E3 is all about making a lot of exciting announcements but Japanese company Nintendo, which is one of the oldest video gaming companies, decided to focus on just one.
The company dedicated a large area nicknamed the ‘Nintendo Treehouse: Live’ solely to “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’.
Reggie Fils-Amie is the president and chief operating officer (COO) of Nintendo of America, who oversaw the company’s presence at E3.
“So the Legend of Zelda is a 30 year franchise, we’ve sold over 75 million games throughout that timeframe,” he said. “Typically consumers have had an experience with Zelda that’s transformative. Typically it’s the first game that they’ve played, it’s the first game they’ve completed so there’s this tremendous passion that our fans have so when we do something new like an open air experience where you can do just about anything they get tremendously excited and that’s what we’re feeling right now here at E3.”
There were rumors that Nintendo would be unveiling its upcoming console – the successor to the WiiU known only as NX but they decided against it.
“We have over 140 game stations for players to experience Zelda. If we were to parse out our booth and do other things, candidly we would have disappointed a lot of players who wouldn’t have been able to get their hands on Zelda and have that experience,” said Fils-Aime. “So that was the decision, to focus on Zelda and have a wonderful experience for all of those players. We have ample opportunity to talk about NX which is launching in March of 2017 and we’ll share more of those details in the future but right here and right now it’s all about ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’.”
Nintendo promises an “immersive experience” with the lead character Link having to dress appropriately for each of the game’s environments from snow through to deserts. Weapons and food will have to be crafted from items found in the landscapes.
“Obviously the franchise was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and now the franchise is being shepherded by Ejji Anouma and so he’s continuing to progress it forward but both of these gentlement have worked on this series for an exceptionally long time so I think with that knowledge and that sense of that franchise, they’re able to progress it forward and add new elements but to always be cogniscent of what has made this franchise so beloved by all of our fans,” said Fils-Aime.
While Microsoft’s Xbox announced a new console and Playstation ramped up its VR offerings as well as both offering numerous games, Nintendo did the opposite.
“Nintendo has a history of doing things in a distinctly unique way that makes us stand out back from the original days of making Hanafuda playing cards to what we’re doing today with the WiiU and the 3DS and what we’ll do in the future with the platform codenamed NX. We’re all about being different and providing content to consumers that they love because it is unique, because it is something they haven’t seen before. That’s what we do.”
“The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” will be released on both WiiU and Nintendo’s next console (codenamed NX) in 2017.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016
