Should Nintendo's shadowdropping of announcements be the norm?

[Wurst]

I do have a busy life and enjoy keeping up to date with gaming announcement.
In the case of the last two announcements, I checked Resetera after a long day of work and was confused as to what exactly happened. Countless new threads, new games.. I felt lost for a second. I didn't even bother to watch the directs because I felt I knew everything.

I neither like feeling confused or lost about exciting news nor being late to the party. I always loved looking forward to a direct so I can schedule it in.
This way, it just leaves a sour taste.

 

[Greywaren]

EDIT: Misunderstood the title, oops.

 

[Cudpug]

On the one hand it gives you less to be hyped for...and largely speaking I do like to have a road map of upcoming games when I buy a console so I know what I'm buying into.

On the other hand, it means at any point they could realistically drop a huge announcement which is quite exciting...and the release dates being a month or two away is great.

I'm good with it.

 

[WhiteRabbitEXE]

If it means no more Direct threads on here then yes.

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Is it thread whining if it's in a different thread? Because those Direct "speculation" threads are just hundreds of thousands of spam posts lol

 

[StarErik]

No. I don't want to miss a BotW2 trailer by an hour and see images and dissection videos with very revealing thumbnails before I've had the chance to see it.

 

[Jimnymebob]

Is it thread whining if it's in a different thread? Because those Direct "speculation" threads are just hundreds of thousands of spam posts lol

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I just can't think of a Direct thread that doesn't just end up becoming really toxic once the direct actually happens, because of the cycle of unrealistic expectations>the Direct>Nintendo are awful that happens every time.

 

[ZeroX]

I like it. Fuck the hype cycle, fuck early announcements, fuck waiting in general. It's so much better.

 

[DOA]

I think that after other companies started using nintendo's marketing presentation (directs instead of a full conference event), nintendo started thinking on how to break away from the rest of the enclosing group. this is actually quite good tactics, since they focus on one thing at a time, and give the world a breather, before coming in with another thing.

from the xbox direct, all people are remembering is HALO.
from the ps5 direct, people are mostly remembering the design and the SSD.

 

[Kalor]

I'd love if games generally had shorter reveal to release periods, at least ones on the larger side. Theres nothing really gained from a long cycle for a single player game, and it doesn't hurt visibility on those games based on various trailer numbers.

 

[Deleted member 5127]

No, I prefer directs.

 

[Bonejack]

I think they should use a healthy mix of both normal Directs (of varying type) and Twitter shadow drops.

Something like Hyrule Warriors: AoC is something that you have Directs for. Stuff like the Pikmin 3 Deluxe port is Twitter drop material for me.

 

[Deluxera]

The issue with Direct-style showcases is that it creates too much expectations, to the point that companies now have to warn people in advance to not expect much. It's crazy that these companies who are supposed to try to sell things are now actively warning people that what they are about to show is worthless.

So I'm all okay for individual trailers close to the release dates, it may tone down the toxicity around gaming marketing.

 

[Vidiot]

No, I love my hype ass directs. They need to get back to that when things calm down.

 

[mompe]

I don't mind.

 

[BGBW]

Surprised so many people need Nintendo to prepare them for an announcement.

No. Random announcements for smaller stuff is good. But big announcements work better for Directs.

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Wouldn't it be the other way round? Small announcements need a Direct cos they'd struggle to stand out on their own - Directs give them an engaged audience willing to take on any news. Bigger announcements have the strength to spread their message without the aid of other announcements and, thanks to Twitter, they can go viral quickly. A trailer drops and people instantly retweet it to spread the news. Meanwhile Directs have to hope people tune in, then they watch it and then you have to hope they're motivated enough to talk about it on social media.

 

[Batatina]

I personally prefer directs, and I also prefer to plan out and look forward to games a few months in advance. The feeling of drought has really sunk in for the Switch, and if Nintendo actually has more games planned for this year, I'd really love to know. I have a friend who just sold his switch because there was no software coming any time soon, and that's not a great place to be in.

 

[kurt]

No, i prefer to have something to look forward to.
It's like this direct will be shown this date, suprise whats in it.

 

[Daniel Jackson]

This is fine. Just drop stuff out of nowhere.
Directs always follow the same pattern. People are expecting unrealistic things and then they get disappointed and complain.

 

[wideface]

No. I want to see Directs with the Easy Allies.

 

[Oreiller]

Yes, fuck this shitty hype culture.

 

[finally]

I hate this, especially if they announced it after I spent my entire gaming budget on inferior games.

 

[It’s Reyn Time!]

Nah, I like to know what the future holds for consoles I own, not just what's available in the next few weeks.

 

[Deleted member 13370]

edit

 

[ryushe]

I'm cool with it, especially when the release dates are relatively soon.

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Pretty much where I'm at.

