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Tarumon on 23 January 2013
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Aielyn said:
badgenome said:
Aielyn said:

Why spoil the surprise of them now?

I can think of a lot of reasons that aren't, "Nintendo has too many bombs to throw, that they're just doing this now and saving the real megatons for E3." Clearly Nintendo Direct is a big priority for them. It lets them talk to fans whenever they want, entirely on their own terms. It could be that they just don't care about E3 surprises anymore. None of the companies really seem to. It could also be that they're responding to customer disatisfaction with the Wii U's software by assuring people that these things are coming. Or that since the Wii U has launched now they don't intend to do separate Wii U and 3DS conferences this year, so they will have rather less stage time to spend on just Wii U.

With what we know they're already working on and the fact that they have two platforms to support, it just seems a stretch to expect much new for Wii U at E3. If they only show Mario Kart and Smash Bros. and then unveil, say, Retro's new game at the end, that's a very respectable showing that easily tops any of their recent E3 efforts. It would be loads better than any of Sony or especially Microsoft's over the past few years, too. I don't see any reason to expect more than that because, realistically, it will only lead to disappointment.

Nintendo Direct lets them speak to fans, not to the mainstream that they need the support of. E3 is where they focus on the mainstream media who are just as likely to completely ignore a Nintendo Direct. And if they're such a big priority, they'd have spaced out the announcements more between the various Nintendo Directs, rather than confirming seven new games (including a Mario, a Mario Kart, a Zelda, and a Wii-brand game) during this January one. I wasn't just asking why they would spoil the surprise, but why they'd spoil it NOW, and spoil ALL of them now. They could just as easily have held off on, for example, the Wind Waker remake announcement, the Monolith Soft game trailer, and the Yoshi's Land announcement, as it's not like any of those three would have a major effect on immediate Wii U sales - why announce it all now?

Nintendo has always had surprises at E3. Why would it be different this year?

Nintendo can assure that games are coming to the Wii U without being specific. They could also feed the information more slowly. So again, why do it all now?

As for the conference, I'm pretty sure that, if Nintendo wanted, it could have a 5 hour conference. It will have as much of a conference as they feel is necessary to convey what they want to convey. And if they couldn't get enough time for it all during the traditional part of the event, they'd hold a special event just before or after it to cover the rest. And again, it doesn't explain why they'd be announcing this stuff NOW. They could easily hold a pre-E3 Nintendo Direct, just as they did last year, to cover the stuff that wasn't able to fit into their actual conference. So why now?

Note that I'm not advocating a massive number of megatons. I'm suggesting that they haven't exhausted their major announcements, and that there'll be at least one major announcement at E3 that they felt needed to be held back and kept secret until then. And if it's not 3D Mario and it's not Mario Kart and it's not Wii U Party, and it's not Zelda: Wind Waker remake, then it must be something that rivals each of those, if not exceeds them. Mind you, it's entirely possible that the big announcements for E3 aren't first-party announcements. There could be third-party exclusives (or timed exclusives) that they're keeping quiet in preparation for the event.

 

Just because I want it emphasised again, here it is, once more: Why did they spoil it all NOW? Why now, in January? Why seven games in one hit, at this point in time? Just two of the games plus one sidebar announcement (first Smash screens at E3) would have been enough to get people excited enough for the next month, and then they could do another couple of games plus another sidebar announcement in February, and so on. So why NOW?


Earnings season, major revision on unit sales.  No easy way to explain that doesnt sound like a loser's excuse (Iwata doesnr have it in him to say, at least wait until Wii U's 2nd Holiday season, or Wii U is performing within expectations).  This is called taking the losses early.  Nintendo has given up on defending Wii U's fiscal 4th, lower fiscal 2012 but provide more optimistic projections for 2013.