Day One of E3 2016 - June 14th
The day had finally come, Nintendo was about to spin the wheel and take a chance. With Microsoft and Sony having expressed their reveals the day before, all eyes were on Nintendo. It was 9 AM, many people were crammed shoulder-to-shoulder waiting and for those who weren't there, Nintendo was livestreaming said content at the same time it was showcased so they got to see it in real time as well. The lights began to dim and the mass cheered. It had began.
They started off their presentation with a reveal trailer to the song of White Denim's Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah). This trailer begins at a house with a man playing the new Zelda game, it looks pretty normal until he gets up and takes a device out of the console area and walks to a park and continues playing it on a bench. At the airport, people playing their devices next to each other. On a plane, Skyrim, which is continued back on a TV in a hotel. In a car, two people play a Mario Kart game. In a basketball court under a bridge, a group of players play one game of NBA 2K18 across two of the devices, taking off the controllers (one for each person). In the house of a young woman, where these same controllers have been put on a device to form a bigger controller, one is playing the upcoming Pokemon game,
Sun & Moon. She then takes out the device seen at the beginning of the video and goes to her friends, one of them pulls out their device and they initiate a battle. The video ends with a montage of other groups of people gathering at places to play - one group laying out game plans and another (some Japanese soccer players) playing Splatoon. These two groups then meet up at what looks like an arena and play against each other. The trailer ends with the console being revealed as the Nintendo Switch, with a release date of October 28th, 2016. [1]
After that, Nintendo would reveal the Switch truly with Yoshiaki Koizuimi (who would host all international Nintendo Directs starting with this E3 2016, taking the place of the late Satoru Iwata). The Switch would be the world's first hybrid console, part home, part handheld. The device being seen taken out is the main console, supporting up to 720p resolutions on its own, featuring a kickstand, adjustable lighting, a touchscreen, and much more. Alone the console could be played on the go (handheld mode) or stationary by using the kickstand. Through its "dock," games could be played on the TV (in TV mode) with resolutions of up to 1080p. Though obviously, in TV mode, the touchscreen could not be accessed. The console also featured a headphone jack and USB-C port (to plug it into the dock or its charger). The Nintendo Switch would also not be region-locked and would come with a stylus to use on its touchscreen. The Switch also would feature 32 gigabytes of storage.
Nintendo also revealed the controllers that were seen being removed, the Joy-Cons, available in many colors aside from the grey already seen. The two Joy-Cons could be used as one controller, with or without a "Grip" (which would hold them together for the player), or as two, and were virtually identical. The left one, however, would have a "Capture button" for taking screenshots and video of gameplay. While the right one has the HOME button. Both have accelerometers and gyroscopes for motion controls not unlike the Wii's. The Joy-Cons also featured a haptic feedback engine, "HD Rumble." While the left one had a small microphone, the right one would have an IR Motion Camera. (All showcased later in the game WarioWare: Joy in Con) The Joy-Cons communicated with the Switch through the use of Bluetooth. An alternative to the Joy-Con and a much more traditional gamepad, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, would be revealed afterward for separate release and include all features from the Joy-Cons with the exception of the IR Camera. The launch price for the Switch would be $305 (made fun of in the more toxic part of the gaming community).
Many games revealed in the trailer, and some more, would receive trailers. The Zelda game would get a subtitle, Breath of the Wild, and trailer [2] and was revealed to be a launch title for the Nintendo Switch (while releasing for the Wii U at the same time). Other launch titles would include of indie title Snipperclips, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Rhythm Heaven Megamix [this is its worldwide release, the only version released on the 3DS would be the initial Japanese edition back in 2015], Mario Party: Star Rush, a new WarioWare - Joy in Con (showing off all the features of the JoyCons in 60 party minigames, including one where using HD Rumble the player has to guess the number of balls in a box, milking a virtual cow, and racing to shave virtual facial hair first), and a new Bomberman game - Super Bomberman R.
What was surprising was that Pokemon Sun & Moon had been ported to the Switch secretly, while this resulted in improved graphics [to Let's Go levels], it also resulted in it not releasing on the 3DS (in worries that it would impede the Switch's growth). While this created quite the controversy at first, it gave even more of an incentive for people to buy the Switch and also explained why the graphics of the May 10th trailer were so good in comparison to other 3DS games, the footage shown wasn't on the 3DS anymore. However what had not changed was its release date, still being set for November 18th. Also releasing in November would be the Pikmin HD Trilogy, a rerelease of the first 3 Pikmin games together in one HD bundle. The Mario Kart game seen in the trailer was revealed to be Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, an enhanced and upgraded version of the original with tons of new content, it was set for a December release. Paper Mario: Color Splash was announced to have been moved to the Switch as well and received a delay to March to be reworked, after intense criticism for its combat and leveling system.
Following the direct, and for the next couple of days, Nintendo would showcase gameplay for the upcoming games, most notably Breath of the Wild, at Nintendo Treehouse.
This was one of Nintendo's best E3s in a very long time, and despite some downs, there were mostly ups. Even despite tough competition from competitors, most notably Sony and the PSVR, Nintendo became the most popular companies over the next few days. Despite some of the more toxic parts dismissing the ability to play AAA games on the go as another gimmick, much of the gaming community would applaud Nintendo and praise them for the concept and marketing style. When pre-orders began, they reached the maximum amount available within three to four days. Over the next four months, between E3 and its release in October, the Switch was one of the hottest topics, often outdoing the PlayStation 4 and almost always the Xbox One on searches, as seen on Google Trends. With numerous big titles within the course of three months, the Switch would have a strong start, a very strong start. To many, this signaled one thing, Nintendo was back and better than ever.
---Footnotes---
[1]It's essentially this, except Mario Odyssey is replaced with Sun & Moon and the Switch logo and name isn't revealed at the very end.
[2] The trailer is pretty much the same as this one.
