Should Nintendo Directs continue?

This post on GoNintendo, putting aside the embedded tweet, does make one wonder. Since Iwata's passing, we have not seen an ND for quite sometime and although past ND's had different hosts, should it continue or shouldn't it?

It should continue. Let Reggie take over Iwata's role in the direct. The show must go on.

yes it should continue.

I was just thinking the other day how these things are going to be like without Iwata, it just won't be the same... but yeah they should keep doing it.

We haven't had any sort of press release since Iwata died, the company it going to feel a lot different whenever they start getting things rolling again.

Sure, why not? They're fun.

its up to them....

they were pretty cool at first but got a bit tiresome.

@nintendoboy16: Your link only takes me to a Jim Sterling tweet and I'm finding no relevance to the topic. Wrong link?

Yes they should continue. Even I'm seriously going to cry manly tears if they do something even as simple as have a framed picture of Iwata in the background set or something small like that.

EDIT: Don't let Reggie host it, for the love of God.

Whoops! My bad, I thought I had the other. Will fix it shortly.

Oh right! I forgot I can't edit the post after five minutes. Sorry, but that is a horrible rule, GS.

Anyway... here's the real link.

Thank you.

"Letting the Nintendo Directs stay dormant after Iwata's passing could be seen as a sign of respect."

I couldn't disagree more. They were his creation, his idea, and a damn good idea. Thanks to Iwata Asks, Nintendo Directs, and public events, Iwata brought on an age of Nintendo where all the creators, all the way up to the CEO, had a more direct connection to their customers instead of being holed up in their labs. To revert back to the old way of doing things is NOT a sign of respect. On the contrary, rolling back all his contributions is to tarnish his legacy.

I agree with this, Iwata has built a nice foundation, and i think would be great like others have said to continue all his work. I would love to see more Directs, Ask the developers, etc, i enjoyed these things a bunch and have been missing them ever since. Iwata should live on through his work, it will help me remember him every time i see the new content.

They dont have to copy his style, and please, no gloves. Just bring your own style to it and even do new stuff if they want. Cant wait to see what they have in store for us.

I think they should continue doing them.

Nintendo Directs should continue. Nintendo Directs is a good medium for Nintendo to communicate their news and ideas to supporters without all of the background noise, heckling, and negativity. Also, it helps to strengthen the Nintendo community.

Its no surprise that its currently on a hiatus, but it was an effective means to advertise their brand. It should continue, they simply have to find a compelling host to replace Iwata.

Yeah it should. We've had different hosts before.

Yes the next CEO/President of Nintendo whoever it may be should continue it. :P

Keep continuing them, yes. I think it's what Iwata would have wanted.

I have always disliked and disagreed with NDs.

They've destroyed a large part of Nintendo's power when it comes to their marketing. I'm guessing Iwata and his awful decisions made him the headliner in them all and with his passing Nintendo is getting better and that means no Nintendo Directs right now.

If you like Nintendo you would have to hope this awful idea died with Iwata. The only concern is that they do one of those "Iwata liked this even though it was bad and as a way to remember him and his bad ideas we're going to keep doing it"

Me personally? I'd like to see them gone because I like game marketing and Nintendo staying away from it for years has been boring. Iwata killed everything Yamauchi built but maybe the worst thing was he killed Nintendo being relevant. It would be nice to see Nintendo enter the media space again.

@Jaysonguy: Yamauchi built Virtual Boy, Iwata built DS and Wii. They were both some of the greatest marketing this game industry has ever seen. Iwata is a legend.

Yamauchi built the DS and the Wii, Iwata is responsible for the bastard versions that sunk the company where it is today.

Why shouldn't it?

In your dreams, Yamauchi was told many times the Virtual Boy wasnt ready, dude overide the whole company and rushed its release to make a quick buck off consumers before N64 release, he was later voted out. Iwata took over and broke records in some of Nintendos most ever competitive era. He took a struggling company and banked big, just like he did Hal Laboratory.

