
E3 is already drifting into the distant past, by internet standards, as hype deflates and is replaced by real life. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony all gave the event a solid effort, arguably, with some notable reveals and plenty of online streams to keep gamers' attention. Some of the biggest third-party developers and publishers also made their pitches, in good and almost certainly bad ways.
This scribe already shared some thoughts on how Nintendo performed at E3, while we've had plenty of polls and comments on the topic. The general concensus seemed to be that the big N did rather well, with substantial showcases of the likes of Super Mario Odyssey and Metroid: Samus Returns, while the Spotlight included some enticing long-term reveals like Pokémon for Switch and Metroid Prime 4.
During and after E3, though, we received sets of social media analysis from three different companies - FanCensus, Brandwatch and Synthesio. These companies focus on social media and broader online 'mentions' and references during E3, using cross-sections of data to draw various conclusions. Taking these approaches, then, how did Nintendo fare during the LA extravaganza?
Console Manufacturer E3 Press Conferences / Nintendo Spotlight
It seems that new hardware often wins the day, to the surprise of no-one. Not only did Microsoft go first during E3 week out of the 'big three', but it also put the focus on its new system - the Xbox One X. A mid-gen iteration taking on PS4 Pro in the my-GPU-is-bigger-than-your-GPU battle, its pricing and release details generated a relatively mixed response but gained a lot of attention and buzz. All three analytical companies seem to agree that Microsoft and Xbox One X won the battle for 'mentions'. FanCensus put the Xbox One X as the top-performing 'product', while the following graph from Brandwatch gives one perspective on the heat around the various press conferences and events.

That's arguably not a bad performance from Nintendo. All three sets of analysis generally have Nintendo following up behind Microsoft but ahead of various others. Synthesio had Nintendo behind only Microsoft in 'top buzz drivers', while its criteria for 'social reputation' (which combines post volume and sentiment) had Nintendo a little ahead of both its hardware rivals. The common thread is that Nintendo did get attention as a console manufacturer, typically of a positive nature.
Of course, that's the level of performance Nintendo should have been targeting. With a new system only on the market for a few months along with the increasingly evergreen 3DS, it had plenty to work with.
Hype for E3 Games and Announcements
Though titles like ARMS get brief mentions in some data, two particular Nintendo titles pop up in the analysis as hot properties for the big N during E3. FanCensus had Super Mario Odyssey as dominant on the first day of E3 opening its doors (the day of the Spotlight etc), generating a lot of media coverage of the journalistic and social kinds. The trailer was also a big performer in general over the whole week on YouTube, duking it out with the likes of the Xbox One X reveal and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 for the top views.
Brandwatch took a slightly different approach to gathering its data, and highlights Metroid Prime 4 and surprisingly (or not, depending on your perspective) Kirby for Switch as titles that focused attention during the Spotlight. Those two titles accounted for the biggest social media spikes during Nintendo's snappy 25 minute stream.

When you look at the overall picture through the whole week, you get a slightly more balanced perspective and also see how well Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle fared, a title that made its debut in the Ubisoft Press Conference.

What's eye-opening is just how effective a logo and a promise can be. Metroid Prime 4 caused a lot of excitement for some Nintendo fans (including this writer) even though there was no release window or footage. It's a trick game companies often use, and in this case got Nintendo a lot of attention in exchange for producing a simplistic view of digital space and a logo.
If it works, it works.

It's All Social at E3
All of the analysis is relative, of course, with different methodologies and terminology throwing up varied results in some instances. The trends across the tables and figures from these three firms do broadly line up to one key point, however - Nintendo had a solid impact during E3. With new hardware on offer Microsoft got a lot of attention, but Nintendo was at least in the picture along with other big-hitters. With positive vibes around the Switch and a few strategic announcements Nintendo created plenty of buzz, particularly on its first day and with a little help before that from Ubisoft with Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.
As Nintendo fared relatively well in all of these varied assessments of online social media noise, then we suspect Nintendo of America and the broader company will be rather happy this week. E3 is all about noise, on the show floor, with explosive trailers, and with hashtags and social media campaigns driving it all home. In the past few years Nintendo has been boosting its presence on the likes of YouTube and Twitter, and along with some exciting announcements it seems to put them to good use.
There's a lot Nintendo didn't do at E3 - it didn't tackle pressing features and Switch details that some of us want to be outlined, it almost completely ignored Nindies with the exception of the Rocket League segment. Yet it did also give us exciting moments and surprises, showcased some fabulous-looking games and did it all in a typical Nintendo style.
Regardless of our own individual wishlists of details that were missing, Nintendo seemed to play the E3 game rather well.
