Nintendo ditches main E3 conference, still there with games, press events, N-Direct

This is ether a smart move or kind of worrying.


I wonder what they are gonna show.

Lord Error said:
Huh, where are you seeing those numbers? On their youtube channel, the numbers are far higher than that:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLol_ykYs3OQ65y4avMdbMk_k96z3lMt6W

1.5M for See the Future
1.3M for the Announcement
2M for Infamous
1M Killzone
Click to expand...

And the official video simply titled "PlayStation 4" has just under 29 MILLION views.

But youtube views dont exactly prove shit.
 
fabricated backlash said:
So it's more about the meltdown show on Gaf?

Judging by some past ND and the Bayonetta2 meltdown, I'd say we're still going to get the same circus around here as always, just with less whining about Sales Figures presentations or orchestra performances.
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The lows are also a part of the fun... so long as the conferences are not 90% lows. Unfortunately they have been for the last couple of years in every camp so maybe Nintendo is onto something here.
 
Does this mean third party segment still gets talking heads of respective companies talking about how much they love the system and how they are comitted to showering it with outsourced ports (then given how brazingly they drop it months later shows it was all just smiles for the camera...).

But hopefully this means things will be a bit more rehersed. I certainly don't want a repeat of the Nintendoland segement last year (as a first impression we got a convoluted explaination of how to play Pac-Man vs...)

I hope its not too stale, which is a kind of problem Nintendo Direct suffers from. I guess the post presentation video is a reasonable compromise.
 
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.
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This, right here is what makes me sad to read. It's this focusing on US so much that makes me wonder how companies will succeed in other territories. To take an example, I'm very curious to see how MS will appeal to Europe and Japan costumers. The worst thing I can feel from a company is: I don't care about you, you are not your target. From a consumer point of view that is indeed negative.
 
shinra-bansho said:
There were 7.5M viewers for that conference Ustream, with a concurrent high of 1M.

When I've viewed E3 conferences on live-streams they've tended to overload servers on multiple sites and finding a good one has generally been hard (so, on the plus side this avoids that problem). But I can't recall any of the numbers of concurrent watchers.

This is for Microsoft's conference 2009, for example. http://mashable.com/2009/06/01/e3-live-stream/ 1.6M viewers from that site.

I don't really know if looking at YouTube stats is the best comparison.

What do concurrent and/or total viewer numbers get to for Nintendo Directs?
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Probably not a lot in comparison. But then again, they've only been Nintendo's (apparently) sole channel of communicating big announcements for, like, a few hours :p

Time will tell whether this works; not looking at how many people viewed past e3 conferences compared to future NDs/Nintendo press events. Now that we know Nintendo will make big announcements at any time outside e3, I'm betting more people will pay attention to NDs and the like

Unless the media simply refuse to report on anything not shown at e3 (like, if they're that salty about not getting Nintendo e3 swag), then this won't affect their media penetration at all.
 
I dont know why they don't just skip E3, all of them Nintendo, MS and Sony. I guess they kinda did this year with showing their stuff earlier, honestly if I ran one of the companies I wouldn't want my products having to compete with others to grab some news.
 
rezuth said:
I dont know why they don't just skip E3, all of them Nintendo, MS and Sony. I guess they kinda did this year with showing their stuff earlier, honestly if I ran one of the companies I wouldn't want my products having to compete with others to grab some news.
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Because it's a huge event with lot of press that doesn't normally cover your products. Also if all of the big three didn't attend we probably wouldn't have E3.
 
This is the best move for them. Nintendo can't play the same game as Microsoft or Sony. They need to flip the script and do their own thing. One of the biggest mistakes made with the Wii U was spending so much time focusing on 3rd party ports early on, to try and demonstrate parity with the other platforms, and now that the games have come and gone the initiative is seen as a failure. If changing their behavior at E3 is the first step in a new direction for Nintendo, then I am thankful for that. Why keep doing the same thing that hasn't been working?
 
I understand why they would not want to compete with console announcements, but this seems like it is going too far. Media only at E3? Not sure that the media (known to be suckers for hype) will give as much attention as they would with a full conference presentations.
 
RMI said:
This is the best move for them. Nintendo can't play the same game as Microsoft or Sony. They need to flip the script and do their own thing. One of the biggest mistakes made with the Wii U was spending so much time focusing on 3rd party ports early on, to try and demonstrate parity with the other platforms, and now that the games have come and gone the initiative is seen as a failure. If changing their behavior at E3 is the first step in a new direction for Nintendo, then I am thankful for that. Why keep doing the same thing that hasn't been working?
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This could be a step in the wrong direction though.
Either way, this is a gamble and we will have to wait and see.
 
