Talking Point: Nintendo World Championships 2015 Should Be Just the Beginning

Yes, at this point going back to the dark theater stage to fall in line with a press conference would feel positively like a step backwards.

Microsoft is already going to copy Treehouse.

"Nintendo can seize popular culture again"

No, I don't think so. Nintnedo lives in a world all alone, it may be able to establish itself a little more in the social media arena, but it can't seize popular culture.

Nintndo exists in a world that seemingly never experienced 9/11, where wrestling was never over run by the NWO, where Tony Soprano never became the biggest thing in television, where tv isn't ruled by sex and violence - no HBOgo app on the Wii U probably ever, no sense of Walking Dead or Boardwalk Empire or Breaking Bad or Sons of Anarchy, no Metal Gear or Call of Duty or Battlefiled. This is what rules popular culture today, more sex, more violence. Watch Conan O'brien play the Witcher 3 and all he wants to do is get his character laid. How many characters have ever gotten laid on the Wii U or 3DS?

Call it a world wrought with sin or call it the great liberation, but thats what popular culture is all about, the Cardashians flaunting their booty and UFC fights. Wii had a UFC game, a training game, no fighting. Carly Rae Jepsen had gay teenage boys in her music video, Glee is full of homsecual pride, gays can't even marry in Tomodachi Life.

How can Nintnedo seize popular culture when it barely even acknowledges that world exists?

I am glad Nintendo is trying, and I'm glad TW is glad and got to write a very upbeat article for a change, but Nintnedo isn't going to have a resurgence of popularity like Apple did when Steve Jobs returned. Nintnedo is still in the 80's, the rest of the world isn't. Sad but true.

Nintendo is the only company that can pull this type of thing off. MS or Sony could host a video game championship but it wouldn't have the same impact as being branded as Nintendo. Good for Big N, I'm sure they'll get a bump out of this I'm just not sure how much of one.

@rjejr Nintendo is still in the 80's and the rest of the world isn't. After I saw the Campbell's Super Mario soup commercial I thought the same thing.

@rjejr I get (and mostly agree with) what you're saying, but things aren't that simple. I believe Nintendo can certainly regain a more ubiquitous place in popular culture, because I honestly believe pop culture is too broad a concept to be reduced to adult themes such as sex and violence.

I know (or at least believe) you weren't a gamer during the NES / SNES days, but I believe many people here will be able to attest to this first-hand: Nintendo's portfolio of IPs has a Disney-like capacity to enchant and enthrall young people. Some of these young people, the ones who grew up with Mario and Link and Kirby and Donkey Kong, are the ones who keep coming back to the company to this day. It's absolutely possible to foster this kind of behavior in today's kids, because kid-friendly properties still have the power to be a significant part of pop culture - just ask the producers of Frozen.

The problem, as you said yourself, is that Nintendo is stuck in the past when it comes to its methods of going after success in today's world. That's why I think their smartphone strategy is a pretty damn nice first step, even if I have close to zero interest in those as gaming platforms. That's where kids' attention is these days; in that regard, it's a move that could be compared to producing TV cartoons back in the late eighties. Iwata's strategy of using smartphones as possible "rites of passage" to make people interested in pursuing dedicated Nintendo gaming machines is a clever evolution of that cartoon strategy from back in the day.

Of course, like I said, it's a first step. Nintendo is still extremely conservative when it comes to its business by every standard, and further steps need to be taken for it to attain newfound mainstream relevance. I mostly agree with the article - stuff like the Nintendo World Championship definety have potential to be part of a Nintendo that's "cool" (I hate that word) again, even if it's obviously not going to accomplish stratospheric results by itself.

@rjejr your comment could have been counter-talking point in and of itself, Bravo!

I have a thought about "games" possibly featured in the NWC2015, what if it isn't any one game, rather a brand new game (basically a Wii U version of World championship) that will be released on the Wii U eShop during E3 week. I'm sure there is some logic fail in my thought process.

