Soapbox: Nintendo's Game Awards No-Show Proves It Simply Doesn't Need Anyone Else

Jesus, is this an article or a scolding 🤣

The Game Awards is little more than a 3 hour display of the AAA industry congratulating itself on being the AAA industry. Nintendo is just fine not being part of it.

Nintendo's absence from The Game Awards doesn't just prove that they can survive without it; it also shows that Nintendo is very tight with scheduling and quarter 4 would typically be the worst time for them to bring up any sort of information, save for The Pokémon Company INDEPENDENTLY showcasing Voltorb.

The problem with a piece like this is that you absolutely wouldn’t be saying this if Nintendo were there. Nintendo showed off a Smash character last year at it for god’s sake. PlayStation weren’t there either.

Put it in perspective; I seen more articles about Nintendo NOT being there than articles of who were.

Nintendo knew they got the publicity.

Whether you like it or not, it's an easy way to put your game in the spotlight with so many people watching and covering it. Even people that may not follow Nintendo news as closely. A Nintendo Direct is only going to reach the people interested in Nintendo gaming. Which doesn't have to be a bad thing, but these large events are great for coverage. TGA even moreso than E3 I'd argue, because even at E3 all companies do their own thing, so people mostly only watch the streams they're interested in.

It's Nintendo's loss for not showing anything off. Sony's too. The dearth of 3rd party titles was to be expected this late into the lifespan of the Switch.

I've always maintained the Direct presentation (or even social media posts, where I can insert my own commentary) is the ideal way for Nintendo to communicate its games. Nintendo Directs typically trend and the gaming press discusses them for days after they air. TGA is a great way to reach a lot of people (and I will never say it's a bad idea to announce a game there because it isn't) but so do Directs.

I think the Oscars and the Game Awards are very similar.
Both are crap and shouldn't be taken seriously.

The Game Awards is more like a 2-hour long advertisement these days. Outside the main "award" and a few musical performances, there isn't much reason to stick to the whole thing waiting for fresh announcements (unlike your usual E3 presentation). There's too much noise and irrelevant stuff dragging the viewer's attention, which makes it harder to set the right mood for something special. A Direct is the right place for Switch-related news.

@Medic_Alert I don't get the impression that Nintendo felt it was/is too big for TGA. They probably just didn't feel like the timing was right to show off their games.
Whether that is true is debatable, but that's likely what they thought.

"In the case of The Game Awards, the 'awards' are a ruse to attract everyone's attention, companies and consumers alike"

Pretty sure it's the announcement side of things that attracts consumers. The average gamer doesn't really care what game wins what award, but they want to see the next thing from that one franchise they like or whatever.

Similarly, while companies may profit from the extra publicity of a win, don't kid yourselves: showing off their next products to millions of people is the main allure.

Gameawards is yearly, why would it be rushed for Nintendo? I just don’t understand. Everybody loves a big free audience…

I just hope we get an early year Direct at this point. I'm very eager for some big Nintendo gaming news, especially since 2022 is shaping up to be a monster year.

@Medic_Alert yeah, I won't deny Nintendo can make bad decisions based on its arrogance. Sony isn't going to go through what Nintendo did in the N64, GCN or Wii U eras because they have the benefit of a largely positive press and two competitors that make what people feel are unforced errors. You don't always have to look good in a competition to win, just better than the alternatives. That's especially true in technology.

Although it is a little funny Sony gets away with what MS and Nintendo can't simply because of what you said, their fanbase are adults now and weirdly loyal to them. Watching them justify price hikes for Sony's first party games is mildly amusing. Especially when you know Nintendo 100% couldn't get away with it and even MS would receive backlash. All of which would be warranted, course.

More like...uh...I dunno, "The Grim Awards", amirite fellas?

I figured as games continue to get more complex the need to show them year after year gets old. It will be ready when it's ready and not when Geoff says so.

me and my gf tried to watch it since the Sonic reveals and already knowing it mostly won't be anything we played or knew about and right in the beginning they slap that big PSA of blah blah no harrassment blah blah lecture lecture virtue signaling... CLICK. turned it off and went back to enjoying our lives.

I personally think its sour grapes from Nintendo, from their perspective they probably think they deserved a bit more recognition for what they did in 2021.

In my opinion MH Rise barely getting any mentions for any awards is just criminal and SMT V also not getting much in the way of awards while Dread picked up a handful and my guess is they expected Dread to grab the big Goty award for 2021.

To sum it up, Nintendo from their perspective probably think they showed up in 2021 and that was largely unmentioned.

