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E3 Keynote Address notes

by Rick Powers - May 17, 2001, 10:25 am EDT
Source: Rick Powers - Live @ E3

Rick has just returned from the Keynote Address to kick off E3. Get his impressions inside ...

Well, the keynote address has just concluded, and PETERMAINCO was in top form, inciting the crowd to applause on several occasions. For the most part, the keynote was fairly dry, just the heads of the companies talking about what the plan is for the next year. But since we are a Nintendo-site, we’ll just give you the notes from the Nintendo end of the conference, covering the bases not covered at the Press Briefing yesterday.

First off, Nintendo was non-committal about online and broadband play. Main dodged the question, saying that they’ve been dabbling in online for years, since back with the NES. He further explained that they are watching it closely, and will unveil their plans when there is content compelling enough to warrant it. When asked point blank by the moderator if Miyamoto was working on an online project, Main quickly said, “we have development teams working on it.”

Later, Main would talk about what he feels was the problem with the industry right now. Main stated that there has been an absolute “bloodbath” in the developer circle in the past two years, and much of this is a result of the glut of similar games on the consoles, and that we simply don’t need 20- football games on the machine. The emphasis was placed on fewer games, with more innovation and originality.

For the most part, it was Kaz (SCEA) and Robbie (MSFT) battling back and forth with similar methodologies and reasoning (at one point, Kaz even suggested that Robbie stole on of his answers!), while Nintendo remained the games-oriented company of old. Main was clearly the hit of the keynote as the applause he received would suggest.

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