It Doesn't Sound Like A Nintendo Direct Will Be Happening Anytime Soon

Surprise announcements are cool but there’s just truly something magical about Nintendo Directs that surprise announcements don’t quite have.

Probably more difficult when staff is working from home and release dates unknown and changing. I'm ok with random drops all summer though. Hopefully there are a lot of surprises in store for the next few months.

Metroid Prime Trilogy Super-Duper HD Deluxe!

@ThanosReXXX and made out of paper

As I said during these times I prefer this because Nintendo can just drop great announcements without people's hightened expectations for Directs or an E3 special. It means people can get excited about single releases instead of overall disappointment, which is usually the case with the latter format. Also means people can notice the more obscure titles instead of them being overshadowed by bigger franchises.

Now show me some weirdos like Endless Ocean 3 and WarioWare!

@N8tiveT3ch Also featuring the new Funky Mode

@N8tiveT3ch Metroid Prime Trilogy Super-Duper HD Deluxe LABO Workshop!

Pikmin 3 everyone is here ultimate fx go zero ultimate turbo 2 and deluxe not 4

@Entrr_username & Knuckles.

It's way better this way, that way Xeno, 51 games, and Paper Mario get all the attention they deserve.

I am patiently waiting for Super Mario Odyssey 2’s announcement!

Smart move by Nintendo. I will be awaiting for more announcements in the future.

3rd Party, but would love to see more Namco arcade titles.

As fun as Directs can be, this is fine. So long as we get announcements, who cares how they do it. Times are crazy right now.

We want windwaker hd this fall.

So are we getting anymore titles for the virtual console, or should I just let my subscription run out?

I'm happy with all the 3D Mario announcements.

@kingeo Good choice! Reminds me that the Wii U was a Zelda machine: Skyward Sword (Wii), WW HD, TP HD, and BOTW.

@Fido007 4 new titles are being added tomorrow. Wild Guns, Panel de Pon and Operation Logic Bomb for SNES and Rygar for NES.

As long as they announce a Metroid Prime Trilogy remake, with some extensive work done on 3 I’ll be happy.

The Paper Mario trailer has 4+ million YouTube views, so it's pretty clear that shadowdrops of brand new games is a strategy that works.

Not shocking that Nintendo is taking the easy way out with this one.

Will we get Mother news soon? That Hobonichi project was hinting the same.

Nintendo Life not marking a RUMOR as a rumor? Not surprised.

I hope you guys can survive the withdrawal symptoms.

Seriously, some people are like 'just give me the next Direct Nintendo!' like it's a drug or something.

Just keep dropping those games! Can’t wait for some Mario remasters.

This is fine. Directs are great, but I also like when Directs only happen a few times a year, makes them feel more special. Further, shadow drops and trailer reveals here & there are a nice way to help plug in gaps between Directs.

Paper Mario reveal last week was just great. A well done trailer then boom, July release date. 👍

@OorWullie oh.... I see, good to know. Thanks.

This is fine with me. Directs took on a life of their own, with the hype, speculation, and analysis around the event itself overshadowing the actual games showcased. Expectations became more and more with each event. 5 mins after one ended the “ thats nice...what will they do in the next Direct?” would start all over again. Nintendo should try something different.

@the4seer
Nintendo is the same company that released NSMBUDX and Mario Maker 2 just 5 months apart (they also launched NSMB2 and the original NSMBU just 3 months apart back in 2012), so the idea of then launching 3D World DX and 3D Mario All-Stars together during the later half of the year isn't crazy at all.

In fact, during the current situation where development of new software may be challenged, it is quite likely that this rumor is true to fill in the gap in new releases.

@Aaron09 idk about you but nintendo directs themselves are surprise announcements right down to when they announced it the day before.

Surprise me with a Mario Golf game for Switch. Or Wave Race.

I'm going to miss Directs for the near future (especially since the last real one was all the way back in September) but this makes sense for now. I'm sure Nintendo has a plan even if we don't know about it.

If they're announcing stuff, I don't much care how they do it.

I really don’t care how they are announced just go ahead and, you know, announce some games.

@Varkster - "Also means people can notice the more obscure titles instead of them being overshadowed by bigger franchises."
Don't you mean "Now people can ignore the more obscure titles as they will no longer have to watch them alongside the bigger franchises"?
I mean, sure, you could always skip past anything you didn't like in a direct as well, but at least there you're somewhat more likely to just watch the entire thing.

As for the topic in the article, I can't say I prefer this to the idea of having a big Direct (at least there you know all the big titles that are going to come out for the next few months), but if it's something Nintendo has to do, then fair enough.

Personally I don't really care, I am enjoying using this time to catch up on all the games I have wanted to play or even replay, currently going through Super Mario Odyssey again and once again it is a blast, I wouldn't have time to play whatever they announce anyway so for me there is no hurry for another Direct.

I'm okay with this as long as games are being announced. How they announce the games isn't as important as what games are coming out and when.

3D Mario remasters please

Directs seem like a distant, fond memory at this point, like cinemas and pinball bars. Even without covid, they might have faded away anyway, though, without the guiding hand of Mr. Iwata. They were, after all, the President’s way of talking DIRECT to Nintendo fans. Even Reggie has moved on at this point. Oh the fun times we had...

There could still be a Direct like presentation for Mario's 35th, because that wouldn't require anything from other developers. Though you'd think if they had that planned they wouldn't have gone ahead and announced Paper Mario...

@N8tiveT3ch Paper Samus and Ridley's wooley world.

I’m not too bothered but I’m just concerned as to what lies in the days ahead. Makes me think that we are just twiddling our thumbs before everything we all know and hold dear finally falls apart.

I'm fine with surprises and shadow drops. It wasn't too long ago people were complaining about nothing beyond Animal Crossing being announced.

I do think a filmed at home Direct with either Yoshiaki Koizumi or Doug Bowser would have been fun to watch.

3d world looks more interesting than Odyssy to me. I think it's the cat onesies. Onesies were a thing during the last gen. Plus short multi-player levels. Did I mention cat onesies.

3D Mario remasters and Mario 3D World Deluxe would be amazing. I'm okay with this too. Surprise announcements are fun.

Pikmin 4 for 2021 would be AMAZING!!!!

The rumor that would lift my poor heart in the “unprecedented times” would be that EA is bringing the original Unravel (and that there will be a physical release in at least one territory)

But also I just like directs. I’d have liked one

As fun as Directs are, I'm ok with surprise reveals. Directs just show me game's I can't have for 6 months. BioShock and Outer Worlds are coming in the next couple weeks, and should keep me occupied for a while.

Also.... Rocket League.
Also.... warm spring weather is here. It's time to ride bikes and get radikal.

I love Directs for the excitement and sheer entertainment, so I'll be sad not to see them, but hopefully they'll return soon. And at the end of the day, the games are still great.

I just like watching reaction videos, so it's hard to get those without a direct.