Jaysonguy, why don't you provide a credible source that says "Yamauchi built the DS and Wii"?

I think they should continue; however, they should not be carbon copies of the Iwata-era in terms of presentation but should cater to the presenter's (whoever he/she ends up being) strengths.

Oh my Christ.....

http://www.ign.com/articles/2004/02/13/interview-hiroshi-yamauchi-2

Not only does that bring up that he created the Goddamn DS but he was also in charge of how the next generation of console was going to go after the Gamecube. I mean seriously, why do people in the Nintendo forum not know these things?

@Jaysonguy: Thanks for sharing your source. It was a team effort-Yamauchi had the ideas and Iwata directed the execution of the ideas and details to reality. You think Yamauchi made a bad decision choosing Iwata to lead.

"Under his charge at Nintendo, Iwata helped to lead a revitalization of their handheld system, transitioning from the Game Boy to the Nintendo DS with a unique form factor and inclusion of a touchscreen that allowed for more novel games to be played on it.^[25] Iwata used a "blue ocean" strategy to help Nintendo successfully compete against the other console manufactures: instead of trying to making hardware that matched the technical capabilities of their competitors, Iwata instead focused on novel and entertaining hardware units and games, using his previous experience as a game developer to help shape this vision.^{[1][6][9][12]}

In an interview prior to the launch of the Nintendo DS, Iwata stated: "Games have come to a dead end."^[26] He stressed that developers wasted far too much time focusing on core gamers and would be unable to turn a profit if the average game player was not tended to. Furthermore, he wished to prove that Nintendo, considered a "conservative" company at the time, would become a forefront innovator of entertainment.^[26] The Nintendo DS proved to be a highly profitable system and went on to become the second-best selling video game console of all time with more than 154 million units sold by September 2014.^[27][28] On the day of the console's release in Japan, December 2, Iwata sought conference with Dr. Ryuta Kawashima about a game that could appeal to non-gamers. This project would later become Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, which released in May 2005. Iwata personally oversaw development of the Brain Age series over the following years and it would go on to sell over 20 million copies.^[5]

Subsequent iterations of the Nintendo DS, the DS Lite and DSi, also saw positive sales. Statistics showed that households often shared a single DS, and Iwata sought to expand this from one per household to one per person.^[29] The DSi's name embodies this idea with the "i" representing a single person.^[30]

With encouragement from Yamauchi, Iwata pushed for development of a revolutionary home console that would later become the Wii. He proposed a console without a typical controller in order to make gaming more accessible to everyone.^[32] The Wii ultimately introduced the use of motion control-based video games and was initially codenamed "Revolution" during a teaser at E3 2004, following Iwata's goal of creating a gaming revolution.^[25][24] During the console's development process Iwata challenged engineers to make the Wii no thicker than three DVD cases stacked together, a feat they ultimately accomplished. Iwata publicly revealed the console at E3 2005, holding it above his head to emphasize its small size and light weight design.^[33] Reveal of the Wii's signature Wii Remote controller was withheld until the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005. During his speech at the conference, Iwata reiterated his stance on expanding the gaming market but expanded upon it by making controls less sophisticated.^[34] The controller's remote control design partially stemmed from Iwata's desire to have a device that was "immediately accessible" to all. He also insisted that the Wii Remote be referred to as simply a "remote" rather than a controller to emphasize its accessibility to anyone.^[35]

The console proved highly successful to the company, with its release helping to nearly double the stock price of Nintendo.^[25] Tapping into the market of casual players, the Wii marked "a breakthrough moment in the history of video games":^[36] a new genre of gaming was established for the family market.^[37] Iwata's former experience as a programmer, a rarity for technology CEOs, was said to help contribute towards his leadership of the company.^[38][39] By the end of the 2009 fiscal year, Nintendo saw record net sales and profit of ¥1.8 trillion (US$18.7 billion) and ¥279 billion (US$2.8 billion), respectively.^[40] Due to his success, Barron's included Iwata on their list of the 30 top CEOs worldwide from 2007 to 2009.^[25][41]"

(Bold type added by me)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoru_Iwata

Hope so. It's one of the few things Nintendo really just got right this gen. The fans love them, they all seem to have a great time doing them. Keep it going, in memory of Iwata.

