. On the way back, we stopped at our signature spot in Los Angeles: Chez Denny's. Their prices had been jacked up for E3, something which they must have just started to do as in previous years the food was much, much cheaper. Nevertheless, we continued the tradition and ate there anyways. After lunch we returned to the hotel to watch highlights from the press conference and the Nintendo B-Roll DVD. Another thing I should mention about this day, is before we came back from Hollywood, we participated in a film study / focus group in which we had to watch five clips of different films, projected in standard film, and in the new HD-Digital format that only two theatres have in the world (both in Los Angeles, we were at Grauman's Chinese Theater). After this, we got free DVD's like Braveheart, School of Rock, Rugrats, and many others. |
With Nintendo's press conference being in the main Kodak Theater, and the news today that almost all of our staff have been invited to the event, our coverage and impressions will definately be a must read - keep your browsers tuned into N-Sider for all the news and events from the show floor.
And with the new seating arrangements this year, be sure to watch our E3 2006 DVD, as we'll have the entire Nintendo press conference raw and unedited from start to finish, so order one today, it's only $6 with free worldwide shipping.