The days when a company could sit back and rely on past successes are behind us. Nintendo has a lot of goodwill stored up after delivering gaming happiness for decades, but that's not going to sustain them forever - already we see newer gamers who don't have that same connection to the Nintendo legacy to purchase their new consoles blindly. And instead of attacking the market aggressively (in a cheerful, non-threatening Nintendo manner, of course), the strategy seems to be to hold back and hope for the best. That's just not going to cut it. This idea of web streamed keynote presentations instead of actually showing up at something like E3? That just reeks of apathy, or worse, weakness in the market. If a sales rep is struggling, he doesn't rent a low-budget wreck to go see clients, he shows up on their door in a shiny hunk of metal which tells people he's doing well for himself. Nintendo needs to somehow conjure up that same sense of confidence - even if it's empty bravado to begin with - so that shallow, easily swayed consumers will start to take them seriously. This hopeful idea that somehow we'll appreciate that these E3 no-shows are just "Nintendo being quirky old Nintendo" is misguided. Watch the press hype that was churned out of E3 this year, in the gaming media and the mainstream too, and it was all Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo, and their sorry Wii U, hardly raised an eyebrow. That kind of market visibility isn't going to drive sales, it's going to turn the Nintendo brand into a niche product with a small but passionate fan base. Which not how we go about making money and staying relevant.
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
