E3 2016: Brandwatch Data Shows The Legend of Zelda Dominating Social Media During E3

That's wonderful news Hopefully this is a major step in restoring nintendo's street cred as a 'real' games company!

The thing everyone needs to remember is that it was a solid, if unremarkable at times, showing of games and titles, with a focus on their biggest hitter. In that regard, its paid off.

On the other side of things, gaming is still depressing as hell.

I only wish there were a little Wii U Surprise, sadly none to be had. Looking forward to this and Paper Mario, but... the tumbleweeds are rollin in...

Even Mario Party 3DS is more hyped then SMTxFE?

Nintendo needs to convert this hype for LOZ into big launch sales for the NX.

I'm pretty happy with the 3DS lineup as well, some solid games in the next 6+ months.

This is about as relevant as the initial download numbers for Miitomo.

Most talked about on social media?? Mmkay... want a ribbon?

I'm excited for this! Can't wait to get the NX!

@gatorboi352 You're right... to an extent. If Breath of the Wild were releasing this week, though, that chatter would surely result in a sales boost, or at least be reflected by a sales boost.

Nice to see Watch_Dogs 2 make the Top 5, for all you haters out there

This proves my own gut feeling (i.e. browsing Reddit). Zelda is all Nintendo need right now, because folks know it's (presumably) an NX launch title. All the rest is filler and that's okay.

Bear in mind that social media doesn't necessarily reflect the gaming population. Some people and groups use social media a lot more than others.
The Zelda trailer is still a fair way behind the Battlefield trailer on youtube.

@Dakt I would hope so since the chart is only referencing Nintendo's 1st and 2nd day.

To be honest, aside of other small announcement, Zelda is the only big news Nintendo has over the E3. With multiple news of Zelda over the day, I think that is natural it got the most mentions. Still looked awesome though.

Nintendo smartly targeted it to get a result like this it seems, but now how will it translate to sales? There is this dead space now and I actually can't believe Nintendo might leave the Wii U price where it is facing XB1S. Hopefully, some price or bundle option is dropped as E3 ends. They have to translate all this interest into something, right?

That said, when the NX is revealed and if it is a more powerful and competitive home console then just showing an enhanced Zelda Wild will be pretty powerful and will make this pay off as so many saw it in the previous state and got excited. That's a hope.

It's great to see people talking about Nintendo games after Nintendo has been the king of underestimated software/hardware houses for more than enough time. The problem is, well, money talks more than the mere "wow, it's awesome" kind of chitchat.
But, who knows? If Zelda sells the Wii Us that Mario Kart 8 hasn't sold yet, then sure, all hail the Breath Of The Wild!

@gatorboi352 Pretty sure you'd say the exact same thing if Zelda was at the bottom of the list, right? Mmkay.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but I'm pretty sure that the 2nd chart indicates that Zelda hasn't exactly won E3. It's mostly an indication that those trumpeting about Nintendo don't have any other games to chat up, since Pokemon clocks in next at #43.

Meanwhile, anyone talking Sony/Microsoft has split their mentions among all of the different games they announced. That's not to say that Zelda didn't make a big splash... it definitely did.

@AlexSora89 Zelda has never been a system seller like Mario, though. I don't think Zelda will be enough to sell the Nx to the mainstream audience

People talking about Nintendo? That's nice but they need sell a lot of copies too.

@brideck Its Nintendo's only playable game at E3, what else do you want people to talk about?

@brideck And yet, Sony's live stream on Twitch was averaging at <2000 viewers on Twitch, while it was 50,000+ at any time for Nintendo, even when Zelda wasn't being shown.

Nintendo just has a more loyal fanbase on the Internet.

Sony has a very boisterous fanbase, that aggresively love to talk about console wars, but lack the attention span to actually sit through Sony's own live streams.

@KH22 Nothing. I'm merely trying to shed light on how Zelda can be the most mentioned game while Nintendo didn't come close to "winning" E3.

@yuwarite I suspect Sony fans got what they wanted out of the stage show presentation. Nintendo's fan base may be more loyal, but if so, it apparently doesn't know how to use social media so that it shows up on that 2nd chart.

@gatorboi352 there are some negative killjoys on here, you're one of the worst, would YOU like a ribbon?

Good for Nintendo amd for Zelda that is a promising game. That said, it was the only interesting thing coming from Nintendo....

Well you know what they say, when Star Fox and Mario Tennis can't win E3, Zelda can

@Luffymcduck
Thanks for summing up my point.

@Hikingguy @KH22
I know what would help sell the NX: a 3D (Galaxy or 3D World-ish) Mario at launch, Mario Kart and a Smash remaster within the first year, Zelda within the second. It's a painful schedule, sure, but also one that can - and will - sell consoles. Third-party support will be a natural consequence.

@aaronsullivan Glad somebody else mentioned $299 isn't really the right place for Wii U to be. Hasn't been for a long time, but that model S announcement sealed the deal. I think the current model is $279 elsewhere undercutting Wii U.

