Right: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reveal
OK, but seriously, you get every character! This Super Smash Bros. release comes with a wealth of content, which makes sense considering it’s basically an expanded re-release of the Wii U Super Smash Bros. It’s unlikely that fans are going to care, however. This feels like a feast. [...] All these characters, all these stages, all this content. The demos and announcements went on and on for this game, and it was all good news about the title. This is going to sell the Nintendo Switch, no questions.Agree. Not to my taste, but that's fine. The Nintendo Switch has been all about recycling older (but still very good) content, so the fact that they're upgrading a Wii U game is not a surprise.
Right: Super Mario Party for the Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo Switch is already a social system, so having party games that take advantage of players who have access to multiple system is a smart move. This is another example of how the inventive design of the Nintendo Switch helps Nintendo offer experiences that aren’t possible on any other console.Disagree. The Nintendo Switch has sold very well, yes, but releasing a game whose major feature requires other people that you know to also have bought the same expensive game system feels like hubris to me. It's not all that inventive, either; Nintendo ported this functionality to the Switch from their DS line of handhelds, which means that it's really just more recycling.
Right: The voice chat and online features of Fortnite
There’s a lot to be happy about when it comes to Nintendo’s “surprise” launch of Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch today, but one of the more interesting details is the fact that you can use any standard 3.5 mm headset for online voice chat, which is a feature that no other game offers on the system, as far as we can tell. This makes chatting with your team much easier — remember, Nintendo’s official solution is a phone app that leaves much to be desired — and is something that should be offered in more games.Disagree. Yes, it's nice that Fortnite gets this functionality, but why doesn't anyone else? Nintendo's hardware clearly supports it. This just throws a white hot spotlight on one of the Switch's glaring shortcomings.
So, if that's what Nintendo did right, and most of it's not necessarily all that right, what did they get wrong?
According to Polygon:
Wrong: No news on a proper Pokémon game on the Switch?
The lack of news in this area is leading to some issues in the community, and the complete silence around the project doesn’t seem necessary. Just give us something, Nintendo! We really didn’t have any reason to expect this, so it seems a little whiny to ding the company for a lack of trailer or information, but this is still one of the games that has fans completely salivating. Maybe Nintendo will use it to dominate E3 2019?Disagree. It is whiny to complain about not seeing something that you'd been told in advance not to expect. It's also somewhat unprofessional to list this as one of Nintendo's conference "cons" when it's all about the unrealistic expectations of the attendee, and not about the content of Nintendo's event at all.
Wrong: No information on classic games or the online service
I was hoping to see a bit more of the online service in the stream, especially with Fortnite coming out of the gate and offering online features that few other games on the Switch can match. Nintendo needs to send the message that online play is important to the console’s future, as is Nintendo’s software past, and that didn’t come through during this presentation.Agree. Nintendo's online service offering is pathetic; all we learned this conference is that they can do better (cf. Fortnite), but don't have any plans to.
Wrong: A lot of missing games, in fact
Fans are used to being disappointed over a lack of Animal Crossing news, but I was hoping for some kind of news on Metroid Prime 4. There was also no update about the upcoming Yoshi game for the Nintendo Switch. Wasn’t that supposed to come out this year?Agree. One gets the feeling that Fortnite's release (out now on Switch, and free!) was supposed to distract from this.
Wrong: Remember the 3DS?
Nintendo doesn’t seem to! The company seemed completely focused on the Nintendo Switch during its stream, which makes it look like all the big titles from here on out are going to be headed to the Switch. Or maybe it’s a bit early to say that and Nintendo is holding some big announcements in its back pocket. But yeah, the lack of the 3DS during the show was certainly noticeable.Agree. It's not entirely surprising, of course; with the Switch clearly representing Nintendo's future, speculation was rife that the DS line would be sunsetted in the not-too-distant future. Nintendo themselves have repeatedly claimed otherwise, though, which puts the onus on them to demonstrate their commitment to DS customers by showcasing some DS content at the biggest PR event of the year.
So, overall, Polygon counted 3 things right, and 4 things wrong, with Nintendo's E3 effort; I'm apparently a tougher grade, coming in at 2 right, and 5 wrong. Either way, though, it's a pretty lacklustre showing, especially considering how much momentum Nintendo had coming into this event.
Final Grade: D.
When your staging and execution are okay, but only okay, your press conference boils down to what you're talking about. What Nintendo talked about wasn't all that special, though, which is just weird after the year they've just had. Nintendo should have come into E3 this year and done a fucking victory lap. Instead, they lampshaded nagging issues, avoided talking about one of the product lines entirely, and didn't talk about games that are supposedly in the pipeline for release in 2018. It wasn't a failure, but it wasn't a success, either.