Nintendo has dropped a bombshell, people! Wait, is doing exactly what they mused about doing a bombshell? Nintendo has announced that they will pass on doing the usual 90-minute show for investors and instead will focus on their gaming booths and smaller events. Minutes after that announcement, the Internet exploded in a lack of reading comprehension. Trust me, reports of the company’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

First of all E3 is about the investors, not the gamers. The big press show is just that, and since Nintendo has begun announcing things to gamers over Nintendo Direct there is little point in doing the traditional dog and pony show. If E3 is about anything, it is about games, and Nintendo will (presumably) have lots of games to announce. Most of their IP’s (Intellectual Properties) are waiting official announces, and that is what the massive floorshow at E3 is for. The big stage shows, where only software is announced, are just plain boring. If there is no new hardware to announce there is no reason for a 90-minute show when there are days to show off new software as the meat of the show.

Nintendo stopped waiting for E3 and created its own virtual show with Nintendo Direct. Nintendo Direct is available online and through their systems and comes out every few months with announcements about upcoming games and system updates. They’re not waiting for one of many gaming showcases to show off their wares anymore.

E3 is becoming somewhat of a dinosaur in this interconnected age in any case. All that happens is for months before the show, game companies stop releasing information so that when the show starts they can wow gamers with “secret news”. As soon as E3 is over, the companies go back to their usual habits of telling people what they are working on over the Internet and it’s business as usual.

This news doesn’t mean the end for Nintendo. If anything, it shows they are still trailblazers. Nintendo has always walked to the pace of its own drum, much to the chagrin of FPS (First Person Shooters) and driving game-exclusive gamers. Not that there is anything wrong with those games. Nintendo has just always had to be more innovative as they do not get many of the 3rd party IP’s that Sony and Microsoft share. This has been the biggest problem for Nintendo since it fell out with Sony while designing the N64. It didn’t stop Nintendo from dominating the last generation with Wii, and even though the WiiU sales aren’t as high as hoped by the company, I wouldn’t count them out yet.