Which is actually true especially when you look at sales figures, but that could also come down to how the industry generally feels about Nintendo marching to the beat of their own drum.

Is it really Nintendo going its own way or is it just not a worthwhile platform to advertise their product? This seems to be an ongoing trend in the industry. These big platform events are losing their relevance.

The Game Awards is entirely an advertising platform. Even the awards themselves are advertisements. Just the same as the Oscars without any of the prestige, which is what gets people watching. As a platform is it worth the attention of companies looking to advertise then? As the article says, the awards are a vehicle for the ads but does anyone care about the awards? If no one makes any announcements, and no one cares about the awards, then no one is going to watch and the show is useless as ad space.

Sonic Frontiers has been confirmed a long time ago for Switch back in may as a teaser for the next Sonic game. I don’t know how that is a surprise to be honest

Honestly I don't feel this Game Awards felt any less relevant than years prior. Maybe for people who are Nintendo fans, but that's because nothing that would interest them was shown.

@LinkSword yeah I'd agree with this. Every year Geoff has to swindle people in to watching by promising a huge announcement, and every year people get hyped, and subsequently end up disappointed

@nessisonett Lol yeah push square did a salty article like this about E3 or something and I thought the exact same tbh.

@Meteoroid Yeah, plus if you've followed Nintendo for some time they tend to get shortchanged whenever they put announcements in the hands of game journalists.

I remember the original Splatoon was left off lists of newly announced games for E3 on sites like IGN. Despite sending fact sheets/press packs a lot of sites reported the WiiU as a peripheral and not a new Console.

I recall Iwata said he came up with the Direct format because he felt Nintendo needed to be in charge of their messaging because things he'd say would often be twisted by games journalists.

I'd honestly question where Nintendo would be today without the Nintendo Directs and instead relying on a press that would report their new Console as a periphera, or would act like what became one of the biggest new IP either didn't exist or wasn't worth reporting.

I gotta say I sorta appreciated them. Or like that guy from the minnmax show said, it was more entertaining than some random Netflix episode.
I didn't expect a lot and I was sorta surprised again at how much money they put into this whole thing. As I worked on events as well, I totally get why they had to make their ad-partner present so I could live with that. And just have it running next to my work was quite fine. Would I have been disappointed if I would've gotten invested in the whole thing? Oh boy sure I would've. But I appreciated as some very mainstream way to celebrate gaming and it sorta worked quite fine from that point.
Still I got some critique:
1. it threw around with superlatives from the get go and i became sorta numb after a while. Its like watching a 4 hour michael bay movie.
2. it happened in the Microsoft theatre and it was sorta obvious, looking at the whole show. It was like 60% Microsoft and the rest sorta shared by MS and Nintendo. Thats a bit weird at a multiplatform awardshow.
3. many of the the games shown would have been cool when presented isolated, but in that whole show they sorta felt underwhelming. like a lot of just cinematic immersive experience stuff, not so much nerdculture.

Reminds me of the 'E3 is dead' articles at PushSquare after Sony abandoned that show, lol.

Nintendo obviously doesn't NEED exposure at TGA, but it also wouldn't hurt. It's a prominent missed opportunity for Nintendo to show off upcoming games to people leading into the holiday season. And there's certainly no benefit to disappointed Nintendo fans.

@nessisonett Honestly that's what I thought throughout the entirety of this article.

@nessisonett 100% this

@ModdedInkling

Yeah that was weird, seems less like Nintendo doesn’t need TGA, but actively doesn’t want it.

Or maybe Nintendo didn't turn up because they just didn't have anything to show

@nessisonett wasn't that two years ago in 2020?

kirby is pink.....

I think what got me was not just Nintendo’s absence, but an absence of even third-party game announcements involving the Switch.

@CharlieGirl Well Nintendo doesn't need ANY award show or even something like E3 to sell games. They made sure years ago to distance themselves from that stuff by way of their NINTENDO DIRECT that are now being copied by Sony and to a lesser degree, Microsoft.

And yeah, the Game Award show is not that different from what MTV used to do years ago. Its just a huge advertising event. To show trailers or previews of products that are on the way.

I'm not getting a "This is The Oscars" vibe from them. Since if that were true, then the games winning awards would be mostly independent games that tackle serious issues. And not games like Resident Evil VIIIage that are basically more of the same old mindless action. And much less scares than the previous game, RE7.

The fact that The Game Awards show are just a huge commercial was what made me turn it off and do something else. Because I felt like I was trying to watch a YouTube video but was constantly getting unskippable adverts. Mostly of games that I had zero interest in.

@HOUSE that's basically every year.

