(mashedmarket)

What’s a corporate entity see when it looks in the mirror? How does a business reflect on its own identity? When might a company decide that their new approach isn’t attracting the right kind of commentary?

Not that I’m asking these questions because Nintendo isn’t on a lot of people’s minds lately; their sales numbers certainly indicate otherwise. Nevertheless, I’ve noticed a weird trend in the wake of this year’s E3 Media & Business Summit. Now, we all know an awful lot’s happened since the shakeup at 2006’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, and besides, almost nothing’s quite so exciting as new hardware. But the lack of speculation regarding Nintendo’s WiiSpeak peripheral reveal has me baffled. After all, this is a device that has the potential to put several major complaints to rest. We could see VoIP support retroactively added to major titles such as Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros. Brawl! So what’s going on here?

For starters, there’s the fact that Nintendo competitors Microsoft and Sony have made voice chat available from the get-go. Even so, I’m kind of surprised by the device’s chilly reception. It seems the enthusiast press has tired of Nintendo and their blue ocean. Actually, if I had to guess, I’d say that happened long ago. By now, they’re damned well sick of it.

So what does this mean? Hard to say, but Nintendo’s E3 Media & Business Summit press conference was so underwhelming that president and CEO Satoru Iwata actually issued an apology. Nintendo is at least a little bit worried. Maybe the gaming media’s mirror is dirty? That or the company has egg on its face. Not that they won’t be making plenty of money either way. (They were talking to Forbes, after all.) It could be Iwata’s statement was simply a means of pacifying the fan base. Still…let’s say there are more Mario and Zelda games coming — how will these new iterations reflect the diversified Nintendo of today?