What happened to E3 why did Nintendo stop live stage presentations there?

[Aftermath]

What happened to E3?

Now I kind of stepped away from gaming for a short while so I dont know when Nintendos last live presentation was or when it Switched to a pre-recorded direct.

Why did Nintendo stop doing Live stage presentations and Swap to their own directs, was it because of the memes that came out of some of them such the Wii Music one so they don't want to embarrass themselves?
Purely just to make them more condensed and sped through with no time for cringe or filler?
To be fair even a bad prerecorded Direct can be railed against online by the Internet if it doesn't have stuff they want, now it seems other companies have started to follow suit, by not being at E3 as I understand.


I dunno I kind of miss stuff being cringe and failing live feom all companies, it makes it all feel more real and relatable, lets be honest things go wrong, computers & consoles fail, have you ever live streamed or shown a game to someone like a friend or family member only for something to go wrong! I have, also i'm sure as gamers we have ALL been cringey at some points in our lives too.


Does anyone else enjoy the awkwardness but REALISM of E3 Live stage presentations? Essentially I thought E3 was always meant to be like the Comic Con of Videogames, Thats what I love about Comic Con panel live streams too, awkwardness and genuine reactions if it's crickets then the companies can learn from that instead of shying away from it. My favourite things about Directs now is when someone films inside the Nintendo store in NYC to get that big excited reaction from the crowds, there is nothing quite like it.


Maybe I never really understood what E3 is or meant to be, I thought that it was meant for Videogames Companies to show off exclusive stuff like trailers & demos & tech to the Media & the world via streaming (which only happened last what 15-16yrs?) for the first time and now a lot of times stuff gets shown before E3 starts, like a couple of weeks too, sometimes even hardware is not shown there anymore neither.

Mind you years ago fans had to rely on Magazines to inform them of the latest games news and I guess E3 was to show off to those Journalists, now magazines are barely relevant anymore, the Internet is the way to get your information out there to the consumers.

Is it really all that relevant anymore? I do still like the event even when it disappoints, there is always at least a handful of things to redeem it and plenty of things to laugh at and generally have a good time.

 

[BY2K]

Nintendo stopped doing Live Press Conference because they had better control of the message with the Direct, minus the awkwardness of the Live Presentations.

 

[Deleted member 2791]

Because a pre-registered presentation is much better at delivering precise and controlled content than a live presentation. Also costs much less for a better result.

 

[Richietto]

I don't miss it, no filler bullshit is a good thing regardless of how cringey a conference can be. They probably just felt their time was better spent just showing games in an edited format and it ended up working really well.

 

[Knight613]

See the Skyward Sword presentation where they couldn't control the game.

Also see the Wii U presentation where they ended on NintendoLand fireworks.

 

[Deleted member 1413]

Probably cheaper and easier to set up.
Easier to mess something up live as well, this basically just follows the Nintendo Direct formula which they've been getting pretty good at

 

[Sandfox]

Probably because it's cheaper, the Direct format has been well received, and because E3 has become less important. More and more companies have been ditching E3.

 

[Hailinel]

Nintendo stopped doing Live Press Conference because they had better control of the message with the Direct, minus the awkwardness of the Live Presentations.

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First response nails it.

 

[808s & Villainy]

I dunno I kind of miss stuff being cringe and failing live feom all companies, it makes it all feel more real and relatable

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Well they don't

 

[TaySan]

They have better control over the directs. And honestly, Nintendo doesn't have enough to do a legit conference unless its a console launch just my opinion.

 

[ffdgh]

It's more organized and straight to the point. That skyward sword demonstration probably played a part too.

 

[Slappy White]

If I remember correctly they had a couple years of failures and some super underwhelming showings. Then they didn't really have anything to show at all for a year or so when wiiU was dying.

 

[Deleted member 9317]

Because E3 is a waste of everyone's time, and Nintendo Direct is bigger than E3 (come @ me). Why have one yearly event that you spend millions on, when you can have 10 yearly events where you focus on games, for gamers, with no added cost?

