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Forums - Nintendo - Ten ways Nintendo can do better next E3

I think Nintendo won E3. That's no secret. Opinions are opinions are opinions, but what I DON'T think is that they absolutely smoked Sony and Microsoft. I think Nintendo had a B+ presentation, Microsoft had a B, and Sony had a B-. None were outstanding. The point is, they all have room for improvement, but since I care most about Nintendo, I'll discuss ten things Nintendo can do to have an even better E3 next year.

1. Stick with the Digital Event format.

If nothing else, what the Digital Event proves is that a digital format works. After the last E3, I wanted Nintendo to return to the Press Conference format. After this one, I don't. Above anything else, it was the most entertaining E3 "press conference" not only this year, but of any E3 I'd ever seen. Nintendo was self aware, and there was asolutely no awkwardness. Sometimes the best improvement is to not change. Keep it digital.

2. Show the Digital Event at E3 on a big screen in the Nokia Theatre for the press and host a separate stream with the live audience reaction.

No matter how stupid I think it is, people like to hear other people get excited about something. This way, they'd get that. It's pretty self explanitory. 

3. Copy Sony. Air the Digital Event in select theatres for fans.

Allow Nintendo fans to watch the Digital Event live with an audience of other Nintendo fans.

4. Reveal every game you reveal at E3 at the Digital Event.

Don't save game reveals for afterwords. It deflated the reveal of everything. The Treehouse Coverage is perfect. Don't use it to reveal games. Use it to reveal gameplay. Don't reveal games at round tables. None of that.

5. Don't spend more than five minutes on any one game.

Especially when most of those five minutes consist of the developer talking about how great the game is with no gameplay being shown. I'm looking at you Aonuma. And Yarn Yoshi. And Amiibo. And Splatoon. Just show the games and move on. Honestly, even 5 minutes is too long in most cases. Bigger games?Longer reveal. Yarn Yoshi? Shorter reveal.

6. Keep the skits. But change it each year.

I loved the Robot Chicken skits. They broke up the game reveals in a meaningful way that didn't feel intrucive and never overstayed their welcome. That being said, don't use Robot Chicken next year. Not because they weren't entertaining, they were awesome, but they could really overstay they're welcome if it's the same people every year. Choose another group next year and another after that. Keep it fresh.

7. DON'T SHOW CGI/CUTSCENES WITHOUT GAMEPLAY. EVER.

Just don't do it. Not once. Not with Zelda U. Not with XenoCron X. Not with anything else. Not ever. I don't care if it's all "in engine." It cheapens the reveal. I'll just come right out and say it: the Zelda reveal pissed me off. It was shit. We waited a year to watch Aonuma talk for a minute with a white background, Link stand in grass for a minute while Aonuma talked some more, and then watch a 45 second cutscene that confused us about Link's gender. It wasn't a good reveal and Zelda deserves better. Every video game deserves better. You want to show cutscenes? Fine. Show gameplay too. If your trailer doesn't consist of at least 50% gameplay, it's not ready for E3. Don't promise it. Don't show it.

Same with XenoChron X. Because there was no gameplay shown, people thought the graphics where downgraded. Then we saw 40 minutes of treehouse footage and it was awesome. Don't do that to yourselfs. You want a cinematic trailer? Fine. 50/50. Show gameplay and show it first at the Digital Event. The 2013 reveal of XenoChron X was perfect. How do you fuck that up? Don't do it again. Gameplay or bust.

8. Don't ignore the 3DS.

This isn't about the 3DS specifically. Don't mainly focus on one platform. Either represent them equally, or hold a separate Digital Event for both. Last year they did the same thing to the Wii U. I don't care if the Wii U is struggling. Nintendo treated the 3DS like a second class citizen this E3. They treated it the way Sony treats the Vita. I own two consoles, not one. I want games for two platforms, not one. I don't care how you do it, just don't do it again. Pokemon is not enough. Next year, bring the games for both consoles.

9. Keep the Treehouse Livestream for expanding on what was shown in the Digital Event.

That may sound redundant, but it isn't. The Treehouse Livestream was awesome and one of the best things about Nintendo's E3, but it was flawed. First, it revealed games that weren't at the Digital Event. Because of this, many people simply didn't see these games, and their reveals were less impactful. Second, the livestream wasn't transparent. We didn't know what would be shown until it was shown. That was not the right way to do it. Release a schedule of what will be shown at the Treehouse at the end of the Digital Event with the times. Allow people to tune in and know what they're tuning into. Spread out the more major games throughout the three days so that more people tune in every day. Reveal something new about the game not shown in their Digital Direct each time it's played, no matter how small. Seeing the Bayonetta 2 mech was awesome. Small things like that do wonders.

The crew was awesome too. They felt like normal gamers. They were awkward, and uncomfortable, and excited, and passionate and that was charming to watch. It was the opposite of corperate, and it made the whole Treehouse event worth it just to see these gamers so excited to finally talk about games they'd been working in in secret for months. It was authentic and that's good.

10. Don't end the Digital Event on a wimper.

The Digital Event started fantastic. The Robot Chicken bit was great. The Reggie vs. Iwate bit was great. Then the middle was okay. Not ending it with Zelda was a mistake. Then they ended it by revealing a character everyone already knew about from Smash, and showing a blurry image of an Alpha-stage Star Fox game while Miyamoto talked about I don't care. Worst reveal. Ever. Terrible ending to a fantastic start. Start big. Have something big in the middle. End it big. Have all the fluff in the middle.

