Nate the Hate has led credence to a Nintendo Direct rumor that has started gaining traction this week.
We had just reported yesterday on fansite Universo Nintendo’s rumor that Nintendo’s 1st Nintendo Direct of 2024 would be arriving next week, between February 12 to 15, 2024. That’s essentially any day next week except Friday.
Nate the Hate was asked about this rumor, and his point blank response was:
“Next week is the timing I’ve heard, yes.”
As the trope goes, everyone keeps making rumors about a Nintendo Direct, until it becomes eventually true. This time, the reasons to believe this rumor is entirely circumstantial, but it isn’t for nothing.
Now, there’s no apparent divine or auspicious reason for Nintendo to frequently have Nintendo Directs every February, but one can look up the history of the events and they do seem to prefer using this month to hold these events. In particular, they make sure to do so before Valentine’s Day, many times doing it on exactly February 13, 2023.
So why always on February? Nintendo can’t have the fans, and for that matter, the investors, to be waiting too long before they have a presentation. At the same time, they seem to lay off this promotion on January.
If the holidays is particularly important for Nintendo’s sales, you can say that the same is true for Xbox and PlayStation, but they aren’t shy about holding events in January. It’s likely the reason for this is Nintendo’s particular family centered audience.
Unlike enthusiast gamers, who are often adults using their own income, families may spent big, but they don’t spend big on games all year. December is a particular centerpoint for this audience, as families meet up during the vacation period, and most of them celebrate religious holidays.
What that means is those families would frown upon Nintendo suddenly pitching them on new products on January, after they had just made those big Christmas or Kwanzaa or Hanukkah gift purchases for their kids.
Now one may ask, how come Nintendo doesn’t do presentations in March? We believe it’s because March happens to be too close to the end of Nintendo’s fiscal year. It’s not that Nintendo can’t make announcements or hold events at that point, but they would want to make those announcements ahead of that time, so they can add those new game and hardware announcements on that end of fiscal year presentation.
So it’s not out of necessity, but convenience, that Nintendo plans their Nintendo Directs this month. If that really comes next week, the same week we hear about Microsoft’s future plans, remains to be seen.