But I gave up on a price cut when they said 800,000 for their financial year. I think that's about the monthly average for PS4. $199 for the holiday should have doubled that. Maybe a Paper Mario bundle, but they are still bundling MK8. I think they flushed Wii U out with the bathwater.

A price cut and extensive Selects line up would have been nice though. Good sale prices for eShop games every one of us owns doesn't move hardware. Those prices need to be permanent at retail.

Oh well, let's just move on to NX like Nintendo has.

Nintendo focused its entire show basically around Zelda, whereas the other companies had maybe 10, 20, 30 games that divided the available time and attention among all the fans. It's no shock or achievement whatsoever that Zelda got the most views and coverage for an individual game during E3; all the millions of Nintendo fans alone, desperate to see basically anything, would have pretty much guaranteed the results would be totally skewed under such circumstances. The graph only tells a small part of the story, and if anyone uses this to try and boast about how Nintendo won E3 or whatever, they're just being an extremely biased fanboy. Zelda had a good show (which was basically inevitable given the setup); that's about the only objective truth we can say for now.

@AlexSora89 But Wii U already has MK, SSB and SM3DW, do you really think Mario Galaxy 3 will matter? Know what will sell NX? Marketing, marketing like they've never done before. No "asymmetric" gameplay on a Wii peripheral. And a reasonable price.

I'm not optimistic, but it can be done. But it's not about the games, Wi U has games, but it has a lousy identity and a worse price.

What will sell the NX is not VR, but games on it is what matter, especially launch titles.
Look at the Wii with Wii Sports and TP, the Wii did good. The Wii U had New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo Land, and the Wii U did bad. It's a history. With Zelda BotW, Pikmin 4, MG3, MP4...

That's what will win and draw in third parties, cause would you rather have a console where ou could play Madden and FIFA, or Madden, FIFA, Zelda, and Mario. Just sayin

@Hikingguy Well, no one's claiming it was a bad game (despite me thinking it looks pretty fugly). It's certainly worth talking about. But the graph simply doesn't reflect anything meaningful; it just a hugely skewed stat which basically shows a false correlation. Take just a few of the games the other companies showed and add the numbers together and Zelda is beat in terms of articles and views (if that chart is accurate). The other companies games overall had higher viewing numbers than Nintendo's games, from what I'm seeing. Now imagine if the likes of Horizon: Zero Dawn or the new God of War was the only game Sony showed at this years E3, or something like Titanfall 2 on Xbox One, and . . .

Acting like this was some major achievement for Nintendo is really just buying into what amounts to basically marketing shenanigans by Nintendo designed to manipulate easily led sheep into evangelising a gospel that simply isn't true. Zelda was a massive hit for Nintendo at the show because it was pretty much all Nintendo had at the show, and that's the real truth here. Although, I have no doubt it still would have been hugely popular even if Nintendo had more games to show too, and possibly maybe even still first on the list, because it is after all still a brand new Zelda game.

@Hikingguy They spread the news thinner for each individual game, but you do realise they actually got more coverage and views than Nintendo overall, right? Assuming the chart is an accurate indication. So, Zelda will probably manage a few million sales among desperate Wii U owners (and I don't mean the game is bad saying that, just that Wii U owners will utterly lap it up), but Microsoft and Sony are still going to thoroughly destroy Nintendo in the next year or so, and most of their big AAA games are almost certainly going outsell Zelda too. So, however you look at it, Nintendo really hasn't won anything or made better decisions than the competition here; it's just been really good at totally skewing this years E3 viewing stats in some utterly random and ultimately meaningless ways.

I think that Breath of the Wild is going to be a smash-hit. It seems to have taken on everything people loved about hits like Skyrim last generation, but added some actual color to it and made the combat more fluid (two things that made me stop playing Skyrim about an hour into it.... ugh).

From the looks of things, it's all I could ever ask for from a Zelda game or an open world title, and I'm beyond thrilled. I'm annoyed that I have to wait, but I don't blame Nintendo and think this will be a huge gain for them. Breath of the Wild won't save the Wii U now, but I think it's going to start next gen with a massive bang.

@Hikingguy Well, that's where we disagree. I believe if Sony had done basically exactly what Nintendo did with Zelda at E3 this year that it would have achieved a higher viewing percentage than Nintendo in that graph. It just has way more fans and consumers around the world right now, and I think that would be reflected in the numbers. Although, maybe Horizon: Zero Dawn would be a better example for the comparison, since there's actually a load of similarities between it and this new Zelda.

@Hikingguy I'm not quite sure in what way you mean to be honest.

@BensonUii And people just like you are the reason why I feel compelled to post the various comments I've made above.

Microsoft's conference was overall better than all the other conferences at E3, enough so to make me want to go Xbox again.

Nintendo's great focus on just the one game alone was very impressive, it was just too bad the rest of the games they showed where basically what you would expect out of a Pokemon game, Paper Mario game etc. to the point that it was good, but not extremely impressive.

