During the company’s financial results briefing, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that they won’t have their traditional E3 conference this year. Instead, the company will host two software-focused closed events for press and distributers.
"We have decided not to host a large-scale presentation targeted at everyone in the international audience where we announce new information as we did in the past," he said. "Instead, at the E3 show this year, we are planning to host a few smaller events that are specifically focused on our software lineup for the U.S. market. There will be one closed event for American distributors, and we will hold another closed hands-on experience event, for mainly the Western gaming media."
"During the E3 period, we will utilize our direct communication tools, such as Nintendo Direct, to deliver information to our Japanese audience, including those who are at this financial briefing, mainly focusing on the software that we are going to launch in Japan, and we will take the same approach outside Japan for the overseas fans as well."
Iwata argued that the new approach would help them tailor each event to its intended audience. "As video game fans are looking for information about games, it seems that they are less interested in sales figures that investors and analysts on the other hand attach much greater importance to, and distribution partners are looking for information on how we are going to market our products in the immediate future," he explained.
"Given that we now have an established method such as Nintendo Direct, we feel that we will be able to deliver our messages more appropriately and effectively by doing so individually based on the various needs of different groups of people."
Iwata’s justification seems plausible, but we are sure that he would’ve had an extra-large E3 conference if Nintendo had any major news up its sleeve.