Sony is not at this year's E3 as well, because like Nintendo's past, they have nothing to show at E3. E3 forces devs to show something even when it's not ready, and is a waste of everyone's time tbh. E3 is not needed in the all-digital world, and it's poised to die in a decade.

 

[DontHateTheBacon]

Nintendo stopped doing Live Press Conference because they had better control of the message with the Direct, minus the awkwardness of the Live Presentations.

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First post nails it. There's not really much a live presentation can do better than their Directs, especially considering the vast majority of people consuming E3 content aren't actually at the shows/press conferences anyway.

 

[Platy]

Live presentations are basically basically super expensive shows for a couple dozens of journalists

Directs are cheaper and they choose exactly how their message is passed with milimétrical precision

 

[flyingman]

Skyward Sword happened.

 

[tsampikos]

To the average person these things only exist as a video. All they did was make these videos more efficient.

 

[Cheezeman3000]

This happened.

 

[i-hate-u]

To the average person these things only exist as a video. All they did was make these videos more efficient.

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Yeah but how do you get gold moments like in Konami's E3 2010 show without it being live.

 

[Robdraggoo]

Now Sony, The industry leader is following suite. e3 is probably a huge money sink with very little gain. Especially when you can just send a video and set up a booth.

 

[Kingpin722]

I think Nintendo Directs "happened" to E3. It was viewed as crazy when Nintendo committed to this form of presentation but most publisher started following suit in some form or fashion. The traditional E3 we're used to suffered as a result.

 

[Shoichi]

Likely both easier and cheaper to set up. Directs were meant to give content directly to fans. Especially when E3 stopped allowing any non-media for a short time period. Also no chance of random failures on stage, things not working, people getting tongue tied, etc. which is a normal occurrence with live stage conferences.

Nintendo Directs, caught on with the rest of the industry as we see today with more deciding to do the same digital events.

 

[Piston]

If you miss live stage shows, I suggest you go back and actually watch some of the older ones from basically any company. They are mostly terrible and have bad pacing.

Directs and other pre-made streams can control the pacing and content for much better user experiences.

I think it got to this point because of technical/logistical errors that hurt their messaging. The Skyward Sword live demo failure is one specific instance that I think really hurt them.

 

[Spine Crawler]

cost

 

[Dekuman]

Live shows are gaffe prone and expensive

Moving to a digital format was see initially as a full on retreat as it happened when Wii U was failing

It ended up being so much better both Sony and MS are copying them and not having a live show is now seen as a positive.

 

[SuperFakerBros]

It avoids any of the potential awkwardness or issues a live conference may have and they can have Directs all throughout the year as opposed to waiting till E3 to show off everything. We're seeing more and more companies move away from them and more towards pre-recorded videos for streaming. For most folk, they're going to be watching a stream online anyhow so there isn't too much to be gained from doing it live

 

[the_wart]

There's no reason to do an expensive live event for intermediaries when they can communicate directly with their audience more easily and cheaply. And the enthusiast press will cover it anyway.

 

[Deleted member 5593]

AAA developers going into month long crunches to prepare an E3 live demo is good for no one except us randoms looking for quick entertainment.

 

[Watchtower]

Cheaper, easier to make and transmit, easier to not fuck up, no more need to pad it with filler, etc.

It helps that fans prefer it (because it's so much easier to consume) and it goes viral much more easily.

 

[Deleted member 864]

Nintendo stopped doing Live Press Conference because they had better control of the message with the Direct, minus the awkwardness of the Live Presentations.

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Pretty much this.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

The only right answer is, did you see their last one?

 

[NoKisum]

Man, people are really stuck on that laugh track effect.

 

[Meelow]

Because E3 is a waste of everyone's time, and Nintendo Direct is bigger than E3 (come @ me). Why have one yearly event that you spend millions on, when you can have 10 yearly events where you focus on games, for gamers, with no added cost?

