The Wii U isn’t having a great first year. Nintendo’s latest home console is struggling to find an audience, and its battles will only get tougher as Sony and Microsoft unleash their next-gen systems this fall.

Nintendo chief executive officer Satoru Iwata claims that the problem is all with him and his company, according to an interview with CNBC.

“We are to blame,” said Iwata. “We relaxed our [marketing] efforts, so the consumers today still cannot understand what’s so good and unique about the Wii U.”

That’s probably true, but it also might understate the problem. In June 2012, CNN reported that the Wii U is an add-on accessory for the original Wii console. It’s likely that perception is still widely held by more casual customers.

“Because we’re always trying to be unique, it takes some energies on our side to [make] people understand the real attractions about whatever we are doing,” said Iwata “We have [also] been unsuccessful in coming up with one single [game] with which people can understand [why Wii U is different].”

On the Wii, that game was Wii Sports. The minigame collection helped teach players the different control styles using universally familiar sports like tennis and golf. Iwata recognizes that Nintendo Land doesn’t do the same thing for Wii U’s tablet controller.

“As long as people have hands-on [experience], they can appreciate the value of the Wii U,” said Iwata. “But because there’s not software that’s simple and obvious for people as Wii Sports for the Wii, potential consumers do not feel like trying the Wii U. Our challenge today is with the software lineup we are introducing now, we have to encourage [people] to experience the Wii U in the first place.”

In the six months following Wii U’s November release, the publisher didn’t just fail to release a game comparable to Wii Sports — it had nearly no support for the device at all. Nintendo and its publishing partners pushed games like Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101, and Rayman Legends out of the “launch window,” which extend until March.

Over the last three months, Wii U’s best-reviewed game, according to Metacritic, is Mutant Mudds Deluxe on its eShop download store. The only other notable releases for the system were multiplatform titles like DC fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us, HD remake Resident Evil: Revelations, and first-person shooter Sniper Elite V2.

Tomorrow, Nintendo will release New Super Luigi U, which is downloadable content for New Super Mario Bros. U. Beginning with that, Nintendo claims it will release at least one major game a month for the rest of the year. That includes Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Super Mario 3D World.

It’s a decent lineup, but it’s unlikely that any of those games will end up the Wii U’s Wii Sports — and that game almost certainly won’t come from Wii U’s waning third-party support.

Still, Iwata isn’t going to give up.

“I do not think we should become too pessimistic about the current situation with the Wii U,” said the executive. “I think we should pour that time and energy into our [development] efforts, so eventually we can encourage third-party [publishers] to want to support Nintendo.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The winner: Titanfall
Runners-up: The Division, Watch Dogs

Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs nearly won GamesBeat’s Game of the Show for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) for a second year in a row, but it may have split votes with another shooter from the same publisher, The Division. That left the door open for EA’s Titanfall (another shooter — sorry, that seems to be the dominant genre yet again at E3). It’s GamesBeat’s official E3 2013 Game of the Show.

Traditional mech-based shooters — think MechWarrior — are slow, lumbering affairs. But developer Respawn Entertainment infused these giant killer robots with modern speed. On-foot soldiers are nimble, too, with jetpacks that provide a quick boost to reach higher ground. The result is a very fast-paced first-person shooter with the zippiness of Call of Duty and all the good parts of Halo, Tribes, Hawken … well, you name it.

Since the GamesBeat staff split up and saw different things at the industry trade show, we wanted each writer to list their individual top threes to recognize more games that we’re excited about. Keep in mind, these are not finished products. Here are our favorites from what we saw.

For more coverage, please see our E3 page or click on the tags below the article.

Dan “Shoe” Hsu, GamesBeat editor-in-chief

1. The Evil Within (multiplatform)
2. The Division (multiplatform)
3. Dead Rising 3 (Xbox One)

*Note: I won’t put in a vote for Splinter Cell: Blacklist (see my disclosure here), but I want to give it an honest honorable mention here for its Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer mode.

Dean Takahashi, GamesBeat lead news writer

1. Titanfall (multiplatform)
2. Watch Dogs (multiplatform)
3. Dying Light (multiplatform)

Jeff Grubb, GamesBeat news writer

1. Titanfall (multiplatform)
2. Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)
3. Pikmin 3 (Wii U)

Source: Nintendo

Pikmin 3 (Wii U)

Giancarlo Valdes, GamesBeat correspondent

1. Eve-VR (PC/Oculus Rift)
2. The Wonderful 101 (Wii U)
3. Fantasia (multiplatform)

Sebastian Haley, GamesBeat correspondent

1. The Division (multiplatform)
2. Warframe (multiplatform)
3. Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)

Stefanie Fogel, GamesBeat correspondent

1. The Witcher 3 (multiplatform)
2. Transistor (multiplatform)
3. Contrast (multiplatform)

Source: Sony

Contrast (multiplatform)

Eduardo Moutinho, GamesBeat correspondent

1. Titanfall (multiplatform)
2. Watch Dogs (multiplatform)
3. Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (multiplatform)

Jasmine Rea, GamesBeat correspondent

1. Beyond: Two Souls (PlayStation 3)
2. Contrast (multiplatform)
3. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (multiplatform)

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Stay on top of all our E3 2013 coverage here.

LOS ANGELES — Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto kicked off Nintendo’s showcase at the Electronic Entertainment Expo today with a description of his latest game, Pikmin 3 for the Wii U.

Miyamoto did a demo that shows how good the Wii U is at rendering lots of the cute little garden creatures in a preview at Nintendo’s booth in the Los Angeles Convention Center. Pikmin 3 has been in the works for a long time, but Miyamoto began adapting it to the Wii U a couple of years ago because he felt he finally had the processing power required to do the game he envisioned.

Here’s a video of Miyamoto’s talk. Nintendo’s Bill Trinen provides the translation.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo took the world to Direct town again today with another livestreaming video show filled with information. This time the publisher put the spotlight primarily on its Wii U software lineup for the spring and summer.

You can see all of the detailed coverage of today’s event here, and check out all of the major trailers below:

Sonic & Mario at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games

Game & Wario

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

Pikmin 3

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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One of Nintendo’s “launch-window games” for the Wii U is slowly approaching its actual release date, and the publisher is dropping some details to build up the hype.

On Aug. 4, you can finally get the action-strategy title Pikmin 3. The sequel takes players back to the planet of the tiny plant creatures for an entirely new adventure. As part of its Nintendo Direct today, the company revealed the new cast of heroes that replace the original game’s Captain Olimar. This time, players control a boy named Alph, a scientist named Brittany, and a captain named Charlie.

These three explorers are from Koppai, a planet suffering from worldwide starvation. Charlie and his crew must find fruit on the Pikmin planet and return the seeds to their home. Thankfully, the Pikmin are willing to help them, which the explorers need their help since the fruit is gigantic.

Check out Nintendo president Satoru Iwata talk at length about the title:

Outside of the plot, Nintendo also revealed some information about how Pikmin 3 works compared to previous entries in the franchise. The three characters means players can divide into three teams. This should help skillful players quickly tackle complex objectives.

Pikmin 3 is also a little easier for newcomers because it is introducing an option to replay an area rather than forcing gamers who screw up to replay the whole level.

Finally, the company also revealed the multiple control schemes available in Pikmin 3. The GamePad is the most capable option. Players can obviously direct their characters and Pikmin using the device, but it also provides information about the map, the characters, and the Pikmin. If that’s not your jam, Nintendo is also providing support for the Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk combo. The game also works in off-TV mode on the GamePad for players that can use their TV.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Pikmin are growing wings and taking to the skies. Surely this is a sign of the end-times!