I think it's the price for announcing playable Mario Kart, Smash Bros. and 3D Mario in the Direct a few months ago. Those games are now expected to be at E3 and they don't contribute much to the excitement level of the show. The same goes for the other teasers they had in that Direct - that could have been a good Wii U E3 right there, but I guess they were so desperate not to appear incompetent, that they decided to reveal almost everything unusually early.
 
The_Monk said:
This, right here is what makes me sad to read. It's this focusing on US so much that makes me wonder how companies will succeed in other territories. To take an example, I'm very curious to see how MS will appeal to Europe and Japan costumers. The worst thing I can feel from a company is: I don't care about you, you are not your target. From a consumer point of view that is indeed negative.
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E3 has usually been N.America focused. I mean MS is the most obvious of the three with all those Live services they show off being US exclusive.

And from I can gather the focus is going t be with retail outlets 'n' co. I assume Nintendo has other outlets so they can talk to retailers 'n' co in the other regions.
 
Lord Error said:
Those conferences are the best part of E3, so this obviously sucks. I can't see how much it would cost them to get what's essentially a cheap extra advertising, regardless of what else they're doing.


Huh, where are you seeing those numbers? On their youtube channel, the numbers are far higher than that:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLol_ykYs3OQ65y4avMdbMk_k96z3lMt6W
28M for the PS4 trailer
1.5M for See the future
1.3M for the Announcement
2M for Infamous
1M Killzone
1M Drive club
Click to expand...

From another sonyplaystation official account. It must have been the European one, then.

EDIT: I'll update my post about views comparisons with these ones :)

EDIT2: Here's my earlier post modified: http://neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=55398272&postcount=1416
 
HawthorneKitty said:
This could be a step in the wrong direction though.
Either way, this is a gamble and we will have to wait and see.
Click to expand...
Definitely it could be, but sharks need to keep swimming and all that jazz. I'd rather see them take risks. I think they don't have much to lose at this point.
 
Shion said:
I can't believe people are actually comparing Nintendo directs to a conference during world's biggest gaming event.
Click to expand...


Why? Far more people get their gaming news through 3rd party sites/forums/social networking than by actually watching the whole conference live anyway. Makes little difference to media exposure realistically...
 
I really hate Nintendo directs. It's like switching from getting huge presents at Christmas to getting many smaller presents throughout the year. E3 is our Mecca. Demoting it to our Pittsburgh a few years ago had big consequences and I thought everyone recognized that. The press conference for the mainstream media pretty much IS e3. Conversely, crapE3 of a few years ago still had the media briefings...just without the fanfare and I think it was a big drag.

And I also hate the stupid "year of weegee" and other bleating that comes out of it but whatever.
 
mh3urp.gif
 
The_Lump said:
Why? Far more people get their gaming news through 3rd party sites/forums/social networking than by actually watching the whole conference live anyway. Makes little difference to media exposure realistically...
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I know every time I fill in those Club Nintendo survey I usually always put social site (obviously referencing GAF) as one of my sources of information.

Y2Kev said:
And I also hate the stupid "year of weegee" and other bleating that comes out of it but whatever.
Click to expand...
You're just upset that you're not-a-Luigi, numba won!
 
The_Lump said:
Probably not a lot in comparison. But then again, they've only been Nintendo's (apparently) sole channel of communicating big announcements for, like, a few hours :p

Time will tell whether this works; not looking at how many people viewed past e3 conferences compared to future NDs/Nintendo press events. Now that we know Nintendo will make big announcements at any time outside e3, I'm betting more people will pay attention to NDs and the like

Unless the media simply refuse to report on anything not shown at e3 (like, if they're that salty about not getting Nintendo e3 swag), then this won't affect their media penetration at all.
Click to expand...
Making big announcements outside of E3 is nothing new though. The PS3 Slim was announced at GamesCom.

If you mean announced outside of trade shows, again it's nothing new. Games are regularly announced standalone and through different avenues e.g. Uncharted 3 via Entertainment Weekly, Black Flag, Battlefield. Most of Sony's E3 unveilings are generally announced prior as well for example.

Did Nintendo never make big announcements outside of E3 prior to Nintendo Directs?

But having a presser at the event itself is still a good marketing and promotional tool.

tl;dr version, I don't really see why they can't do both, and don't really agree with this idea that E3 has become redundant/irrelevant.
 
End of an era. I'm not going to lie, the E3 conferences have replaced Christmas for me. No other day gives so many surprises. Nintendo always had the most interesting ones, whether they were good or bad. This kind of makes me think they have jack shit to show and are just going to show off like art work of a new Mario game. You'd think they would certainly want to showcase their lineup to the international press considering their current state.
 
Y2Kev said:
I really hate Nintendo directs. It's like switching from getting huge presents at Christmas to getting many smaller presents throughout the year. E3 is our Mecca. Demoting it to our Pittsburgh a few years ago had big consequences and I thought everyone recognized that. The press conference for the mainstream media pretty much IS e3. Conversely, crapE3 of a few years ago still had the media briefings...just without the fanfare and I think it was a big drag.