I think a lot of people really wanted the NX to be shown, and Nintendo to reveal the first party games that will come to it, and that they will be getting great third party games for the system, not just Just Dance 2017

@Hikingguy In terms of what long term plan you think they're working on. What, a company restructure, a new way of marketing games, a new gaming development model . . . ? I'm not sure quite what you mean or how this E3 is indicative of it.

@Dezzy To be fair, the Battlefield trailer has had the benefit of being up against, and bashing to pieces, the latest CoD trailer.
It probably helped quite a bit that the developers behind BF even took to Twitter at one point to send out a bit of personal low-blows when the Infinite Warfare trailer got the highest dislike rate of any gaming video ever.
Riding those kinds of console war fanboy waves is an easy way to make top views on Youtube.
Zelda didn't have that kind of controversy to ride to big views, though, and being connected to the Wii U, which is the least popular home platform of the gen?
So, yeah...it's not really surprising that BF has higher views.
Not that that's a bad thing or anything; the devs played their cards right and marketed the right words, and now they're reaping the benefits.

@Kirk Somehow I doubt that.
God of War is a great series. It wouldn't have sold so well if it wasn't.
But it's not in the same situation as Zelda was, and it wouldn't be able to pull nearly as much hype as Zelda, especially with that one little trailer to go off of, if that was all that Sony focused on.

The last graph is the truth of the show (in terms of coverage): Microsoft had the most social media coverage, Sony second, Ubisoft third, EA forth, Nintendo fifth, and then the other guys whatever. Nintendo didn't even get more overall coverage than Ubisoft or EA, but all of its coverage was indeed basically focused on one game, which, again, isn't surprising or impressive given the situation.

@smashbrolink That's because you're simply thinking it's about game vs game. It's about the entire thing. If Sony announced it was only going to show a single game at this year's E3 it would be an even bigger and more shocking announcement than Nintendo doing so, because Sony isn't totally mental, and that alone would give Sony a huge spike above the norm (just like it did for Nintendo)—just think about the kind of press it would generate if Sony, not Nintendo, said something as crazy as this—and then you have the larger PS4 fanbase in general and so on.

@Hikingguy OK, I get you now.

@AlexSora89
You're welcome.

@Hikingguy Yeah, it's a real long shot.

These statistics mean very little. Breath of the Wild may be dominating the chatter on social media but how much of that talk is positive compared to negative?

Many people have been slating the game, saying Nintendo are playing catch up and copying the likes of Skyrim, Fallout, Assassin's Creed, etc. Others have complained about the perceived lack of story and/or empty world, or that it's not a Zelda game.

Any publicity is usually good publicity of course, but to say BotW "won" E3 on mentions alone (without saying whether those mentions are positive or negative) is a poor way of deciding the "winner".

@BensonUii <--- Nintendo Defense Force at it's finest. Or worst, rather.

@Kirk It's a different case for Sony, though, because Sony wasn't coming into this E3 with the least popular system of the gen and expectations already low to begin with, which is totally unlike Nintendo.
I don't believe Sony's numbers would have fluctuated as much, because at this point, Sony's infallible in the eyes of the gaming public, and would be expected to pull off a good showing no matter what they did, whereas with Nintendo...well...you know.
I guess my point is that Nintendo pulled off something very dramatic at a time when people had the least amount of confidence in them, and that in turn has created bigger waves than anyone could have imagined.
And as much as I liked GoW, it's not Zelda, and it hasn't been teased, held back, discussed to death, drowned in controversy, and just generally paid as much attention to as Zelda has over the past two years.

Sony could not have copied what Nintendo did at this year's E3 because Sony's not in the underdog position.

@Monkey_Balls "These statistics mean very little. Breath of the Wild may be dominating the chatter on social media but how much of that talk is positive compared to negative?"

This has been my other point. Exactly!

This is literally the equivalant of trumping the early download numbers of Miitomo. Means absolutely nothing; just fluff to make the NDF feel better about itself.

Truth of the matter is Nintendo is in a distant third. Their blunders over the last 4-5 years are the reason for this. A fracking Zelda game (as awesome as it will end up being) will change very little in this regard.

Western 3rd parties rule gaming whether Nintendo fans want to believe it or not, and MS/Sony understand this.

Currently LOVING my XB1 and the diverse gaming line up. The Wii U hasn't been turned on since I bought TP HD, and it won't be turned back on again until BotW comes out.

@BensonUii "Best game on E3? Definitely Zelda. My post has nothing to do if the Wii U failed or how the NX will fare nor Nintendo had only one playable demo."

It's all relative, though.

@Kirk is in here dropping some straight up fire truth. And it burns!

@gatorboi352 lol

It's rather unfortunate just how far down the list the rest of their titles are. Hope Nintendo takes note of what is at the top under Zelda though. I would dearly love to see Nintendo, and it's core fanbase, embrace games like God of War, The Last Guardian, Dishonoured, Spider-Man etc alongside the Nintendo we all know and love.