[source fancensus.com, via brandwatch.com, synthesio.com]
Comments 56
Nintendo had some kind of presence throughout the entire show, going as far as invading the Microsoft show on day one with the Minecraft update. The large amount of people turning around on Rabbids just because Nintendo handed the Mario license to them shows how powerful their IP is, and what they can do with it at big stages like E3 whenever they're in the mood for it.
Really? Microsoft was the centre of attention? Did I miss something?
I thought their presentation was far and away the worst, with no real demonstration of how the graphics would be better (aside from just whooshing through computer chips) and a couple of meh looking exclusives. The highlight (Assassin's Creed) wasn't even an exclusive.
Glad Kirby got some buzz. Here I thought I was the only one excited for the new game!
My only disappointment is the absence of the virtual console. This is the perfect time to revisit the classics while there isn't many games to play.
I'm really surprised that Kirby was talked about more than Yoshi. That games looks way more appealing, at least to me.
Nintendo definitely had more visibility this year. Not only through the Big N's own exclusive content and excellent Spotlight, but also through some major third-party collaborations. Based on previous information, I would have never dreamed of seeing an Elder Scrolls game on a Nintendo system until the little sneak-peek in January.
Assassin's Creed was talked about more than Metroid Prime 4? What the heck?
Most mentions isn't necessarily positive. . . .a lot of people are a bit dismayed(?) at the XBOX1X. . .
I thought Ubisoft had the best presentation overall.
@KirbyTheVampire Ya, me too. Yoshi looked far better than Kirby.
@KirbyTheVampire that's why there's so many different games. I'm looking forward to Kirby more than Yoshi/probably not going to play the yoshi game. But that's okay. There's the 1 in 100 people that think LoZ BoTW was overrated trash and can't wait for the next FIFA to come out and that's okay because we all enjoy different things. Game on! 👍
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Ubisoft brought the fun in front of an audience unlike Nintendo and were far less obvious about their corporate schilling like Microsoft. I also feel Sony didn't need an audience for the minimum of interaction they had inbetween game trailers. Ubi definitely had the best stage show.
Most painful part of the Microsoft E3 was the racing drivers. They were obviously forced to be there. Families were probably kidnapped until they said Forza was a great game. Lol.
It's nice to see Nintendo is back and playing ball. It's surprising it managed to have more mindshare than Sony, I guess Mario Odyssey and Prime 4 did their job.
@Alikan Not denying that. I just would never have thought Kirby would get that reaction, especially since we've had way more Kirby games than Yoshi games, at least to my knowledge. I didn't start following Nintendo until recently, so I don't know for sure.
@RyanSilberman Well in fairness Ubisoft showed Assassin's Creed: Origins and the franchise has been on all platforms in the past. Whereas Nintendo only showed a logo for Metroid Prime 4 and it's a niche franchise despite my love for it and it's only on Nintendo systems.
@KirbyTheVampire I think it just about the placement, Kirby is one of the first new game to show, while Yoshi is shown directly after Metroid Prime 4 reveal, easily overshadow anything comes next. The situation might easily in Yoshi favor if it shows first. Both games looked good anyway!
I don't know how I feel about MP4 being allowed to count in the social media games mentions category. At this point, there is no game, just a logo. It'd be different if they would've dropped a 10 second trailer, but at this point it's more conceptual than Death Stranding.
Really enjoyed E3,felt Sony were biggest let down by showing pretty much the same as last year.
@Donderpants Microsoft's presentations are usually fairly bland, and this is coming from someone with 2 Xbox Ones in his house. They got a lot of buzz just because of the console announcement.
@Exy I disagree, I think that Mario x Rabbids game charmed the pants off of people because of the presentation and the game type usually being far unrepresented on Nintendo consoles.
I can't see Samus Returns in that top mentioned games list.
@Donderpants Mentions doesn't equate to approval. It makes sense that people would be talking about Microsoft because they announced a new console, but that didn't translate into a lot of positive buzz for them.
@Priceless_Spork What are you talking about? There's no such thing as PRISM. No one is collecting all data that you send and post on social media in a huge vacuum to be sent to the NSA. You're just paranoid...
The specs announcement for the XB1X (what a stupid name...) was probably the most important part of Microsoft's conference. Now it's known that future games will be coded with 8 process threads in mind. This opens the way towards multithreaded games, which favor more than just 4 cores and single or a few threads. The original model of the NS will be left in the dust by 2020 as far as AAA third party productions are concerned, but an affordable Pascal or even Volta upgrade should be available by then.