It owned at E3 last year and should use that hype and excitement to expand on this by holding their own expo (World Championship) each year. Maybe they won't have tons to put on show each year but having tournaments for their own games and officially endorsed by Nintendo will def bring in the fans. With the proper planning an execution, this could be a huge yearly event.

The last couple years, Nintendo has been looking to tap back into the fun and wackiness that made them such a phenomenon.
It can't all be cool games for cool people.

I sure would love to go to E3 this year, its going to be one of the best ever.

@Sir_JBizzle - Thanks. Thats all I got for you b/c no way no how can I match that clapping gif, Im a sucker for that old b&w stuff.

I think the return of the event is a great idea, but I'm not excited about it being at E3. E3 is a trade show, and all about exciting new announcements for me, not a fan convention. I also don't really see Nintendo being ahead of their rivals into bringing E3 to all. The press conferences have been streamed live for over 10 years now, so to those of us watching it all on a computer screen, it's no different if it's up on stage or a 'digital event'. Likewise, the others have had streamed play sessions of their games just like Treehouse stuff for quite a long time now, and I know Microsoft at least in the early 360 days would put E3 demos up on Live to give us all a taste. Nintendo are good about giving things names that make us feel good though. Buzzwords like Digital Event and Treehouse Live made it seem like they were doing something new. This even stretches back to Nintendo Power, an advertising tool for NOA at the end of the day to promote their own games over 3rd parties, but people loved it.

As for the NWC event itself, I think it would be better if they made this an annual thing, a month before E3, or a month after it maybe. I very much agree they should also make it truly a World Championship instead of just a US thing too. In this day and age it could even involve qualifiers from the comfort of our homes, perhaps building to national finals, and then a world finals. Nintendo games might not be as finely tuned as other games for truly competitive multiplayer, but the devotion of the fans alone would create a buzz around it that other eSports events fail to create.

@ricklongo - Frozen, nice counter. And Ive been rooting for Splatoon to be the Frozen of this summer, and Nintendo has been trying - I like the bad tv ads, and the California slime fest, and the stress test (dont like the $60 price but thays my problem) and maybe Spkatoon CAN be the game of the summer and #Splatoon can become thing. But as cool as "settle it in smash" was, did it ever really take off? And even if Splatoon does become a big summer thing, does it have legs, or is it Tubthumper or the Humpty Dance, a 1 hit wonder?

And Frozen did, does?, rule, but it was primed. Disney has been pushing and expandung its princesses line for a few years now. Stores, toys, amusement parks, movies. Disneyis a vast finacial empire. Nintendo is video games, thats it. And vidro games arent the province of 8-11 year old girls. Even the majesty that is Lego had a failure in its Friends line simed at girls. Videogames are Last of Us. I dont see how Mario competes w/ that.

You know, even if Spkatoon b/c the hashtag of the summer thst doesnt mean it carries Nintendo w/ it. Nintendo is Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Samus and Link. Spkatoon could yet be their one hit wonder w/o improving the fortunes of Nintendo.

Youre right, I missed S/NES while I was in college, but I did have a Pong and Atari. So I know about the historyof videogames but I dont have any Nintendo nostalgia. Maybe e that makes me less synpathetic to their cause?

As a dad of 2 sons Id love toser a little more happiness i the world and a lot lesd zombies and "preppers" and people famous for being famous, but tbats whats "cool" these days, and thats not Nintendos thing.

If Nintendo could recapture the kind of excitement and magic of that 1990 World Championships then this years E3 really could be something special BUT it can't half *ss this. I want Nintendo to really go for it and make this World Championships like a proper event, with a crap load of units set up and a massive screen for the finale etc. I hope it also has some kind of special game compilation that people have to play as part of the competition too, just like in the past. I mean hype and cheese this thing up to high heaven and make it something people all around the world talk about for a long time to come.

Man, it could be sooo cool!