During a streaming Nintendo Direct presentation today, company president Satoru Iwata revealed the newest creature in the Pikmin series. We already know about the fire, water, high-jumping, poisonous, heavy, and rock types. Now, we have a Pikmin that can actually soar through the air on its wings.

Pikmin 3 is due out August 4.

The pink plant-bug things can carry objects over obstacles, which should help in solving many of Pikmin’s difficult puzzles.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Violence in video games is always a touchy subject. People worry what hours of virtual gun use might do to player’s real-world behaviors. Meanwhile, at Nintendo, they’re worried about the effects of in-game punching.

Super Mario Bros. creator Shigeru Miyamoto is certain that he doesn’t want Mario wielding an Uzi, but he wasn’t even entirely sold on the idea that the plumber should punch people in the Super Smash Bros. fighting game for the Nintendo 64.

“Mario is a character that, I feel, doesn’t need to use guns,” Miyamoto said in an interview with the The New York Times. “But when it comes to violence, you then have to ask, ‘So, if Mario doesn’t use a gun, is it appropriate for Mario to hit people?’ And, in fact, when we were creating the game Super Smash Bros., we had very long and deep discussions about whether or not we thought it was appropriate for Mario to hit people.”

Miyamoto and Nintendo obviously settled that debate with a resounding “yes.” In fact, he not only punches people, he also kicks them and sets them ablaze with his fire powers. Slapping Luigi around isn’t that far of a leap from jumping on Goombas.

The New York Times asked Miyamoto about the current discussion in the U.S. about game violence in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. elementary-school shooting. The paper asked the famed game designer flat out what he thinks about that conversation.

“That’s a difficult question,” said Miyamoto. “As someone who creates games and understands that children play those games, it’s a subject that I’m very sensitive about. We’ve seen through a variety of media that when people see or experience violence on screen, there is a certain amount of entertainment that people get out of that.”

Miyamoto created a number of Nintendo’s biggest franchises, like The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Pikmin. While few of those games ever feature guns, many feature violence. Every Zelda game features sword fighting, and creature-on-creature murder is rampant in Pikmin.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If perception is reality, then Nintendo could be in trouble. The company didn’t reveal its hardware sales numbers for January but Gamasutra estimates it’s somewhere around 55,000. That’s a tiny number, and it has the Nintendo doomsayers out proclaiming the end for the Japanese publisher’s home-console business.

One poor month doesn’t break a console, but the perception is that things won’t get any better for the 3-month-old system. It needs games, but even if Nintendo strings together a few hits, how can the Wii U possibly survive the oncoming threat of a new PlayStation and Xbox this year?

“I think they misfired on the Wii U,” Wedbush Securities managing director Michael Pachter told GamesBeat. “It’s just not that different from the other two [existing] consoles, and the gameplay isn’t as unique as the Wii. They made a mistake, it’s something they probably can’t recover from.”

In the same month that Nintendo failed to crack 100,000 Wii U consoles sold, Microsoft proudly sold another 281,000 units of the aged Xbox 360. If you feel like that’s an unfair comparison, then how about this: Through the first three months, Wii U sales are 38 percent lower than the original Wii.

If you don’t remember the launch of Wii, it was nearly impossible to get your hands on one. Had Nintendo kept up with demand, Wii sales would have been much higher. The Wii U is suffering from no such shortage.

“The Wii U sales do look pretty bad,” Endpoint Technologies Associated analyst Roger Kay told GamesBeat. “My sense is that Xbox 360 has the momentum at this point.  Dedicated hardware platforms are hard to maintain.”

What Nintendo needs to do

But Nintendo doesn’t need to outsell Sony or Microsoft to survive, although it would certainly help if the Wii U could keep up with the other hardware on the market. Consoles like the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube failed to outsell its competitors, but Nintendo still turned a profit throughout those hardware generations.

It could do the same this time. But how? Well, with games.

“Great games, unique to the platform, would be a very good start,” Baird analyst Colin Sebastian told GamesBeat.

“Games, games, and more games,” IDC research manager Lewis Ward told GamesBeat. “The relationship between key releases — primarily first-party titles — and hardware sales is especially clear in Nintendo’s case. The sooner they get titles like Pikmin 3 and Wii Fit U on the console side and Pokémon games and titles like Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS side on store shelves, the better.”

Ward has a point. January was a barren month for Wii U. Perhaps things will pick up again when games start rolling out. That’s Nintendo’s hope. The company held one of its Nintendo Direct streaming-video shows on Jan. 23 to highlight what it has in store for the home console: 3D Mario, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker remake, new Mario Kart.

Pachter doesn’t think that’s going to cut it.

“I think they have made a costly mistake [with the Wii U],” said Pacther. “And their handheld business can’t save them in the face of cannibalization from smartphones and tablets.”

Nintendo wasn’t ready

The Wii took off because it hit the market at the right time. Nintendo was the only company that was ready to offer a wide audience a different way to play games. That’s Nintendo’s core competency. The hardware giant knows how to experiment with game design.

So it makes sense that with the Wii U, it tried again to capture an audience with a new way to play: the GamePad tablet-like controller.

This device enables fresh ideas and gamer-friendly functionality, like playing console games while someone else watches television.

But that’s not what the market is hungry for. Gamers, and perhaps a wider audience, want a different approach to trying and buying games.

Apple has opened everyone’s eyes with the App Store — well, everyone except for Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.

Sony and Microsoft are going to throw powerful supercomputers at the market, but the battle over graphics is a dying paradigm.

The winner of the next “console race” is whoever can successfully combine the app store with triple-A gaming.

The Ouya and GameStick Android consoles are evidence that gamers are ready for a different distribution model than the $60 release that’s sustained this industry for so long. Those open Android-based systems are severely underpowered when it comes to visual performance, but Ouya raised more than $8 million on Kickstarter because people just want something different.

Valve is coming with its so-called Steam Box gaming PC for televisions because it knows that this is the right time to do something like that. Valve chief Gabe Newell isn’t even worried about the big three console manufacturers.

Newell is more worried about Apple, which is working on a software development kit that studios can use to create games and apps for the Apple TV.

Meanwhile, Nintendo has a touchscreen controller. I’m not saying Nintendo can’t still get into the game. All I’m saying is that, right now, it’s not even fighting the right battle.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

I can, at any given moment, tell you how long before BioShock Infinite releases in months, hours, and minutes. I keep that figure in my head at all times.

No lie, people in the gaming industry get to see and play some of the coolest, most anticipated games long before anyone else does, but generally speaking, that really only applies to the games they’re working on. Unless their desk is in the same building as the development team — and sometimes not even then — they have to sit around and wait just like everybody else.

So we polled a few famous names in the game industry and asked what they were waiting for. Specifically, we asked this: Aside from any project you’re involved in, what game are you looking forward to the most in 2013 and why?

Edmund McMillen, Team Meat (Super Meat Boy, Mew-Genics)

I’m most looking forward to playing The Witness. I was part of beta testing early on and actually asked to no longer be a part because I really wanted to experience the game how it was meant to be played.

Andy Gavin, author (Untimed) and retired cofounder, Naughty Dog (Jak and Daxter)

The Last of Us. I’m not personally involved, but call me twisted — the idea of a teen girl in a postapocalyptic world is pretty cool. And I’m not just talking sticking a girl in there gratuitously; Naughty Dog can be counted on to write a good story and actually deal with the visceral/emotional experience.

Dan “Shoe” Hsu, editor-in-chief, GamesBeat

BioShock Infinite, no doubt. Anyone who picks anything else for 2013 is simply crazy — don’t listen to any of the nonsense coming out of their mouths, ever. The original BioShock is one of the best games of all time, and I can’t wait to be immersed in another imaginative, dreamy (or nightmarish) world by the same developers.