I like directs, but I also don't mind at all. Surprise announcements are still cool.

What is sad is there will be some games; smaller titles, that many people may miss, if not in a Nintendo Direct.
I often catch on to games through this and never see anything else about it elsewhere.
So if not for the direct you may lose out...

Might be an unpopular opinion, but this just shows that the E3 events are made out of necessity and not from having actual things to announce.

EDIT: Might be a little harsh in saying this, what I mean is that Nintendo got a get out of jail free card with E3 being canceled if they're not planning on an event.

Can someone explain to me why this guy or even Eurogamer's rumors are any more trustworthy than any John McRandom blog post?

It's only a matter of time before those two Wii U ports show up IMO. I highly recommend Super Mario 3D World to those who haven't played it; I had a blast with that game!

I've also played and beaten the story mode of Pikmin 3. I found the game equal parts enjoyable and frustrating. Overall I liked the game, but some of the boss fights, mechanics, and AI left a sour taste in my mouth. I'd check out another title in the series, but I wouldn't be double-dipping for this one.

@RPGamer It seems you and I share similar opinions, I also support these games coming to switch

I would have thought that with Nintendo's creativity, they could still pull off some Direct magic even during these times. Surprise announcements can be great too, but I hope that Nintendo doesn't completely toss out the idea of Directs...

Well, if Jeff Grubb says it, it must be true.

Not surprised in the slightest. I’ve been saying for a year that I think they’re slowly phasing our Directs, which is why the gaps get longer and longer. The pandemic might be the nail in the coffin there. The Paper Mario reveal went well and, if individual reveals continue to go well, there’s little motivation for them to put in the extra work for Directs. Not saying we’ll never have one again, but I wouldn’t expect more than one or two full Directs a year, with mini Directs for individual franchises (or maybe Indie reels).

Honestly, I prefer it like this anyways. I don’t want information held back for Directs. Nor do I want information revealed early for Directs. I’d rather just have us get reveals when they’re ready for reveals. Besides, stealth drops like Paper Mario did end up disappointing less people as they aren’t expected in the first place. Full Directs often have a large amount of negative feedback when people don’t get the announcements they hope for. Overhyping had become a problem with Nintendo Directs, partially due to rampant rumors. Expos and cons can still be sources of multiple big reveals, but otherwise I’m happy with individual reveals.

@Heavyarms55 Because their careers are built on knowing this stuff, and they’re deep in the industry. If they keep making stuff up, then they inevitably lose their jobs.

@the4seer In 2017 there was Mario Kart, Mario + Rabbids, Odyssey, Mario Party Top 100

In 2018, Mario Tennis Aces and Super Mario Party (and technically Smash Bros)

In 2019, Dr Mario, New Super Mario Bros U DX, Mario Kart Tour, Super Mario Maker 2, Mario + Luigi, Mario & Sonic (and technically Luigi’s Mansion 3)

I get what you’re saying in that these are similar games. But Nintendo put out so much Mario stuff all the time. I’ve not even counted Captain Toad and Yoshi

Nintendo seem to be in quiet a bit of disarray with COVID-19. So many other developers had some real disruption for a month, but they’ve found working from home and in the cloud quite efficient since and are only expecting minor delays if any.

Nintendo seem unable to even do a Direct video

Seeing we apparently all know that these games people have already played are coming out, it seems to me we don’t need a big deep dive Ninty Direct reveal for them.

You would think however that Nintendo would have one or two Original surprises possibly up their sleeves, because I doubt they would release a big new game in July then a remaster in September, a remaster in October, and a remaster in November- that is the time when they sell the most games and need something to look original.

Nintendo just sucks these days

Paper Mario in July will supposedly see us through July and August. One more release about September and then we are in Christmas time.

The Direct was not the same after Iwata. They should reinvent that aspect of their PR. Promote Eiji Aonuma and have him interface with the fans in some way

Give me METROID PLEASE!!!!

And once again, this is filed under "NEWS". Heck, I spent several years writing for and even briefly editing VG fanzines myself - so what kind of stuff could I spread about the industry if I pronounced myself a journalist now? On the same premise that hundreds of industry entities simultaneously withhold information from the public and share it with an internet tabloid?

In this reality, the odds remain the same - either there will be a Direct in [insert month] or there won't. Any attempts to propagate either expectations to exclude the other until then stem from little but first world boredom - or the need for clicks/retweets when it comes to ventures, beats, and grubbs.

One advantage with this is it lowers people’s expectations. So many directs in the past have had people expecting the announcement of 6+ major titles and more only to be followed by disappointments. This way, surprises small or large just pop out unexpectedly.

I need a PIK me up, wait a MIN I need 4.

@RPGamer Either version of Persona 5 on switch would basically make 2020 worthwhile regardless of what else Nintendo puts out

I don't think we'll be getting a Direct before october or november this year.

As much as I’ll miss the hype of a big direct I’m happy to be surprised with shadow drops. Starting with anything Pikmin, Metroid, WaveRace or F-Zero related!!!!

@Dringo Nintendo is a Japanese company and even based in Japan. They are not used to working from home there. That is what is causing the delays. I think they will prioritise games that are ready to be shipped over games that still need a lot of development right now.

So for instance Mario remasters, Super Mario 3D World Deluxe, even some Zelda remasters could happen, Pikmin 3 deluxe, etc. But not so much new games, or games that haven't been completed yet. I guess they were finished developing Paper Mario and the 51 games and only needed to release them.

If it means each game has space to shine then this is good news. It may also help sales too.

Why do people get so worked up by this? Nintendo don’t owe anyone anything, just accept the news when they release it. This current generation of “Fan” really act like spoilt kids

very disappointing, directs are much more exciting than random one game drops.

I also think they will do more reveals seperately, and I think the next one will be Metroid related. Maybe every trailer ends with a teaser, maybe they tease Zelda next?

While I love a good meaty Direct, as long as they deliver the goods I am happy. Remember that they promised to inform us through the year. Maybe they spread their trailers over the next couple of months.

@Aaron09
It's the feeling of not knowing what to expect, while being able to prepare for it. A drop like Paper Mario doesn't have the same appeal for me either. It's the first time my girlfriend find out about a new nintendo game before I did.

@ThanosReXXX

"Metroid Prime Trilogy Super-Duper HD Deluxe LABO Workshop" hahah with minecraft graphics 🤣🤣

And nintendo respond would be like: "we hope you understand". Bows down at the end of the trailer with an evil smile.

I don’t really understand why directs can’t happen. They’re basically only video game footage edited together with occasionally an employee talking to the screen. That could easily be achieved even during this time...

Damn send me the footage and I’ll edit it!

Can’t wait for more Mario games! Can’t see me buying Pikmin 3 again though I’ve had my fun with it. Unless they do something amazing with it

Wow more rumors about some random switch games with no proof of being real at all. People really will believe anything as long as it sounds official, huh

@datamonkey Directs also often have developers talking about the games, and have multiple games to show.