@rjejr
I personally saw the influence Smash had with people. When I was in Minneapolis for training last year, two of the trainers (mid twenties guys) told me they owned a Wii U. I said do you own Bayonetta 2? They said "What's that? I just play Smash Bros". A guy at my work (who is no longer with us) was talking about getting a 3DS for Smash, and he's a military nut Xbox gamer type guy. They were even holding local Smash sessions in the bars and hangouts here in Madison, WI, ads in the newspaper and all, like a band that plays at a bar, they were advertising 8 player Smash. Of course, its a very liberal, old-school hippy town, or used to be anyways, but even so, just seeing it gain status in the culture overnight was surprising to say the least.

"This could be a real game changer"

@rjejr @ricklongo
Agreed to an extent. I'd say some of Nintendo's properties are still very much relevant in pop culture today, namely Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. Pokemon in particular is still popular worldwide, and in Japan it's pretty much become a staple of that country's culture like The Simpsons or Coca-Cola is in the US. The franchise made up 6% of Japan's GPD at one point for crying out loud!

That being said, Nintendo definitely needs to use their IP more, and not just in games. I'd also like a better balance (ie not Mario everywhere over other franchises). I mean, before amiibo, how often would you see a figure for Samus or Fox, let alone Captain Falcon or Pit (well, we still don't see them )? Never. Merchandise of any kind doesn't really exist for any Nintendo IP not named Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, or Kirby. Amiibo is the first occurrence of other IP getting some kind of merchandising.

Nintendo's approach to E3 since last year, as well as things like their mobile deal with DeNA and their deal with Universal for theme park rides are great first steps to expanding exposure of their IP.

I'd like to see them do other things. For example, why not have a Kid Icarus anime made by Shaft? The little short and the Smash trailer were very well made and well received. Run the anime on Toonami and it could become quite popular. Or how about movies? Live action doesn't work for many of their IP, but animated movies sure would.

As for Splatoon, it definitely has the potential to become a bigger franchise for Nintendo. It has its own dedicated fanbase on the internet, there are Splatoon OCs like there are for Sonic (as cringeworthy as it is), it seems to trend on social media (or at least Twitter) fairly often, and is ripe for plenty of merchandising. Nintendo definitely can push the Splatoon IP far.

@JaxonH - As happy as that is to hear about SSB on the hippie commune (I've never lived on a hippie commune but my years in Kentucky for grad school were pretty close - learned all there is to know about birkenstocks, patchouli and Ultimate frisbee while I was there) it is kind of sad about Bayonetta 2.

SSB really should have done more for Wii U. Where were the holiday bundles? I recall seeing the 3DS bundle but not Wii U.

I found this really cool Wii U box art w/ the adaptor but it's just a photo w/o a retail link. Maybe it was fake?

@rjejr
Walk down State Street (famous 8 blocks of pedestrian only street starting at the Capitol building) and it's all panhandlers (which is legal here only on one side of State St), guys laying on quilts playing guitars with a money hat, college girls in sundresses and more fedoras and beards than you can shake a stick at.

They're still bundling NintendoLand here lol. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVED NintendoLand. It's actually a fantastic game (would have been even better with online and Amiibo support but that's another discussion). But it's just not moving consoles. I'd have swapped out Wii Sports Club for NintendoLand as the digital download, and bundled Smash like the pic you provided above. Physical copy of Smash with a digital download of Wii Sports Club- and despite mediocre scores, it's basically the original in HD with better controls and online- what's not to like?

Speaking of bundles, they better release a Xenoblade collector's edition and LE new3DS for Fire Emblem If. I will be greatly disappointed if that doesn't happen...

Nintendo is the gaming version of Disney. It's just that Disney are far better at what they do than Nintendo. Disney know their place in their industry.

Can Disney be considered popular culture? Yes, in a way.
Can Nintendo be considered popular culture in the future, again? Yes, but they need to turn people onto their kiddie ideas of gaming and personally I don't see that happening.