Randy Pitchford, CEO, Gearbox Software (Borderlands 2, Aliens: Colonial Marines)

In just a few days, Ni no Kuni comes out, and I can’t wait! [Hey, Randy, it's out! --Ed.]

Jenova Chen, cofounder, Thatgamecompany (Journey)

I’m mostly looking forward to Grand Theft Auto V. I’ve seen some online in-game footage that really makes me fantasize about the things you can do in the game. I hope it delivers the fantasy.

Yoshinori Ono, producer, Capcom (Street Fighter IV)

I would have to go with Pikmin 3 for the Wii U! There hasn’t been a new release for this series in a while, so even if there aren’t many changes since the previous iteration, I am definitely looking forward to playing it. Nintendo must have some innovative ways to utilize the Wii U GamePad up their sleeves as well, so that is another thing I will be watching out for.

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Updated at 4:40 p.m. Pacific with Nintendo’s response and Q&A transcript.

You might not have to stop playing Pikmin 3 next time someone in the house wants to watch TV.

Those who like to play their games without interruption may be happy to know that Nintendo’s upcoming real-time strategy action game reportedly supports GamePad-only play.

According to IGN, famed game designer Shigeru Miyamoto told investors during a Nintendo financial meeting that gamers “can play this game only with Wii U GamePad.” He explained that it will be like playing with a “smaller but more detailed screen in your hands.”

Nintendo hasn’t said much about Pikmin 3. All we know is that it’s scheduled to release during the first half of 2013.

GamesBeat contacted Nintendo to verify that this is an accurate translation of Miyamoto’s words to investors, and a representative responded with the following:

Mr. Miyamoto did indeed say that. IGN pulled out the quote from our transcript of the investor meeting. Here’s the section they referred to:

Miyamoto:

With regard to “Pikmin 3″ for Wii U, I don’t want to be misconceived, but the biggest draw of this game is the higher-resolution images through the high-definition graphics. You can even see Pikmin’s gestures with the graphics. We are not going to put asymmetric gameplay in a game if it is unnecessary. In this game, you can see the entire map on Wii U GamePad. The two screens of the TV and Wii U GamePad will let you see what you are doing at any time during your gameplay, which alone is a great evolution for a strategy game. As a side note, you can play this game only with Wii U GamePad. If it is hard to imagine what it will be like, maybe you can recall the visuals of the original “Pikmin” for Nintendo GameCube and imagine how you can play it with the smaller but more detailed screen in your hands. The two control sticks of Wii U GamePad will let you play this game more comfortably and, with a TV screen, the gyro sensor inside Wii Remote Plus will further help your gameplay. Wii U GamePad will give you style variations of playing this game and playing only with Wii U GamePad might be a good experience for you. I hope you will like this game.

You can read the full transcript here.

Good news, everybody! I’m going to get to play a bunch of new Wii U games at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo! What? Aren’t you happy for me?

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced today during a Nintendo Direct video stream that the publisher will show off new installments of some of its biggest franchises at the June gaming conference. These games will be for the company’s newest system, the Wii U, which launched last November.

The Nintendo EAD Tokyo Software Development team, who previously gave us the Super Mario Galaxy series on the Nintendo Wii and Super Mario 3D Land for the Nintendo 3DS, is working on a new 3D Mario game that will be playable at E3.

We’ll also see the Wii U versions of racer Mario Kart and fighter Super Smash Bros. at the show. We know that Project Sora, the development team behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii and Kid Icarus: Uprising for the Nintendo 3DS, is working with Namco Bandai on the new Smash Bros. Iwata said that Nintendo will show the first screenshots of the game at the conference. Mario Kart will be playable.

Nintendo has a history of showing off new software at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Last year the venue gave gamers their first glimpses of Nintendo Land, Pikmin 3, and other Wii U exclusives ahead of the system’s launch. This year’s show will take place June 11-13 in Los Angeles.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This morning, Nintendo unveiled the release dates for large number of 3DS and Wii U games. We now know that publisher Capcom should release Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for Wii U and 3DS on March 19, however, we still don’t know anything about the North American release date for a handful of other expected games.

Here are the notable releases missing from the announcement:

• Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)
• Game & Wario (Wii U)
• The Wonderful 101 (Wii U)
• Wii Fit U (Wii U)

Nintendo released Animal Crossing in Japan in November. We North Americans are waiting for our turn to pay off our mortgage, and it looks like we’ll have to continue waiting through March.

The three Wii U games missing are notable because Nintendo once promised them as “launch window” games for their new home console. To Nintendo, that window included all releases from the system’s November 18 launch through the end of March.

This is the first hint that Nintendo could delay Game & Wario, The Wonderful 101, or Wii Fit U.

In December, the publisher pushed another Wii U “launch window” game, Pikmin 3, into the spring.

We’ve contacted Nintendo to see if it officially delayed the release of Game & Wario, The Wonderful 1010, and Wii Fit U. We will update this story with its response.

The full release list

Wii U

Activision

• The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct: March 26
• The Amazing Spider-Man Ultimate Edition: Sometime in March

Capcom

• Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate: March 19

D3Publisher

• The Croods: Prehistoric Party!: March 19

Electronic Arts

• Need For Speed: Most Wanted: March 19

Nintendo

• Lego City: Undercover: March 18

Sega

• Aliens: Colonial Marines: Q1

Ubisoft

• Rayman Legends: Feb. 26

Nintendo eShop for Wii U

Gaijin Games

• Bit.Trip Presents … Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien: Q1

Neko

• Puddle; Q1

Sega

• The Cave: Jan. 22

Tecmo Koei

• Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2: Feb. 7

Two Tribes

• Toki Tori 2: Q1

Zen Studios

• Zen Pinball 2: Q1

Nintendo 3DS

Atlus

• Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan: Feb. 26
• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers: April 16

Capcom

• Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate: March 19

D3Publisher

• The Croods: Prehistoric Party!: March 19

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate: March 5
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 3D: Feb. 12

Little Orbit

• Monster High: Skultimate Roller Maze: March 13

Namco Bandai Games

• Naruto Powerful Shippuden: March 5

Nintendo

• Brain Age: Concentration Training: Feb. 10
• Fire Emblem Awakening: Feb. 4
• Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins: April 21
• Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon: March 24
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity: March 24

Sega

• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: Feb. 12

Nintendo eShop for Nintendo 3DS

Agetec, Inc.

• Bloody Vampire: Jan. 31
• Witch’s Cat: Jan. 31

Big John Games

• Coaster Creator 3D: Q1

Capcom

• Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D: Q1

Disney Interactive

• Disney/Pixar Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue: Jan. 17

Maximum Games

• Deer Drive Legends: Jan. 17

Nicalis

• Ikachan: Q1
• Guxt: Q1

Nintendo

• Tokyo Crash Mobs: Jan. 17

Renegade Kid

• ATV Wild Ride 3D: Q1

Rising Star Games

• Jewel Master: Cradle of Egypt 2: March 19

Shin’en

• Nano Assault EX: Q1

Ubisoft

• Ghost Recon Shadow Wars: Jan. 24
• Splinter Cell: 3D Q1

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Epic Games president Michael Capps retired, Call of Duty: Black Ops II earned $1 billion in 15 days, Irrational Games pushed BioShock Infinite’s release date again, and Zynga filed to make real-money gambling games in Nevada.

You’ll also find reviews for Far Cry 3,  The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dragonborn, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Writer Rumble as well as previews for Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.

