To Direct or Not To Direct: What Should Nintendo Do Next?

curl-6

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curl-6 on 26 April 2026

Leynos said:

curl-6 said:

E3 I liked in that it forced Nintendo to show up and make an effort. Since it ended, they seem to show off as little as they can away with.

I'd argue it forced everyone to show up even if they had nothing to show. Take your example. Nintendo. They showed almost nothing in 2008, little in 2009. Little in 2015. 1 game in 2016. Very little in 2017. Not much in 2018 either so they filled most of it with Smash. Sony kept showing up for a few years in a row showing the same 4 games in the PS4 era. EA never had shit to show but more sports. Bethesda was so desperate they announced 2 games. Only one of which has come out. Now with dev cycles even longer than in 2018. That would be so much worse now. E3 was great in the 5th and 6th gen esp when a publisher could put out up to a dozen games a year. Everyone had a lot to show.

I only ever watched Nintendo's shows, but I enjoyed a fair number of them; E3 2010 in particular was a banger. Plus after Nintendo stopped doing stage shows it sorta to force them to do a Direct in June, and a lot of those were really good.

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Shadow1980 on 27 April 2026

Directs are fine for the most part. They're, well, direct. They communicate directly to the customer and don't require some big press conference in some huge venue. Just a video talking about upcoming games. There is some simplicity for that, and I imagine it's easier for Nintendo. Now that E3 is dead it seems Sony & Xbox have gone a similar route for their summer games showcases, with just a long video showing upcoming games and a few people talking about them, but no fancy press conference.

I will say I do kinda miss the massive hype that came with E3. A video is just a video, but E3 was an experience. It was like a huge party celebrating video games, and seeing all those people take the stage and hype up games coming soon was something I always looked forward to every June.

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