Here's how I would have done it. I wouldn't have revealed Pokemon OR AS last month. I'd have revealed it at E3. Start the Digital Direct exactly the same. Continue as normal. Don't reveal Zelda U yet. Reveal Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire for the first time. Continue as normal. Take out the Miyamoto and Palutena bit entirely. After the Splatoon reveal, the screen fades to black. New challenger approaching. Show the Red, Blue, and Yellow trailer. Then show Zelda.

-

If Nintendo does everything I listed, they'll have a home run E3 next year that'll make this year look like a warm up.



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Agreed with everything.

Theres no way that bit where Aonuma snapped his fingers and revealed Zelda U would have worked in a live conference.

I think Sony is on to something big with that theatre thing. All conferences should be shown like that from now on, that would be massive exposure for all 3 companies.



Good list, but you missed one thing: Show a montage of Third Party and Indie Games like they did in the 2013 Direct



Yup it can definitely be better, but I still think it was much better than last year's E3.

At least Nintendo is learning.



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spemanig said:

I think Nintendo won E3. That's no secret. Opinions are opinions are opinions, but what I DON'T think is that they absolutely smoked Sony and Microsoft. I think Nintendo had a B+ presentation, Microsoft had a B, and Sony had a B-. None were outstanding. The point is, they all have room for improvement, but since I care most about Nintendo, I'll discuss ten things Nintendo can do to have an even better E3 next year.

1. Stick with the Digital Event format.

2. Show the Digital Event at E3 on a big screen in the Nokia Theatre for the press and host a separate stream with the live audience reaction.

3. Copy Sony. Air the Digital Event in select theatres for fans.

4. Reveal every game you reveal at E3 at the Digital Event.

5. Don't spend more than five minutes on any one game.

6. Keep the skits. But change it each year.

7. DON'T SHOW CGI/CUTSCENES WITHOUT GAMEPLAY. EVER.

8. Don't ignore the 3DS.

9. Keep the Treehouse Livestream for expanding on what was shown in the Digital Event.

10. Don't end the Digital Event on a wimper.

I'm gonna tackle, agree, comment, ect on your points.

1. Agree, but want it longer.  Make it an hour. 

2.  Don't care.  I can see live reaction of youtubers I care about if thats what I want to see.  Don't care about some huge cheering, especially with how press conferences put in fake cheerers these days.

3. Sure whatever, let those that like it do it.  I prefer to stay home on my computer.  What they need to do is increase the Best Buy # of stores more than have theaters.

4. Mixed bag on this.  Part of the reason I'm so glued to the screen watching tree houses and round tables and so on is because there is a chance of a new game being revealed.  Thus if they are all revealed at the event then I might tune out.  Plus some reveals may overshadow others.  Take Palutena for example, she had a good 8 hours of spotlight for people to talk about.  Then Pacman was revealed and Palutena was no more.  If Pacman was revealed at the event as well, Palutena would have gotten no spotlight.  So spreading out news not only keeps one watching, but also gives things to shine while not being lost in more epic news.

People say how many games each event/conference had, and are like Sony/Microsoft had 49 or some number each and Nintendo only 20 or something.  But I could name you every one of those 20, yet woudl forget a lot of those 49.  Quantity is not always a good thing in such a short time.   Also reason I hate how people say who "won e3" based on conference alone.  Like only those 90 minutes matter.  Shouldn't they look at who had the most buzz, most stuff, ect for the whole 3-4 days of e3, not just those 90 minutes?  I saw earlier that out of e3 tweets, Nintendo was part of like 50% of the tweets.  To me that seems like overwhleming they won.  Say what you want about which conference was most fun to watch or which has most exclusive or games, Nintendo had the  most buzz and talked about most.  They won e3

5. Agree with time, but the developer stuff is fine.  Non stop trailers/gameplay is not good.  I like hearing stuff like how they thought up ideas ect.  But don't drag is out. Splatoon was too long.  Yoshi was fine

6. Agree.  It would help even non-e3 time if this was done.  People would be excited to see who is going to get to be used, those that do this stuff would be vying for nintendo's to use them.  It woudl give Nintendo free advertising basically.

7. It was all in-game stuff.  We know what Zelda will look like.  We have seen in-game cutscenes of zelda before.  They look EXACTLY like the game.  Those that played Xenoblade werne't offput by the trailer.  Only those that were just hpyed up on graphics of last trailer were upset.  I do agree that they didn't showcase Xenoblades greatest assets though in the trailer and instead showed off its weakest.  Everyone who has played Xenoblade knows faces are not the greatest, but the landscape and world are amazing.  In trailer we got faces and no landscapes.

8. Goes back to #1.  Give the show another 15 minutes and you can toss in 4 3DS games easy.

9. Didn't they basically do this, plus add a few new games, which as I stated above is a great bonus.  Kept me watching cause didnt' know if I would see something new like Mario Party 10 or something.

10. Yea the ending was not great.  should have just ended on the Palutena reveal, or whatever game trailer they want.  Not some little talk thing.



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irstupid said:

7. It was all in-game stuff.  We know what Zelda will look like.  We have seen in-game cutscenes of zelda before.  They look EXACTLY like the game.  Those that played Xenoblade werne't offput by the trailer.  Only those that were just hpyed up on graphics of last trailer were upset.  I do agree that they didn't showcase Xenoblades greatest assets though in the trailer and instead showed off its weakest.  Everyone who has played Xenoblade knows faces are not the greatest, but the landscape and world are amazing.  In trailer we got faces and no landscapes.


I don't care how it looks like. I care how it plays. It's a game, not a movie. Most people didn't play Xenoblade, if you hadn't noticed. It's not about how it looked. It's about how it played. The point is that because they didn't show gameplay for both, all anyone talks about is how the bloody games look.