I'm sure it's possible to do a Direct, but it would've been lackluster for a Direct so Nintendo decides not to host one.

@Doofenshmirtz The Nintendo fanbase just loves rumors and leaks. Newssites like Nintendolife love to report on it because of the free clicks.

Be still my beating heart Mario remastered are surely on the way x x x

@LocalPenguin I don't think your lack of excitement around these games is down to the lockdown. I think the Mario focus was largely Nintendos big thing for the year, they are pretty focused on building the Mario brand(the Universal Super Mario World was due to open this year too). Maybe there will be a surprise drop of another big game, and if there's no Direct there's always a chance of 3rd party announcements too.

I love Mario just as much as I the next gamer however, having Mario games announced are not 'really' a surprise. They might be nice and all but a real surprise would to have announcements like a new:
Diddy Kong Race
Wave Race
Pillotwings
1080 Snowboard
F-Zero
Cruis'n
Metroid Trilogy
Etc

These are real surprises that not many people would be expecting.

As long as the games keep coming, I don't care how they're announced.

I’m 5000% there for it

@the4seer

That's a good point. It wouldn't make sense to release Super Mario 3D World and the 3D Mario remasters (presumably in a collection) within the same year. It makes even less sense to release them in the same half of the same year.

Im ok with this.
If the games have time to shine Im all in for it.
Lets see how it takes out!

That's totally understandable, given the current situation, but if all the reveals are Mario and Pikmin remakes, it will be pretty disappointing. I do hope we get something else new.

Totally understandable given the circumstances but a shame about Directs.

I wonder if some games will not get the visibility and therefore lose sales when they are not mentioned in Directs. I'm thinking of games like Good Job.

Quality game that my family and I loved, would I have found that if not for a Direct ? Not sure !

I know E3 was cancelled but I had hoped Nintendo would still air their Direct on the same day. Maybe the pandemic has affected too many planned dates, but it’s a bummer. I was definitely looking forward to it.

We just randomly got an announcement for Paper Mario last week. I can live with this news, tbh. Just give me the announcement, idk if it's via carrier pigeon.

Super Mario 3D World looks to be good. Also noting Super Mario Galaxy games too. And quite a few 3rd party publisher/ developer releases too.

I think a great way to add to the “surprise” of new big games, they could do a YouTube countdown to a new video. Instead of dropping a bomb... perhaps giving us a little anxiety into what’s to come. That could hype me up...

I liked the Origami King reveal; it was so surreal to get a big announcement like that out of the blue, though a part of me prefers anticipating what to expect from an upcoming Direct, watching GameXplain discussions for their predictions, and watching reaction streams for Directs afterwards. Still, it's hard to complain given the reasoning behind the lack of Directs.

A direct, you tune into and pay attention to. E3 time (be it a collection of June events or single conference) gives you a chance to look and see everything at a glance.

How glued do you have to be to social media to even noticed unannounced "drops"? I found out about Paper Mario days after it "dropped' I'll probably miss the next announcements for weeks on end and find out about them indirectly through someone talking about them elsewhere. As far as I'm concerned the "surprises" may as well not exist at all. Like Sony's announcements. Both companies effecitvely dropped off the earth for anything I didn't already know about last year at this point. I'll find out about stuff in a few years when it's cheap in the bargain bin, used, I guess. The era of following current gaming appears to be over for me with this.

Sounds like MS, Ubi, etc end up getting any gaming spending this year, as neither Japanese company is too interested to actually present products outside hoping drive-by social media posts reach their seemingly 12 year old target audiences.

I get that they can't do the direct the same way they did....not no cohesive information stream correlates to no information stream at all for those who aren't dedicated to 24/7 socials.

@Andymad If they did that people would just complain if it isn't a game they wanted and eventually lament the whole countdown drop scenario. That's what's been happening to Nintendo directs for a while now. Everyone seems to have extremely high expectations.

@Cool_Squirtle I suppose. I honestly don’t see anything wrong with them just even saying “at this time on this day we are announcing something big”. At least there’s SOME element of surprise. Thats what they’ve been doing for years since their old E3 days. Every crowd is different I suppose. Myself, while I don’t mind Directs, I do miss those E3 presentations tbh... alas, times have changed since the 90s lol

@NEStalgia tbf I feel like the vast majority of people that actually care about new video games either have a social media account or they frequent websites like Nintendo life/ign/etc. If it's an AAA game it'll probably get a tv ad, if not most people who aren't "glued to social media" wouldn't buy it or be interested anyway.

@Dpishere Right my backlog of switch games is too much as it is! Im working through 3 different rpgs currently including trials of mana and child of light... Then come all the 2k games releasing next week along with xenoblade!

@Pps1rite Yeah playing all those games you mentioned would take me at least six months if not more time, I don't normally play during the work week so I have to be very careful about what I buy, I only play long rpgs that I really want.

Right, i cant get much time in all until the weekend really but dang I have bought so many games when discounted on switch! I would say I'm a sucker for switch and games on discount haha 😄

@Cool_Squirtle Even as someone that frequents this site, it feels like getting the information after the fact by the time you see it here. Dropping it on social media feels like the cool kids whispering to their circle of friends about it. By the time you get it it feels like old news and the hype is long since over. If I saw paper mario in a direct, or a scheduled E3 week I'd have been bouncing off the walls with excitement and racing to preorder. Getting it this way it feels like "meh, whatever, I'll get it someday probably." Maybe this type of marketing works for the under-20 crowd raised on iPhones. But if anything else it pushes me away and tells me I'm not the audience they want, and I'll spend my time and money elsewhere. Sony did that first, now Nintendo. MS, Ubi, Square, etc still seem to have an interest in delivering their messaging in a way that reaches me. The result is, their messaging actually reaches me and I actually am aware of what they're doing with some hype.

Maybe that's it, maybe they're shifting their focus back to a younger, "connected" audience. But they spent a lot of time trying to claw their way back to an older audience.

@GrandScribe prime trilogy is probably alrdy done just waiting till we get closer to prime 4 release date info before they release the trilogy.

I enjoy the directs as much as the next guy, but I'm very cool with Nintendo randomly dropping bomb shells over Twitter. I love the "wait WHAT" factor!

@Yorumi,

They have had loads of directs which I like, and even though I feel they should have shown something more this year, there is something going on at the moment that makes normal directs a little more difficult, and you can't really blame Nintendo for E3, i love Nintendo's tree house event, but if there is no show you can hardly have them there.

Plus things will never be like the old days, I used to get video gaming magazines as it was the only source of gaming information, the internet changed all that for the better imho, as everyday has the potential for new gaming information which is a good thing.

@Yorumi Agreed all the way around. I think you captured a bit of what I've been saying across a few threads for several months regarding "E3 week", but not quite putting into clear wording. Like Iwata's "|DIRECT|", it was about them/him bringing information directly to you, rather than whisper down the lane. It worked. It connected us to them even if in a slickly polished presentation (or not so slick in his time.)

