Nintendo Mostly-Zelda Non-Event (and E3 2016)

It's probably stupidly early for this thread to make an appearance, yet we're getting information about the non-event that Nintendo are going to be holding and it ought to go in this thread really.  So here's a thread full of disappointment, gloom, and some Nontendo cheer presumably.

So, what's Nintendo doing?  There's a solitary day of Treehouse focussed around Zelda U, and... well that's about it for now.  So they're not even doing the three-day thing they've done for the last two years.

Whether or not Nintendo have a good reason for it, that, my friends, is bobbins.  We should at least be seeing some 3DS stuff.  But we're not.


This link's probably your best bet for a guide to everything that's happening: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/06/guide_a_nintendo_fans_breakdown_of_e3_2016s_press_conferences_and_events

The headline here should really be that we are getting an entire day of Zelda coverage

That is hype as hell

A day of coverage is too much for one game though. I don't think I'll bother with it, maybe the kick off bit.

I don't even want an entire day's worth of Zelda U coverage! That's one game I'll buy anyway, the less I see of it the better. Two hours max.

Balladeer wrote:

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

..."waiting about for NX".

That's what it was, wasn't it?  Let's be honest now.  (I do want that Zelda though.)

I posted this in last year's thread. Seems quaint and humorous now.

Crumpy Andy wrote:

A day of coverage is too much for one game though. I don't think I'll bother with it, maybe the kick off bit.

This is what makes it more interesting to speculate about - a whole day with a previous Zelda game would end up spoiling half the game. It gives me lots of hope that Zelda U will be so much more western RPG'd with a multitude of quests and locations to discover - how else do they fill an entire day?

If Nintendo pitch Zelda as the next Skyrim or Witcher (in the popular public's opinion) they could significantly shift units, and even sell more NXs.

You'd still see a silly amount of Skyrim or Witcher in 1 day. I reckon you'll just end up seeing the same bits but with someone else at the helm.

Well yeah, obviously I'm not expecting an 8 hour solid block of gameplay. But I imagine we'll see a good hour or two of unrepeated content. That's an awful lot to find in a Zelda game unless it is drastically different in scope/size.

Balladeer wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

..."waiting about for NX".

That's what it was, wasn't it?  Let's be honest now.  (I do want that Zelda though.)

I posted this in last year's thread.  Seems quaint and humorous now.

That's what it's been all about for the last year, definitely. The way in which Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Animal Crossing amiibo Festival - two of Nintendo's bigger E3 2015 reveals, remember - turned out couldn't stress that more. Splatoon and Super Mario Maker are destined to be NX games, but everything else we've seen since last June has been little more than a schedule filler, developed in less than a year and pushed out unceremoniously to contentedly vegitate on Wii U until it's Virtual Console re-release fifteen years from now, where it'll get three reviews on the eShop.

I wouldn't disagree Cappa, but it is as of nothing compared to what this year will be like.  The Wii U will have had practically two years of inaction, with about half a dozen exceptions (those two you mentioned, XCX, Pokken, arguably SF0), by the time the NX finally comes out.  We'll be begging for a MTUS by December.

E3 has been irrelevant for a long time, more so for Nintendo than anyone else. I think this is the right choice, ultimately.

It would have to be very well-selected portions of the game to not spoil anything; with that in mind, there have got to be other things to fill the time. An interview with Aonuma, series retrospectives, competitions, the results of the GNamer Forum Best Legend Of Zelda vote...

It'll probably be around then that I remember to upload the results.

Drunkalilly wrote:

E3 has been irrelevant for a long time, more so for Nintendo than anyone else. I think this is the right choice, ultimately.

It makes me very sad to read this sort of thing. As somebody who, for a while, has actually preferred talking about the majority of games to playing them (with notable exceptions), the run-up to the last couple of E3s has got me giddy with hype.  Crowding 'round Skype to talk to all of youse has been a joy, albeit last year a somewhat masochistic one.  I'm sure that I'll feel something similar coming up to the NX announcement, but it won't be quite the same.  I'd miss E3 if Nintendo made a regular habit of this.

The issue with E3 being or becoming irrelevant is that the media has yet to catch up: they make a fuss out of the main stories of the show and Nintendo really need to get good stories out there about themselves. And, as many others have said, they won't. They'll continue to preach to the converted via Directs and such. Having said that, I trust them, I really do. The NX reveal, if the hype is carefully built, could be huge.

It's a weird one E3 as Drunka says it's become irreverent maybe for us gamers but the mainstream media still cover it and Nintendo not really turning up will be missing out on that.

masofdas wrote:

It's a weird one E3 as Drunka says it's become irreverent maybe for us gamers but the mainstream media still cover it and Nintendo not really turning up will be missing out on that.

Do they, though? A little bit, but they obviously can't cover all of it.
The people who are gonna want to know everything will find it out whatever time of year stuff is revealed, and the people with a more passing or casual interest aren't going to read every little thing that comes out of E3. All E3 does is lose things in the noise, create artificial hype and then disappoint, and force developers and publishers to have something to show at a specific time every year even though development doesn't work like that.

Don't get me wrong: I really enjoy E3, and I'll miss it. I just don't think it'll do Nintendo any harm to be rid of it.

Nintendo not turning up is, in my eyes, not only a stupid move, but a complete public snub of their fans.  Ever since the new bloke took office we've seen Nintendo wirthdraw more and more from the world, isolating themselves and essentially acting like the fans neither deserves nor warrent being clued in on their plans.  


