When we first saw Wii Sports Resortlast year, all Nintendo had available were three of the game’s events: swordplay, power cruising, and Disc Dog. It turns out that those three (quite polished) events are pretty much all that existed at the time. In the latest Iwata Asks interview, the Wii Sports Resort team reveals that they didn’t have anything but the idea of maybe doing another sequel until three months before E3 2008. Above, you can see what had been done: a MotionPlus test involving a virtual toy.
As usual, the Iwata Asks interview is full of surprisingly forthright discussion about the inner workings of Nintendo, including the team (and Shigeru Miyamoto) expressing its elation about a MotionPlus delay that allowed for more work on Resort, everyone’s relative confusion at Miyamoto’s “Wuhu Island” franchise idea, and, best of all, Miyamoto’s deceptive methods of team motivation.
At one point, Miyamoto announced in an interview that golf would be in Wii Sports Resort, and that the MotionPlus would allow backswing to control the strength of the swing, instead of just speed — and the team had to rush to actually put golf in the game afterward. Later, he describes how he faked a directive from Satoru Iwata to add an extra game mode. And apparently a programmer couldn’t demonstrate the archery feature for Miyamoto because he was too nervous to aim the bow properly.
Shigeru Miyamoto sounds like kind of a jerk, actually.
Michael Pachter, analyst for Wedbush Morgan, isn’t freaking out, and he wants you to know that you shouldn’t be either. He notes, while speaking on the subject of March NPD numbers, that even though the month saw hardware sales numbers drop across the board, that really has more to do with extraordinary sales for all comparable months. Speaking with GameSpot, Pachter said, “It’s entirely possible that we were just up against an impossible comparison … we’re looking at a comparison to Grand Theft Auto IV in April, so it’s likely that April will be down as well,” referring to the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl in March of 2008 and the subsequent month’s GTAIV.
What he does find worrisome, however, is declining Wii software sales after a year of strong console sales, reportedly doubling the system’s installed-base. “Given that the installed base of Wii consoles has doubled in the past year, we find it remarkable (and somewhat disconcerting) that Wii software sales were actually down year-over-year in March, dropping by $72 million, or 26 percent.” Pachter doesn’t see the future as grim though, pointing out that this summer’s release of Wii MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort should put some wind back in Nintendo’s sales sails. We’ll just have to wait ’til August NPDs are released to find out!
A GoNintendo reader by the name of Maxemillian_X recently snapped a picture of an upcoming release list from an Amsterdam-based gaming retailer which reveals two interesting pieces of Wii news. The first (and somewhat more reasonable) item is a supposed July 10 release date for the Wii Sports Resortand Wii MotionPlus bundle, as well as the standalone MotionPlus peripheral.
The second eye catching release date on the list is for Wii Fit Plus, which is apparently due out November 19, giving us plenty of time to find out what the hell it is. Given the pictured release list’s dubious origins (we don’t know what store it came from), we’re taking it with a healthy dose of trepidation. Still, a summer release for Wii Sports Resort and a follow up to Nintendo’s exergaming cash cow don’t seem beyond the realm of possibilities.
In the second year of the newly revamped show, Nintendo released a few much-desired games, as well as a pair of incredible peripherals, and yet, there seemed to be something missing. Much of the show’s excitement came from third parties (on my Nintendo Wii?), and some found Nintendo’s announcements disappointing. Whatever your reaction, we’re sure we can all agree on one thing: there was a ton of news and a flood of media. Luckily, you can revisit it all right here (even the week’s most outrageous story, which wasn’t even from E3).
We’ve listed a few of the show’s highlights below, but for the full index of all our 2008 E3 coverage, hit the break. We still have a few items rolling in, and we’ll be updating the index as that happens. Check back with us over the next few days by clicking the E3 sidebar graphic.
Wii Sports Resort’s E3 2008 demo completed in three months originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
A new Pikmin sprouts!
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Wii Sports Resort announced
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Wii Fanboy hands-on with Wii Sports Resort
