Nintendo didn’t put on the best show at E3 last month. Following their poor showing, at their 75th annual meeting of shareholders, president Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto were questioned about the company’s poor E3 showing. Each had their own thoughts on the matter.
“Since we mainly included the software that would be released before the end of this year, the entire software lineup appeared to be small,” Miyamoto said. “And because we did not include a number of third-party titles, we must’ve ended up giving people the impression that not so many titles will be released on our platforms in future. As for future titles, since we only introduced the software to be sold early next year, we acknowledge the criticism from our fans that we failed to excite them with new proposals.”
Miyamoto then went on to state that Nintendo actually had more playable games at their E3 booth than Sony and Microsoft, both of which focused heavily on software that would be released in the distant future and, as a result, promoted these games through trailers rather than playable demos.
Meanwhile, Iwata was a little more straightforward in his acceptance of Nintendo’s relatively poor showing at E3.
“We recognize that we have let down a number of the online viewers of this year’s E3, especially the avid Nintendo fans, because we did not show what they had expected,” Iwata said. “On the other hand, since E3 was originally a U.S. trade show, when we consider what kind of messages we should dispatch and in what fashion, while we have to take into consideration the impression that we may give to people outside the U.S., we have been very mindful about how we can maximize our immediate business in the U.S. this year.”
Iwata, too, then went on to defend Nintendo’s E3 booth, pointing out that the company brought a number of playable demos with them, which attendees enjoyed. He then went on to emphasize another point Miyamoto had made about just why Nintendo only chose to show software releasing in the near future, and not titles that were further off.
“Once again, about the reason why at E3 this year we focused on the titles that will be released in the near future, as Mr. Miyamoto just said, which points we should focus on at E3 change every year depending on the development status of each product and future deployment schedule,” Iwata stated.
“When we think it necessary to discuss future products even if the release timing is yet to be determined, we may do so without being able to discuss the details, and when we have more concrete proposals on the products to be released in the near future, we will try to explain the appeal of that product as best as we can. Since we determine our E3 theme each year, you might have had quite a different impression this year in comparison to last year. We are listening to people’s opinions and we will try to improve next year and beyond.”