I'm not here for seeing a trailer and then waiting years for a game to actually drop.

 

[OrangeNova]

Yeah why not?

 

[Parker]

Seeing as it's probably the last big announcement of the year (first party-wise, not counting Smash DLC and Pokemon), i'm sure they'd like to revert back to the old format for Zelda's year, the Pro's announcement, and the Odyssey 2 tease.

 

[Kattlauv]

Yeah. Gogogo!

 

[Polioliolio]

Whatever the case, I love that they aren't announcing games more than a few months out. I mean, aside from a few exceptions..

 

[Rotimi]

Honestly I feel the directs have lost the appeal they used to have especially due to many lackluster ones. Just announce a game and let's know when will play it. Either through Twitter then a video.
Just do your announcements. As many others have said this is not a shadow drop it's an announcement

 

[Rotimi]

Double post

 

[TheEchosOfTheCyborg]

Seems like a good balance Nintendo is doing, mini directs and showcases for third party and indie stuff so they get exposure and Surprendos for their big releases closure to launch since they'll get top stories and hype anyway plus mitigates issues like years long waits and overhype.

Smash will be interesting in how Sakruai and co do their stuff, who's in charge of marketing and doing the presentations for Smash?

 

[Etrian Darkness]

No I would rather they make a direct to make me feel artifically hyped for things instead.

 

[mclem]

I love a good long hype train and tons of speculation... but honestly, it'd probably be healthier - for both the industry as a whole and the fans - if it were the norm, so from that perspective, yes.

That said, in that instance it'd probably help somewhat if it was coupled with more consistent and regular updates of what's imminent, maybe one Direct-esque production every three months or so - at least so people know when they need to pay attention!

 

[Alek]

I thought a shadow drop was a term reserved for dropping a game without an announcement?

But in this case, you're talking about how they didn't announce, their announcement? Isn't that just called a surprise?

Are surprise announcements good? Yes.

 

[Tibarn]

Considering how badly they have distributed the announcements during the year, I would prefer a hybrid approach.

Have a June (E3) Direct, so we know at least one event date, but keep announcing "smaller" games or ports 2 months in advance.

 

[sheaaaa]

I'm in this hobby for the games, not the hype and the toxic discussion. So yes it should be the norm.

 

[Serebii]

Sometimes I feel that people enjoy the "hype" more than the actual games and end up overhyping themselves to ridiculous extremes about things only for it to not mesh their expectations

So I'm in two minds

 

[justiceiro]

Yes.

While directs were tremendous innovation 10 years ago, they are not working anymore. It belonged to a time where Nintendo barely had games to show off, but these days they have tons.

Also, no presenter nailed the iwata tone of presenting games or even having fun while at it. It's all so much PR that it hurts. It's time to evolve past that again.

 

[Bit_Reactor]

Nah.

Like with the Summergamefest thing Keighley tried to do people like me have to basically seek out news sites or forums like this or be "online" a lot with social media to know when things are happening/announced versus a Nintendo direct which is typically not only something that can be planned for but enjoyed as a group. Spreading things out across multiple days/weeks/etc inherently limits the audience's focus on the events and/or ability to put their attention towards it.

If someone goes "A nintendo direct is this week" people go "oh awesome can't wait" but if someone goes "This entire week random announcements may happen at different times" it's just kind of surprise for surprise sake and I don't believe it really contributes as much consistency to the games being announced. Not everyone can consistently spread their attention across longer lengths of time given the busy/chaotic world, and the longer that time stretch goes on, the less likely to get the focused amount of eyes on it at a time imo.

"Scheduling" something and surprising people with something should be two sides of the same coin, not used one or the other 100%. For new game announcements and/or spinoff titles there should definitely be surprises, but some games/indies/etc wouldn't get the traction they get if not for the Nintendo Directs and the hype and attention they bring.

I still enjoy every direct including the minis and such but also enjoyed things like the BOTW Musou, even if I hadn't heard or seen a thing about it until almost 11pm the day of because I was working that day.

 

[Firestorm]

I like seeing the news live with friends and being around for it, but Nintendo fans are batshit fucking insane so I understand why they can't. The last time they announced something ahead of time they said it would be third party only without huge announcements and people blew it way out of proportion to the point that they weren't satisfied by a trailer of SMT5.

 

[Deleted member 77553]

I love shadow drops. They are unpredictable.

 

[Deleted member 77553]

I love shadow drops. They are unpredictable.

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Directs are too over hyped imo. People get mad if a direct is good or bad.

 

[zroid]

cannot imagine why i would care how Nintendo chooses to market its games

there are three things i need

1. release date
2. price
3. trailer

the delivery method of each is irrelevant

 

[TigerPhin]

It's ok from time to time but is more fun to get excited to be excited - even if that leads to being letdown sometimes.