Nintendo has announced a new type of event for the company, starting this year: Nintendo Live.
They shared this announcement on Twitter:
“Announcing #NintendoLive 2023, an in-person event for fans of all ages that will take place in Seattle this September! Experience Nintendo Switch gameplay, live stage performances, tournaments, photo ops, and more.
Stay tuned for more details.”
The tweet also links to an official Nintendo Live page. This is how Nintendo describes their Nintendo Live event on their website:
“An all-ages celebration of Nintendo fun!
Share the excitement of playing games together, enjoying live stage performances, and more across a large-scale themed area. Whether you and your family are new to the games, characters, and worlds of Nintendo or are lifelong fans, everyone’s welcome to have fun!”
There are four distinct events in Nintendo Live.
There will be an opportunity to play Nintendo’s games, and that’s something Nintendo has had decades of experience in showcasing.
There will also be photo ops with Nintendo characters, again something Nintendo has had a lot of experience with. The other entries are somewhat interesting because they aren’t as clear cut.
For live stage, Nintendo shares this description:
“Bring your energy and enjoy live stage performances, thrilling competitions, and more.”
So it seems they could have musicians and other kinds of performers do live shows for audiences. I could imagine stage shows, magic shows, things of that nature that could be themed around Mario and other Nintendo properties.
But competitions sure sounds like something else. Is Nintendo looking at the return of their Nintendo World Championships/Powerfest series? They did kind of stage a comeback for the NWCs a few years back, but it didn’t seem that they were planning for something bigger than a one-time event at the time.
Lastly, they bring up tournaments, and those tournaments can be partly held live, but this brings up another dimension to this event.
Nintendo may or may not be looking to start their own Capcom Pro Tour with these Live events. Nintendo seems to have been more invested in the eSports scene in Japan than they were in the US. While their erstwhile partner PandaGlobal got mired in controversy, Nintendo has to be looking beyond the FGC. Mario Kart, Nintendo Switch Sports, Splatoon, Pokemon, Tetris99, ARMS, Mario Strikers Battle League, Mario Tennis Aces, Mario Golf Super Circuit, all these games and potentially more can come up in Nintendo’s official tournaments.
Nintendo can even dip in more casual and unusual games, like Clubhouse Games, Mario Party, and Game Builder Garage for some competitive in-person games.
Without knowing the full scope of their plans, we can only speculate on how far these Nintendo Live events will go. We will definitely be on the lookout for what news Nintendo offers about this event, so keep following GameRanx for updates.