We do know these things, but what else did Yamauchi build, Virtual Boy, N64, Gamecube? Iwata was in charge of marketing the DS and Wii as i stated in my comments, he built up the brands while Yamauchi enjoyed he well deserved retirement. Iwata was a marketing genius and it worked.

Everybody loves Nintendo Direct. Even their replacement of an E3 stage presentation with an E3 Nintendo Direct got near universal praise. My must think we're dumb to imply that only Iwata liked Nintendo Directs, and that we and everyone at Nintendo were just "putting up with it."

No one in the real world gave a shit about them, that's why no one knows about Nintendo anymore.

Iwata and his endless bucket of garbage ideas loved them, just as he watched his actions destroy the company and smiled gleefully all the time.

Nintendo can go back to marketing for actual people now and watch the uptick happen when it comes to brand recognition of current products.

I see you have abandoned any attempt at sounding truthful.

They need another spokesman and Reggie is not it. It should continue though.

@Collie_Lover:for as much credit as Iwata is given for Nintendo's previous prosperity, it is not very often looked at how his tenure has affected Nintendo to the present day. The Wii and DS brought Nintendo unprecedented wealth and a position of immense potential. Yet look at Nintendo today, they are struggling. Everyone wants to credit Iwata for the best times Nintendo's ever had, and while he had a part in it, I think it's prudent to keep in mind he also presided over the company during it only years of (massive) losses ever during its 125 year history, and this was coming from a period of great success. Iwata had the world at his fingertips in terms of resources and talent. You honestly would have to TRY to fail with such an amazing hand. I have a hard time giving Iwata all the credit for the DS and Wii when Yamauchi was involved. The U and 3DS, the former of which is one of the worst performing consoles in the company's (and the industry's) history ever, are completely on Iwata's shoulder. And again, because this bears repeating......from a position of unparalleled potential and wealth.

Yet here we are. Jasonguy is correct; Nintendo is struggling to remain relevant. Their console business is shrinking drastically, that's an inarguable fact. Many IPs are ignored (and some are having their legacy tarnished by their decisions), the Western market has gone unaddressed (as Iwata closed down all Western development houses upon his appointment), there's a large negative stigma associated with the brand name, Nintendo is far too fiscally conservative, insular and stubborn, and they now find themselves in an exceptionally difficult position for their upcoming console as they have pigeonholed themselves into a tight corner. The mainstream was a fickle audience that gave intense profit during the Wii yet was unsustainable, and Nintendo has (through antiquated philosophies that the majority don't agree with) alienated the core gamer that would be the ones that support them if they played their hands right. Now it seems their only hope is to place all their faith on catching lighting in a bottle again, which is no sustainable business model at all.

So where exactly does Nintendo go from here? Consumer faith and trust is eroding alarmingly fast aside from the few diehard fans. I personally hold the view that the direction Iwata took the company, while it brought huge profit for a time, ultimately in the long run was short-sighted and left Nintendo in the extremely precarious position they find themselves in today. They're in the most fragile and uncertain state they've ever been, and I think any true objective Nintendo fan understands this.

Cite sales all you wish, but those are in the past. We're now in the present, and the present position of Nintendo is not the product of a good leader.

@MirkoS77: Nintendo is doing fine, they still help lead this industry in game sales. Splatoon sold like crazy, Yo-kai Busters sold like crazy, Animal Crossing Home Designers sold like crazy, Mario Kart 8 is still selling like crazy, Animal Crossing New Leaf is still selling like crazy, Pokemon Omega/Sapphire still doing good, Fire Emblem Fates is selling like hotcakes, Yoshi Woolly World is selling great and its American pre-order just sold out.

