Nintendo has hosted their own large-scale E3 presentations for almost twenty years. However, the company has indicated a break in tradition for this year’s expo.
In a recent financial briefing, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata suggested that Nintendo will not adhere to their usual regime, instead stating that his team will present several smaller events with the purpose of maximising awareness for upcoming software in the U.S. market.
This news may appear odd for long-time fans who thought that Nintendo would use the limelight of E3 to revamp the hype all but lost on the Wii U. However, if we’ve learnt anything from the years since the launch of the 3DS, it’s that software sells hardware. Just so, Nintendo’s software-focused presentations, while small, may be just what they need to convince consumers to go ahead and purchase their new home console.
Here are Iwata’s comments in full, translated by NeoGAF’s Streetsahead:
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.
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. Also, I did not speak at last year’s presentation, and I am not planning to speak at these events at the E3 show this year either. 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.
During the E3 period, we will utilize our direct communication tools, such as Nintendo Direct, to deliver information to our Japanese audience, including those who are at this financial briefing, mainly focusing on the software that we are going to launch in Japan, and we will take the same approach outside Japan for the overseas fans as well.
There are no two ways about it. The sheer prospect that Nintendo won’t deliver a traditional E3 press conference this year sure dampens my spirits. Where is the hype, Nintendo?
What are your thoughts on this ill-timed news? And what do you think Iwata meant by ‘a few smaller events’?
[via Nintendo]