@ricklongo - "That's why I think their smartphone strategy is a pretty damn nice first step,"

I know I already wrote you a lengthy reply but I forgot that paragraph.

I've been saying for about 2 years now Nitneod needs to get an endless Mario jumper or Kirby flyer on smart devices just to get the eyeballs of the 2 and 3 year olds playing on their parents phones. It is the equivalent of the old Sat morning cartoons like you say. Expose them young so they grow up wanting more.

So yeah, maybe Nintendo can be relevant again. Emphasis on "can", b/c I still don't see it happening. I'd be very happy to see them step up their game, and the world start listening to 70's AM radio (Afternoon Delight, Silly Love Songs), and prove me wrong though.

@IceClimbers - Pokemon is big - cards, games, movies and a decent tv show. And lots of toys too. And Pikachu gets "world renowned mascot status" in my book. And I know it's huge, but maybe it feels stagnate to me? Maybe it's too kids oriented? Maybe Mindcraft has just over taken it? Maybe Nintnedo needs to make a Wii U version? Or a smartphone version?

I can't argue against the hugeness that is Pokemon, maybe its just to well known, but it never feels "hot" to me, like Minecraft, or TMNT. Heck I'd put Hello Kittty up there w Pikachu for fame, and I'm not sure who owns that property. DBZ is huge too. Maybe Nintneod just takes it for granted? Or I do.

A huge moneymaker, I just don't see it seizing pop culture or helping to raise Ntineod to it's former glory and dominance.

@rjejr No I get what you're saying. Pokemon is sort of at that point where it's just "there", so to speak. It's popularity isn't visible, and sort of taken for granted in pop culture. In Japan right now, Monster Hunter and especially Yokai Watch are what I'd call "huge" or "hot". Pokemon on the other hand, I wouldn't call "hot" or "popular", it's just there. It's a staple of Japanese culture, rather than popular. Nintendo and TPCi don't really have to do much to advertise Pokemon in Japan anymore - it's already everywhere and advertises itself at this point.

It's a bit like Coca-Cola here in the US. For the past decade or so, Coca-Cola hasn't really done that much advertising except a Super Bowl commercial and a holiday commercial. They simply didn't need to advertise - it's a staple of American culture, so it's taken for granted. That being said, they launched an ad campaign a month or so ago.

" even if Nintendo's a little slow in fully embracing the era of social networks and YouTube." You can say that again.

@rjejr

I play Nintendo games to escape all the filth you described.

@NorthLightSuplx I guess that means Bayonetta 2 is a pass for you.

@Superryanworld

Yep and the reported sales for that game were weak. When Nielsen reports the #2 reason people bought a Wii U is better for kids that tells you their target market. Why do you think the third party games that have all that junk in them do not sell very good on their platform? It is not their target market.

Nintendo can be mainstream without the filth. Look at the Wii sales and the Luigi deathstare. Now they are making an appearance at Universal studios, possibly a Netflix series, amiibo are selling like crazy, there have been Nintendo happy meal toys, and they are dipping their toes in esports. Twitch streams of Super Smash Bros tournaments rank very high in viewership.

Mainstream does not equal 9mm and stripper poles.

.....Now if we could just get some of that Nintendo cereal back on the shelves.

I dont think they ever 'seized' pop culture in the UK. In the late 80s we were playing 8-bit micros like the C64 and the Spectrum, the Master System was also a popular console. Id say the Megadrive and PS1 were the consoles that had more of a popular cultural impact here at least.
I do like the vid, for its retro nostalgia, the Virtual

As someone who plays Pokémon competitively I'd say that an annual tournament series for other Nintendo games would be amazing and could do so much for both brand recognition and ensuring repeat customers. I know full well that some of the top players in VGC only play Pokémon (as in they have next to no interest in other videogames) and consequently wouldn't buy each years game if it weren't for the competitive scene. From a personal point of view I would have gotten bored of ORAS and sold it a long time ago if I didn't play competitively.

