Nintendo Abandons Big Press Conference for E3 2013
There will be no big grand Nintendo press conference at this years E3 from Nintendo. Instead Nintendo will focus on smaller events for the media and retailers where they will get hands on with Nintendo’s latest titles.
“First, we decided not to host a large-scale presentation targeted at everyone in the international audience where we announce new information as we did in the past.” reads a statement from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.
“Instead, at the E3 show this year, we are planning to host a few smaller events that are specifically focused on our software lineup for the U.S. market. There will be one closed event for American distributors, and we will hold another closed hands-on experience event, for mainly the Western gaming media.”
So what about for all of us playing at home? Well expect something like a Nintendo Direct instead. “Apart from these exclusive events for visitors, we are continuing to investigate ways to deliver information about our games directly to our home audience around the time of E3. We will share more information about them once they have officially been decided.”
Satoru Iwata will not be speaking at this years E3 either just like last year. The reasons for this he didn’t say.
So essentially, Nintendo will still show new stuff at E3, They’ll still have Wii U and 3DS stuff to play for attendees, but it won’t be an hour long press conference.
For those of us at home and for fans Nintendo is still investigating on how to bring us this news but something like a Nintendo Direct wouldn’t be a far fetched idea. Nintendo is also trying to avoid a ‘who won E3’ war by simply not showing its wares in the same way.
What do you think of this idea? Is Iwata on the right path or will this hurt Nintendo and the Wii U more?
I have written article about this in a few other locations but essentially my take is, with powerful services like Nintendo Direct and video streaming everywhere, there is no need for big press conferences any more. Everyone can see everything from anywhere.
^^ Agreed. I loved Nintendo Direct. They are so bloody exciting.
To be fair their last couple E3 press conferences were lacklustre at best and they were going to get smashed if they showed up this year.
Disagree. Nintendo direct is for Nintendo fans, we know about it, mainstream media has no idea. E3 is seized upon by mainstream media which gives potential to grow the brand. Seems silly to abandon that. Agree the Nintendo directs are great though…. Just can’t see why they would not seize the opportunity to promote to the masses.