News:

• The DeanBeat: Expert advice on staying alive in Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer
• Army of TWO: The Devil’s Cartel makes the Mexican drug wars seem glitchy
• What do game investors think about Kickstarter?
• Irrational Games pushes back BioShock Infinite release date
• PMC and Machinima will tout this year’s DICE Summit video game awards show
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II beats Halo 4 in NPD’s dismal November game sales list
• These missing Tomb Raider games could be entombed for good
• Dishonored’s first downloadable add-on pack is all about challenging your skills
• This week in the Nintendo Download: Lego Lord of the Rings, Scribblenauts Unlimited, and New Super Mario Bros. 2
• Peanut Labs extends its self-serve platform for creating market surveys (exclusive)
• God of War: Ascension multiplayer finds a sweet spot between shooters and fighters
• With ex-Zynga developer carrying the flag, Kixeye invades Canada
• Zynga files for right to make real-money gambling games in Nevada
• Assassin’s Creed III’s first add-on pack is erasing player progress
• The Four Bikers of the Apocalypse usher in the second add-on pack for Trials Evolution
• Pikmin 3 slips out of Wii U ‘launch window,’ will debut in spring
• Fire Emblem Awakening out on 3DS in North America in early February
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II hits $1B in sales in 15 days
• Bunchball shows off the ‘rock stars’ of gamification
• ‘Toxic’ League of Legends player responds to his 1-year ban
• Zynga’s new theme park game CoasterVille goes live today
• Facebook announces top games of 2012: SongPop music trivia game comes out on top
• Social media surfaces layoffs at game companies NCSoft and Petroglyph
• A Wii U update is available now — it should improve system stability
• The Ins & Outs of PlayStation All Stars’ newest fighters: Kat and Emmett
• Epic Games president Michael Capps retires
• DICE slips in a Mirror’s Edge reference (tease?) into the latest Battlefield 3 expansion
• The Slingshot Content Pack for XCOM: Enemy Unknown available today
• First Assassin’s Creed III add-on pack available now for Season Pass holders
• Replay Games fetches a new game and a chief creative officer (exclusive)
• Guitar Hero co-creator’s Green Throttle Games raises $6M to reinvent TV games
• Adobe launches new cloud-based game development tools
• Dragonborn expansion definitely coming to PlayStation 3
• Try out wizard battles in Ni no Kuni’s magical world tomorrow (updated)
• Android game console maker Ouya shipping its developer prototypes this month

Mobile news:

• After closing OpenFeint, Gree cuts jobs in U.S. offices
• Ngmoco goes next-gen with high-end graphics in The Drowning tablet game
• Brazil’s biggest mobile content publisher unveils its first game for the U.S.
• Social casino app goes to the city with New York-New York slot machine
• Tylted welcomes several top social-game developers to its mobile platform
• PlayPhone adds 20 games to its mobile social gaming network
• German ‘startup factory’ HitFox expands globally with four new game distribution businesses
• Cut the Rope developer’s next game is Pudding Monsters
• Enterprise gamification goes big as Badgeville teams up with Capgemini
• Fingerprint Digital to launch 7 new mobile education apps for kids
• Rovio adds the ice world of Hoth to Angry Birds Star Wars
• Kabam acquires Balanced Worlds game studio in China
• Swarm hopes to swoop in and help out developers fed up with Gree (exclusive)
• The Walking Dead: Assault brings top-down black-and-white shooting action to iOS

Reviews:

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Dragonborn is a pint-sized Morrowind (review)
• Threeview: Call of Duty: Black Ops II reviewed by a critic, an analyst, and an academic
• Far Cry 3 is a superior rumble in the jungle (review)
• Writer Rumble is a vicious but therapeutic exercise for former English majors (review)

Interviews:

• Ben Cousins wants to prove mobile first-person shooters aren’t a pipe dream (interview)
• With a new leader, Ngmoco shoots for mobile gaming empire (interview)
• ‘Reverse Tetris’ puzzler Dream of Pixels may be critically acclaimed, but how is it selling? (interview)

Previews:

• Fast monsters in the tall grass will scare you to death in Crysis 3 (preview)
• Flutter is a kinder, gentler Pokémon with real-world butterflies (preview)
• Pull off some ridiculous time traveling heists in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (hands-on preview)
• Tomb Raider is at its best when it’s not emulating Uncharted (hands-on preview)

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Grab your nearest anthropomorphic plant and throw it at a giant bird because Nintendo is narrowing the release date for Pikmin 3.

The real-time action-strategy game will make its HD debut on the Wii U console sometime between April and June, according to the latest streaming video Nintendo Direct show.

You might remember earlier announcements about Pikmin 3 that categorized the title as a Wii U launch game. That was never exactly the case. Nintendo did list it as one of the system’s “launch window” releases, which meant it would hit retail before the end of March.

Of course, April is after March, so it looks like we have the first significant delay for a big Wii U game, relatively speaking.

The Pikmin series is Nintendo designer Shigeru Miaymoto’s ode to the creatures in his garden. It debuted on the GameCube, which is the system that also hosted the sequel. Fans of the series love the game for its cute characters and easy-to-pick-up gameplay.

Pikmin 3 will retail for $59.99.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Click here for all of GamesBeat’s Wii U launch coverage. 

Remember those crazy days when four-fifths of all Wii titles were minigame compilations, and they all sucked (except for those Nintendo made)? Seriously, I just described the last six years in one sentence. Well, it’s 2012 now, and Nintendo’s new console, the Wii U, definitely won’t go down that road again. Right?

Let me introduce you to Nintendo Land (releasing Sunday for the Wii U), a minigame compilation that draws from nearly every major Nintendo franchise (no, not Kid Icarus) for a jolly round of short-order fun. And like most entries in this much-maligned genre, you’ve got to dig deep to find a few aces in a deck stacked with jokers. But if you really want to throw the whole thing into chaos, all you really need to do is ask one little question: Who, exactly, is Nintendo Land for?

What you’ll like

The variety
By the time you roll through all 12 of Nintendo Land’s games, you’ll have a well-rounded understanding of what the Wii U and its WiiPad tablet controller can do, because nearly each one uses the pad differently. Some of the applications come off as really rather clever, and the Plaza — the eponymous amusement park hub world — shows off the system’s fluid augmented-reality capabilities.

“No two are the same” would be overstatement, but I like a lot of the inventive hardware applications here. Donkey Kong’s Crash Course relies mainly on the accelerometer as you tilt a very fragile Mii cart down a very rough obstacle maze. Yoshi’s Fruit Cart has you guide the little dinosaur through a landscape to gobble up fruit and presents, and here’s the twist: You use the stylus to draw his path on the WiiPad, but the prizes only appear on the TV screen. Simple, elegant, and quite fiendish.

Taken as a whole, you get nice a sense of experimentation, imagination, and play, and that’s not a bad thing to bring to a game. Or a party, for that matter.

Metroid Blast, Mario Chase, and Balloon Trip Breeze
When Nintendo debuted the Wii U back in 2011, it used two “tech demos” that I hoped would graduate into full games. They did, and they’re the best two offerings in Nintendo Land’s collection.

Mario Chase (formerly Mii Chase) casts one player as Mario on the WiiPad, with an overview of a fairly small maze. Up to four other players play as Toads and have two minutes to tackle Mario. With a full complement of players, it’s nothing short of thrilling. Metroid Blast (née Mii Battle) also showcases that brand of asymmetrical gameplay — the Wii U’s big strength — by transforming your Miis into ground-based Samus Arans; one player on the WiiPad gets her flying gunship. Solo, co-op, and versus modes all get good attention here. Thankfully, Nintendo scaled the gunship’s health back considerably from the tech demo, making it much more of a fair fight. The controls all come with a serious learning curve, but once you master them, Metroid Blast stands out as an immensely entertaining shooter.