I've also met people at public tournaments who had limited knowledge and interest but were passing by with some free time and curious enough to watch. Each time I've gotten the impression that they've left with a more positive viewpoint of the game; even if they don't immediatly go out and buy a copy to join in positive awareness is no bad thing. Admittedly this is more the case with publicly accessible tournaments (events held in GAME rather than a Premier Challenge or Regionals) and Pokémon is in my experience one of the friendliest competitive communities which definitely plays a role but still, regular tournaments for other Nintendo franchises seems a good idea and opportunity to me.

@rjejr Man U said it. I love Conan O'brien. The rest of pop culture is pretty lame.

I think it is great that it is happening again, and I don't mind it at all being at E3 like some other people seem to. This helps make up a bit for Nintendo not having a "live stage presence", and this is actually held before E3 officially begins. The Smash Bros. Invitational last year was pretty successful, and I don't see a problem with Nintendo wanting to continue that this year. E3, to me, has evolved way from being a press trade insiders show to a convention-like atmosphere and it just seems to get bigger and more hyped every year.

I also see both sides of Nintendo's "stuck in the 80s" argument. This is frustrating especially in how behind they are in certain areas of gaming, such as the online component and yet to have in unified account system - only mentioning a couple out of many shortcomings. But as far as their image, there are a number of people who actually remember the 80s/90s as happier times, whether that be because of the blindness of nostalgia, or because we were younger back then and the world was indeed a different place... that kind of image appeals to a lot of people. I play some Nintendo games for that escapism back to when I was a kid and times were nicer. So I see both positives and negatives about Nintendo's image - some things can be tweaked, but others I think are just fine.

@IceClimbers - "Yokai Watch"

You would think that would have been released in the West by now. I know it's Level 5 - I've been impatiently waiting forever for Wonder Flick - but the 3DS might get a boost from it.

@NorthLightSuplx - "escape all the filth you described"

That exactly my point. There's the real world that fills pop culture - sex and violence - and then there's that little oasis in the desert, that's Nintnedo. It's good that Nintnedo is out there doing it's own thing - I have 2 pre-teen sons - but it isn't going to "seize" anything. It's a niche.

@audiobrainiac - I don't really likely Conan, something about him seems off, I'm more a Stewart - Colbert guy, but I've never seen a bad Clueless Gamer and I've seen them all.

@rjejr

Why not? Disney/Pixar seem to do just fine. They have seized a wide swath.

@NorthLightSuplx Disney expanded their audience big time. For a while, they too were looked at as a "kiddie" company. That changed with Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl. That movie was big for Disney because it wasn't the usual kid-targeted animated movie. It was a live action movie designed for an older audience (kids can still enjoy Pirates though).

Since then, they've gone from a small juggernaut to a massive juggernaut with their purchases of Marvel and Star Wars, as well as some TV networks. Look at the movies coming in the next 4 years. The vast majority of them are Disney movies. They pretty much own the box office for the next 4 years.

@NorthLightSuplx - Disney has 6 theme parks, ESPN, ABC, Star Wars, Marvel, Disney channel, Muppets, retail stores, video games, Princesses, 80 years worth of major feature films, toys toys more toys and Pixar.

Nintneod has vidoegames and 2 really bad movies, Mario Bros and The Wizard.

That's why not.

And whatever @IceClimbers just ninja'd me to write, I trust his judgement.

@rjejr

OK that still does not answer the question. Disney did not start off with all those things. So why can' t Nintendo replicate it? You both replied and all that you managed to say was Disney/Pixar is mainstream with a wide audience and none of the filth that you listed earlier. Angry Birds went mainstream and none of them were toting gats. Now there are toys, gummies, cartoons, all kinds of merchandise based off that one thing.

Besides, they suppose to be a Nintendo World Championships from a long time. If I was president of Nintendo I would put this competetion every year.