Also agreed that it has a lot of similarity to magazine subs prior. And more importantly, was that connection of "them" saving, bundling, and bringing this information directly to you, like a digital Santa, rather than this. It's worse than "here's this game, buy it and stop bothering us." They could do that with direct emails. Ads on the internet. It's worse. It's "along with random uneventful marketing blurb from paid social media wonks this time we're intermingling something actually interesting in with the daily mindless drivel, but the only people that will see it are the brainless idiots that read our daily mindless drivel from (barely) paid social marketing trend setters, and then you can find out from the post of the retweet of a third party media scout that you missed the cool stuff."

Both Sony and Nintendo are now going that route. Neither seem to have much passion at least for connecting with their audiences anymore. MS does. Ubi does, questionable business practices aside. Spencer and and Guillemot feel like the new Iwata & Miyamoto. Though Guillemot is also part of the old guard along with them. Cheap cash grubbing or not, there's no denying the Ubi guys have genuine passion for it.

I think the creators at Nintendo still have a passion for it. Management has no passion, that's clear. The creators do. In a way it's much more of its former self. 80's Nintendo was a ruthless money making machine. A fairly evil corporation. Creative teams were creative....and the same people still doing it, largely. But management was nasty. Like today. The Iwata era was a very special era. I think that's why I keep gravitating toward MS, which is funny. When they entered the market they were the least passionate, most corporate talk of them all. I resisted the XBox for the longest time until Sony blundered PS3. But today....they're "into it", in a way neither Nintendo, nor Sony seem to be. They have a soul at the heart of the operation that the other two don't that cares about the "fun" of it. Though it's a shame, as I do tend to prefer the qualities of Nintendo's games in many ways.

Maybe it's an age thing. The kids live on FB and Twitter. I guess they know that's their audience in the 21st century. Maybe MS with their sports-car themed imager knows their audience is the modern take on the country club set and we slightly overlap that more than a kids world we can't comprehend because it's entirely alien to our mindsets. Or maybe Nintendo and Sony just really really really suck at marketing because they don't see a point in spending money selling products that sell themselves for now.

@johnvboy Nintendo was heading down this path ever more rapidly long before the plague. This just gave them the bump to go whole hog into it. Even the Directs they were having had become little more than infomercials rather than true Directs as they were designed to be. They only sprang to life when Sakurai, Ishihara, or increasingly occasional appearances from Koizumi occurred. The English part was lifeless even compared to the Trinnen covered era. Sony had done the same. They seem to be copying each other right to the dumpster. Wait for mid-June, watch what hype other companies manage to do, then question what Sony and Nintendo are doing, marketing-wise, even now.

@nintendolife "your comment is too long, please be more concise." I feel as though this error was designed specifically with one user in mind. That's discriminatory. I'm offended. Where's my lawyers?! I wanna be a millionaire!

Seriously, though....you know that must mean double and triple posting....right?

@NEStalgia,

I am so glad Nintendo are opting out of those cringe worthy presentations that are not designed for fans at all, the audience is made up of gaming journalist types, with all their over the top fake excitement, the Nintendo directs feel far more personal imho.

@NEStalgia,

I found out about the Paper Mario game on this site, and let's be honest here, outside of the core gamer nobody even knew about E3, the event was not the way the info got released to the masses as it was shown live, it's all the YouTube and internet reporting after the event, this is why Nintendo are choosing to cut out the middle man.

@RiasGremory I wish I could have your confidence but after Nintendo did nothing for Metroid's 30th anniversary and Federation Force and Other M I can't.

@Yorumi They were fairly isolated, restricted, and anti-consumer to fans back then. It was really Iwata that rolled a lot of that back. We may not have noticed back then, but they were attacking us and we were just riding roughshod around them because the low tech of the time allowed us to easily do so.

It's the same Nintendo management style today, only now the tech exists to hit us with the anti-consumerism in an enforced setting.

As for the passion, it's hard to see the developers talk about their products and not see that same passion. Or that same engineering that goes into their products that other companies that are "artist driven" don't have. To a large degree I think a big part of that difference is the times more than the people/passion. The games cost SO much more to make now, involve SO many more people, and take SO much longer to turn around. The early SMB series was pretty much just Miyamoto and Tezuka, and scarcely anyone else outside support roles. You can be wild with 2 people working on a project versus 30-40 people plus 400 asset and content slaves in a foreign company outsourced and only one person bridging language barriers. Ninty keeps budgets tight, but that didn't work against them as much in the past as it does now. I see a mix of creativeness and passion, but with curbed ambition due to budgetary or practical constraints. I don't have much complaing with the creatives there. The management yes. The creatives, no. Yoshi's Island was Miyamoto being a rebel. Galaxy was Koizumi being a rebel. Mario RPG was Squaresoft (RIP), Smash was Iwata being a rebel. Rebeliousness is what's missing. But being a rebel in 2020's corporate world is very very dangerous. The world changed...not so much Nintendo. And like everything else, things only seem to get worse, continuously, never better, until we're living in some complete Orwellian nightmare. Not that being a rebel in Japan ever was likely to pay. Nintendo got lucky with a few rebels that made money. I do "get" where the creative direction is right now. But my pessimism toward Nintendo really remains outside the games themselves to a large degree since I undersand the what's and whys going on there. It's management, marketing, community, etc that deserves ire. Without a passionate lead, this is what happens. Even Yamauchi understood that. That's why he picked Iwata to succeed him, explicitly. But he thought Iwata would still be running it for another decade or 4 and nobody foresaw a bunch of investor-driven corporate shills running the company like it's Panasonic. Miyamoto probably had a duty to take the job even if it wasn't suited for him. He has the right mindset, complaints or not, to keep that tradition going Yamauchi intended. But....he's a rebel....

@Yorumi Yeah, I think people tend to split "Windows gaming" and "XBox gaming" into this either or thing, when I think the whole theme at MS is that it's all "one big universe" so Windows gaming & XBox gaming are really part of the same cohesive community. They've put a lot of work into that. It's not there yet, but it's always getting closer. Spencer really is the modern Iwata. They have that same passion. They were both into it before they worked for it professionally. Phil got pulled into MS because of his gaming enthusiasm to begin with (before he was involved in gaming at MS.) He pulled the gaming division out of the ash bin when they wanted to kill it follwing the XBone flop because he believed in it. You can see it when he gets on stage....same as Iwata...Same as Guillemot (I always have to quantify that Ubisoft has done some scummy things, but Guillemot the man clearly LOVES gaming and his gamers) that giddy "Isn't t his awesome?!" joy of the whole thing. Nintendo and Sony leadership just have the "our quarterlies need a 14% increase YoY" mindset rather than the craftsmanship of delivering entertainment with pride and enthusiasm in the product. Nintendo and Disney seem ever more similar...and that's not a good thing unless you're a large hedge fund.