Both games also upscaled to multiple maps, and Metroid Blast added a 20-stage campaign to its repertoire. It starts out gently, but eventually Mecha-Ripley and Mecha-Kraid come for you. The boss battles measure up nicely against Metroid’s famously brutal fights.

I expected those two to impress, but Balloon Trip Breeze pleasantly surprised me with sturdy, blissfully cruel neo-platforming. You sweep your floating Mii courier along with stylus/finger-swiped breezes, guiding him/her through an increasingly rough gauntlet of floating pins, rival ballooners (dispatched with a tap on the head, Mario-style), and bad weather. It scales up rapidly and I loved every evil thing it did to me.

The party games

Even though half of Nintendo Land’s games fall under the “Solo Attractions” list, you can play them all with — or against — friends, and that’s really how you’re supposed to do it. The “Attraction Tour,” launched by hopping on a train in the Plaza, gives you a time limit and a decent sample platter of games to play. With a good group of friends at the ready, a fair number of those minigames will play well to the crowd whether or not they’re gamers.

In fact, I wouldn’t hesitate to pull out most of the minigames I’ve mentioned so far and show them to friends at one of my get-togethers. I’d also add Luigi’s Ghost Mansion to the list; it’s a variation on Mario Chase where the hunted gets to become the hunter. It’s all fast, light, and (with the exception of Metroid Blast) easily accessible, and that’s what party games need to be.

But a lot of Nintendo Land needs to be something more than it is.

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This morning, Nintendo finally announced the price and launch date for its upcoming Wii U video game console as well as its new TVii feature that lets you use it as a Netflix/Hulu/Tivo/whatever box. Of course, you can also play video games on the Wii U, and we have the complete list of the system’s launch window games, as well as screenshots of many of them.

The Wii U console is in stores Nov. 18, with the basic version costing $300 and the deluxe $350; for specifics on each package, see our story from this morning.

Now, the system’s “launch window” extends from when the Wii U comes out all the way until March of next year. That means a few of these might not actually be available in 2012, but Nintendo still includes them in the “launch window.” It makes sense if you try not to think about it too much.

Either way, check out the list and gallery below to see all of the games you’ll be playing on your hot new Wii U … at some point within the next six or seven months.

• Funky Barn
• NBA 2K13
• 007 Legends
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II
• Transformers Prime
• Wipeout 3
• Skylanders Giants
• Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013
• Rapala Pro Bass Fishing
• Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
• Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game
• Ben 10: Omniverse
• Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade
• Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
• Mass Effect 3
• Madden NFL 13
• FIFA Soccer 13
• Trine 2: Director’s Cut
• Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
• Zumba Fitness Core
• Jett Tailfin
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition
• Tank! Tank! Tank!
• Nintendo Land
• New Super Mario Bros. U
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge
• Sing Party
• Lego City: Undercover
• Wii Fit U
• Game & Wario
• Pikmin 3
• The Wonderful 101
• Aliens: Colonial Marines
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Nano Assault Neo
• Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper
• Darksiders II
• Wheel of Fortune
• Jeopardy!
• Toki Tori 2
• Assassin’s Creed III
• Just Dance 4
• Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth
• Rabbids Land
• ESPN Sports Connection
• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
• ZombiU
• Rayman Legends
• Scribblenauts Unlimited
• Game Party Champions
• Batman: Arkham City — Armored Edition

The gallery is below, but if you prefer your pictures to move and have sound, take a look at these Wii U launch trailers.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Mystery and intrigue continues to surround the launch of the Wii U. Nintendo said its new console is arriving on store shelves sometime later this year, but it has yet to provide a specific release date.

During GameStop’s second quarter earnings call this morning, the world’s largest game retailer remains adamant that the Wii U will launch this fall despite investors’ verbal concerns in a question-and -answer session.

“We have to be pragmatic about the Wii U,” said Paul Raines, the chief executive officer of GameStop. “We do have a Wii U launch built into our plans this holiday…. There is going to be a Wii U.”

One caller asked how prepared GameStop is if Nintendo’s naysayers turn out to be right and the Wii U doesn’t sell so well at all in the holiday season. “We’ll talk about what we said all along,” said Robert Lloyd, the chief financial officer of GameStop. “We’re cautious, because we’ve been through Nintendo launches before. We’re confident that we’ll get a nice share of [console] allocations. [But] we can’t control the overall quantity in the market.”

“Our market share now is roughly doubled,” Raines said. “There are naysayers [on the Wii U], it’s true. But if you believe that device will get any sales at all, GameStop will get an outsized [piece] of that.”

GameStop president Tony Bartel added that Nintendo is planning a strong multimedia ad campaign for the Wii U. “We see tremendous demand and interest in [new] consoles,” he said, “evidenced by our capability to do contests and surveys with our customers. Even among our employees, there is strong excitement for the Wii U.”

“There is tremendous appetite for IP on the new consoles,” said Raines. “[Such as the reaction to] seeing Pikmin for the Wii U at E3. [But] the challenge is consumers have to see innovation.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The sensory smorgasbord of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) heaved itself upon the video game industry for three straight days, and GamesBeat’s intrepid crew enthusiastically hit showfloors, conference halls, and meeting rooms to offer our readers piles of previews, interviews, and news.

What follows below is our collected coverage during the show. You’ll find everything here sorted into categories for easy navigability.

Awards

Who needs stickers? We analyzed, judged, and sorted our top picks for the show’s offerings directly for you. Take a look — the results might surprise you.

GamesBeat’s E3 2012 Game of the Show…plus staff picks – by Dan “Shoe” Hsu

The GamesBeat E3 non-award awards: The least prestigious awards in the industry – by GamesBeat staff

The coolest technologies we saw at E3 2012 – by Dean Takahashi

The best family games of E3 – by GamesBeat staff

The top 8 trends of E3, from bows to brutality – by Mike Minotti

The top 15 swag shirts of E3 2012 – by Rus McLaughlin

Previews

You’ve found the beating heart of E3′s overwhelming magic. Whether from observatory impressions or direct, hands-on experiences, GamesBeat discussed and dissected a sizable stable of upcoming games and hardware.

Hands-on

Hitman Absolution lets you perform hits in giant crowds – by Dean Takahashi

Metro Last Light fights shooter fatigue with deeper single player – by Dean Takahashi

Crysis 3 brings the jungle, gun hacking, and silent stealth kills to Manhattan – by Dean Takahashi

EA reveals Dead Space 3, coming with drop-in cooperative play – by Dean Takahashi

Sleeping Dogs turns Hong Kong crime movies into a video game – by Dean Takahashi

From the creator of Portal, Quantum Conundrum caters to physics-based puzzle gamers – by Dean Takahashi

Capcom remakes hack-slash-shoot-grapple formula with upcoming DmC: Devil May Cry – by Dean Takahashi

Capcom shows three playable characters for Resident Evil 6 – by Dean Takahashi

Finding similarities between Arma III and Carrier Command: Gaea Mission – by Omri Petitte

Neverwinter’s user-generated content could elevate it above the competition – by Stefanie Fogel

DmC: Devil May Cry is full of swagger…and F-bombs – by Eduardo Moutinho

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed leaves Mario Kart in its dust…and wake…and vapor trail – by Mike Minotti

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is an anime you can actually play – by Eduardo Moutinho

Sony Online Entertainment’s PlanetSide 2 – by Rob LeFebvre

Slice, dice, and julienne enemies in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – by Eduardo Moutinho