As for turning up to E3, perhaps when all you've got are boring advertisements for a couple of boring games (you bet I'm referring to star fox! The people wanted a proper continuation and evolution, not a regression!) that may be true, but not turning up when you have a brand new console is just plain stupidity.  There is not a single thing in the entire gaming calander that gets gaming put on the map of the public like E3, to deliberately not show off a new console there when the eyes of the entire gaming are watching is the single stupidest move a company can make.  Especially a company that struggles to retain even a shred of public exposure.

Make no mistake, there is no bigger platform to show off a brand new console.  

I can think of several reasons why Nintendo has chosen to do this.  The optimist says perhaps the console has some sort of critical flaw, however the realist in me believes there is a far worse reason.  Nintendo's new ceo has decided that Japan is the king and the rest of the world is a side-matter.  If they go to Tokyo Game Show and do their presentation there then that will all but prove this shift, and we can expect very dark times ahead if it's the case.  

The third reason is that Nintendo are simply run be complete incompetents right now, although really that's kind of like proclaiming the sky is blue when clear.  


Either way I'm extremely unimpressed with Nintendo.  As I said previously, they can stuff their heads in the sand and pretend to themselves that they don't compete with Sony and Microsoft all they like, it still isn't even remotely true.  They fight for relevancy right now, in a time where the marketplace is shrinking every day.  They continue to act like arrogant "we're too good for our customers" snots and they can enjoy going the same way as Sega.

Drunkalilly wrote:

masofdas wrote:

It's a weird one E3 as Drunka says it's become irreverent maybe for us gamers but the mainstream media still cover it and Nintendo not really turning up will be missing out on that.

Do they, though? A little bit, but they obviously can't cover all of it.
The people who are gonna want to know everything will find it out whatever time of year stuff is revealed, and the people with a more passing or casual interest aren't going to read every little thing that comes out of E3. All E3 does is lose things in the noise, create artificial hype and then disappoint, and force developers and publishers to have something to show at a specific time every year even though development doesn't work like that.

Don't get me wrong: I really enjoy E3, and I'll miss it. I just don't think it'll do Nintendo any harm to be rid of it.

They mainstream press will cover the main things and not everything like you say but your telling me if NINTENDO was at E3 and showed off a new system that all the press wouldn't cover it, it would be one of the biggest things at the show.

Just look at the the E3's from a few years ago when the Xbox One & PS4 were first shown there, that E3 set in the motion this generation and I often get asked at work etc after E3 form the casual gamers what happened as they want to know.

This year it looks like I'll be going Nintendo showed Zelda, nothing else but it looks great but not coming out for another 9 months and the NX version likely going to be better which we've not seen.

Instead of Nintendo showed of the NX and it's got Zelda, Pikmin 4, SMASH NX, F-ZERO NX, FFXV, DQXI all on day one which could still happen with there own event or at TGS but it's not the same the causal gamers won't be talking about TGS.

masofdas wrote:

They mainstream press will cover the main things and not everything like you say but your telling me if NINTENDO was at E3 and showed off a new system that all the press wouldn't cover it, it would be one of the biggest things at the show.

I just don't think that's true any more, especially if PSNeo and Xbox 1.5 are gonna be there.

Aw surely not.  I know that Nintendo has fallen out of the public eye a bit this generation, but I still believe that a whole new console (from Nintendo, makers of the Wii and DS) would get more attention than a BBuPgrade.

I'll start by saying that I wasn't going to post anything in here as I'm a tad tired of the backlash surrounding Nintendo's e3 plans but here's a few things I did want to respond to.

Balladeer wrote:

Drunkalilly wrote:

E3 has been irrelevant for a long time, more so for Nintendo than anyone else. I think this is the right choice, ultimately.

It makes me very sad to read this sort of thing. As somebody who, for a while, has actually preferred talking about the majority of games to playing them (with notable exceptions), the run-up to the last couple of E3s has got me giddy with hype.  Crowding 'round Skype to talk to all of youse has been a joy, albeit last year a somewhat masochistic one.  I'm sure that I'll feel something similar coming up to the NX announcement, but it won't be quite the same.  I'd miss E3 if Nintendo made a regular habit of this.

I'm with Buska on this one and that is backed up by some of the biggest publishers pulling out entirely as well which isn't exactly what Nintendo are doing.

Athrun wrote:

Nintendo not turning up is, in my eyes, not only a stupid move, but a complete public snub of their fans.  Ever since the new bloke took office we've seen Nintendo wirthdraw more and more from the world, isolating themselves and essentially acting like the fans neither deserves nor warrent being clued in on their plans.  

They are turning up though & they have been forward with what their plans are. (like them or not) If it was a full on snub like you suggest then E3 would come and go & we'd be left wondering where the NX was, so with the info they have given us that scenario won't happen.

Like I said before Nintendo could easily host their own event post E3 & still get the same level of attention if not even more since they wouldn't be competing with everyone else on the show floor of E3.

Apparently they are even doing a direct this year?

We don't know Shanks. We just don't know.

Jas... do I even tell you what strikes me in the article? Sounds to me like you're sick of hearing that sort of thing. I will say that I'll still miss the hype, whether it's a good decision for Nintendo or not.

The Zelda direct is the same time as the Direct would normally be.

That article is a bit iffy, as Activision normally appear elsewhere eg COD:IW will be at PlayStation booth. EA has there own event during E3 same with Bethesda that they might not be at E3 proper but the hype around there games will be during E3 week.

Yep, never said the article was perfect but just pointing out that E3 isn't what it used to be especially in the eyes of certain publishers.

mas wrote:

EA has there own event during E3 same with Bethesda that they might not be at E3 proper but the hype around there games will be during E3 week.

The article mentions that & like I said I can see Nintendo doing the same thing especially since the NX will still be revealed this year.