Sony is not at this year's E3 as well, because like Nintendo's past, they have nothing to show at E3. E3 forces devs to show something even when it's not ready, and is a waste of everyone's time tbh. E3 is not needed in the all-digital world, and it's poised to die in a decade.

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Basically yeah, eventually Sony and Microsoft will stop doing live press conferences and do State of Play and Inside Xbox for E3.

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Go see Miyamoto attempt to play Skyward Sword on stage and you'll find your answer.

 

[Akita One]

Because E3 is a waste of everyone's time, and Nintendo Direct is bigger than E3 (come @ me). Why have one yearly event that you spend millions on, when you can have 10 yearly events where you focus on games, for gamers, with no added cost?

Sony is not at this year's E3 as well, because like Nintendo's past, they have nothing to show at E3. E3 forces devs to show something even when it's not ready, and is a waste of everyone's time tbh. E3 is not needed in the all-digital world, and it's poised to die in a decade.

Click to shrink...

Yup. E3 is a relic of the times before modern social media. Even a tweet is more effective in spreading your message than an entire E3 presentation.

 

[tsampikos]

Yeah but how do you get gold moments like in Konami's E3 2010 show without it being live.

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They don't do these things for ironic entertainment. They are trying to sell a product.

 

[Wamb0wneD]

Where have you been OP, they've been doing this for ages now.
It's just a way better paced approach.
Even companies like Sony that nailed the presentation down for 2 years completely botched it the year after with drawn out music presentations and weird location swapping that completely killed the pace.

I like their approach of a short, on the point video format and then in detail coverage of the important games for 3 days straight afterwards. I don't need people on stage all the time between trailers (especially now that Reggie stopped) if I can just get the trailers back to back.

 

[Glio]

It's not worth making a live presentation when 99.99% of people will see it streaming. Cheaper, you can coordinate it better and you have a superior audiovisual production.

All advantages.

 

[Deleted member 56752]

Will never forget E3 2013 for Microsoft, where they unveiled the reincarnation of Killer Instinct on dedicated servers at 60 FPS (an exceptional game to this day). The guy was clearly told to do improv trash talk. He said to the female (again, FEMALE) opponent, "sit there and take it". Yeah. That kind of thing doesn't happen in a 15 minute Nintendo direct that everyone at the company can easily review.

 

[NESpowerhouse]

Because E3 is a waste of everyone's time, and Nintendo Direct is bigger than E3 (come @ me). Why have one yearly event that you spend millions on, when you can have 10 yearly events where you focus on games, for gamers, with no added cost?

Sony is not at this year's E3 as well, because like Nintendo's past, they have nothing to show at E3. E3 forces devs to show something even when it's not ready, and is a waste of everyone's time tbh. E3 is not needed in the all-digital world, and it's poised to die in a decade.

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Even though I think it's an inevitability, I really don't want it to since I think it's nice to have a time of year to look forward to to get the bulk of my gaming news. Over the past year or so, I've been following the gaming press a bit less than what I used to and missed some scattered announcements as a result. Without E3, god knows I would probably miss even bigger important announcements. If it got to the point where every major gaming company was having their own gaming show ala EA, journalists would also be spread thin to cover everything, try out demos, or interview industry figureheads (assuming they all take place at around the same time). So in that respect, I still think E3 has a place.

Also not to mention it's just a lot of fun to follow.

 

[Pancakes R Us]

I was very much against the lack of a 'proper' E3 presentation, but after a few Directs, I realise that this is the best way forward for them. Less filler, less BS. Well, most of the time. The 20+ minutes spent on Smash Bros Ultimate last year was a bit of a joke for those of us that have no interest in it.

 

[Neiteio]

Pre-recorded Directs are infinitely superior to live conferences. I find the orchestras and corporate talk in Sony's conference to be so tiring. Like you can see the light fading from my eyes, lol. It's borderline stressful at points.

But with a Direct, you're briskly whisked from one colorful reveal to another. Quick, snappy pacing. Density of content. Just hype bomb after hype bomb. All killer, no filler (well, in theory — you might not be interested in the games shown).

