Thoughts On: Nintendo's Investor Meeting 2016

Harry Sheridan and Brandon

May 2nd, 2016

Last week, Nintendo held their annual Investor Meeting, where they discuss their upcoming fiscal year and oftentimes give fans a look into what might be coming. Normally, these meetings don’t have huge amounts of new information, but this year, the company gave some pretty earth-shattering news about their upcoming plans for the NX and Mobile, as well as teasing their next mobile projects. After having about a week to digest the news, we decided to discuss our thoughts.

NX

Harry: So, we finally have a confirmed launch window for the NX, being Spring 2017. While this is much later than the predicted Fall 2016, I personally don’t mind the ‘delay.’ Sure, it would’ve been awesome to have gotten the NX this year, as I was expecting, but considering Nintendo’s statement that the reason the NX won’t release until next year is because they want to ensure that it has a quality selection of launch titles, I’m more than willing to wait the few extra months. I also believe that this delay could be a good sign going forward, as Nintendo seems to have learned from Wii U’s mediocre launch.

In addition to the NX releasing later than expected, we also received confirmation that the next Zelda game will be releasing next year on both Wii U and as a launch title for NX. While I’m fairly disappointed that this game has received yet another delay, I’m still incredibly excited for it and hope that the numerous delays have only worked in the game’s favor.

Bran: I’m generally ok with the fact that NX seemingly got delayed into next year. Making sure all the games are ready for launch is a commendable reason, and I’d much rather have the console be delayed but come out with great games, than have a bare bones launch. I bought a Wii U at launch and totally regretted it. While the system eventually came good for me, the first few months were incredibly barren, and the system gathered a lot of dust. Having the NX launch out of the gate with an amazing library with games like Zelda would hopefully give the system a lot of early momentum. There are so many credible rumors detailing games coming for the system, such as ports for Smash, Splatoon, and Mario Maker, a new Retro Studios project, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and more. I don’t think the NX will suffer from the same issues the Wii U did when it launched in 2012.

E3

Bran: This is what I’m more concerned about. I understand that this conference is going to be stacked, with the likely reveals of new versions of the PS4 and Xbox One, along with a huge focus on VR by many companies, but Nintendo’s presence at E3 is still concerning. Zelda is probably going to be great, I understand that, but I just don’t know if it’s enough to single-handedly carry Nintendo’s E3. We’ll get information on other things like Mother 3 (pls), and Paper Mario: Sticker Star 2, but Zelda being the only playable game is a concern to me. E3 is a time where all eyes are on the company, all gamers will be following the conference, Nintendo fan or not. This is the time to appeal to a demographic outside of your core fanbase. Holding your own conference later in the year will be great for the fans, but you will ultimately be casting a smaller net than if you were to reveal all of this stuff at E3. I’m still excited for E3, don’t get me wrong. I’m excited for Zelda, Pokemon, and Mother news, but the fact that NX won’t be shown off at a single E3 prior to release feels like a misstep.

Harry: Bran is wrong, Color Splash will carry E3, just you wait; however, on the off chance that Paper Mario: Color Splash (sequel to the single greatest game of all time, Paper Mario: Sticker Star) does fail to impress, I’d have to agree that the lack of NX at E3 comes as a pretty huge disappointment. Prior to the Investor Meeting, I thought NX would be a lock for E3, especially considering the recent lack of Nintendo news and Wii U’s downright abysmal release schedule this year. I understand that they may not be ready to show off all the titles that will release for it, but to completely ignore it during the biggest gaming press event of the year seems like a mistake to me. While I honestly don’t mind the focus on Zelda this year, I find it strange that they’d show it off without the NX. Hopefully, there’ll be some additional, exciting news (Reggie pls give us Mother 3) to make up for the lack of NX.

Mobile

Harry: Honestly, I’m not a fan of mobile gaming. I’ve played a little bit here and there, but I’ve honestly never really seen the appeal of it. So, recently when Nintendo launched Miitomo, I was fairly skeptical. Of course, I still downloaded it since it was a free game and I figured ‘why not?’ While I thought it was fun for a bit, I pretty quickly grew bored of it. Going forward,  I guess I’m interested in seeing what Nintendo thinks up regarding their mobile titles, especially since they’ll be using franchises I really enjoy (Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing have been confirmed), but I don’t have very high expectations and I honestly can’t really see myself playing these games.

Bran: The two new games for mobile being Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing sound like excellent ideas in my book. These are two big franchises whose gameplay lends themselves very well to mobile titles. Let’s face it, while Miitomo was novel at first, and it technically did very well, garnering over 10 Million downloads, many people have since grown tired of it. I personally still log in every day, but it’s just to grind My Nintendo points, not because of genuine interest. These next two apps will hopefully take what we love about the existing franchises, and strip them down into an enjoyable experience for mobile. I can’t say that I’m particularly excited for either of them, because my interest in mobile games in general is pretty low, but I believe both of these have lots of potential.

And for a little bonus meme

Top 5 Sonic OCs

By HarryClassicSonicFan & BrannyModernSonicFan

1. Sanic

2. Sonique

3. Sonic.exe

4. The Sonic Twitter

5. Big the Alex