Medal of Honor: Warfighter deploys fire teams to the front lines – by Eduardo Moutinho

Hell Yeah! is like Metroid with a chainsaw jetpack-riding demon bunny – by Mike Minotti

Dead or Alive 5 wants to deliver a power blow to the competition – by Eduardo Moutinho

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s simplicity is just what consoles need – by Omri Petitte

Hands-off

Just what kind of game is Star Wars 1313? – by Dean Takahashi

Warner Bros. confirms LEGO: Lord of the Rings video game – by Dean Takahashi

EA’s cute The Act romance game exploits iPad’s touchscreen for unique gameplay – by Dean Takahashi

Turn the snow crimson with redcoat blood in Assassin’s Creed III – by Dean Takahashi

Far Cry 3 demo leads you deeper into drug-induced insanity – by Dean Takahashi

Quantic Dream’s Beyond: Two Souls is one of the best games of E3 – by Dean Takahashi

The 5 different games you’ll be playing in Dishonored – by Sebastian Haley

Final Fantasy XIV brings new gameplay and western sensibilities to venerable franchise – by Rob LeFebvre

Windows 8 works hard to meet the needs of all gamers – by Rob LeFebvre

A trio of Mario games strengthen Nintendo’s 3DS lineup – by Mike Minotti

OnLive’s MultiView spectating entices multiplayer and co-op gamers – by Omri Petitte

Player choice matters in The Walking Dead: Episode 2 – by Stefanie Fogel

The Last of Us is even smarter than you think – by Rus McLaughlin

Star Wars 1313 is a game of firsts for the sci-fi franchise – by Eduardo Moutinho

The adventure-game renaissance continues with The Cave – by Eduardo Moutinho

Heroes and villains join forces in Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion – by Mike Minotti

007 Legends proves personality makes or breaks a game – by Omri Petitte

Breaking down what’s exactly new in God of War: Ascension – by Dan “Shoe” Hsu

Turning technology against your friends in Watch Dogs – by Omri Petitte

Interviews

Chasing after the wayward developer or evasive executive amid a sea of journalists and industry luminaries didn’t slake our interview appetite, and we nabbed a slew of thoughtful talks with members across various gaming companies. Take a look.

Why Ubisoft is pouring a lot of resources into Wii U games – by Dean Takahashi

Harvest Moon creator wants to spread happiness with his new game – by Jacob Lopez

How Shenmue’s lead programmer rescued a bad game – by Jacob Lopez

The Last Story developer talks Operation Rainfall, reason for cover system, and Wii U – by Jacob Lopez

With 1.3B tanks obliterated and 30M players, Wargaming.net plans to conquer the online gaming world – by Dean Takahashi

Even Scribblenauts’ creator is surprised by the things people make in his new game – by Jacob Lopez

The Witcher developer CD Projekt RED wants to set new standards with Cyberpunk – by Stefanie Fogel

Japan’s Gree moves mobile gaming into the spotlight at E3 – by Dean Takahashi

THQ’s Brian Farrell talks about looking for a bottom and staging a comeback – by Dean Takahashi

Crytek says CryEngine 3 already does awesome graphics as good as Unreal Engine 4 – by Dean Takahashi

Our opinions

During the craze-filled days of E3, our minds typically busied themselves with ensuring our legs avoided snapping off our torsos and running away with yelping noises. But sometimes, a cohesive thought miraculously coalesced within our overloaded brainpans. Our hands shakily reached for the keyboard, keys started tapping, and well…these are the results.

The DeanBeat: What to expect at E3 – by Dean Takahashi

4 ways developers will use SmartGlass to enhance Xbox 360 experiences – by Dan “Shoe” Hsu

Nintendo’s Wii U: Safe on first, weak on third-party – by Rus McLaughlin

Why Nintendo will have a tough time adding a second GamePad tablet controller to the Wii U – by Dean Takahashi

Tomb Raider is not torture porn – by Rus McLaughlin

Would it be a mistake for E3 to move out of LA? – by Dean Takahashi

Bored, impressed, and giddy: Our final thoughts on E3 2012 – by Dan “Shoe” Hsu

Move over, consoles – mobile is the future – by Rob LeFebvre

Microsoft’s E3 2012: Analysis of 16,000+ comments shows Halo 4, South Park impressed, rest did not – by Andrew Hiscock

Sony’s E3 2012: Analysis shows “shotgun blast” won big, Wonderbook lost – by Andrew Hiscock

Nintendo’s E3 2012: Reactions show hardcore gamers lost faith in Wii U – by Andrew Hiscock

Memes

All it takes is one memorable quote, one Freudian slip, or some facepalm-worthy banter to prompt the Internet community’s creative and unrestrained hand at animated gifs, a worshipful use of Impact font, and hastily jangled Photoshop edits. Here’s what we’ve found.

The best memes of E3 – by Jeff Grubb

Remember these crazy memes from past E3s? – by Jeff Grubb

The wildest memes from the Microsoft E3 press conference – by Jeff Grubb

Silly memes inspired by Sony’s E3 press event – by Jeff Grubb

Aisha Tyler: Ubisoft’s meme machine – by Rus McLaughlin

The oddest Nintendo E3 gifs and Photoshops from the Internet – by Jeff Grubb

Galleries

We snapped plenty of pictures while attending parties, pressers, and meandering the showfloor. Direct your eyeballs upon these galleries, and enjoy the view!

The big gallery of E3′s huge banners – by Mike Minotti

E3 2012 will get your hands up – by Evan Killham

Our editor-in-chief’s E3 adventure – by Evan Killham

The many costumes of E3 2012 – by Jacob Lopez

Retro games have a place at E3, too – by Jasmine Rea

Videos

Dubstep. A beleaguered Lara Croft. Ham-handed hosts. No, this isn’t the latest entry in Alex Trebek’s dream diary — it’s some of our E3 video and trailer content below. Enjoy!

Tomb Raider trailer shows how Lara Croft feels sorry for shooting you – by Dean Takahashi

Konami pre-E3 2012 event: More Castlevania and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – by Jasmine Rea

Ubisoft shows strong commitment to the Wii U – by Mike Minotti

6 awkward moments from the E3 press briefings – by Evan Killham

Why we wub wub wub E3 2012: The dubstep of E3 – by Jacob Lopez

Press conferences

Surprises and snooze-fests alike emanated from E3′s five major press briefings held by Microsoft, Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Check out all the announcements and debuts here.