Sadly investment, today, doesn't want high risk methods of great rewards. They want stable, consistent growth, predictable on a map years out. We see it all over entertainment with the planned sequels, rehashes, reboots. It must be growth. It must be rapid growth. It must be stable growth. And it must be unsustainable. The only way to do that is very very predictable budgets with very predictable sales, and nothing else will do. MS, ironically, is the epitome of that philosophy, but because of that, it buys them the leeway to take great risks in entertainment without offending the investors and raising questions, because any gain or loss there can be seen as "slush funds" more than anything, and don't represent the core investor predictions in any significant way. Azure and Office 365 covers that.

@johnvboy Iwatas directs were personal. The recent directs are infomercials that might as well be made by outside companies. They're not "direct" at all. They're just ads. I love Directs. But I don't like what they've done with recent directs.

The core gamer, yes. But the core gamer isn't inherently the twitter obsessive. They're not cutting out the middle man. They're cutting out everyone. Why even bother with twitter? Just do direct email and press releases the way it worked in the late 90's. The point of the big shows, and directs is to build hype. The twitter dump has all the hype of a basic press release.

Funny, we built a new world with video only to roll back to a 2 sentence release like we've stepped back in time.

Can't help but feel like this will be the new normal.. Which I can't say I really enjoy, maybe if they gave more than 2 months between announcement and release. Especially for any games that'll have pricier collectors editions or limited edition consoles alongside them.

@NEStalgia,

Makes very little difference to me or many others, you buy a product because you like it, as long as the said company promotes it in some way that reaches it's widest audience, the masses will use social media and the core will go on gaming websites and get news from there or will watch presentations as they happen, and once again how can E3 build any hype outside the core that watch it, or actually are aware it exists in the first place?.

Nintendo must be marketing things right as the Switch is flying off shelves after 3 years on sale with no price cut.

@peanutbuttercup,

The virus has caused issues, when things calm down a bit I am sure the directs will continue.

@NEStalgia,

Another thing I take issue with is the passion comment, Nintendo stick to their core family entertainment values, when it would be easy for them to go after the more mature market, they are one of the few companies that stick to their guns and do things their own way, they refuse to go third party as they want control, but more importantly their own time to get things right, I for one feel the gaming landscape is far better with them as they are.

All these big presentations, or briefing as they call them , along with the video game awards just seem so to be trying so hard to be cool, when in reality they are the exact opposite, and yet you feel Nintendo should go back into all this.

@Yorumi,

So answer me this fella as you now seem to be saying "Mario odyssey" is quantity over quality, is there any Nintendo game of recent times that you do actually like, because your endless moaning about every title is getting a little boring fella.

This would be the 97 critic and 8.9 user score rated game, oh let me guess they were all stupid and like sheep, and of course the critic reviews all paid for, give me a break fella, in fact if you hate all this stuff so much why keep coming on here all the time, I am sure you would not be missed much.

@NEStalgia

"The core gamer, yes. But the core gamer isn't inherently the twitter obsessive. They're not cutting out the middle man. They're cutting out everyone."

As I said the core gamer will be on forum threads and gaming sites, they do not need to interact with Twitter at all, but the core is a very niche market, you can't blame Nintendo for going after the bigger fish as it were.

@Yorumi,

You sound such a fool fella, pretty sure now you are a troll, so all the reviews on Animal crossing and Mario Odyssey are wrong and you are right.

Oh and now the breath of the wild is not very good, you are missing your way in life fella, you should get on to Nintendo and go and work for them, you know just to show them where they are going wrong.

I do like your assessment of Animal crossing, i mean when Nintendo made the original it was a totally new concept, so therefore all later games will never have the initial games impact, and as with most games the fans do not know what they really want, as if Nintendo change things too much people complain the game has lost it's core appeal, but then will also complain if Nintendo do very little, you just can't win to be honest, although the sales of the game would suggest Nintendo have got it right.

Liked you link though, very interesting until the point where they mentioned the Star Wars quote, then I thought nerdy people clicking on nerdy websites, just like us I guess.

@NEStalgia wait, so you won't get a game if you hear about it after the first ad was released, but if you hear about it on the day of reveal you'll buy it?? Also ppl of all ages (mostly 11-35) use twitter and instagram, and mostly boomers use facebook now. Most people are hooked to social media one way or another. I would call the comment threads under articles here a sort of social media.

@Yorumi,

Now you bring up the Straw man argument, in an attempt to suggest you are somehow always going to be right, when if affect there is no definitive right or wrong with any of these discussions, but with your critique of the Nintendo games in question, you are pretty much in a minority, not that this makes your views incorrect as they are your own personal views.

Anymore helpful links for me to check out, I have one for you, type in "common sense", as you do not seem to have a lot of it.

@Cool_Squirtle,

I for one will never buy a game I do not get to know about live on a reveal, as somehow getting the information second hand would kill my hype and love of a game.

@johnvboy I think Yorumi best put my thoughts into words on the concept. It mostly depends if the companies wish to build a sense of community around their brand and products. Iwata and Reggie did. Layden and Hirai did. Spencer does. Build a sense of inclusion and direct association with a core group of early adopters, etc. That was clearly important to this industry a few years back. Perhaps it's not now. Perhaps they're now happy with a mass market consumer goods approach rather than treating gaming differently. Maybe that makes "enough" customers without a core fan base. Treat it more like toaster ovens and Etch-a-Sketches than like music or film or sports with it's concerts, festivals, and premiers and fan events. It's just merchandise to move after all. And most of the public just buys merchandise, no special treatment required.

Even film is moving that way. It's good business I suppose. Just mass market product to the lowest common denominator, and go to the bank as they consume it. But with entertainment, especially music and games, it's always been treated differently than common dry goods. It centered around an involvement with creators, community building, a base of loyal early adopters that then evangelize to the world.

Sure you can splash it on socials and let the press sites pick it up. It's good business for press sites. I should know, I was in that business at one time. But it breaks that sense of community and returns it to being simply toy merchandise as it was in the 80s. It takes the hype train and puts it in the roundhouse to rust out. It's just merchandising shipments now. You can buy it in Costco with your ground beef and fabric softener. Nothing special here.

Switch isn't selling because of excellent marketing. It's selling because it's a good product that was the right product in the right place at the right time. It sells itself. But it got there with a push of good marketing early on, and that core loyal fanbase that pushed it.

Part of the enjoyment of gaming has been that sense of bigger community, that direct interaction with the creators and executives bringing their best offerings. An indie flourish to a corporate scene, I suppose. A hand-crafted element. But it looks like were back to simple product sell-through of catalogue units.

@NEStalgia,

Totally disagree, having a great product is all well an good, but you have to spend money on marketing, perfect example is the Wii U, in essence not all that different a concept from the Switch, and coming off the back of Nintendo's Wii's success you would think it would have been a hit, so Nintendo did not really push the console as they thought Wii owners would simply buy it, and we all know how that turned out for them.