@smashbrolink "coming into this E3 with the least popular system of the gen and expectations already low to begin with, which is totally unlike Nintendo."

Totally unlike what Nintendo? Because outside of the Wii, Nintendo has been in last place for 2 straight console generations. Add in Wii U and it's a third generation in the last 4 of being last.

@Ogbert "It's rather unfortunate just how far do n the list the rest of their titles are."

To me, that's the bigger story.

@Monkey_Balls Yeah, well, most of the people claiming that Zelda is playing catch-up, are trolling by forgetting that a lot of the conventions of adventure games in general are either evolutions or direct copies of ideas/mechanics that Zelda set forth.
Zelda, after all, was the very first open-world action-adventure game, way back on the NES, and it continued setting precedents and inspiring new ideas in other games from developers who learned and loved their craft from a history of playing Zelda and other games like it.

The others who have "complained about the perceived lack of story and/or empty world, or that it's not a Zelda game" are even more untrustworthy in their words, as they're also the same people who were spreading the lie that BotW wouldn't have any towns or NPC's to fill them.

@gatorboi352 I meant Nintendo, because unlike Nintendo, Sony didn't come into E3 with the lowest-in-popularity system and the lowest amount of expectations.

Also, the fact that you consider Nintendo's other games being further down the list as being "the bigger story", kinda shows that you're just hunting for reasons to downplay Nintendo's success in this. [or that you're trying to deny that there's any success at all.]

@smashbrolink I think we simply disagree on this one. You like to find the good in what Nintendo did here, and I think it's all smoke, mirrors, and misdirection ultimately. The game was generally a success at E3, I'll give it that, but how could it not be when the odds were stacked quite absurdly in its favour. What I'll say from my personal point of view is that I think this Zelda looks quite fugly, the presentation and graphics are simply below par for a new Zelda title in 2016, imo, but I'm still confident it will be a lot of fun to play. Although, unlike many of the Zelda games in previous generations, I don't think this Zelda is going to be particularly groundbreaking, genre defining, or ultimately newsworthy, as there's now a bunch of open world games out there on the other platforms that have already done much of what were seeing in Zelda at this point, and much of it better too. Zelda is no longer the all-round pinnacle standard of excellence in the action-rpg genre that it once was, to be held up for all other similar games to try and strive towards. It's just another action-rpg in among the crowd, which may or may not be a stronger gameplay experience in some ways but certainly falls short in terms of presentation and visuals. Still, it looks like a Zelda game that anyone who plays it will enjoy.

@smashbrolink They hit a home run with Zelda. BIG surprise. Not even news, IMO. It's Zelda FFS.

It's CLEARLY evident outside of Zelda Nintendo has pretty much sh!t else. That's not opinion.

@Kirk I swear, every post from you in here just gets better and better. Who can refute this stuff?

BTW, just gonna drop this little gem here from Mr. Zelda himself, in regards to BotW being a single screen experience. The fact that they're just admitting this now, 4 years into Wii U (and right after Star Fox flopped at retail), is baffling to me. It quite literally is why Wii U failed in general:

"On having it be a single-screen experience…

“We realized that having something on the GamePad and looking back and forth between the TV screen and the GamePad actually disrupts the gameplay, and the concentration that the game player may be experiencing. You have your car’s GPS system on your dash. If you had it down in your lap, you’re going to get into an accident!”

Unbelievable something like that didn't come out like say, I dunno, pre-2012?

@Kirk
Well first of all, why does it bother you if someone tries to say Nintedo "won e3"? I mean, clearly they didn't, but why even bring this up?

You cannot discount this to just "oh it's the only game so it's all Nintendo fans flock to". If that were true Star Fox would have seen just as much buzz. If a game doesn't look good people say so.

And other companies may have had 20-30 games, but they really only had a handful of NEW games. Zelda was Nintendo's only NEW game. Well not even- they also revealed Mario Party and Ever Oasis. But they have other games too- Monster Hunter Generations, Dragon Quest 7, Dragon Quest 8, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Paper Mario, etc. So it's not the "only game".

This shows people are intrigued by Zelda Breath of the Wild. They just are- it's a fantastic looking game. Any person with eyes can see it's a fantastic looking game. Why wouldn't people be excited for it? Just because Nintendo is winding down Wii U doesn't make Zelda any less impressive. And it doesn't have to reinvent the wheel to be one of the greatest video games ever made.

@Kirk I wouldn't say that they're fugly.
The graphical quality in and of itself is quite solid; dynamic shadows and quality effects in water and lighting as well as particle effects, amongst other things.

You could argue that the art style isn't to your taste, but that's not the same as saying that the graphics are bad, especially for a 2016 game.
If I'm being honest, this and Far Cry Primal are pretty on-par in terms of graphical beauty, and that's coming from someone who loves both games.