Microsoft (video)

Halo 4 trailer video shows Forerunners, new tech – by Rob LeFebvre

New Splinter Cell: Blacklist borrows from Uncharted – by Jeff Grubb

Gears of War: Judgment sets Sera on fire (again) – by Rus McLaughlin

Microsoft previews Xbox Music at E3 press conference – by Rob LeFebvre

Forza Horizon brings street racing to the franchise – by Jasmine Rea

Microsoft introduces Xbox SmartGlass to integrate smartphones and tablets with Xbox 360 – by Dean Takahashi

Nike+ Kinect Training brings in-depth fitness measuring to Xbox 360 – by Jeff Grubb

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer coming to Xbox 360 this fall – by Jacob Lopez

Usher hits the stage to announce Dance Central 3 – by Rob LeFebvre

Xbox Live is getting Nickelodeon, Machinima, and tons of live sports – by Tom Cheredar

Kinect voice commands hit EA Sports flagship titles – by Eduardo Moutinho

South Park creators introduce their game and playfully mock Microsoft – by Jeff Grubb

New Xbox 360 games coming from Signal Studios, Twisted Pixel, and…Gore Verbinski? – by Stefanie Fogel

Microsoft E3 2012 press conference recap…in limerick form – by Andrew Hiscock

Electronic Arts (video)

SimCity Social: If this free-to-play game is too good, will you pay $60 for the full PC version? – by Dean Takahashi

EA reveals Battlefield 3 Premium and fields “15 million players worldwide” – by Omri Petitte

Star Wars: The Old Republic gets new planet, new species, and free trial – by Jacob Lopez

EA nabs UFC from THQ – by Jeff Grubb

Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s beautiful carnage – by Rus McLaughlin

EA shows off Need for Speed: Most Wanted at E3 – by Rob LeFebvre

Ubisoft (video)

Rayman Legends rhythmically runs to the Wii U – by Eduardo Moutinho

You are the network in Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs – by Rus McLaughlin

Here’s where that Watch Dogs cube-head QR code goes – by Jeff Grubb

Sony (video)

Experimental developer Quantic Dream reveals the haunted life of Jody Holmes in Beyond – by Jasmine Rea

Nathan Drake and the Big Daddy Bouncer join PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale – by Mike Minotti

J.K. Rowling is writing PlayStation’s Wonderbook – by Rus McLaughlin

Sony announces Assassin’s Creed III Vita and PS3 bundles with exclusive content – by Jeff Grubb

Sony brings down the house with The Last of Us demo – by Dean Takahashi

Sony E3 2012 press conference recap…in limerick form – by Andrew Hiscock

Nintendo (video)

Social networking comes to Wii U, Miiverse will interface with PCs and phones – by Jasmine Rea

First look at action-strategy game Pikmin 3 – by Jeff Grubb

Nintendo confirms 23 games at E3, video streaming, and more for Wii U – by Mike Minotti

Wii Fit U will make you sweatier, livelier, and happier – by Rob LeFebvre

Brag to the Miiverse and take on new modes in New Super Mario Bros. U – by Eduardo Moutinho

Zombify your face with ZombiU for the Wii U – by Mike Minotti

Nintendo bets big on “asymmetric” tablet-based gameplay – one player against several – by Dean Takahashi

Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition utilizes Wii U’s GamePad screen – by Omri Petitte

Nintendo details 3DS Mario titles, Luigi’s Mansion, and third-party games – by Jeff Grubb

Nintendo Land brings asymmetrical multiplayer to Wii U – by Jasmine Rea

Nintendo’s E3 2012 press conference recap…in limerick form – by Andrew Hiscock

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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NeoGAF, one of the Internet’s most popular video game message boards, received over 16,000 posts during the three major Electronic Entertainment Expo press conferences. Now that E3 is over, we can take a look back at how these hardcore gamers reacted and draw interesting conclusions on what they thought of the industry’s biggest trade show of the year.

We’ve already seen how NeoGAF reacted to Microsoft and Sony’s press conferences, but what did the gaming community think of Nintendo’s? The below chart scores the members’ reactions, as posted in real-time:

Click for a full-size version. For a more detailed explanation of how we analyzed this data, please see the explanation at the end of this article.

What NeoGAF liked about the Nintendo press conference

Only three games registered as positive. The forum members received Pikmin 3 very warmly, and they gave it the highest reaction score of the press conference, while New Super Mario Bros. U and Scribblenauts Unlimited received largely positive comments for a very brief amount of time.

Otherwise, NeoGAF absolutely loved Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s legendary game designer, and Reggie Fils-Aime, president and COO of Nintendo of America.

The only other item that received a positive score was the announcement that the Wii U will support two GamePad tablet controllers at the same time.

What they didn’t like

NeoGAF reacted poorly to just about everything else. Posters lambasted established franchises such as Paper Mario and New Super Mario Bros. They dismissed revitalized and new intellectual properties such as Luigi’s Mansion and ZombiU, respectively. They outright destroyed any talk of motion-controlled games such as Wii Fit Plus and casual titles like Sing and Just Dance 4.

In fact, after Reggie Fils-Aime acknowledged the popular meme “my body is ready” in the 34th minute (which everyone thought was good fun), Nintendo did not generate a positive score for the rest of its morning press conference.

The worst individual minute occurred during the trailer for Sing, reaching a score of -117, which is extraordinary. To put this in perspective, I performed this same study in 2009, and the infamous Wii Vitality Sensor introduction scored only a -80. Sing’s lowest point was the worst E3 2012 press conference moment, beating out even Sony’s Wonderbook (though that scored lower overall due to it being a much longer demo).

Perhaps more interestingly, while the scores for the other conferences went up and down and back up throughout, Nintendo started very strong and then steadily went down from there. One could argue that this was just a result of what they showed and when they showed it. The 6,000+ posts of the NeoGAF thread on Nintendo made it clear that, as the press conference progressed, gamers were becoming increasingly disillusioned by the Wii U. By the end, the majority had lost faith.

This may have major ramifications for Nintendo. The Japanese company lost a big opportunity to court hardcore gamers during this press conference with a console many hoped would engage that very audience. With predicted new console launches next year, Microsoft and Sony could learn valuable lessons from Nintendo’s conference if they want to get core gamers excited.

That could be a big “if.” Video game consoles are much more versatile entertainment devices, engaging a much wider audience. Perhaps, as many members of NeoGAF fear, E3 is not for the hardcore gamer anymore.

Next year’s E3 press conferences should prove very interesting. With the possibility of new game systems, will Microsoft and Sony seek to please hardcore gamers? Or will they continue their momentum in search of more casual audiences?

The most valuable lesson they can learn here: Don’t try to appeal to gamers — as Nintendo repeatedly claimed to do throughout its 70 minutes on stage — and not deliver. As we’ve discovered, hardcore gamers are very hard to impress.

For more on how NeoGAF reacted to the E3 press conferences, check out the Microsoft and Sony studies.

How the scoring works

NeoGAF hosts a single message board thread for each press conference, where dozens of members comment throughout each show. I graded each comment as positive or negative, giving them scores of 1 or -1 respectively. Then I totaled the sum of these reactions for each discrete minute and plotted in the above chart. A high score means that the NeoGAF community liked what they saw; a score close to zero represents mixed reactions; and a low score means that they were not enjoying the show at that moment.

Some notes on how I scored each response:

• I made no distinction between really positive or somewhat positive comments — likewise for negative comments. Each was given either a score of 1 or -1.
• While I made every effort to understand the various memes and inside jokes that make up a large part of the responses, if I could not understand a response, I would not score it.
• In the event that a comment employed obvious sarcasm, I scored it to reflect the original intent of the commentator. If the sarcasm was not clear, I relied on the literal meaning of the comment. Fortunately, the very expressive NeoGAF community rarely employed subtle sarcasm.
• When comments included positive and negative observations, I accounted for the more immediate reaction to preserve a more real-time response. An example: “I liked the game that was shown at the beginning of the show, but this game now is bad” would have a negative score.
• Many comments weren’t scored as they offered no opinion. These included clarifications, questions, discussions between members unrelated to the press conference, and inquiries into whether one game or another would be shown at a later time.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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We know how you feel. E3 is in full swing, and you can’t hear yourself think over the non-stop din of news breaking. Who’s going to clean up all of that news, anyway? What if someone cuts himself on a news shard and sues? Don’t worry; it’s taken care of. We’re posting all of GamesBeat’s coverage for each day of E3 in convenient (and lengthy) roundups, and you can keep track of them all by searching for “E3 roundup” in that search bar up there.

Today, Nintendo held the last of E3′s five major press conferences. We got a lot more information about the Wii U hardware and its software lineup, and then the GamesBeat crew descended upon the show floor to get some hands-on time with the biggest games of the show. We also threw in some silly memes, just for fun.