I've never quite understood the interest for Assassin's Creed. The first couple of titles honestly weren't very good, and the series has a habit of repetition behind the banter. It's really more of a benchmarking title than one that's played for fun by now. But that's more important for the PC realm than consoles... Ripple effects, though, I guess that's the point.
And how about that, Nintendo went all out with their PR. Maybe they do still need E3 after all?
They made me happy. Hey, I get to play a new Metroid in three months, and only a week ago I wondered when (or if) I'd EVER see a new Metroid.
I didn't expect news on OS updates or the VC at something as big and flashy as E3. Just...don't wait much l ok nger, Nintendo.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE the logo is all we needed.btw screw aco.never played one never plan to
Wait Mario and rabbids was mentioned more than odyssey? Go xcom Mario!
Out of the top 10 mentioned games, 4 of them are on Nintendo Switch... 3 of those exclusive to the system. And another 2 possibles (DBZ and BG&E2). Even disregarding the unknowns, that's really good.
@RedMageLanakyn
There is no "allowed to count". If it was mentioned, it counts. This is simply data tracking social media mentions. And it was the second highest mentioned game. It's not a contest with rules where certain games are allowed. This is just an observation of statistical data and Metroid Prime 4 was mentioned more than every other game at e3 barring Assassins Creed. You can't just disregard that.
The fact it was only a logo which achieved this makes it all the more impressive.
3 out of the top 6 mentioned games is not too shabby for Nintendo. Maybe 4 out of 7, depending on where BG&E2 lands.
@JaxonH Jinx!... sort of
Am I the only one who thought Sony's conference was borderline boring?
Metroid just got a mention and was the second most talked about. Wow
Xbox One X ?
Hahahaha.... (sarcasm)
@PlywoodStick
I think xbox one x was practically a jokes.
Too powerful video games = Nothing if there is No games created by Passion and Love. Looks like the games that invaded those machines are Tons of gritty, bloody, nsfw games as always. I'm so sick to see that reality. The more powerful of the machines = the more amount of nsfw games.
An Irony for us as a human being that adore such of things like that. Can we just stop that Demonic cycles and start to play Safe for Watch games ?
@JaxonH Well we'll have to agree to disagree, because I don't see it as a "game" yet. It was a logo. I know there's no official rules or anything like that, I simply was expressing my thoughts on it.
@jeffri That's probably true. I didn't experience that, because I've never played a Metroid game, but I can definitely see how the MP4 announcement overshadowed the Yoshi one.
I refuse to believe miitopia wasn't mentioned on social media!
I thought Nintendo definately won in presentation as they usually do. But content was lacking again from 3rd parties. When i get depressed and think nothing is coming to Switch I just watch this video lol https://youtu.be/SQ8Ux9bpl1I it definately raises my spirits although still a bit RPG poor its a good video. But 3rd parties still seem to be a Nintendo problem **sigh**
@Jack_Goetz I was thinking the same thing. I've seen plenty of talk about it. How come it's not in the list?
@RedMageLanakyn I don't disagree with you but it does demonstrate the power of the IP and the faith in the execution.
A week later, I'm still blown away by the Metroid Prime 4 reveal, as well as Samus Returns. I honestly still can't believe it.
@Kirbyfan
I like Miitopia so much.
I had played the Demo, it was completely Hilarious and Fun.
One of ROFL thing was when I tried to "Crossdressing" my Fierce looking Male Mii with Female Pop Star outfits (Men wears Women's outfits). XD
I DID what Most people over there DIDN'T.
@KIRO The IP has always been strong, but certainly not as a good of a seller as say, Mario Kart or Zelda. The execution part worries me a little. Retro is not comprised of the same people that worked on the prime trilogy, so part of me could see this turning into a ME Andromeda situation (same studio, new engine, new staff, bad development, mediocre game). It would certainly be nice to have some info on how far along it is, who's developing it, the engine, etc.
nintendo never win the press-con battles, but they often win the show itself. it's just how they roll. like last year with sony showing off all their new hardware, but nintendo wins on the show floor with hands-on breath of the wild - if memory serves me.
@RedMageLanakyn apparently Retro aren't developing MP4. It's being handled inhouse. As brilliant as 1-3 are I'm hoping they blow us away even more this time.
@RedMageLanakyn definitely s concern. I'd imagine they will try their very best though. Big responsibility to get it right.
X Box 1 X might be a worse name then Wii U..............but it will sell a some, like the PS4 Pro. MS and Sony will be announcing next gen systems in 2 years though. Gonna be interesting to see how the gamers react to a constant refresh of consoles.
@KIRO If what @beazlen1 says is true, then there's nothing to worry about at all. First party Nintendo games tend to set the bar, so we might not only get a great metroid game, but one that will be revolutionary.