As for Zelda being ground-breaking or genre-defining, it doesn't have to be in order to be a GOTS, or even a GOTY, contender.
I can't remember the last game that allowed you to, for instance, leap off a horse, into an updraft created by burning grass from a fire arrow, using a paraglider to gain altitude, then going into slow-motion to fire an explosive arrow at a lazer-firing land octopus statue that's been chasing you around a huge open world.
Stuff like that can happen quite frequently in the new Zelda; I don't think you're fairly judging just how much there is to do.

Saying "It's just basically a new Zelda game" is like saying "it's just basically a new God of War game" in reference to the new GoW.

@JaxonH

"Well first of all, why does it bother you if someone tries to say Nintedo "won e3"? I mean, clearly they didn't, but why even bring this up?"

Because it's blatantly false to state that claim.

@gatorboi352 "That's not opinion"
And that's elitism, for lack of a better term.
That is most definitely an opinion, because it relies entirely on tastes.
Furthermore, you've been doing nothing but going around these kinds of articles lately trolling anyone with anything positive to say, and it's really starting to wear on people's nerves.

@smashbrolink I guess it all comes down to level of presentation and visual quality you expect from open world games in 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Xx3MdqdgM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ony2r0QFs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM47aBj6f0g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDl35Kxm96A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlsN6EO2oU

Just a few examples.

I don't think the new Zelda is up to par with what most other AAA developers are putting out there in terms of the level of presentation and graphics in their open world games (visually or technically).

@Kirk It does, but the difference is that I can still like those games even if I feel they're less beautiful in terms of art style.
Horizon, in particular, strikes my fancy because it's like an alternate future version of Far Cry Primal, but it's the gameplay that draws me despite the fact that I get a lot of the same feeling from Horizon that I did from playing Primal.
I didn't downplay Horizon for feeling similar; I appreciated it for doing things in a way that were clearly different yet felt familiar.
Just like I do with Zelda.

@brideck "Arguably, though, that was part of Nintendo's intent in its approach and making Breath of the Wild its only playable game at the show."

Fact of the matter was, Nintendo fans loyally watched a relatively unlively Treehouse presentation, even when Zelda wasn't being shown. And even when niche non mainstream 3DS games were on stage.

While on the Sony stage, there's a load of big budget PS4 games being shown, and their fans aren't bothered to watch it. Again, that lack of attention span in full effect. They love to talk about how well their system does, but won't dedicate their time to watching their company put on a show for them. I've seen similar numbers during the PlayStation Xperience stream as well.

@gatorboi352 Yeah, I think a lot of people are missing the fact that games like Watch_Dogs 2 or Battlefield 1 are mostly generating interest from their fans alone and won't be receiving much attention, particularly hate, from Nintendo fans.

On the other hand, I suspect that a lot of the talk about BotW is from Sony and Microsoft fanboys slating it. The statistics regarding mentions certainly don't represent the actual sentiment behind them, that's for sure.

@smashbrolink I understand what you are saying but many gamers nowadays weren't around for the NES days or realise what Nintendo have done for the industry, therefore it's irrelevant to them. I don't think people are trolling as such, merely commenting on what they see. By today's standards, Nintendo are indeed playing catch up.

@Monkey_Balls I don't think it's a fair assessment to say that Nintendo's playing catch-up, when the fact of the matter is, a lot of games lately have been reusing concepts with slight twists to make them feel fresher just like Nintendo does.

Take Horizon, for instance.
Know what that feels like to me?
Far Cry Primal, but with robots, soldiers, and future tech instead of cave men, clubs, and mammoths.

Now, to me, this isn't a bad thing.
I loved Far Cry Primal, and just because Horizon takes a lot of the feeling from that, it doesn't mean I consider it to be playing "catch up".
And yet Zelda, the forefather of many of the concepts that open world game ideas evolved from, is suddenly being looked down upon for that exact same thing, instead of being admired for doing things that work, and work well, to deliver a fun game?

Can you see where I'm coming from, or is my explanation not well done enough? I honestly just got over a cold so I'm not too confident in my explanation capabilities right now...

@smashbrolink I'm only really pointing out that Zelda looks fugly (as my core point here); it's presentation and graphics (even visually, as opposed to just technically) are below par imo, even for an open world game on Wii U. I mean, I could go and get footage of all the last-gen open world games on Xbox 360/PS3 for even more comparison (and with games running on systems of similar power to Wii U), like Skyrim and Read Dead Redemption as two examples that spring to mind, but I don't think it's needed.

And, my point about it not being groundbreaking or whatever in terms of gameplay is mainly because that kind of stuff is even more relevant now when it simply isn't even competing in terms of presentation and graphics/visuals. If it's not as good as the competition in terms of presentation and graphics/visuals, and it can't even better them in terms of gameplay (which isn't a proper known factor yet), then it's a brand new first party AAA Zelda game that's basically been bettered by multiple other open world action-rpg type of games that are on the other systems, some of them already available, which is just kinda sad when you think about it. There was a time when even the very notion of such a thing would be bordering on insanity.

@Kirk As an owner of Skyrim, I can say with perfect honesty, that it is not as pretty as Zelda.
More realistic?
Most certainly.
But nowhere near as pretty.

