Nintendo Switch Press conference: January 12 2017 in Tokyo

[Nuvendil]

Einsam_Delphin said:

bunchanumbers said:

You gotta admit that it would minimize negative press. The only way it could do any better would be if they found a way to launch it that same day. And its not like console makers didn't do reveals to lower the impact of a rival. Sony did it to MS when they did their reveal. MS even sent workers to Best Buy to counter Wii U when they were doing their E3 at Best Buy event. Nintendo could have just as easily did this with Switch this holiday season. Instead they decided to wait. I'm thinking because they are not confident in their product.

How would it minimize negative press in any way? It's only the opposite since there's less time for people to forget or come to terms with the bad news.

This is a good point.  Imagine, if you will, if MS had launched the Xbox One two months after their disastrous unveiling.  Even if they had reversed their bad policies and the Xbone launched exactly as it later did, the launch would have been an absolute bloodbath vs the PS4 cause people would still be livid, they would have next to no time to spin anything, and no time to repair their brand or do damage control.  It would have been worse, not better.  Cause bad news spreads like wildfire and anger lingers short term and only really cools with time.  Announcing a good ways ahead of time is better for controlling negativity since you have a long while to spin and do damage control.