Here in America, we have a bit of an obsession with pageantry. We don’t simply like to announce things or congratulate people, we like to do so with fireworks, laser lights, and a musical act. We like have ceremonies, presentations, and events; we televise a parade that symbolizes the start of Christmas, we run coverage of a ball dropping in New York city on five different networks for New Year’s Eve. The championship game for our favorite sport features over three hours of pregame coverage, with the biggest commercials and one of the most publicized live-music acts of the year sandwiched in between. We run a series of award shows throughout the year, glitzing and glamorizing Hollywood night after night before we can finally name our Best Picture. Miss America, Victoria Secret Fashion Show, American Idol, all of these are examples of how America loves to hit the stop button and pay attention to the hot subject of thet moment. We love events.
The crowning event for the video game industry is E3. While awards are all pretty and nice, the video game industry has always thrived on showing off the newest technology they plan to deliver to your living room. I’ve watched E3 coverage since G4 started airing the convention in 2005, my college roommate and I sitting around the TV, taking in the future of video games. It was at this conference that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all unveiled the current console generation at their own individual press conferences. E3 has always given us the biggest games, the newest tech; it has been the stage on which the game industry changes.
With so much importance placed on E3, it is easy to see why people would be unnerved when Nintendo announced that they would be forgoing their traditional press conference. Is Nintendo’s future so devoid of hope that they really have nothing to show at this year’s biggest trade show? Is this the white flag, symbolizing the end of the Nintendo console era? While Nintendo’s diminished presence at E3 is gives cause for trepidation, it does not confirm the aforementioned questions.
It is important to recognize that Nintendo will still be present at the June trade show, just in a different way. The company will be holding a closed-door event for their partners and distributors, something that Nintendo used to do at E3 but haven’t for a few years. They will also host a hands-on event for the media, showing off some of their best upcoming games. For the most part it’s the same as any other company, except there won’t be any video, or lengthy speeches to reassure the fan base of Nintendo’s third party-future. The thing missing at Nintendo’s portion of E3, will the be the glamour.
Nintendo has stated that they have been replacing the expected E3 event with smaller press conferences called Nintendo Direct, which are available to the public via live steams. While Nintendo Direct is great for showing off Nintendo’s upcoming products, and continues to reaffirm the company’s presence in the industry every few months, it does not make up for what a strong showing at E3 would have meant to Nintendo’s consumers. What is the difference? E3 is the one time of the year when Nintendo can hold the entire gaming industry captive, when the Nintendo fans can smugly know that they have the stage and their system of choice has the limelight. It is here that Nintendo can show a gameplay trailer to a captive internet audience and press, then let them spread the words instantly. Where everyone can wait on the edge of their seat while Nintendo drops the hammer of the WiiU Zelda game everyone has been anticipating. It is all for show, it is all fleeting, but it is these little things that would have meant a lot to the fans. The Nintendo faithful can go ahead and erase the circle around June 11th-13th, because it doesn’t matter to them anymore.
But aside from E3’s symbolic nature, does it matter at all? This is exactly what Nintendo is hedging its bets on. E3 mattered the most when news traveled slow and it was the only venue at which to showcase games, consoles, and other devices, but news travels so fast and is so widely distributed what does it matter? Why spend the millions on an expensive show, when Nintendo already knows what most of the critics are going to say? It is becoming more and more obvious that either you love Nintendo, or you’re uninterested. Why spend the money to change no one’s mind?
Nintendo can take a page right out of the Apple playbook. Apple has long stated that it has no connection to the games industry, and quite frankly, is not interested in one. In fact, Apple is running their own conference at the same time as E3, showing they couldn’t really care less what the games industry thinks. People (gamers included, if not specifically) still line up to buy the iPhone and iPad each year. Is someone really not going to buy a WiiU or 3DS because Nintendo didn’t have an E3 conference? E3 is watched by a very specific, and generally already decided population of American consumers, one that Nintendo and Apple are not very interested in marketing to.
It has long been said that Nintendo doing their own thing, marching to the beat of their own drum. I think now more than ever that can be confirmed. It doesn’t mean Nintendo is throwing in the towel, it doesn’t mean that they can’t compete. It means that there’s no point in showing up to the Academy Awards when you know you won’t win best actor. It’s not worth showing up to the NFL Draft if you’re not gonna go in the first round. Just because Nintendo isn’t going to revel in the hype of E3, doesn’t mean it lacks announcements. Nintendo has issues, with the WiiU’s disappointment and a lack of third-party support, there are definitely concerns. But skipping the rhetoric, laser lights, video montage, and other staples of an E3 press conference, isn’t one of them.
nintendo did the right move they cna win this way