Nintendo and Sony Underwhelm at E3

LOS ANGELES — The Japanese video game titans, Nintendo and Sony, announced wide-ranging, if not entirely breathtaking, constellations of new games and services at the E3 convention here on Tuesday, but did not appear to significantly alter their overall strategies in the fast-growing game market, as Microsoft did on Monday.

Nintendo — which is riding high on the gangbusters popularity of its DS handheld game unit and its Wii home console — continued to aim largely at children and the mainstream consumers who have adopted gaming in recent years, propelling the industry and the hobby beyond its historical base of young male players. Sony, which is finally generating some traction and excitement around its PlayStation 3 console after initial stumbles, directed most of its new offerings at more traditional gamers, as well as at movie buffs interested in the company’s high-definition Blu-Ray disc format.

While far from disappointing, the combined showings from the two companies appeared to leave some of the cognoscenti a bit underwhelmed.

“They didn’t need to show a lot and so they didn’t show a lot,” Brian Crecente, managing editor of Kotaku, a leading game blog, said of Nintendo. “I’m a little disappointed that Nintendo didn’t make good on their promises of earlier this year that they would have a big new title for hardcore gamers. People were expecting a big new Nintendo Wii game, like another Mario game or Zelda, or a big new intellectual property for core gamers. And what they got was more casual games, and not a lot of them. As for Sony, they did have to show a lot. They met the minimal expectations but they didn’t blow it out of the water.”

Ben Schachter, a game company analyst for UBS Securities, echoed that thought but held out hope that the so-called “third-party” publishers scheduled to present their wares later Tuesday, on Wednesday and on Thursday could generate a bit more excitement.

“Both Nintendo and Sony were somewhat playing it safe,” he said. Referring to the Microsoft and Electronic Arts showcases on Monday, in addition to Nintendo and Sony, he added: “Through the first four press conferences there hasn’t been a real ‘Wow’ moment yet. They seem to be covering their bases, showing a little bit of something for everyone, but there hasn’t been anything totally spectacular yet.”

Mr. Schachter pointed out that many of the more intriguing rumors in the game industry leading into E3 had not come to pass, such as Nintendo announcing a new version of the DS or Sony or Microsoft showing new motion-sensitive controllers (Microsoft did say briefly on Monday that the microphone for its coming karaoke game Lips would include some motion-sensitivity, but that was a relatively minor development).

Despite the criticism, both Nintendo and Sony did announce plenty of new products.

Nintendo opened its briefing at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood with Shaun White, the Olympic gold medalist, demonstrating his upcoming snowboarding game, in which a player stands atop the sensitive balance board Nintendo has shipped with its new Wii Fit fitness system. Shaun White Snowboarding, to be published by Ubisoft of France and shipped this fall, appears to be one of the first third-party games to take advantage of the board.

Nintendo unveiled two new peripherals on Tuesday. The first is a microphone for the Wii called Wii Speak, which will be available as an option for a new version of Animal Crossing, a sort of virtual zookeeper, this holiday season. The second is an attachment for the Wii controller that is meant to make it even more sensitive to being physically twisted and turned than it already is. Called the Wii Motion Plus, the unit will be packaged with a new compilation called Wii Sports Resort, which includes mini-games such as sword fighting and throwing a Frisbee-like disc.

In terms of third-party games, the surprise announcement from Nintendo was that Take-Two’s Rockstar studio is creating a version of the Grand Theft Auto series for the DS called Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. It is unclear whether that game will be aiming for an M for Mature rating (roughly equivalent to R for movies) or T for Teen (akin to PG or PG-13).

To finish, Nintendo’s star designer Shigeru Miyamoto showed off Wii Music, which will allow players to mimic playing any of about 50 instruments.

“I hope everyone came away with the understanding that we are continuing to drive innovation to appeal to the mass audience in addition to the core,” Reginald Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s president and chief operating officer, said in an interview Tuesday. “Our focus is on having the breadth to drive enjoyment for the consumer.”

Responding to the criticism voiced by Mr. Crecente of Kotaku and others, Mr. Fils-Aime pointed to Animal Crossing as a game that would appeal to core gamers. He also reiterated a statement from the presentation that the teams responsible for the famous Mario and Zelda franchises are currently working on new installments in those series.

For its part, Sony kicked off its presentation with a stunning demonstration of Resistance 2, the high-octane first-person shooter under development by Insomniac Games. Ted Price, the studio’s president and chief executive, impressed the crowd with his demonstration of combat against a 300-foot tall leviathan rampaging through an urban landscape.

Building on the PlayStation 3’s popularity as a Blu-Ray movie player, Sony announced that on Tuesday it had opened a movie download service over the PlayStation Network. Differentiating that service from a similar Microsoft offering, Sony said that consumers who buy or rent movies over the Sony service may also transfer those films to their PlayStationPortable handheld game units to watch on the road.

In terms of new games, Sony offered a first look at its coming superhero-themed multiplayer game called DC Universe Online and confirmed the long-suspected rumor that a new installment in its blockbuster God of War series is in the works for the PS3.

Sony did not offer specifics in terms of when the long-awaited Home upgrade for its online network would become available. Home is meant to allow players to socialize over the system outside of particular games.

The company did, however, exhibit a high level of artistic and technical ambition in playing a trailer from a new game in the works called MAG, for Massive Action Game. MAG is meant to allow up to 256 players to simultaneously occupy one continuous modern-combat battlefield. Currently, most console games do not allow more than 40 or 60 players to compete at once. Sony did not say when it hoped to release MAG.