Microsoft got more mentions because they announced the most stuff, even though a lot of it wasnt exclusive.
Amazing how Microsoft took the cake. Their presentation was large but horrible. Not one reason why you should buy an Xbox One X instead of a PS4 Pro, a Switch or even the standard Xbox One. I suppose Nintendo fell behind mainly because their presentation was later than Sony and Microsoft. IMO Sony and Nintendo had the best E3. As much as I dislike Sony, I must admit they pulled an amazing job with SpiderMan. Well done Sony and Nintendo. Metroid 4 was enough to satisfy my wishlist for this year's E3. Now all I need is a FE Warriors release date and further details for MP4.
@Gerbwmu I can't imagine the reaction will be good, though the general ignoring of Pro/X will make it less bad...a 5-6 year lifespan is short enough as it is. I think pushing X as "the next big thing" for the past year was really dangerous. The fact that the unveil kind of fizzled is probably what might save the next platform in 2 years since if it was a successful sales pitch, there would be MASSIVE backlash against replacing it in just 2 years. People would expect a 4+ year life from it. Pro was very stealthily released so it's not as bad a PR issue. Still, I think after the hype building Microsoft foolishly did for the "Scorpio", they're in a worse position with their existing customer base when bringing out a new platform than Sony who all but ignored Pro.
@KirbyTheVampire @SLIGEACH_EIRE Agreed about Yoshi vs. Kirby. I'm always up for another great Kirby game, it's almost snack food, but Yoshi just looks fresh and compelling, while Kirby looks like more great Kirby snack food. Not bad, but not as exceptional.
@Yasaal They showed a new Porche. Right on stage! That makes you want an XBone U, right?
IMO downplaying it will save XBox Two more than if they tried to make a platform out of X, but I also think they didn't need a compelling case for it. X1 was the weaker of the PC twins. 1X is now the most powerful. Especially since XBox focuses on 3rd party games over 1st party, whatever gets "closer to PC-like" is really what the XBox market is looking for. $499 though is a bit steep. I was impressed that MS focused more on games than they usually do, especially with a hardware reveal. Few of those games weren't multiplat and were interesting to me, but they at least remembered games this year. It beats Spielberg talking about fantasy football.
Though I admit the highlight of the XBox show as the fact that they took a moment to show the Switch. "We hope you buy our new hardware, but since we know you won't, here's a picture of Nintendo's console rendered in our #1 game. Please buy the game on their platform instead of Sony's."
@NEStalgia Lol that Porsche part was hilarious though. I don't think Microsoft is doing a good job of marketing the 1X. All they say is 'power power power' while not showing anything else about it. On one hand they want it to be on par with PCs, but on the other hand the X1 restrics the 1X from unleashing it's true maximum power because 'it has to release on X1 too'. Microsoft's definition of exclusive was a joke too. But like you said, Microsoft really focused on games more which is why they got the buzz everywhere. And wait, did Microsoft really do that? You're joking right? I hope you are XD
Their problem is they've been caught on their back heel the whole generation. From the moment Yoshida had the "this is how you share games on PS4" skit video, just hours after Don Mattrick imploded the entire XBox brand in less than 20 minutes they've been playing catch up. So last year they introduced Scorpio, and it's been played up effectively as a new generation console. But they already promised all its games could be played on X1, and replacing the X1 the same way WiiU was replaced, a few years in, would not go over well. WiiU could get away with it with it's SO low install base. So they build this turbo-charged machine, promoted it as so powerful, powerful enough to be a new platform, but if X1 has to be able to play the games, all it can be is an X1 that renders things prettier. I think they realized they can't let it eat into the next real platform.....so they suddenly had to downplay it.
They can redeem the situation by making the XBox Two be backward compatible with 1X I suppose. I doubt Sony will do that with the Pro, so they might be able to win some people with that. Maybe. But then that only helps if people buy it... Downplaying it is definitely wise for the future. Spending so much money on R&D for SUCH a big upgrade for a mere mid-gen bump was probably not wise.
Oh it's no joke. I mean the quote is a fake quote that's a joke. But they really did show the Switch at the XBox event They're in a weird position because they are the only console maker to own a cross-platform IP, but their video editors are apparently clueless (the same folks behind the rapidly edited "highest quality pixels" quote last year?) So in the Minecraft segment, on the floor just after the X1X hardware reveal, they announced the cross-play patch coming soon, and one of the in-game scenes advertising this was a giant neon-red/neon-blue Switch on top of a mountain made in Minecraft. Yes, the XBox show, actively advertised the Nintendo Switch
@Anti-Matter
Love the demo too. Currently over-leveling my miis. 👍👍👍
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