Nintendo’s press conference began with EVP of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway, who after a brief introduction with some personal snowboarding stories introduced Shaun White. White and Dunaway together demoed the upcoming Ubisoft snowboarding title Shaun White Snowboarding, using the Balance Board to control the action.

Dunaway then introduced Satoru Iwata, who proceeded to talk about the limited common sense view of the games market. He said that under such common sense views no one could have believed that Nintendo could produce a best-selling bathroom scale. Also under such views, it is largely believed that video games sell on seasonal cycles. Yet, Nintendo can’t keep the Wii on shelves and is selling 200,000 DS systems a week in Europe regardless of the time of year.

Iwata says that he wants to destroy psychological barriers that exist towards video games, and that the video game industry cannot stand still. “We at Nintendo always challenge ourselves to be pioneers informing new paradigms. We seek fresh surprises.”

Iwata promises that some of the fresh surprises will appear today.

Katsuya Eguchi, the creator of Animal Crossing, takes the screen, and announces the Wii version of Animal Crossing, titled Animal Crossing: City Folk. This version of the game will have a city, and will feature communication enhancements. Animal Crossing will let you send text messages to other Wiis, computers, and phones.



Eguchi also announced WiiSpeak, a Wii microphone attachment that will allow voice communication throughout Animal Crossing’s online experience.



President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime takes the stage now to say that Animal Crossing Wii will come by the end of the year, as will WiiSpeak. He reiterated the sales success of Nintendo’s hardware, as well as the Pokemon franchise. Reggie shows us the numbers, and tells us he will not be surprised if the Wii will become the best-selling console this generation in the US, the way it has in the rest of the world.

Reggie goes back to the beginning, showing how Nintendo used Metroid and Mario to encourage the hardcore market in the early Wii days. He also discusses the initiatives Nintendo held in the new markets, led by Wii Sports and Wii Fit, before saying that there is now a third stage to software development in third parties, and that third party software is finding success.

Reggie says that there’s no way to show everything that’s coming, so instead he will show us only three titles. The first one is the announcement of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a new title which will feature head-to-head lightsaber duels powered by the Wii Remote.

The next is the announcement of Raving Rabbids: TV Party, which has the appearance of a minigame collection that will use both the Wii Balance Board and the Wii Remote for input. The third is Call of Duty: World at War, which can be played with the Wii Zapper.

Dunaway returns to the stage to talk about the changing demographics in the handheld market, how the handheld market is taking a larger chunk of out total game sales and that the ration of female to male DS owners is growing.

She then announces the sequel to Guitar Hero: On Tour, titled Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades. Little is revealed on the title before the discussion turns to EA’s Spore Creatures.

Dunaway then announced the next Pokemon Ranger game, Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia.

She then announces a new DS Grand Theft Auto, titled Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. It’s set in a modern day Liberty City, and will feature the gameplay that “players expect.” The game is not actually shown in any form.

But she says that the DS can also be more than a game system, but a companion for everyone. She hypothesizing on using the DS for activities like checking flight iteniraries before announcing that Cooking Navi is coming stateside as part of this endeavor.



Reggie returns to discuss the Wii MotionPlus accessory that was revealed yesterday, and that it will come with an expanded Wii Remote jacket as well as the sequel to Wii Sports, entitled Wii Sports Resort. Wii Sports Resorts will feature the new MotionPlus capabilities, and it is shown how the game can register all the minor movements of the hand and wrist. This is reflected in a Wii Sports Resort flying disc-throwing game. Reggie then plays the Wii Sports Resort water scooter game, before showing off a sword play game. The sword game really shows off the new MotionPlus capability, showing how slicing motion in any direction will show up in game.

Wii Sports Resort will be available next spring.



Reggie wants to introduce one more game though, that doesn’t need MotionPlus to be played. The lights dim and smoke fills the room, and drums appear on the screen. A man with a Wii Remote and nunchuk starts playing these on-screen drums.

Miyamoto at last arrives to show how to use the Wii Remote to play an in-game saxophone. The logo for Wii Music is displayed. The game will arrive for this year's holiday season, according to Nintendo.

Miyamoto says the game is designed for people who can’t play music to experience the joy of the process. There’s no notes or rhythm guides to follow, so mistakes aren’t possible. By moving your body you will be able to experience playing fifty different instruments. The drums were focused on in particular, as their implementation will use the Balance Board as pedals. There will also be a mode to teach you to play the drums in just a few weeks of practice.



To show off the game’s multiplayer orchestra mode, Miyamoto brings more players on to the stage. They then all play a different instrument on the Super Mario Bros theme, including the cowbell, xylophone, guitar, and trumpet.

The conference ends with a recap from Reggie and Dunaway, reiterating that a lot of Nintendo’s DS and Wii content today are exclusive to Nintendo hardware.

“We’ve all heard the same word,” says Reggie. “Fad. I’m here today to tell you that “fad” is no longer operable.” He cites all the copying that is going on in the market, saying that Nintendo disrupted the market, and now the next challenge is to disrupt our own thinking.