The Switch on the other hand was hyped and marketed well, hence it's great sales.

@Yorumi With Nintendo's passion I think there's a few things. Some of it is just business/timeline/budget reality. In some ways easier tools make the creativity vanish - that's why they always push for limitations to force creativity. But some of that, there's a mixed bag of examples. Especially with the jump to HD they have been playing catch up for quite some time. Stupidly, yes. But it sucked some creativity and the need to maintain a faster release schedule has forced a very obvious "B tier" of games. The kirby games have definitely been rushed out as a "past it out quick" type product, I agree. But some of it I think is just opionion rather than lack of passion.

BotW is polarizing. Some love it. Some hate it. Some do both. I love it...it's special for a variety of reasons. But your criticism is also valid about it's emptiness and same counters. However I also feel that's a vivid example of throw-it-to-the-wall passion. They had a vision and for better or worse, they saw it through. Aonuma was genuinely proud of that game and very passionate for it. Love it or don't, I don't think a lack of passion produced that game, at all. I also firmly believe Odyssey drips with developer passion. Maybe they caved to gaming trends here, or went for kiddie friendly there. But I feel the nuance and detail in there shows tons of love and passion put into it. There may be decisions in design that can be disagreed with, but I don't think it was done via a "churn it out" mentality. I think it was deliberate and with thought of what experience they were creating and whom they were creating it for.

Then again, BOTH those games started under Iwata's watch. So the passion was inherently going to be there. It's the newer stuff that worries me.

SF0....well that was just a mess. Not a terrible game contrary to so much opinion....but it was development hell through and through, and yeah, I don't think that's lack of passion so much as lack of any cohesive direction at all. Kamiya was involved. Nobody can accuse him of a lack of passion in absolutely anything.....unfortunately.

@Cool_Squirtle It's not that I wouldn't buy the game, but there's no hype buildup for it. It's just there. No different than if it were 5 years old and just "there". The game is the same quality, but there's no impetus to be a part of it right away. The presentations create a sense of urgency. A sense of it being part of "now". Instead, it's just a product on a shelf you can buy any time. And were it not for the fact I have to spend my remaining vouchers by end of July I'd probably just want and buy it "some other time."

@johnvboy WiiU was as much the wrong product at the wrong time as Switch was the right product at the right time. WiiU was not heavily marketed, but they also did what they're doing now, dropped any community connection, any sort of cohesive sense of fandom once the Wii sales took off. WiiU is partly the result of that. If the base wasn't paying attention anymore, there was nobody hyping it. The payoff for lack of community doesn't hurt now. It hurts next console. They learned that with Wii, but unlearned it. The Disney mentality is showing.

@sanderev I suspect you’re right. Maybe it is a cultural thing.

That line-up of games would be fine, I think. A nice nostalgia-tinged Christmas to go up against the future facing next gen consoles. Character-driven marketing over tech-driven. Gives Switch a point of difference

@Yorumi Indeed. I don't plan on spending money on XSEX this year given all the spontaneous spending I've had to do on myriad other things due to the darned plague. I've dug a nice little hole out of necessity and $500 consoles don't fit the hole right now. And I'm not convinced there really will be $500 new consoles this Fall anyway. But when I think of the "big 3" we have Nintendo that's opting to go radio silent and drop a few games on Twitter hoping someday I may notice or not. Sony vanished into the ether, but Sony obsessives still seem to think they're hyper present. The only one I'm really eyeing in June is MS. I know they'll put on an entertaining show and in the process I'll gain or renew interest in a number of titles. Mostly 3rd party, but doesn't matter....I'll be re-engaged with the product line. And eyeing major 3rd parties like Ubi and others which will interest me in a number of products...and I'll immediately gain interest in them....on MS platforms...because they'll be fresh in my mind while Sony and Ninty are waiting for me to find out about their wares from someone else.

I love Ninty products, and I love Switch. But I now know that won't be the product at the front of my mind from June through December. And it was their mindshare to lose.

@NEStalgia,

You still have to convince me that your way of thinking will apply to a wider audience, and even with Sony's new way of delivering their news, I can't see Microsoft with all their passion and big events are going to gain much ground on Sony next generation.

@johnvboy See, that's just it. That "results-based" thinking that's all the rage in board rooms. Easy to win the short game that way. Also easy to lose the long game that way. The trouble is by the time there's signs that strategy is losing mindshare, it's because you've already lost it and have to claw you way back to it, and the time of loss was usually years in the rear-view mirror. I'm not saying that means MS gains tons of ground or not. I don't know if Apple or Google or Amazon moves in and takes that ground. But I do know by ignoring the maintenance and consolidation of the loyal core, they've left the doors open and are hoping the air doesn't get let out before they try to catch it all.

@NEStalgia,

What do you think these companies are in business for?, of course they have to make money so they are viable, otherwise all the love for them in the world will not make them keep making games for you.

An also on forums are people that use words like mindshare to imply it's lots of people, when in fact it's not, it's a minority of people on the internet thinking they know better than Nintendo how to run a company, and usually it's their own personal wish list of things they would like to see done, it bears little yo no relation on how to actually market a video game company, because if it did, do you not think Nintendo and Sony would be doing it.

Microsoft are a totally different proposition, their main business does not revolve around their video games, as they have a lot of other sources of income, they can afford to pretty much lose each and every X box generation.

@Yorumi To be totally fair to @johnvboy his thinking exactly parallels the majority of today's investor-focused business leaders. He'd get top marks in modern business school.

On the other hand that's also precisely why there's so many bankruptcies, closures, mergers, and overall industry consolidation across all modern industry with the resulting lack of competition. The short term profit focus, cost reduction, and obsession with quarterlies cripples business eventually the the point of insolvency and inability to adapt to other changes. It's also the reason there's severe shortages of various supplies in the current crisis, including but not limited to meat production having consolidated 80% of the category to about a dozen factories owned by 6 companies, with the entire sector vertically integrated. Cut costs for that short term focus enough and you get boxed into one particular model with no exit route. Investors cash out happy though.

See 'yall on Google Stadia, powered by Alexa. Only on Disney+. Your exclusive provider of Mario 2025.

I love being surprised with something exciting, and now I don't know when and what will be announced. Tomorrow, next week, who knows?
Though I admit there is also a special feeling for these live-stramed announcements.

@NEStalgia,

I think your view on business would make it go bust fella, and Japanese companies tend to think long term.

@Yorumi,

I feel it's you who are very naive in the way you feel business should work.

By the way is it just me or do Yorumi and @NEStalgia's posts seem so similar, I would say the way they construct their posts is also, just so similar, but no they can't be the same person, can they?

@NEStalgia,

So basically companies could go to the wall if they do not adapt to the changing business environment, but when they do change and adopt social media you complain that they have lost their passion, as they do not do things the old way, god help us all, your changes of direction are making me dizzy.

@Yorumi,

Yet Nintendo endure as a business, even though as you say they do not engage with their fanbase, or perhaps they can't engage with people that would not be happy no matter what they did.