6 awkward moments from the E3 press conferences (videos)

Why Nintendo will have a tough time adding a second gamepad tablet controller to the Wii U

E3 2012: The 5 different games you’ll be playing in Dishonored (preview)

The oddest Nintendo E3 gifs and Photoshops from the Internet

E3 2012: Nintendo’s Wii U: Safe on first, weak on third-party

Dark Souls Prepare to Die edition coming to Steam and with additional content

Capcom shows three playable characters for Resident Evil 6 (hands-on preview)

Ni No Kuni gets an official launch date and new enemy reveal

Capcom remakes hack-slash-shoot-grapple formula with upcoming DmC: Devil May Cry (hands-on preview)

Dragon Ball Z Kinect lets you fight like Saiyan in the privacy of your living room

Tekken Tag 2 wants you to be a better fighting game player

The Wii U game from the Bayonetta developer that Nintendo didn’t show during its E3 event

Aisha Tyler: Ubisoft’s meme machine

Nintendo Land brings asymmetrical multiplayer to Wii U

Nintendo details 3DS Mario titles, Luigi’s Mansion, and third-party games

Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition utilizes Wii U’s GamePad screen

Nintendo bets big on “asymmetric” tablet-based gameplay — one player against several

Zombify your face with ZombiU for the Wii U

Brag to the Miiverse and take on new modes in New Super Mario Bros. U

Wii Fit U will make you sweatier, livelier, and happier

Nintendo confirms 23 games at E3, video streaming, and more for Wii U

First look at action-strategy game Pikmin 3 (gallery)

Social networking comes to Wii U, Miiverse will interface with PCs and phones

From the creator of Portal, Quantum Conundrum caters to physics-based puzzle gamers (hands-on preview)

Sleeping Dogs turns Hong Kong crime movies into a video game (hands-on preview)

Nyko’s Free Fighter arcade fight stick is southpaw-friendly (gallery)

4 ways developers will use SmartGlass to enhance Xbox 360 experiences

Silly memes inspired by Sony’s E3 press event

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Make no mistake, Nintendo has its own content well in order. Beloved franchises came back on deck for yet another outing: New Super Mario Bros. U promises more party-platforming entertainment, and the newly announced Pikmin 3 looks nothing short of gorgeous, a grand adventure in miniature. It immediately nails the cool, shady, moist atmosphere of your backyard where, if you just looked close enough, you might just catch Captain Olimar leading scores of multicolored Pikmin into whimsical battle.

But where was everyone else?

I’m not talking about Super Smash Bros. U, which didn’t get a mention after being teased last year. No, I’m wondering where all the third-party magic went after last year’s sizzle reel promised us a dozen excited developers talking up the Wii U’s potential. And more importantly, where did that potential go?

Fair where fair’s due, Nintendo fit what it could into its 90-minute conference, and it’s entirely possible they just didn’t have room to squeeze in more than three extra companies (Warner Bros. Interactive, 5th Cell, and Ubisoft). But what they gave top priority to, while absolutely not duds in and of themselves, still felt very worrying.

For starters, the list of third-party titles in this year’s sizzle reel hasn’t changed any, save for a few subtractions and one big addition. Mass Effect 3 on a Nintendo console sounds huge…but it’s also last year’s game, available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. So are Ninja Gaiden 3 and Batman: Arkham City. Only one, Tank! Tank! Tank!, is exclusive to the platform, and it just doesn’t look like a killer app.

The demo for Arkham City using the Wii U’s signature GamePad tablet controller in particular didn’t show much uniqueness. Inventory control? Steering bararangs? Detonating explosive gel? All things you can do on a 360 or PS3 controller. A new “B.A.T.” mode to put a touch more whoopass in your arsenal (merely activated from the GamePad) doesn’t really convince me to wait until I can play this game on this system. In fact, I didn’t.

And that’s the base problem Nintendo’s facing. Unlike the Wii, which skyrocked on its novelty and crossover appeal, the Wii U will have to fly without a general sense of good will. They’re up against casual gamers willing to stand pat with the older console and core gamers who saw their Wiis gather dust between interesting first-party games. Drawing the latter back means more great games releasing far more consistently than the Wii ever managed.

More than that, to succeed, the Wii U must establish that it’s not simply a good alternative to the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, but that games actually play better with a GamePad in the mix. So far, I have yet to see anything that makes these games the definitive editions that are worth waiting for.

That’s where Ubisoft’s zompocalypse shooter ZombiU offers some hope. As the one real third-party exclusive, it shows the GamePad used in smart ways. It’s the primary controller, and you can look down at its touch screen for information and functions vital to your survival: It’s your radar to track enemies, it scans on-screen objects, it’s a keypad to hack doors, and yes, you also run your inventory from it. But it feels far more integrated into the core gameplay and not smashed in as an afterthought feature.

That makes it better…perhaps even unique.

Another important distinction Nintendo should start making? They haven’t jumped on the Online Pass train; Batman: Arkham Asylum: Armored Edition won’t lock the Catwoman levels with a one-time-use code that must be purchased by second-time users. That’s an advantage I can readily see becoming a major differentiator as pass-locking on-disc content becomes a standard occurrence in coming years.

And they should start doing that right now. It generally takes developers a while to truly get the hang of Nintendo’s innovative frameworks and interfaces and turn them into innovative gameplay. But with Microsoft and Sony poised to one-up Nintendo with new, more powerful consoles next year and Nintendo’s finances taking a hit in recent months, the clock might tick louder — and faster — than before.

“Unique” might save them. But not without “more” and “better.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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At its Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) preshow presentation, famed Mario designer Shigeru Miyamoto introduced Pikmin 3, the third entry in a series of GameCube titles focused on commanding an army of ant-like plant creatures.

“Pikmin is a real-time, action-management game in which you command the Pikmin to perform a variety of tasks,” Miyamoto said from the stage of Nintendo’s E3 press event in Los Angeles, Calif.

The title was running on the new Wii U hardware and featured high-definition visuals.

“We puzzled over how far to position the camera in the GameCube game. If it’s too far away, you can’t see the Pikmin. If it’s too close, you can’t see the full map,” Miyamoto said. “The enhanced resolution of the Wii U has solved this puzzle for us. Now, you can see the tiny movements of the Pikmin, and you can see that natural settings are much more beautiful.”

Miyamoto detailed some fresh characters and gameplay mechanics. Players will use a new rock-type Pikmin, who is adorable, to destroy strong infrastructures. The Wii Motion Plus tech allows for precise aiming when you need to hit a specific body part to defeat an enemy. Shaking the Nunchuk subcontroller, the one with the analog stick, will instruct your Pikmin troops to charge. Again, adorable.

“The most important gameplay element is how efficient you are able to manage and assign tasks to your Pikmin in a limited time frame,” Miyamoto explained. “This strategic element gets even deeper as you are able to touch the map, scroll quickly over the environment, and quickly place your Pikmin.”

Pikmin 3 will allow for multiple control inputs. Players can either use the Wiimote and Nunchuk with the Wii U Gamepad sitting off to the side for specific moments, or players can solely rely on the Gamepad.

“The [Gamepad-only] style is much better suited to using the map more effectively,” Miyamoto said.

Nintendo has replaced Captain Olimar (the protagonist from the first two games) with four new leaders.

“You may notice that Captain Olimar is not among the shown leaders. The reason for that is a secret,” Miyamoto said.

Miyamoto also pointed out several times that despite the rise of casual games, he was up to the challenge of presenting deeper experiences to consumers.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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