Now with the holidays coming we can except Nintendo to bank even harder, they are bringing the good and producing some of the best content Nintendo has ever produced. Super Mario Maker, Star Fox Zero, Xenoblade Chronicles, and many more coming before the holidays, Nintendo cant be stopped.

Nintendo might struggle a little, but trust me, they are making money. Never underestimate Nintendo, they always have a plan. Nintendo toys are doing better then ever, so i wouldnt worry about it. Just wait for NX and Nintendos mobile plans, more money will role in, then Nintendo will be even richer then they are now, will be sweet, will make them haters cry even more.

Spot on. With Wii they had a great idea, but they were just too conservative with it. Its $250 price point and new method of control were insurmountable to its success, so I wouldn't have changed anything there. However, they made about $100 on each unit sold - I would have taken that extra 100 and at least made the console HD capable (20-30 watt consoles are great but 50-70 watts shouldn't lead to hardware issues and there are always die shrinks to be had later in a console cycle), as you can see Wii games on dolphin look very good indeed. Wii not being HD really left Nintendo behind for our current generation, which also led to them being a little too conservative once again with Wii U and thinking that gimmicks will work every time.

Not only that but I would've offered a higher quality standard controller alongside motion controls, and really got across a message that Wii was truly for the core gamer as well as people who didn't play games primarily. Lastly and this is huge, they didn't spend all that money they made with Wii and DS in acquiring new talent. Nintendo has had software drought for a long time, and they needed to fix that long before this upcoming attempt with the NX. They needed to build up enough developers so that after Wii they had no drought, and were ready to tackle the next evolution in graphics technology. But as we know neither of those things happened, they've only recently gotten used to HD development and there's still software drought on Wii U.

Had they built up new studios and made more new IPs alongside the classics, that would've built up Nintendo's *core* fanbase instead of relying on diehard Nintendo fans alone, and the wave of the fickle casuals.

That said, it's a stretch to say they're struggling to maintain relevant. Nintendo has had huge software attachment rates with Wii U (I think half as many MK8 copies have sold as there are consoles) and at the end of the day, 50 million 3ds's have been sold, while the Vita is dead. Actually I think Nintendo has a bigger diehard fanbase than either MS or Sony, it's just that they are losing badly in mass appeal on the console side.

I *love* the Wii U, it's the only current gen console worth a damn, but ultimately the gamepad was a mistake, it should've had a modern cpu, twice the gpu power and twice the memory to at least be competitive even though it can still produce great looking games.

4 things Nintendo needs to do with NX, which I think they are doing - drop the Wii and DS brands, fix the software drought, provide hardware that no developer will complain about and don't rest everything on a gimmick.

I think so. My assumption is that they will remain dormant for the rest of the year, but will then be brought back next year. Right now, Nintendo has not even found a new president- I imagine they want to get things in order before they focus on something more frivolous like Nintendo Directs.

Yes Reggie Fils Aime could take the reigns or Nintendo could let others at Nintendo lead the Directs. While Iwata did have his own style when hosting Nintendo Direct, Other people may to host Nintendo Direct and bring their own flavor. So Yes Nintendo Directs should continue.

There are many reasons that a console can succeed or fail. Some of the reasons talked about are the Power, Controller, Marketing, Third Party Support, First Party Support, and Gimmicks. Companies prioritize how they will implement various features with cost, sales, competition, and other things in mind.

Power: Look at the PS2 and the Wii; weakest consoles of their generation, greatest sales. Look at the PS4 and Xbox One. They are supposed to be the hot rods of console power, yet they only have a few games each that are actually 1080p, 60fps. Why should Nintendo prioritize the money on a feature (HD) that makes the console cost $100 more, but barely gets used?

Controller: The primary controller for the Wii U is the Gamepad, but it also supports Wii Remotes and the Pro Controller. The Wii U Gamepad is actually pretty pragmatic as a keyboard and mouse alternative; but also allows for a greater variety of gameplay experiences where a tablet is useful. Why would anyone want fewer ways to game?