And the same goes for many games from the PS3/360; many if not most of them can't stand up to the kind of graphical effects/style that Zelda's pulling off. Yes, they still look great on an objective level, obviously, since they're still in HD, but that's not on the same level as the new Zelda is.

But I think it's better that we just agree to disagree on this one.

@smashbrolink This Zelda is not pretty. Honestly, people must be blind or something. I don't think Skyrim is particularly pretty either, but this Zelda really is kinda fugly. It's no oil painting, that's for sure.

LoZ = simply the best

@Kirk Now you're just trolling; beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and you don't have to be blind to consider this beautiful.

@JaxonH I don't like bull is all. So, if someone says something along the lines of "Nintendo won E3 and Zelda won E3", using this graph as some kind of actual proof of such a statement—I call bull.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H23Dsi--o4s

This graph shows nothing other than Nintendo focused almost its entire E3 around one game, thereby totally skewing any kind of stats like these, and Nintendo fans are utterly desperate for new Wii U games as well as gagging on this next Zelda game, so of course they were going to utterly lap up basically the only game Nintendo had for them.

@smashbrolink You do have to be kinda blind to look at those rock textures and think they are beautiful, or look at the Christmassy trees and think they don't look like something straight out of the N64 era, or look at the specific lighting/shading on the characters and not see it's sligtly off somehow, or look at the general textures and not see that they're all kinda muted and dull, or look at the game overall and not see the mismatch of a kind of "toon-shaded" style with various "realistic" shaders that simply do not work visually with that style, or look and not see the slight fuzziness and out of focus look to everything just beyond the main focal point of the camera . . .

And then kinda mental to think that equals "beautiful".

That's not trolling; it's me saying exactly what I think, and if I think people are being mental then I'm gonna tell them so.

This game looks passable at best (visually speaking); I'm just calling a spade a spade.

@gatorboi352 Apparently a lot of people try. lol

Nintendo's E3 wasn't bad, but I still would have liked to see just a bit more, then I would have been thoroughly satisfied. This includes MOTHER 3 (When, Nintendo?!) and MK8 DLC. (It was hinted at!) I expect the next Direct to be in August to talk more about upcoming games. July seems too early for one (but September or even October is also a possibility. Maybe the next Direct will also present the NX!)

@Kirk I do think this game is more than passable, but I do agree with your opinion on the graphics and textures; I also think they need more polish before release, but you can't say that the art style isn't the best art style in any Zelda game. That's just not going to happen.

@LegendOfPokemon I 100% can. I even think the character designs are far better looking in general in Skyward Sword, more aesthetically pleasing. The specific kind of "toon-shading" and the particular lighting of the characters is just better looking in that game overall imo*; it looks far less like an obvious computer generated shader type of effect. Right off the bat that's just one of the many things it really disappoints me to see going backwards in this new Zelda.

*Specifically look at the start of the recent demo of Breath of the Wild, where Link is getting up from sleeping in the chamber, and just look at how bad the lighting is on his character model. It almost looks like some kind of distorted Picasso image (look at his feet/toes as he's lying there in the water for example, or his face that is almost just a couple of blobs of high contrast colour):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIrY56yg7dY

This is not stellar modelling or lighting going on here.

I honestly think this is better artistry in almost every way, and it's just far more aesthetically pleasing overall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PwE2WBfiLQ&index=2&list=PL07B48427843CFF8B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aciLjusEN8

Yes, it's technically simpler (lower polygon count and lower resolution), but as I always say, my gripe isn't about the tech so much as the actual visuals, the artistry.

The sad truth here is that Skyward Sword is actually a much lovelier game than Breath of the Wind overall visually, and if it were all running in HD (the textures too) it would utterly blow it out the water. Basically, if they'd just kept the same general art style from SS, at least on the characters and in the overall vibrancy of the colours, and added in the likes of the new grass shader as seen in BotW, then BotW would be a far better looking game that what we have now.

Skyward Sword, that was actually a gorgeous Zelda game. And the only thing that let it down was the low resolution of much of the texture work and the overuse of blurring of stuff in the distance. The new Zelda honestly is just a fugly game by comparison.

@Kirk Yeah, Skyward Sword had some great character designs and shading, I agree. (Skyward Sword is also my favorite Zelda game as well.)

So essentially @smashbrolink has withered down his thoughts to "difference of opinion from me = trolling"

Got it.

What's next? 3rd parties are to blame for not being on Nintendo systems?

@rjejr
Thing is... of course the Wii U already has these things, but as of now there's no console saver. Zelda will act more as a thank-you for all fans who bought the console than anything else. I was talking about the NX and what it will have to do from the get-go in order to sell.

@gatorboi352

Well, it's no more blatantly false than saying Zelda looks like crap, but some are clearly passing that off under the guise of opinion.

@Kirk
So what though? If some Nintendo fan wants to believe Nintenfo had the best E3, let them. Who cares. A lot of ppl saying MS has the best E3 but I don't argue with them. I just don't care. Let people think what they want.