And I also hate the stupid "year of weegee" and other bleating that comes out of it but whatever.
Click to expand...
Whats wrong with year of luigi? :/

Forkball said:
End of an era. I'm not going to lie, the E3 conferences have replaced Christmas for me. No other day gives so many surprises. Nintendo always had the most interesting ones, whether they were good or bad. This kind of makes me think they have jack shit to show and are just going to show off like art work of a new Mario game. You'd think they would certainly want to showcase their lineup to the international press considering their current state.
Click to expand...
I think you will still get your surprises but in a different way. I cant wait till its all said and done so we can see if we overreacted here or were right.
 
Officerrob said:
The local high school football game and the Super Bowl are both just two teams playing football, what's the difference?
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I think people are really exaggerating how many people actually watch E3 conferences when they happen. They're in the middle of the day in the middle of the week. The only people that get to see them are the unemployed, people with night jobs and people like me who specifically take vacation time to stay home and watch it.

Out of all of the people I know that love video games I'm the only one I know that
actually goes out of their way to watch E3. The general public doesn't care about watching press conferences. They just pick up all of their news from the places they usually pick up their gaming news.
 
Officerrob said:
The local high school football game and the Super Bowl are both just two teams playing football, what's the difference?
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Pretty much.

Nintendo directs are only a thing among hardcore Nintendo brand loyalists.

A big conference is where you try to communicate, not just with your brand loyalists, but with consumers on a wider level.

A big conference generates hype, awareness and shows that you have confidence in your products.
 
Maybe I am wrong, but it seems to me like Nintendo Directs are not at all what they need right now, at least for WiiU. They may be an acceptable method of communicating with an audience that you have already gained, but that is not the case for WiiU. For that platform, they really need to gather new customers, not turn inward.
 
BGBW said:
E3 has usually been N.America focused. I mean MS is the most obvious of the three with all those Live services they show off being US exclusive.

And from I can gather the focus is going t be with retail outlets 'n' co. I assume Nintendo has other outlets so they can talk to retailers 'n' co in the other regions.
Click to expand...

I understand fellow GAFfer, but see Sony, for example. The difference is much inferior. They show they care, just look at PS Plus Service in Europe they really are creating a great service with great titles in Europe while they still talk about other service that are US Exclusive.

From a Business standpoint this means money earned. They could even "pretend" to care and I know the first costumers would buy that but I feel others don't even try/care and I can't see why because markets like Europe and Japan are huge for the Gaming industry too.

Please some fellow GAFfer correct me/explain to me if I'm wrong. I could always learn some more about this and I'm humble enough to ask.
 
It's been wildly speculated that Nintendo (wii in particular) was the reason E3 shrunk many years ago in the first place. Other companies spent a ton of money but never got coverage. It's crazy to see this happening now.
 
Nintendo Direct only speaks to the Luigi Hats, E3 is covered by legitimate media which is consumed by actual customers. But hey, it's their company.
 
I guess they can't "lose" E3 now lol.

Not upset. Directs work for me and have provided better games than their last E3s. E3 conferences focus too much on the big stuff and not so much on smaller things.
 
Shion said:
I can't believe people are actually comparing Nintendo directs to a conference during world's biggest gaming event.
Click to expand...

Nintendo Directs are better. They get to the point quicker, can be held more often, don't bore people to death with "numbers-talk".

Also, they can focus better on the games, explain them etc. At the E3 presentation there isn't usually much time to do that, so that's another plus.

E3 presentations are still cool, yes, but I think it's time to move - or at least try and see how it works.

I like the fact that Nintendo - once more - is trying something "new".
 
As a random tangent: was Iwata *really* not a speaker at last year's E3? I really don't remember that, and I'd have thought I'd have noticed - but I guess not!
 
Zen_Arcade said:
I think people are really exaggerating how many people actually watch E3 conferences when they happen. They're in the middle of the day in the middle of the week. The only people that get to see them are the unemployed, people with night jobs and people like me who specifically take vacation time to stay home and watch it.

Out of all of the people I know that love video games I'm the only one I know that
actually goes out of their way to watch E3. The general public doesn't care about watching press conferences. They just pick up all of their news from the places they usually pick up their gaming news.
Click to expand...

Whether they watch it live or watch it after work when they get home, people are drawn to watching E3 press conferences because they are a huge event in the gaming industry. When you take away the "event" you lose a big part of the audience
 
Hah, I called it! Now maybe people will shut up about "bringing it" at E3.

