You may have missed when I asked earlier, but I would be interested in hearing what you think Nintendo should do differently, or should have done differently in this specific case, to keep press outlets from misrepresenting their announcements.
Sorry - until now I was travelling and posting from my iPhone, so I was temporarily avoiding posts that would require long responses. I'm home now.
What do I think Nintendo should do differently? Well, idealy, in regards to E3, nothing. I agree with Sessler in that regard.
First, here's the rub:
a) Nintendo currently has an image problem.
b) Their latest home console is thus far a high profile failure the likes of which haven't been seen before by the company.
c) Because of a and b, Nintendo is increasingly perceived as unable to compete with Sony and MS. This is
not a good thing.
Because of these three things, I think it is incredibly unwise of Nintendo to do anything that appears, even if only at first glance, to be a downsize in comparison to what their competition is doing. You can argue and insist that we're still getting info on games from Nintendo this E3 and that the press will still have access; but when people hear that Nintendo is not doing a large press conference at E3 like their competition is, you can bet the initial interpretation of that news is negative. The perception is negative. This is not good. In PR and marketing, most people will tell you that in many cases the
perception of how something is is almost just as important as how something
actually is. Couple this with the fact that Nintendo is already having difficulty drumming up positive press this year, and it should be easy to see why many people are arguing that Nintendo is being foolish here.
Now, back to your question. I agreed the most with Sessler when he said it's about saving face. The solution to their perception problem right now isn't to downsize, or do anything that even looks like downsizing. The solution is to continue going forward full speed. So what MS and Sony are holding huge press conferences where they will be unveiling new hardware? What Nintendo should be doing is holding their traditional press conference regardless, showcasing their best software with all the pomp and circumstance they can muster, and sending the message that they don't care what the
fuck Sony and MS are doing because they have a good product and BELIEVE in their product. What they should NOT be doing is bowing out and indirectly sending the message that they don't believe in their product's chances against the competition. And, even if that's not what's
actually happening, I guaran-fucking-tee you that's exactly what it's going to look like. I mean, just look around you; this is already happening.
People, like you, are getting to the point where you blaming the
format of Nintendo's previous E3s for their poor showings. This is a non sequitur. The format isn't what makes Nintendo pointlessly vague, or keeps them from properly framing their message. That's their own incompetence at work. Changing the format isn't going to automatically fix that for them. If Nintendo was blind and bullheaded while doing things the old way, they'll continue to be now if they don't ever get around to treating the cause and not the symptom.