@Yorumi,

Stop posting comments to yourself, so it does not look like you have two accounts.

Only kidding I know you are two individuals who just happen to have the same views and posting styles.

Surprise Announcement: Nintendo 64 games are coming to Switch Online!

@BabyYoshi65,

Serious?, I can't get behind this because Nintendo did not announce it in a big show.

@johnvboy Yes, I’ll miss Directs too.

@BabyYoshi65,

By the way Nintendo has not said it will cancel all future directs, they just have to adapt to the current situation, when things calm down a little I am sure we will see more directs.

@johnvboy I meant I will miss them for now.

Hey Nintendo if it’s not in a direct I’m not buying it!

There is just one thing I dislike about Nintendo Directs- the English voiceovers.

@awaltzforvenus I doubt it. A lot of people watch them and it doesn’t seem like something Nintendo would end anytime soon.

@Yorumi The mega corps of the 50d and 60s weren't even close to today's mega corps. They controlled their fields but most business was mom and pop proprietorships and small single function companies, regional manufacturers, etc. Sure, few dared compete in petroleum with S.O. but dozens of small family companies across every state were making the fuel tanks, not one global behemoth located in U.A.E. That also makes the tooling and the steel for the tanks. We've never had this type of centralization before.

@johnvboy No, Yorimis thoughts on a dispassionate company are separate from the lack of engaging with a community. Remember though that the abandonment of the loyal base during the Wii cost Nintendo significantly heading into WiiU and 3DS both. They chased a new market, abandoned the loyal market, only to find the previously loyal base severely gutted and otherwise transitioned to PlayStation and XBox. Iwata even directly acknowledged that mistake.

But overall I'm not approaching this as a temporary change. They'd been stepping back from directs for a while. And Sony already abandoned showing with other vendors. I think Nintendo is going to test the waters with this and back further from the Iwata era initiatives they appear to have actively been purging from the company from the day he was gone.

Yeah, we all figured that. I mean safety first and all. Lots of big events are following suit with digital events anyway.

@awaltzforvenus
The only way to find out is to wait for the pandemic to cool down enough such that people can go to work normally again.

That may take some time, especially for western game developers and publishers.

@NEStalgia,

See I don't see Nintendo's decision to appeal to a wider demographic on both the Wii and DS as a mistake, Iwata can say what he wants to, but it was a sad fact that at the time Nintendo was slowly being pushed out of the hardcore market as there were already two big companies fighting for the 180 million consoles, and at best Nintendo could hope for a 50-60 million share of.

Nintendo did not make the Wii U stand out as a new follow up console to the Wii, sure a lot of the casual audience had moved on to tablets and smart phones, but Nintendo's marketing for their new machine was totally woeful, and as Iwata said the consoles introduction came to late for the market as by then other devices had caught on

I think a lot of this on forums stems from the fact the core market just want Nintendo to carry on as they did up to the Gamecube, competing in a very tough arms race with Sony and Microsoft, which is firstly very expensive and the return on the investment would not be worth it.

So Nintendo will have to go their own way courting the casuals while at the same time trying to remain relevant to their core base, and I feel they have struck the right balance with the Switch, as it combined their struggling home console business with their more lucrative handhelds, this should have freed up more development time, and will be far more cost effective not have development of two separate machines.

Another thing that people are saying is then Nintendo has abandoned it's direct presentations and lost it's passion, this is incorrect, they hark back to Nintendo's early days where you had one time of year at E3, to get all your gaming information, now Nintendo attend E3 and have direct presentations throughout the year as well, not to mention the awesome Tree House event which clearly shows Nintendo's passion for their games, and is just pure fan service imho.

They then bring Sony into the argument as some sort of indicator to which way Nintendo is heading, when in reality only Sony stated they would not be attending this years E3 event, Nintendo was always going to attend this years expo, and it's hardly their fault there has been a global pandemic that has put lots of things on hold for a while.

But of course none of this virus business has had any affect on Nintendo's marketing and game production, it's all about their lack of passion and total lack of understanding of their loyal fan base.

I just don't get how people don't understand that due to this pandemic a lot of things have had to change, I said on another post Directs aren't just "plonk a bloke in front of a camera, render", there's a pile of editing and grading to be done, voice recording, raw video to be moved around, music to be edited, game trailers to be edited and trimmed to fit into allotted timeframes, interviews etc and they're not going to be done using Youtuber grade kit. They will have had a facilities studio and a team of people that take care of all that. Post production, editors, copywriters, art directors, producers. Studios they won't have had access to while everyone is working at home.

I suppose that translates to lost passion.

This is dumb... I hope this idea did not come from the marketing dude who thought the WiiU E3 unveil was a good idea....

@WiltonRoots,

Nah it's Nintendo that has lost it's passion, and do not care about it's legions of loyal fans.

@electrolite77,

It may sound simplistic, but he's not that far away, just because Nintendo have had directs at a certain time of year in the past does not mean they have to follow suit each and every year, and this current pandemic situation is pretty much new territory for all of us, and will have a knock on effect for most business for quite a while.

Also Nintendo have not officially stated anything, it's all rumor and speculation to when and if their directs will start again, but for some to complain when it's clearly out of Nintendo's control is wrong.

I do admit Nintendo need to find a solution to keep getting information out there, and of course the void it leaves can be then filled with rumor and speculation, but I am sure they are working on it, the recent Paper Mario bomb is a good example.

I'd at least like to be warned about announcements. It absolutely sucks to be first introduced to the existence of a new Paper Mario by people complaining about it on social media.

@johnvboy Yeah you're probably right, the comment section knows best. Completely off-topic, have you ever gone back in time on here? I was looking back at old articles from 2016, there's some absolutely golden hot takes from then. I recommend looking at the AM2R takedown thread, Color Splash, and the NX articles about a week or so before the reveal...this place hasn't got worse, trust me!

@WiltonRoots,

The are always very consistent on here, I will check those out.

@CoastersPaul,

So they should announce a game before they announce it.

@edgedino Agreed 🙃

@johnvboy See, now you're confusing multiple people's posts, a few different threads of conversation, gluing them all together, and then switching the argument to a 5 year old discussion and railing against it. Then speaking in third person about said conversation in a post directly beneath the one to me. Choose a conversation, then discuss that one with the actual involved party.