One of these days, all these “news” sites, YouTubers will realize that of you think out loud that Nintendo is going to do something, then they don’t.

E3, Game Awards and such are useless now anyway. Even Sony are going the Nintendo route more and more with reveals, funny though that MS still cling to E3 and such but then all the corporate sh*t is right up their street i suppose. End of the day Nintendo and Sony to an extent show you don't need E3 or The Game Awards to promote your stuff or reveal your games, i think Sony only showed with a small Horizon trailer and that was it no reveals or GoW stuff.

@Meteoroid i think its a mixture of these two factors. Lets be realistic here, if everyone in the industry was singing praises for Nintendo's games in 2021, Nintendo would have shown up.

They would prepare something to show, if they knew that the majority at the event wanted to see Nintendo, they would've obliged.

No company denies the spotlight when its on their successes, but this wasn't the case, even if it probably should have been more than it was and certainly at least more so than any other company currently, with both Sony and Microsoft still reeling from the pandemic.

But the fact that Nintendo marches to the beat of its own drum irks many big wigs in the industry who hate that Nintendo is able to garner so much success without 60% of the biggest developers even working with them.

The fact is, Nintendo games have sold better than any other platform this year, both in terms of 3rd parties who've put their games on the Switch (MonHun Rise, SMT V) and Nintendo own 1st party games.

This fact alone irks many in the industry who have long disliked Nintendo's approach, if you want to get an idea of how much the industry dislikes Nintendo's approach, you only need to look at how the majority of developers and journalists wrote Nintendo off during the Wii U years and many called for them to go the way of Sega.

Nintendo will never really get the recognition it deserves because those who hand recognition dislike Nintendo

Doug Bowser doesn't like Doritos as much as Reggie did

Thats true. Both are easily rigged.

Enjoyed reading this. Thanks for making this.

I feel sorry for anyone who sat through it. Honestly, you are much better just watching the trailers the next day. My expectations are usually grounded for stuff like big corporate events.

ive been ignoring these types of things since the 90s. you can too, its easy!

Hear hear! Well said!

I think to a large degree, TGA is just an odd program, and Nintendo splitting their presentations between a bunch of events isn't really going to benefit them as they have a relatively thin schedule and very tight control of their information. They do E3 which is a scheduled, industry wide event that fits their release schedules well. TGA is exactly when they're at their turnover between calendar schedules. .

None of the big 3 were there, though, and we hear every June that mean's "E3 is no longer relevant." Does that mean TGA is no longer relevant either?

It's all just commercials dressed up as something else. That's all any event in this industry is. Why pay someone else for advertising when you can do it yourself?

Xbox skips an event -

Pure Xbox “this proves game pass is best thing ever and Xbox doesn’t need industry help it helps the industry.”

Sony skips an event - Push square - “This proves they have a market share that makes them decided where and when they show their stuff”

Nintendo skips an event and here we are….

As a gamer that owns all three….

Here is my take… I like to see balanced content covering all three. None of them need any of these events and their own social media and YouTube channels would get a big enough reach but it’s still good exposure.

I’d rather all these promos - in house or out house - only featured games coming in the next 12 months. All this shiny promos for a game 4 plus years away is nonsense.

Nintendo like to control how it gonna show it games, you can't rush Nintendo to show it games in events like the Game Awards.

Look, I wrote a comment a few days ago about how bad The Game Awards are, and I'm not going to repeat all that.

Having said that, it is a bit concerning how so many of the new third party releases are not making their way over to the Switch.

Yes, many third party games have missed the Switch since it's release, but the number is growing. Psychonats 2 and It Takes Two would both fit the Switch like a glove, but the aging tech is making more developers not even take the chance on bringing the games over. And if a big AAA game does come over, it's likely going to be some gimped up "cloud" garbage that basically requires an ultra fast internet connection and that at some point will disappear when servers are shut down in 10 years or so.

I love the Switch, but it's aging, and up against the PS5 and new XBox, it looks old. I would love a more capable, powerful Switch that would bring over some more of these third party games. Hell, the Switch likely is going to pass 100 million units sold by the end of the year, and we still don't have a Madden on the console.

@Axecon a yearly Nintendo Direct is garantee, after all Nintendo need to tell us Kirby and the Forgotten Land release date and reveal the games for the first half of 2022, i predict we gonna have a general Nintendo Direct to the game for the first half of 2022.

TGA is a pageant show.
Nintendo doesn't even need pageant show to get an appreciation.
They already have games that speak its quality.

Honestly, this article comes off kind of bitter that Nintendo didn't have anything there. Nintendo would and have used the GAs when they have something major to promote. They just didn't this year. No big surprise.