Marketing: Marketing probably matters because some companies are reportedly spending 50 million to develop a game, and 200 million to advertise for it. The marketing reason has nothing to do with whether a game or a console (the Wii U) is good or not, but just that Marketing is persuasive.

Third Party Support: If you are going to say that 3^rd party support is the most important reason for success or failure; then EA was one of the companies to blame for Wii U low sales numbers, because they did not finish games they started for the Wii U, resulting in sports fans not migrating to Nintendo, resulting in lower sales numbers. EA expected Nintendo to have a greater install base than Sony and Microsoft combined. They chose to support the two consoles (PS4 and Xbox One) that were the most similar to develop for, with the greater install bases combined, and abandoned Nintendo. Same thing with other 3^rd party companies that bailed on Nintendo. (Third party support probably doesn’t matter that much to Nintendo’s core gamers. When I look at games for the other consoles, the libraries look barren to me. On the other hand, I want about 30 Wii U games.)

Gimmicks: All companies prioritize the features they are going to use and the degree to which they are going to use them. Sony is great at music and video gimmicks. Microsoft is great at on-line gimmicks. Excluding sales and popularity, why does Nintendo have to copy the gimmicks of other companies to the same extent that the other companies do? The Wii focused on motion control and fitness. The Wii U focused on a second screen and fitness. Maybe the music, video, and on-line gimmicks are more popular, but that does not mean that motion controls, secondary screens, and fitness are worthless features and should not be used. For the people that like motion control, tablets, and fitness those features are desirable; even if those gamers are in the minority.

First Party Support: Nintendo is king.

Summary: I think that the sales would have been the same (low) for the Wii U even if it didn’t have a Gamepad, and it was a more powerful console. Nintendo fans value gameplay above graphics/resolution, though Nintendo fans are not opposed to attractive games. IMO people who bought a Wii were happy with it, and the Wii U launch price was too high for that group by $200. While Nintendo fans value HD, it is not the top priority. Now that HD has been around for several years the feature should remain. Even though I like the Gamepad, in retrospect maybe Nintendo should have stuck with Wii Remotes and HD, named the Wii U Wii 2 instead, and kept the launch price $250 with Wii Sports Club bundled in. Nintendo should be cautious when listening to the voices crying for an expensive console, those are the cries of harpies leading their prey to its doom, because core Nintendo fans and average gamers don’t care about power and don’t want to pay more than $300 for a console.

I personally liked the Directs, my only gripe was because of Iwata's accent it was hard to tell if he cared about or was excited about what he was announcing, it's why I wanted someone else to host american directs. Directs usually only failed at E3, E3 directs should cover the next six months as well as some of early spring of next year

Should they go on? Nah, I think their time has long passed.

That said, the Directs are much, much cheaper to so they probably will go on because Nintendo is the master of pinching pennies.

In retrospect, having watched Nintendo from the Wii, I'm convinced that it was one of the worst things to have happened to them. Nintendo was (before its success) on a downward spiral. GCN was selling worse than the N64, the N64 worse than the SNES, etc.

Success is no great teacher, and in the Wii's case, it only allowed Nintendo to float and laugh their way to the bank upon a sea of cash while their underlying business (which needed to be scrutinized and questioned) atrophied and lagged. It allowed them to adhere to outdated policies while ignoring standards that had grown past them. It allowed Nintendo to eschew its traditional main bread and butter for an audience they thought they had in the bank yet was a passing fancy. Then when the furor subsided, where did Nintendo find itself? Over a gulf where that audience had vacated, and another whose expectations for modern day gaming had not been addressed at all by them during that period and had subsequently found homes elsewhere as a consequence.

