In the wake of Sony’s announcement that it will skip E3 for the first time in 24 years, Nintendo said it will still attend, calling the show an “outstanding opportunity” to make new announcements.
Following The Game Awards last week, I spoke to Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime about exactly why E3 is still a priority for Nintendo.
“E3, those five days, is the opportunity for the world to find out what’s new for video games as entertainment. And during that time, we generate more engagement than…whether it’s CES or Comic-Con, or other big entertainment events,” Fils-Aime told IGN. “People tune in to find out what’s new and to have first playable experiences for our industry. That’s why E3 is important to Nintendo.”
Still, Fils-Aime emphasized that just showing up isn’t enough, and that Nintendo has changed its approach each year to match the games it’s currently highlighting.
For us it’s a very effective opportunity to deliver our message, and therefore it’s a bit of a no-brainer for us to participate.
“Our mentality has been to constantly innovate what we do and how we message at E3,” he said. “We’ve innovated in how we utilize our booth space, to create a little piece of Hyrule or to create a little piece of the environment in Super Mario Odyssey, as examples. We innovate in how we deliver our messaging, whether it was the big stage productions or whether it’s the Direct communications that we do today.
“And so everyone’s watching, we drive innovation, we leverage the elements, so for us it’s a very effective opportunity to deliver our message, and therefore it’s a bit of a no-brainer for us to participate. Now, what’s important as an industry, though, is that E3 in total continues to innovate and it continues to be that leading opportunity to drive consumer engagement in this way. So that’s why we participate. That’s why I sit on the board of the ESA and help drive some of this thinking. It’s important to us.”
As for what Nintendo shows during the event, Fils-Aime said it’s a balancing act between games that will be released soon and those that are further away. Often the latter will be used to reassure fans that more traditional experiences are on the way, such as the core Pokemon RPG reemphasized alongside the announcement of Pokemon: Let’s Go, or a mainline Fire Emblem game (which later became Fire Emblem: Three Houses) announced alongside Fire Emblem Warriors.
“Broadly speaking, we like to talk about games that are closer. Typically, for example, at E3, we’ll focus on content maybe extending into the first or second calendar quarter following E3. That is typically our horizon,” he said. “We believe that works because it’s close enough that the fans can be excited and look forward to it. And when we do have an exception and do something different, we’re doing it for very specific reasons.
“Maybe we have two experiences within a particular franchise, and we know that one might be maybe a nontraditional representation of that franchise. Or maybe then it’s important for us to frame that the more traditional visualization of that franchise is coming. ‘Fans, don’t worry, but here’s something different to tide you over in the meantime.’ So that’s how we think about it, and how we approach our consumer communication. We want to be near-end. We want to deliver news when it’s most meaningful. We don’t want to be so far out that the consumer either loses interest, or worse, gets frustrated.”
For more from our interview with Fils-Aime, read why Persona 5’s Joker is emblematic of future Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC, and stay tuned for more this week.
Andrew is IGN’s executive editor of news and really hopes we get a Pokemon-themed Nintendo booth next year. You can find him rambling about Persona and cute animals on Twitter.