Sony and Microsoft didn't really show anything off aswel

I think you're making this too complicated.

They just didn't want to show BOTW2 at a event that was already the world reveal of 4 or 5 other BOTW games.

It's like anything. They aren't sat there thinking 'we don't need anyone.' That's a bit immature. It's more likely the boring case of they have nothing to show at this time or simply the timing isn't right for what they want to show. It's not like they boycott the event. it's much better to not announce something than leave everyone wondering what was the point. (Metroid Prime 4 being the exception because folk were really getting anxious, remember.)

Do they need these shows? No, but neither do Sony or Microsoft. It ends up benefitting all involved however if they involve themselves. Events like these involve fans of all kinds which means everyone has a chance to pitch their product to potential new customers.

Oh and there's also the awards too. I generally don't care about them since most of the games I play don't even get nominated but I'm still happy for the devs who get to celebrate their work.

TGA's are meant to be a celebration on both what came before and what's coming in the future. I'm sure the only reason Nintendo had no presence was that it just didn't line up with their development pipeline, not because Doug Bowser said "Bah! Who needs the Game Awards!?"

Either way, my interest in these award shows is in the negative.

@KBuckley27

You watch the same show I did?

MS gave away like 1000 game pass keys and was on screen talking about Game Pass in one of the longest individual spots in the show. And a good number of games where coming from MS studies and showing off Game Pass day one availability or exclusivity.

I guess it's easy to forget MS game studios is now like 30 different AAA studios.

Crossfire (MS doesn't OWN remedy but MS funds their Xbox exclusives) , Halo, Halo TV, android on Windows PC, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, just from memory. They also attached their branding to the focus entertainment games (Warhammer and Plague tale); focus is owned by a holding company that MS is heavily invested in. Microsoft was easily the single biggest presence at the show.

Well, next to the orchestra I guess.

Sony did much the same, attaching their branding to anything they could even though their studios has much less of a presence.

Nintendo is unique in that they only make Nintendo games, so if they are not THERE, the are not there at all. MS and Sony own dozens of studios and can just pay developers to remind people they exist with trailer branding and build a "fake" presence.

Nintendo also doesn't like showing off their games too early, they like to keep development secretive for the most part until they are closer to the end of development, and personally I prefer it that way.

No they do not. They do not need the Sony media, or the Sony industry, all they need are REAL GAMERS, LIKE ME, the haters cannot not do anything to stop switch games or systems from selling. And I love it. Nintendo is the best and all they need are their fans.

Awful headline, you make us sound pathetic.

The Pokemon Company does their own thing so they're likely saving Legends Arceus for a early January Pokemon Presents like they did for the Sword/Shield Expansion Pass and Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX in 2020.

Outside Pokemon there's no 1st party Nintendo games with release dates (only vague release windows) which is very interesting. The last time something like that happened at this time of the year was in 2013 when a general Direct happened on December 18th to confirm the specific release date of Tropical Freeze among other announcements. That year the only Nintendo news at VGX (the equivalent of TGA back then) was Cranky Kong for Tropical Freeze which was negatively received because people expected Metroid.

So Nintendo's likely going to do 1 of 2 things:
1. Indie World this week and rely on Legends Arceus hype until sometime in either January or February.
2. General Direct this week like they did in 2013 and reveal more about 2022 like a specific release date for Advance Wars or Kirby.

Both options make more sense to not do anything at the Game Awards.

because nintendo relying on themselves was such a good strategy for the wii u, eh

@Screen
And the same reason likely applies to Summer Games Fest, Gamescom, and Tokyo Game Show, with very few exceptions.

I suspect that while Reggie was President of NoA, he was the one who made the push to market at The Game Awards, even if the games aren't entirely completed yet (namely, Breath of the Wild). He's clearly an avid supporter of TGA with his perfect attendance and him leaving just so happened to be the last year Nintendo has really made much of a significant impact throughout the show.

When he markets, he knows how to market to the gaming industry. I can't think of anyone better than him, and I do sorely miss his role at Nintendo.

@somebread
Nintendo's self-reliance was only the consequence of the Wii U's failure. They clearly already tried to push for 3rd-party support, but it failed within the first year. The biggest problem with the Wii U was that the marketing was targeting the wrong audience.

@nessisonett A Nintendo site leaning heavily towards Nintendo!? I, for one, am shocked!

I don't care for Game awards, but man, that's a lot of copium. Almost "Cowboy Bebop isn't supposed to be good" levels.

There will be a February 2022 with all or most of the stuff that you wanted to see from Nintendo at The Game Awards 2021.