I really wish Sony and Microsoft would switch to the format as well.

 

[Segafreak]

I miss it, Directs feel short and sterile and misses the excitement of a live event, it's nice to see the crowd reactions.

Remember this, this is half the E3 fun



and yeah this is some of the best thing to happen at E3

Live presentations are basically basically super expensive shows for a couple dozens of journalists

Directs are cheaper and they choose exactly how their message is passed with milimétrical precision

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How much more expensive is adding a stage show to their already huge E3 presence? It's basically renting a room, put journos in there, hire a camera man and voila.

 

[Calamari41]

The things that set apart a live E3 conference from a Direct video are

1) Contrived cheering, and

2) Devs awkwardly walking you through their game from the stage, where there is a great chance that it will either clearly be a pre-recorded bit of gameplay that he's just pretending to interact with, or it will mess up/barely work and result in even more awkwardness

The only good part of any live stage show is the surprise reveals, and that can be handled just as well if not better in a Direct style video.

 

[Crayon]

When it comes to the platform holders, e3 was becoming this contest of who had the glitzier show. So-and-so won e3, so-and-so lost E3, etc. You're trying to do a certain thing with your marketing, but then there's is volotile (unpredictable) wake of bullshit when the clickbait articles and social media work start flowing.

it makes more sense just to do your own thing so you have more control. You can splash it all over YouTube for visibility. Way easier, way more predictable.

 

[Bosch]

Direct is so good. I don't mind really. They got the right format to delivery their message.

 

[Deleted member 6730]

Nintendo's last 2-3 last live conferences went terrible in one form or another and it's easier to post an edited video with the same information anyway. Like do people seriously think that doing a live show in 2013 and beyond would've changed anything significantly? If anything they would be recieved so much worse since now you have the problems of padding out a longer show and potential technical issues. Even their live show in 2017 (which was probably a dry run to see if they can do these again) was received poorly.

It was never about more content vs less content, it's more about the same content in 90 minutes vs 30 minutes.

 

[Deleted member 56752]

Where have you been OP, they've been doing this for ages now.
It's just a way better paced approach.
Even companies like Sony that nailed the presentation down for 2 years completely botched it the year after with drawn out music presentations and weird location swapping that completely killed the pace.

I like their approach of a short, on the point video format and then in detail coverage of the important games for 3 days straight afterwards. I don't need people on stage all the time between trailers (especially now that Reggie stopped) if I can just get the trailers back to back.

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They botched it because it was unsustainable, honestly. There aren't enough studios and publishers out there to put out hit after hit year after year. You can get a couple good shows, but after that, you have to dial it back. This is why everyone is upset about EA every year. They expect a Sony or Microsoft level amount of reveals, but the problem is that 75% of their studio only knows how to make sports games. Everyone will always be upset with EA's E3 showing, which is why they should never do E3 again. Show trailers or streams on sports games. Sports enthusiasts will find it in their circle of subscribed channels. Avoid the ridicule each year at E3.

 

[Khanimus]

Live presentations risk being a big fucking production mess

You risk your games crashing if you try doing a live demo

They're expensive as shit

You're reliant on audience enthusiasm, which is why so many conferences are filled with a company's own employees and fans who will cheer for anything


Nintendo had the right idea, trimming that shit down to jump between segment after segment. The conferences are only fun to watch as big dumb awkward spectacles of major corporations trying to be cool. Having some fucking EA guy up there exclaiming "ALL THE FEELS" isn't something I watch for the sincerity. It's why I watch the Giantbomb streams - i watch them more to laugh.

 

[Deleted member 36622]

E3 format needs to evolve. It has become very expensive, it's that weird mix of an event for public and journalists at the same time, either be completely open like Gamescom or completely closed.

In the past it used to be for investors also, companies had to bring their financial results during the conference lol

Live stage presentations could go wrong in so many ways, from failed demo (Skyward Sword), fake demo designed to make the game look cooler than what it is, cringy moments, paid audience to cheer for you,