In a few days, nearly everyone remotely involved in the gaming industry will flock to the holy Mecca that is the Electronic Entertainment Expo. At this expo, developers will unveil months and years of hard work they have kept secret in a small vial hidden inside of a nun somewhere in Montana. Members of the media will be there to gather two scoops of exclusive interviews and news from everyone and their maid’s brother. I will be there, jaw on the floor, drooling, with a dazed look on my face thinking, "I can’t believe I am finally here." This is my normal appearance, but I assure you it will be much more pronounced while being surrounded by hundreds of games.
This year is expected to be an exciting year in the industry due to the introduction of the Microsoft X-Box and the Nintendo Gamecube to the console market. Both companies will be pushing their box as the most powerful, most entertaining, most likely to give you oral pleasure system since alcohol was discovered. Don’t expect Sony to sit quietly behind the camera merely watching this competition from outside the bedroom window. Sony will be showing their already-released console to be a better, more experienced choice due to being available for quite some time. All three manufacturers need to defeat criticisms sent to them like so many Flesh-Eating Death Robots of Death, while inflating the advantages each console has.
Nintendo
Nintendo is the company that is nearly synonymous with video games. They brought the US console industry back from the dead with the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System, and have continuously been perhaps the largest influence on the industry ever since. Unfortunately for Nintendo, as gamers who played Super Mario Brothers and Metroid grew up they moved on to what were considered more 'mature' consoles. With each new generation of system after the NES, Nintendo lost market share to companies that marketed towards the 'mature' gamer, first to Sega in the 16-bit era and to newcomer Sony in the 32/64 bit race. This is a major obstacle Nintendo must overcome; convincing the industry that the Gamecube is not just for kiddy games will be a hard task. Nintendo seems to be moving in the right direction, though, with rumors of games that would appeal more to older players being developed by Nintendo and second parties such as Rare and Retro Studios. Even with their horizons expanded, Nintendo will undoubtedly continue to serve cocktail weenies to the people who enjoy games such as Mario, Pokemon, and Kirby. Popular franchises such as these are the reason Nintendo is one of the most successful game publishers around and why they make more money then they can put in a Scrooge McDuck type vault.
Nintendo holds its cards incredibly close to its chest, to the point where it begin to cut itself and blood starts to soak through its shirt. They exist as a fairly innovative company, and they have been incredibly hesitant to mention anything pertaining to the Gamecube. This secrecy both helps and hurts them; no games have been officially announced from Nintendo. That means officially that no Zelda, no Mario, no Metroid exists on the Gamecube despite what the graphical demos shown at Spaceworld 2000 may have shown. Many consider the Gamecube to be vaporware for this very reason. Nintendo must make a strong showing of its various games it has in development at E3 to allay these doubts.
A final perception that exists concerning the Gamecube that Nintendo needs to address regards the power of the system in relation to other systems. Although few people outside of developers have seen any Gamecube games, rumors insist that it is graphically impressive. If these rumors are true then Nintendo should have no problem wowing the crowds at E3 with many beautiful half-naked women. The Gamecube system will also be an easy sell if it is as powerful as it is rumored to be. It remains unknown how many titles Nintendo will have playable or on video at E3, so expect a lot of surprises.
Nintendo also has a tiny little device that causes money to magically appear in their hands. A new form of this small device was recently released in Japan, which makes even more money appear. I imagine Nintendo will promote this device at least as much as the Gamecube, if not more so, at E3.
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