Patience is a virtue.

@mariopartyfan68
Pardon me but why did you keep boasting Nintendo Switch and at the same time keep roasting Sony ?
Both Nintendo and Sony don't need "real gamers".
They just need the customers, any customer who bought their products.

I still think Nintendo should make an effort to have at least one game to show for Nintendo fans ( and when I say Nintendo fans I mean you can still be a fan of other companies and a Nintendo fan ). I mean how hard can it be to make a video of one game.
It doesn't even need to be a new one. I'm sure people would have been happy to have another look at BotW2. Or are Nintendo afraid people will loose interest in the game if they get a second look. I doubt it.

lets not forget nintendo did reveal alot at e3 this year so wat else would they show now so i rather have them focus on getting these games out on time and continue with the directs instead of being part of this award show.

I didn’t think that people took these awards shows seriously.

Awards shows are trash and I recommend no one watch them.

I honestly think I won't be watching next year. This year was an utter waste of time.

@Anti-Matter i have an increasingly hard time believing they are not a joke account

I lliked the show but was disapointed that Nintendo did not care to show off something, I’m not happy to see them releasing games so scarcely and not showing anything, keeping people in the darkness with no clear release date and no work in progress trailer , and bam shadow drop a game from nowhere, indie games are cool and some third party ports are well done but on my switch I want to play Nintendo first party exclusivities and they just keep pushing these back I’m disapointed by Nintendo right now and only wish they stop holding their games. I have a feeling that the games we want are finished like botw2 but they wait for the right moment to release it,

what the hell is the purpose of this article? Cope?

They are always so full of themselves until they fail at creating something buyers want (the first couple years of 3ds, wiiu's full life, gamecube), and once they fall of their grace they go back to form partnerships, listen to fans and actually give a damn. They will never learn to not be like this. Nintendo defense force if vocal, but rest assured the people who is getting tired of Nintendo's practices are also vocal.

The game awards are just dumb as a concept. It isn’t best game but more so best selling game

@blindsquarel really? literally a small budget game "It Takes Two" won against the games of major publishers.

@Giancarlothomaz I really hope so. Nintendo could always have production delays and pull a 2020

The Game Awards exist basically just to fuel Keighley's ego and continuously announce to the world that he's best friends with Kojima and Reggie.

...and to be a glorified platform for advertisers.

The spotlight was never the games. They announce a winner and after 1 second it's another intermission or ad. Unless it's a high profile game/publisher/category they never give the mic to the winner. And Keighley gets to have a job.

The only thing I like about the Game Awards (or award shows in general) is not the game announcements but the potential to highlight the games we voted for, even just for a split second. The game announcements I can be excited for after the fact.

@diwdiws
Last of us part 2 ring a bell. Sure there are some outliers but it really is just the most popular game regardless of quality.

There’s a ‘game awards’? Sounds exhausting.

To be honest, it seemed like most of what was shown off was already in the throes of a marketing campaign. Even the Sonic reveal came on the coattails of the movie trailer which was being hyped for months.

@blindsquarel hmm you may be right, considering a mediocre BOTW won against Persona 5 last 2017.

I can taste the salt brewing from this article.
Everyone knows that Geoff's game awards are mostly BS. I wouldn't take it so hard. Nintendo goes by the beat of their own drum. If they got something to show, we'll get a Direct of it.

It just proves they think they don't need anyone else.

There's a game awards?

@diwdiws
I am going to assume you mean persona was better which I can’t say because I didn’t play it. But I do agree that botw is a very overrated game

Nintendo used hubris!!
It hurt it self in confusion!!

Seriously though, their arrogance has hurt them before. Not saying this will topple the company, but it seems silly. We all know Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Samsung, Ford, etc. exist. And we still see commercials.

@Zyph Pretty much that. E3 is a large scale industry wide event by the binding industry group they're all connected to, ESA. Diminished or not, it's still a significant industry function. TGA is Keighley's own personal afterparty.

@Anti-Matter Because I want to. If you don't like it, keep scrolling.

@mariopartyfan68
"Because I want to."

That was not nice answer to say.
It was not about voicing your opinion and hush whoever disagree with your opinion.
And why did you create account here just to keep roasting Sony and PS5 ?
Keep in mind, Nintendo still have some flaws that some peoples still critizing about.

Nintendo has been out of touch for a long time and releasing boring *****. They need to go bankrupt so other developers would get the chance to make Nintendo-games and so we MIGHT get good Mario and Zelda games.

@Anti-Matter It's NintenDoomed fandom dressing as NL users. What else could it be.