But you're right. People are lapping up Zelda, including me. But there's good reason for that. You can say Nintendo had a lame E3, you can say a lot of things, but you can't say Zelda doesn't deserve the attention it's getting. People didn't lap up Color Splash, or Star Fox. Game crashed and burned.

So clearly, no, people do not lap games up simply because of slim pickings.

@AlexSora89 So are you trying to say that Wii U didn't sell b/c SSB, MK and Zelda were spread out over 3 years, but if you have them all at launch then people will buy the system? I can understand why that makes sense on the surface, but I don't think it would really turn out that way.

LOL this comment thread.

@rjejr
Well, of course, there was another main reason: the console's price didn't match the gap between its power and those of its opponents.
Let me explain my point better - gimmicks and casual-friendly appeal aside, the Wii was WAY underpowered compared to Xbox 360 and PS3; the reason it outsold them was because the inferior graphical power was countered by a very competitive price. Fast-forward to 2012, and we get an innovative console that, sadly, is still a step below its rivals; that alone wouldn't be a problem if only the WiiU wasn't not cheap enough compared to the other consoles. Rayman Legends being no longer a WiiU exclusive was the snowball that started rolling downhill and, eventually, became an avalanche.
There are two ways the NX will dodge the bullets that hit the WiiU: lack the raw power and be sold at a competitive price, or demand the same price as its rivals AND have the graphical power to back up the hefty price tag.

@JaxonH Come on now; you know that's not how I roll. lol

And, this time I said the lapping up thing in particular reference to the stat about Zelda being the most viewed game across social media, or whatever, at E3. It's a misleading and ultimately meaningless stat, for various reasons I've already mentioned.

@gatorboi352 Diverse lineup on XB1? Mmmmmmmk. Indie games maybe, but they are likely also on PC for less cash. Heck, most of the games on PS4 and XB1 are on PC. Console gaming between the two have basically become a competition at who can become the closest to a PC. Just look at how fast they jumped on the VR train.

A last gen, Wind Waker meets poor man's Skyrim is the 'best of E3'? This is just a sign that the vocal minority is to blame for social media turning into the breeding ground for shameless self-promotion and desperate fanyboy ranting.
Nintendo has delayed this for 10 months from now, because of what? It's lacking, uninspiring, and boring. The pre-Wii U Zelda trailer was still 10x more interesting than this.
And if you've been waiting 5 years for this game, like I have, and find Breath of the Wild to be something worth the hype, please share whatever you're smoking.

Wind Waker was a great Zelda.
Skyrim is phenomenal.
I'm not saying this looks like a bad game.
I'm am saying it could be a great game, just not one that 'redefines Nintendo'.
It's Zelda, the return of Celda, in a giant open world.
Again, I'm not seeing anything new, different, or 'game changing'. Maybe that's just me.

@Kirk It doesn't take someone "mental" to consider Zelda beautiful, but it does take someone with very little tact to call someone with different aesthetic senses mental.

Many people felt that Zelda was a beautiful game. Not a minority, either; the majority of people that played it felt it was a beautiful game, over at E3.

@gatorboi352

"

So essentially @smashbrolink has withered down his thoughts to "difference of opinion from me = trolling"

Got it.

What's next? 3rd parties are to blame for not being on Nintendo systems?"

So you're actually claiming that it's a difference of opinion? That you were ONLY trying to espouse your "opinion" on things?

And I quote:
"It's CLEARLY evident outside of Zelda Nintendo has pretty much sh!t else. THAT'S NOT OPINION." [ <--- capitalized for emphasis]

Calling your opinion a fact, as if no one else in the whole wide world cared about Pokemon, Monster Hunter, or anything else Nintendo showed, while claiming almost immediately afterwards that it was just an opinion, is the definition of trolling.
That or back-pedaling/flip-flopping.

Also, don't even start on third parties.
I get the feeling you're one of those people that blamed Nintendo for Black Ops II not getting all of its DLC, or for Sniper Elite V2 not getting its multiplayer and lacking crucial patches.
Third parties did just as much to bury the Wii U early as Nintendo did; only idiots are denying that at this point, which is why so many people are hoping Nintendo makes smarter decisions with third parties for the NX.

@smashbrolink Well, luckily I've never claimed to have any tact.

I honestly think that people like you don't seem to understand that many people don't have the slightest clue what is pretty or accomplished art and what isn't, and they're just saying what they think they're supposed to say or what someone else has already said, someone who's similarly clueless.

[blind] People have said this new Zelda looks like a Miyazaki animation for example, but that's because they're basically clueless about art and what one visual style looks like compared to another, or the vast differences between the levels of execution and polish seen across them, so they just make sweeping and inaccurate observations without even really looking at what they're seeing in proper detail. They can't see the wood for the trees, as it were.

