As usual Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's president, started the conference. It was striking that he, just as his colleague's of Microsoft and Sony began his speech by showing us with a lot of statistics how many gamers game and how big Nintendo is. The greatest console builder of them all even... At least if you count in the (mega) sales figures of the DS.

Unfortunately Reggie suffered from the same diseaese as the people form MS and Sony. The 'we are the best' virus apparently spread over the better Santa Monica hotels. We'll save you the statistics, because it is possible to prove about anything with stats, but they're proud on a particular one, quite rightly. Globally 20% of gamers are female, but at the Nintendo fanbase 34% are female.

Let's forget about the obligatory (American) sales and marketing slogans (“Nintendo IS the Future!” & “Are you ready to hold the whole world in the palm of your hands?”) and try to get the most important out of what has been said.

Nintendo purposefully chose the strategy to attract 'non-gamers' and introduce them in the virtual world. The best examples are Nintendogs and Brain Training for DS and Wii Sports for Wii. They've even managed quite well. Are they over at Nintendo statified now and do they leave it at that? Of course not! In Santa Monica Nintendo Fit with fitting hardware was announced.

Nintendo Fit is not a classic game, but rather a fitness programme with some nice game elements. The included hardware seems like a flat white balance that can be used as a kind of step aerobics thing. Once it's well calibrated, it corrects your posture so that chances on injuries are slim. It acts as a kind of touch mat like we know it from Dance Dance Revolution. Calmer exercises like yoga and stretching are also part of the more than 40 exercises. New consumers will without doubt be convinced by this game to step into the Nintendo world.

Other eyecatchers included:

The first visual demonstration of the Wii Zapper, the new Wii controller with which shooters like Medal of Honor and particulary Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicals can be fought out by shooting at your screen. The -once again fully white- console has undoubtly on purpose a non-agressive design. Nice detail, the thingy should cost no more than $19,99 and will be available in autumn.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass brings the Zelda world to the DS. In a live demonstration it was clearly visible that the well-known gameplay was transferred succesfuly to the DS's touchscreen, which does not seemed easy for the developers. More information on this title follows without doubt later on.

Nintendo tries to shake of the criticism of hardcore players concerning online gaming by pointing out the online possibilities of titles like Fifa 2008 (EA), Dragon Quest Master Joker, Guitar Hero III with online battles and especially its own Mariokart Wii in which racing with people all over the world will be possible. To convince new players there even will be a Wii steering wheel as a controller. Unfortunatley not a word about online shooters, so we fear that criticism from the hardcore side will keep coming.

It is clear, Nintendo has dedicated itself to convince non-gamers to get a console and a game. Via the DS with memory games (see my colleague's preview of Word Coach later on) and via the Wii with fitness games like Wii Sports and Fit.