Nintendo recently announced that it would be skipping the large press conferences that tend to be held at E3 this year. Nintendo E3 2013 will not be as grand this year. Over the past few years, each of the big console manufacturers and a couple of the biggest game developers hold a press conference during the earlier days of E3 to showcase their respective vision for the future. This tends to involve both hardware and software announcements. E3 is no doubt a spectacle that attracts many visitors and viewers alike. While it has toned down over the years, it is still the premier gaming event in the world. Thus, Nintendo purposefully missing out on its annual conference is only bad news for itself and gamers alike. Here is a list of reasons why.
5) Doesn’t Build Confidence Among Game Developers
Let’s face it, gaming systems rely on the software developed for them. E3 press conferences aren’t just for gamers and journalist, they are also there for game developers to get a gauge on how companies are doing. This should have been a great opportunity for Nintendo to build confidence in game developers as to the direction of the Wii U and the 3DS. While the 3DS seems fine on its own, the Wii U could have really used some good news. Developers will no doubt see this as Nintendo themselves losing faith in the Wii U unless some other major announcement gets made too, which defeats the purpose of not showing up at the E3 large press conference.
4) Alienating Journalist
Many game developers are shunning E3 over time. The biggest being Rockstar Games, who don’t tend to attend E3. Make no mistake though, traveling to E3, staying overnight and the price of admission for some is pretty high, so journalist coming to the event want more out of the show. To stop conducting major announcements at E3, not only drops E3 as the center stage for gaming announcements, it will no doubt annoy gaming journalist who pay out of pocket to go there. Nothing sucks more than a lackluster gaming event, and it will no doubt seed biases into the minds of gaming journalist. Gaming journalist tend to be pro-Nintendo due to its history, but that can all come crashing down. Nintendo doesn’t really need bad PR.
3) The Wii U Will Continue To Struggle
Nintendo missing out on the large press conference only fosters more belief in the gaming community that Nintendo can’t keep the Wii U afloat. Whether it be because of lack of third-party support or because Nintendo themselves are focusing more on the 3DS, the Wii U seems very out of love, and the press conference would have been a great moment to reveal more for the system. To skip it only builds more frustration for the system, especially at a time when Sony and Microsoft have major announcements to be made during their own conferences.
2) Nintendo E3 2013 Can’t Match Sony & Microsoft
Nintendo has stated that it doesn’t have any new hardware to announce, so it doesn’t need the large press conference. The problem though, is that the Wii U should be hitting its stride now. It has been out for a while now, but barely has support. Nintendo’s E3 conference should have been the showcase for what games have been in development, instead Sony and Microsoft will likely out shine Nintendo and the Wii U. That doesn’t bode well for the Wii U. It simply looks like Nintendo knows that it can’t compete with the new generation of consoles.
1) Alienating Gamers
The biggest problem with Nintendo skipping its E3 press conference is that they will alienate non-fanboy gamers. The fanboys will eat up whatever Nintendo throws at it, but there are limitations even then. The Wii U can’t cope solely on the fanboys. The Wii had help from the heavy casual market, but the Wii U doesn’t have the same appeal. So the only section left are the normal gamers, ones that want a healthy mix of genres and game developers developing games for their systems. By Nintendo refusing to showcase games at such a big event, these gamers will continue to be out of the loop of anything Nintendo related. Nintendo fanboys are the only ones that follow the Nintendo Direct videos, leaving everyone else to rely on game journalist. E3 is a major moment where gamers get to see things first hand, and Nintendo is taking that away. Even the smaller showcases it has for E3 is going to be held behind closed doors. That’s a shame.
things have changed a bit too much over the years. I mean, Rockstar doesn’t attend E3 anymore and no one ever gets on their case. Seriously, this is why Nintendo isn’t doing a big presser: it’s a waste of time and energy. Why waste to much effort on what amounts to just chest-puffing? Face it, Nintendo is SO bloody huge as a company that NOT reporting on any of their reveals or news is sheer stupidity on journalists’ part. Furthermore, E3 is NOT as big as people like to think. Only “hardcore” gamers even pay attention to it and now with the Directs Nintendo realizes that E3 is a bit redundant.