@NorthLightSuplx If Nintendo wants to replicate such success it has to win back children first. You talk about how the main target audience is kids. Children don't beg their parents for the next Nintendo system like they did with the wii&ds generation and before.

@rjejr For me, it comes down to what do I gain by seeing this. Does seeing someone rip out someone's spine (Mortal Kombat) vs just seeing them fall back in slow motion (Street Fighter) actually improve me? I don't know, and I will argue that the first should be allowed to exist, yet it was initially done for shock value. Now they find that with each game, they have to push the boundary just a little further each time to get that same effect. How far is too far?

I am okay with a gaming company that wants to let people hang on to innocence. To leave the dark details to our imaginations (since we generally can fill in the blanks quite well ourselves) while not ignoring that darker side to things does exist. I want to see Nintendo be a company that can do both, offer that simpler, more innocent game to a younger generation while telling more adult stories in a Metroid: Prime way (or even in a Majora's Mask way). Let kids be kids as long as they can.

I'll contrast Nintendo with Ubisoft's Watch_Dogs, where little was left to the imagination. However even when they are trying to make a moral point on what kind of person you were playing, they couldn't even hold to it past that fleeting moment because they had to continue to escalate things. Ultimately that message was just out of place in the carnage. In the end the character (and game) became a joke that was unsatisfying as a story horribly inconsistent as a character. Didn't you find it odd that Aiden kills roughly half a city to avenge one, but the people around him the entire game acted like he was just that strange 'vigilante' guy?

Eh, I don't care much for the NWC. Sounds kind of boring. I don't understand how that will capture much interest outside of niche Nintendo fan-boy groups.

@Oscarsome Tournaments are big attention-grabbers. Smash Bros grabbed big time attention with the Invitational and at Evo and APEX. APEX this year was the largest it's ever been.

@NorthLightSuplx - Yeah that answer was rushed yesterday sorry.

I think a better answer might be - Nintnedo doesn't want to.

Nintendo has consistently over the years gone out of it's way to say it wants to do it's own thing and doesn't care about following the gaming industry or anyone else, they just want to make good games, and w/ both Miyamoto adn Sakuria they are able to do that, make good games. But that's all they do. They barely advertise, they don't put games on sale so people buy they, their hardware is overpriced, they've basically eschewed social media. They didn't do a big E3 presentation last year like the rest of the industry. Nintneod has done nothing over the past few years to make me think they have any interest at all in becoming Disney.

Now that isn't necassarily a bad thing. If you look at the music industry you get "musicans" from tv shows adn youtube vidoes. Many peopel who really like music woudl probably say bands like One Dimension adn Justin Beiber aren't really artistic music, they are manfucfactured for pop cultur econsumption. Peopel say the same thing baout Call of Duty adn MAdden adn th eother game shtat come out every year. But that's what sells, that's what trends on social media.

So if you want you can say Nintneod are video game "artists", but art doesn't sell, the masses are too stupid to get it, they just want dreck. Or something like that.

Nintneod will never be Disney b/c they don't want to be.

@Darknyht - Mortal Combat X should have been included in my first rant. Great example of what's big in the videogame industry and pop culture. The fact that (1 of those big 3) movie killers is in there just increases it's media attention. I won't play it though, I don't need all that, I'm fine w/ the Soul Caliber series of beat-em ups. I played Last of Us w/ Gore off.

And I'm fine w/ what Ninteod does, I have kids, but I think their dominating days are behind them.

Unless Disney buys them and makes "Mario House Clubhouse" on Kid Disney, a non-CG Metriod movie starring Angelina Jolie as Samus and Johnny Depp as the leader of the space pirates, and a teen love story out of Zelda and Link on the CW 11 starring Zack Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.

Thats what you do to become social media relevant. Even Sonic Boom has his own it's tv show. Even if Ninteod made any of those things they would never advertise them anyway. They don't do ads.