Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime

Every year, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony present their upcoming plans in a lavish press event, and the immediate response among gaming journalists is to declare who won. (FYI, last year it was Nintendo.) In that spirit we’re offering seven key strategies to each of the big three companies to help them “win” E3 2011.

Today, we feature Nintendo, who are coming in loaded with a highly anticipated new console and a collection of universally beloved and recognized first party characters. They’re also seeing a decline in Wii sales and buzz and a lackluster launch of the Nintendo 3DS. If not for Sony’s recent PSN nightmare, you’d probably say Nintendo really need to knock this one out of the park this year.

1) Project Cafe has to score with the core gaming audience, demonstrating that Nintendo can provide for traditional gamers and not just non-traditional ones. Rumours of Nintendo featuring Grand Theft Auto 5 as a launch title, and other core hits like that would be an excellent start.

2) Do not skimp on hardware. That approach worked once with the Wii, but if Nintendo is going after the core gaming crowd, they need to meet Sony and Microsoft at their strengths. All the talk so far has been about the uniqueness of the controller, but if the system can’t do 1080p at a high frame rate, doesn’t have a storage solution in the hundreds of GB, or lacks the fundamental horsepower to really advance console technology, Nintendo is putting themselves in a weak position that Sony and Microsoft will surely take advantage of with their next systems.

3) Show us how committed you really are to better third party support. Let’s see three or four big non-Nintendo names at your presser, preferably bringing exclusive content and capabilities to the new system.  It’s not about whether the next Call of Duty is as good on Project Cafe as on the PS3 and 360. It’s about how it will be better.

4) Blow us away with a truly great online service offering. Even Nintendo has admitted that WiiWare and DSiWare have been a failure, and everyone hates friend codes. A new system demands a new solution.

5) Avoid alienating the new casual base that has adopted the Wii. What will the next system offer to these new console gamers, and will it be enough to convince them to stick around? Nintendo has a fine line to walk, re-engaging a disengaged core audience, without losing the parents and grandparents that made the Wii the top selling console of this generation. That means more quality family and casual oriented titles.

6) Don’t lose the 3DS’s slowing momentum behind Project Cafe hype. 3DS sales haven’t lived up to expectations, despite a large amount of hype. What does that mean? Add to the wasteland of 3DS launch titles. And fast. It was cute when you announced Kid Icarus last year. It’s kind of lame that the finished product is nowhere to be seen. You’ve had 25 years to come up with a new Kid Icarus game, after all. Even Duke Nukem Forever didn’t take that long.

7) Put a firm date on Zelda Skyward Sword. Please.