Nintendo GDC keynote underwhelms; confirms '07 release of next Mario

Whether Nintendo was legally bound or not from disclosing new information in light of a pending stock trade, the company failed to unveil any significant information during their GDC presentation today. It was a text book definition of keynote if there every was one for famed game designer Shigeru Miyamoto during his one hour speech. Highlights included the announcement of a new “Mii Popularity Contest” channel spearheaded by Miyamoto himself in addition to the vague confirmation of Super Mario Galaxy for Wii “this year” as expected.

The gist of Miyamoto’s presentation centered on the market expansion of games as Nintendo has evangelized several times before. The Mario creator recounted through a translator how it took his wife several years before she acquired an interest in gaming; and it was only after the DS and Wii were made available by Nintendo. “After all if we can convert my wife [into a gamer], we can convert anyone,” he told developers in attendance.

Outside of showing impressive new footage for Mario Galaxy — which is expected to sell well — the uneventful session transpired in sharp contrast to Sony’s unveiling of several new social gaming products yesterday. So will the keynote hurt Nintendo’s continued sales momentum? Probably not. But it didn’t do much to help either. Still, if one good thing came about for the company this week, it was by way of unprecedented third-party support from EA, the world’s largest game publisher. “The Nintendo Wii has allowed us to explore new and exciting game play possibilities and attract a whole new audience to EA games,” said EA executive Paul Lee. “In the upcoming year, we will continue to custom-design our most popular franchises and develop new EA properties that take full advantage of this unique gaming platform.”

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