The writing was on the wall, E3 was providing less value than Nintendo was getting out. Spotlight sharing, unnecessary competition, dudebro culture (gets worse every year), and it's never been a great venue for demoing games. Especially if they don't have some new hardware they need to spotlight it's just not important anymore. Nintendo Direct is the way of the future where they can decide when and how they want to present things without needing to go through the gaming media filter. Also like the 3DS event last week there's better ways to get people hands on than a noisy, time-constrained venue where journalists need to pick and choose what they see and are exhausted from writing articles.
 
Forkball said:
You'd think they would certainly want to showcase their lineup to the international press considering their current state.
Click to expand...

But... they are doing this. Like, mentions of press events are right in the title of the thread.

I'm not sure how this will pan out in practice, and I am a little saddened that we won't get the big shiny show that we're accustomed to, but there's wisdom in splitting your content and delivering it separately to different audiences. I dunno.
 
Soriku said:
I guess they can't "lose" E3 now lol.

Not upset. Directs work for me and have provided better games than their last E3s. E3 conferences focus too much on the big stuff and not so much on smaller things.
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Actually, couldn't it be argued that they lose by default?
 
If they had enough content to fill a full conference, they'd have a full conference.

Now the Nintendo story in the media this whole E3 will be "No conference, what's wrong with Nintendo?"
 
Like many others, I was initially quite shocked by the announcement but soon realized that it's a good move by Nintendo. A lot of the negative comments ("Nintendo admits its defeat") once again comes from people who, for some weird reason, wants to see Nintendo fail.

I'm not saying that E3 is irrelevant like some, but I do feel that a lot of people are greatly exaggerating the importance of the press conference. The problem is that a lot of people look at this from a gamers point of view and fail to see the grand picture.

An e3 press conference requires a lot of time and resources from Nintendo's corporate heads, their development teams and others. They have to prepare on-stage demos, speeches and trailers just to name a few things. But what is the payback of all of this in the end? Non-gamers, casual gamers or whatever you want to call them are the most important market for Nintendo and they mainly receive information about (Nintendo) games through television advertisements, store game-booths, websites, friends etc.

Let's take Super Mario 3D Land for example, which has sold over 8 million copies. How many of these buyers saw the live Nintendo press conference were the game was unveiled? I'd guess max 400 000 (5%) and this is very optimistic. The E3 press conference is just a tiny part of Nintendo's general advertisement strategy and it is targeted to a quite small group of people. The company can reach it's target groups more effectively through other means.

Some people say that E3 is the only game event that receives mass media attention. In my experience, this is true for hardware (l remember seeing E3-news concerning the PS3, Wii, Kinect, PSMove, Wii U in Finnish newspapers) but not so much for software. This year Nintendo is going to focus only on software. Do you think that the mainstream press will report that Nintendo is making a new Mario/Mario Kart game? I really doubt it.
 
Y2Kev said:
I really hate Nintendo directs. It's like switching from getting huge presents at Christmas to getting many smaller presents throughout the year. E3 is our Mecca. Demoting it to our Pittsburgh a few years ago had big consequences and I thought everyone recognized that. The press conference for the mainstream media pretty much IS e3. Conversely, crapE3 of a few years ago still had the media briefings...just without the fanfare and I think it was a big drag.

And I also hate the stupid "year of weegee" and other bleating that comes out of it but whatever.
Click to expand...
I don't think you know this, but you're my favorite poster on the Citadel.

I see two reasons Nintendo is doing this:

1. They have nothing significant to counter the momentum of two competitors who are more hungry for core gamers than Nintendo is at the moment.

2. Iwata is pinching any penny he can to get to that 100 Billion yen profit. The $5 Million or whatever Nintendo saves from not having an "extravagant" E3 press conference could save Iwata's job.
 
It's a little disappointing, but my opinion is that the other 2 will follow in the next years.

E3 seems to me a little out of its time in this 24/7 news world, a relic of the past.
 
It almost seems like Nintendo is bitter about E3. They spoke poorly about the wiiU and are now terrified of making the same mistake on one big stage especially during a year they'll largely get ignored. So I think it's a good move. Just hold some shit where you spout off a bunch of games and show some trailers. That's all that matters for them these days. Gamessssss.
 
Y2Kev said:
I really hate Nintendo directs. It's like switching from getting huge presents at Christmas to getting many smaller presents throughout the year. E3 is our Mecca. Demoting it to our Pittsburgh a few years ago had big consequences and I thought everyone recognized that. The press conference for the mainstream media pretty much IS e3. Conversely, crapE3 of a few years ago still had the media briefings...just without the fanfare and I think it was a big drag.

And I also hate the stupid "year of weegee" and other bleating that comes out of it but whatever.
Click to expand...

There were bigger news in the last 3 ND's than in the last 2 E3 Nintendo press conferences, I don't know why people think that you need Usher on stage to have a important presence

The info is still coming just in a different and more focused way, that's it
 
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