Nintendo is thus left hanging out to dry, their business left in the past with an audience expecting the future, all because that massive influx of Wii cash enabled it. Continual failure would've been Nintendo's greatest ally as the Wii selling even worse would've forced them to wake up to realities that are hammering them currently, and I'm willing to bet that had the Wii continued that downward decline the Nintendo of today would be different than it is now. The Wii just allowed them to slumber further under the false assumption they were doing everything right, when in truth it was a fad that simply made them believe that their very bad misjudgments were the correct course of action when they were anything but. Now that fad has died, those misjudgments are becoming apparent, and again....here we are.

As for relevance, well.....while they may be seeing great attachment rates within the context of their current userbase, that overall userbase I think is what matters. Mass appeal equates to relevance; the less users you have, the less relevant you are despite the sales within that context. Handhelds I can't much argue against I'll grant you (even though they don't match nor exceed their predecessors), but insofar as the consoles go, I maintain my position. They are on a path to irrelevance unless something changes.

@MirkoS77: No, No. You are looking at it all wrong. The Wii U was better hardware than the Bad Business Practice RRD Xbox 360; so Microsoft had to rush to release the Xbox One with a Kinnect gimmick. When the NX comes out the Xbox One will be weak/inferior/behind, and Microsoft will have to rush again to release better hardware to catch up to the true industry leader of innovation, Nintendo. The NX wont have to rely on $100 million bloated development budgets for cinematic-movie game gimmicks, and $100 million bloated, brain-washing the masses commercials to get higher sales.

See bro. Anyone can do what you do; come into the Nintendo forums where people are generally happy with their console and games; attack, attack, attack with hyperbole and rhetoric; and tell people they should hate their favorite company and console. I am sure you are a nice person in person and you are just coming off wrong. I never owned an Xbox. I am sure it is a good and fun console with great games. Please continue to enjoy playing the games you love on the consoles you love.

Should the Directs continue? Absolutely, yes!

I really enjoy receiving news about upcoming games as well as new announcements from Nintendo themselves. I certainly like that better than reading a small blurb in a games website. I also like how Directs give you a good look at the game and it's features. Lastly, I really like that (generally) Directs focus on the immediate games releasing in the next few months. It gets me excited for something that I may be able to play soon. Personally, I lose interest in a game that gets announced and then not seen until a few years later (not that I don't regain interest when it does finally release).

No other company "talks" directly with its customers, and I appreciate Nintendo for doing so. To me, games are still about fun, not necessarily immersion or realism. So I also appreciate Nintendo's humor (or corniness) in its presentations, because they try and convey a feeling of fun and enjoyment.

I don't want to go off topic, but I do want to say that I think Nintendo does have changes to make, such as having a formal E3 presentation. It's an industry standard and they should show up guns blazing.

For an immediate host to replace Iwata, I think Bill Trinen would do well; viewers already know him, and he presents well, if a bit on the safe (boring) side. It would do him well to show some excitement.

Nintendo job listing gives hopes for future Nintendo Direct presentations

http://gonintendo.com/stories/242154-nintendo-job-listing-gives-hopes-for-future-nintendo-direct-prese

No, I'm coming off exactly as I am and make no apologies for it, it's just your reply is classic fanboy drivel, typical of responses from blind Nintendo fans when any semblance of critique is laid at the feet of their favorite company. "Hyperbole and rhetoric"? Examples? Where the hell am I "telling people they should hate their favorite company and console"? You speak to me of hyperbole after spouting that? This is a forum, it is open to any viewpoint, and sorry, any other that doesn't befit your little agenda and bias doesn't automatically equate to hyperbole and rhetoric. If you believe it does, then point out where and I'll be happy to elaborate.

@MirkoS77: Your coming off as a negative nanny speaking thru a broken record. For someone who doesnt even own or play a Wii U and 3DS you sure love condemning them a bunch. You shouldnt worry about Nintendo console sales, theyre not really important, focus on Nintendo software sales and how their development teams are doing, thats the important stuff.

I don't own a Wii U or 3DS and a bunch of games for both? Huh, that's news to me.