Currently, Nintendo fans are waiting for a new 1st party Direct to drop so that they can get insight into what they’ll be buying next for their Switch 2 consoles. As of right now, there are only a few games that have been dated, some of which are “Switch 2 Editions,” and others are much smaller games that will only be eShop exclusives. The importance of each Nintendo Direct is not lost on fans, and yet, there have been times when The Big N intentionally didn’t have one air because there were other things going on at the time that demanded respect and attention.
One such example was discussed on the latest episode of the Kit & Krysta podcast. If you don’t recall, in 2018, Nintendo delayed a September Direct by a week due to multiple events going on. First was an earthquake that affected Japan, and the second was a mass shooter event that occurred in the US. Both of these happened within a week of each other, and apparently, Nintendo was scrambling to figure out whether to delay the Direct or keep it going. Here’s what Krysta had to say about it:
“So we went into this with one on the Nintendo of America side having this really uneasiness around the shooting, and then when the thing in Japan happened, it was even obviously more devastating, and so it was just this like coming together of like how are we going to navigate all of this stuff?”
That’s a fair thing to ask. After all, there are things more important than video games, and dealing with true tragedies is one of them. That’s when Kit added:
“So yeah, this happened and I remember late that day, it was like, ‘Oh, Doug Bowser got a phone call from Mr. Furukawa and we’re delaying the Direct.’ There was no like, ‘Oh well, we’ll submit our request and it’ll go through the channels and maybe…’ It was just like, ‘No, this is happening’. From the man himself.”
While a small piece of history, it is an important one. There have been times when video game companies have made the wrong move in many ways, and we’ve seen that recently across many companies. Yet, even though this Nintendo Direct was important in promoting the Switch’s gaming lineup, they knew that it was respectful to delay it, so they did.
Many fans are undoubtedly hoping that there won’t be too long a wait for the next Direct, because they REALLY want to see it soon.