The debate about why WiiU failed is long past. But the reality is they DID error in their Wii era handling, and they stated so, explicitly. They initially tried to balance a new market, but once that became a hot seller they wholly ignored their loyal market, chasing the new one. Especially in entertainment business that's never a good idea. Why? Because entertainment is very volatile and has high highs and low lows. The loyal market is the one that floats the company and it's relevance during those lows. Nintendo flipped off their loyal market during the Wii so that many of even the most loyal had lost all interest. Not many were there to cushion the blows from the very anemic 3DS and WiiU early years as they would have been. We're not talking "GameCube era hardcore chasing after Sony", we're talking about abandoning fundamental Nintendo franchises in chase of that new market. They took a gamble that that would be a win, and they lost that bet. The new market then abandoned them, and they didn't have a waiting loyal market to sell too...they had to claw and scramble to get that core back, which took them mostly until Switch to do so. The loyal core won't take the company to new heights, but it'll provide a predictable, stable market during the low times when the mass market isn't buying. Let them get disengaged and they'll see new pastures, and you wind up with a 3DS/WiiU situation. They're not there when you need them. That does not mean "core gamers" - that means loyal "core" Nintendo customers.

But one thing you, @WiltonRoots (surpisingly, I might add) are doing is presuming this is all temporary due to current conditions. Nobody would have a problem with that. None of this is temporary. This is pushing companies to make leaps they were wanting to make but were hesitant/afraid to do so. Once they take the leap and see no immediate negative, they will stick with it permanently. Maximum cost savings. Not just in gaming, but across the board. The disease time will be the happy time. What follows is another even bigger round of 2008 where companies learn to do even more with even less and squeeze even more pennies out of everything with even less expendature. Sales continue without Directs? Kill directs. Sales continue without E3 presentations? Why bother with E3 presentations. Production continues with 20% less employees? Don't re-hire those employees. The new trends coming out of this are bleak for a long long time. Griping about fun gaming presentations is the tip of a very ugly iceberg about to smack the world in the face.

It isn't temporary, it's providing a necessity to make changes they wanted to make anyway, and were already doing so in smaller strides, prior. Sony set that ball rolling, thus their mention, by pulling out of everything. Saving all that presentation money was appealing.

But particular frustration goes out to Nintendo, as, the week E3 was cancelled other companies started announcing their digital-only E3 week plans. Nintendo, who already had mostly digital presentations is the outlier not doing so (plus Sony who never planned on doing anything to begin with.) They certainly have the same limitations on their studios, but are committed to a digital presentation in some format all the same, while Nintendo, the company that started the digital E3 to much criticism, somehow is special and can't, nor can they do their own Direct even not timed with the former E3 event, while even Sony has managed to do their own somewhat new clone of it. This is a Nintendo thing. Other companies have adapted to ways to deliver their message. Sony, admittedly badly.

My point remains unchanged. Microsoft, Ubisoft, Devolver, CDPR, Blizzard-Activision, Deep Silver, THQ, SqEnix, even EA....EA!!! is participating in the digital presentations around E3 time. Nintendo and Sony seem to be the outliers, but Sony had already planned on ignoring everyone so that's not due to the conditions, that was their plan since last year. Nintendo's the only one taking the opportunity to dump their participation. When even EA is more engaged than Nintendo, I don't think it's out of place to question that.

@NEStalgia,

Problem is there are not enough loyal Nintendo customers to carry just one console fella, they need the mass market as well, surprised you can't see this.

There is nothing surprising about me and WiltonRoots commenting on all the negative points of view on here, it's nothing new and in the case of Yorumi his complaining is legendary, as he does not like to give credit for anything, then hides behind the whole he is right and everybody else is wrong, stating we often dismiss his opinions while at the same time totally dismissing everyone else's views.

@NEStalgia I think it's too early to say at this moment in time, I mean sure companies will have a long hard look at themselves and their outgoings (my workplace is already doing this, we're functioning fine with half the staff furloughed, I wonder whether some of my colleagues will have jobs waiting for them) after this dies down but Directs are hardly a massive drain on Nintendo's finances, and it's a popular means of getting their message across to their customers. If anything it might make them look at the format and change it - something they've done with single title focused Directs, but I really can't see them going "oh yeah this is dropping in a couple of months" for every title.

Deep dives and casual drops perhaps? A mixture of the two? Time will tell.

@johnvboy of course that doesn't carry the whole console. But it does carry the company during the slump much more comfortably than what happens, and also builds a much more favorable environment to sell outside the core. The early adopters are very important to reach outside the core.

@WiltonRoots It's been a problem worldwide for some time and a coming socio-economic crisis in general. As automation and efficiency takes over, we have ever more humans in the world, and a need for less than a fraction of them to do anything at all. This just brought to light just how few people are actually needed or even terribly useful at all. All this fuss over entertainment may be moot soon.

I could, I suppose, see a Nintendo that does big single title directs for major titles like Pokmeon and just twitter drops for everything else. But that's something they were playing with, anyway. Directs have really gone down hill in general with the current formats. They're more of a sizzle reel than what a Direct was in the 3DS and early Switch days.

@NEStalgia This is the thing, they pioneered the digital presentation format for the video games market - they might be looking and saying to themselves that now every man and his dog has jumped on that bandwagon they need to come up with something fresh to avoid blending in with all the others. Interesting times. Upcoming recessions won't help matters much either.

@NEStalgia,

I do like the new snappy directs to be honest, I just want as much info as possible, and when you are doing video presentations big reveals can be pretty flat, as you do not have the audience with their fake cheering etc, but Nintendo still convey their messages in a exciting way, it's just different from the Wii U/3DS era, that's not to say it's worse, plus in that time the direct was always switching between the Wii U and 3DS, and having little interest in the latter, it always seemed to bog proceedings down imho.

Also are we jumping the gun here a little, I was under the impression it's was announced by a "Industry insider" that Nintendo had put all it's direct plans on hold?.

@johnvboy There's snappy, and then there's Saturday morning cartoon material for the Ritalin-addled. They've been veering too hard to the latter where it's just rapidly flashing things without a breather to get more info beyond quick drive-bys with rapidly flashing things that you can't even digest the previous info before they've replaced it with 3 new things. They seem do do the "One More Thing" part right (ACNH, Poke-stuff, Smash stuff) at the end, but the whole middle is a jumble. Pacing is hard to get right, but they've definitely favored going too much too fast, to cram that 20 minute time space rather than doing 30-40 minutes that some of those presentations need, in part, because they have reduced the amount of Directs overall.

@WiltonRoots That may be true, but "paper mario in 6 weeks" as a Twitter mention is definitely not that replacement. That's a hop skip and jump away from "my uncle that works at Nintendo said..."

@NEStalgia I'm prepared to wait and see what happens - when Japan returns to work we'll have a much better picture of how this plays out. In fact they might be using this period to rethink their strategies. Who knows. Whenever discussions go down this path something unusual comes out of the blue.

@NEStalgia,

I feel the directs are the way they are to tie in with the now very familiar Switch logo click, I mean every trailer for every game starts with it and it's great marketing, they wan't the directs to run along the same lines, I love how much info they tend to cram in.

Welp, here's to another 6- month or even a 12-month draught...

Whatever. Gives me time to watch all E3 presentations and Directs (up till March 2020) to wait for the possibility of a 2021 Direct. If it this virus contains itself and people learn to self-isolate. Otherwise we may never get a Direct or E3 ever again if things continue the way it stands now.