WHEN MARIO
WALKED AMONG THE GIANTS
Copyright 2004 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ October 12th 2004 ]
Nintendo's
press conferences at the Los Angeles Electronic
Entertainment Expo has always been more raucous
than those of its competitors. But recently the
company seems to be trying a bit too hard. Earlier
this year, for instance, Reginald Fils-Aime, the
new executive vice president for North America,
stood before journalists and declared, "My name
is Reggie and I'm about kicking ass."
Then
he showed footage from souped-up new versions
of classic Nintendo heroes, like the gold-armour-clad
heroine of Metroid Prime: Echoes and the daring
fur ball Fox McCloud from Star Fox 2. The wildest
applause of all was reserved for a trailer for
the company's new Legend of Zelda game, which
reduced some of the seemingly grown men in attendance
to tears at the sight of their hero, Link, all
grown up and rendered in stunningly believable
3-D.
Was
Nintendo trying to recapture the glory days, back
in 1998, when it owned a quarter of the U.S. market
and sold five of the top 10 videogame-console
games? What's clear is that those glory days are
gone - not only for Nintendo, but for all Japanese
game publishers. The North American videogame
market - the world's largest - has been taking
off in recent years, but Japanese publishers aren't
reaping the rewards - their share of the U.S.
market has plunged to 29 percent in 2004...
Read
the full article at MSNBC
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