If Zelda actually looked more like Miyazaki's animations, which many people are now comparing it to, I wouldn't be complaining:

But the reality/truth here is that it's certainly no Studio Ghibli level of visual quality:

If it were a Miyazaki animation it would likely be his worst looking one to date, with blurry, low-res, muddy textures on most surfaces, kindergarten/PS1 quality trees in some places (the Chrismassy ones), the slightly "off" lighting and shading effect on the characters, the slight blur over everything, the visible pop-in at times . . .

THIS is Studio Ghibli level of quality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AkY9a7DQUE

IF ONLY Breath of the Wild looked so good—it's what I was actually hoping for:

Ya know.

I just want them to capitalize on this. Nintendo shows every E3 that they can market their games quite well (look at the booths and the presentations, even if you don't like WHAT they show HOW they present it is always top notch) but they tend to let hype die as if that is enough to have the big reveal and that's it. Humans are fickle and extremely negative by nature...positive reinforcement is required to keep many focused on something. This can bleed into a strong NX hype campaign if they work it.

@Kirk "I honestly think that people like you don't seem to understand that many people don't have the slightest clue what is pretty or accomplished art and what isn't, and they're just saying what they think they're supposed to say or what someone else has already said, someone who's similarly clueless."

And that's just audacious, snooty arrogance on your part; you're not the arbitrator or judge of what objective beauty is, nor shall you ever be.
And this does look close enough to be called inspired by Studio Ghibli animation. It's about as close as a Wii U Zelda game is ever going to get, and it looks gorgeous even if it's not an exact match.
The majority of viewers who've seen the game all agree that the fogs and rolling clouds in the distances, the swaying of grasses, the lights and colors reflecting off of water surfaces, and quite a few other things in the game look fantastic, and far beyond the visual quality of TPHD, let alone many other past Zelda titles.

You're entitled to your opinion, but don't ever think for one second that just because you think it's ugly, that it actually is on an objective level.
In fact, considering the number of people that think it's gorgeous compared to the number of people that don't, and all of the extremely minor cherry-picks you do that ignores the larger picture in motion, maybe, just maybe, this is one of those cases where YOU, are the one that isn't giving fair credit to something that's beautiful.

In fact I'd bet on it, because the number of people who have called the game gorgeous over the past three days is way too large to be just a mass of "clueless people that follow what others say."
Everyone has an opinion, and if someone doesn't like how it looks, they'll say it.
But the reception has been overwhelmingly positive.
And that's far more telling than anything you've said or shown.

@smashbrolink And, if this were actually a casino or whatever, you'd lose. You'd be betting on black but not realising you're actually looking at and placing the chip on red, just like everyone else who sees all that stunning "beauty" in this artistic "masterpiece" that is beyond all other games visually . . . without really having a clue one way or another.

Save my eyes from TEH SHEER BEAUTY!

@Kirk Oh, riiiiight, like that proves anything.
Cherry-picking one low-res photo and comparing it to the game in motion just shows how biased you are.
And no, I wouldn't be losing that bet, because everyone else, just like me, would be betting red when the wheel hits it.

You're an outlier on this one, and you're most certainly not the arbiter of objective beauty.

http://icdn1.digitaltrends.com/image/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-0012-1500x844.jpg

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/insertcoin/files/2016/06/shiekah-slate-zelda-1200x670.jpg

http://cdn.wegotthiscovered.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-official-game-trailer-1-8.jpg

https://images.nowloading.co/images/c_fill,h_404,w_718/t_mp_quality_gif/csl7vv2ojcb9yia26abq/the-most-exciting-new-features-coming-to-the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-1018185.jpg

All of these pictures and many more look amazing when in motion.
The only people saying that this looks ugly, are the ones wasting time in their day to nit-pick through low-quality stills instead of giving the game in motion the credit it deserves for its overall look, which is fantastic by majority opinion.

You're not winning this one on any sort of objective level.
Thanks for playing, game over.

We're done here.
Or at least, I'm done with you, and all of your snooty sarcastic graphics-whoring over a beautiful new Zelda game.

@smashbrolink The point is that despite all the nice images you can find, those are real images of the game, like 'em or loathe them. And, they're not tricking you or lying to you in any way; that is how the rock textures, trees, and so on actually look, when you stop and pay proper attention. And, a couple of them are official screens put up by Nintendo itself no less, which means it considered those images as good enough to put out to the press and whoever else, and therefor so shall I. Point is, this game ain't no undeniable beauty.

And, you clearly didn't look very closely at some of the elements in even the screens you posted either. At a glance . . . at a distance . . . quickly moving through the world . . . I have no doubt this Zelda looks perfectly reasonable, maybe even pretty in some way . . . but stop and stare for a moment and the truth is a little clearer.

Now, let's go find some pictures of Horizon: Zero Dawn for comparison's sake. . . .

There ya go. And that's the very first three images on the Google search, no specific best picks or whatever.

OK, and let's be fair; let's do the same for Zelda too:

Your honour, I present exhibits . . .

They are not even in remotely the same league, and anyone who isn't a blind fanboy knows that's just a simple statement of fact, regardless of personal tastes on each of the particular art styles.

@123akis I'm so baaad!