User:Kidburla/List of Nintendo Direct presentations

Nintendo Direct is an online presentation produced by Nintendo, where information regarding the company's content or franchises is presented, such as information about games and consoles. The presentations began in Japan and North America with the first edition on October 21, 2011, before later expanding to Europe, Australia, and South Korea.

Presentations are broadly done in both international and regional formats, with presenters varying by region and language. In Japan, Nintendo Directs were most commonly presented by Nintendo's global president Satoru Iwata until his death in 2015, with Yoshiaki Koizumi now serving as host. In North America, the videos are often presented by Nintendo of America president, Reggie Fils-Aimé, and Bill Trinen. European Directs are presented by Nintendo of Europe president, Satoru Shibata, with these presentations also being used for Australia. South Korea also airs its own exclusive Nintendo Directs hosted by Nintendo of Korea president, Hiroyuki Fukuda. Australia only aired the European output since 2012, but on September 24, 2014, they aired their first and only exclusive Nintendo Direct for their region hosted by Tom Enoki.

Nintendo Directs are frequently broadcast and localised internationally to several regions simultaneously. Until his death in 2015, Satoru Iwata was usually the presenter for these Directs, narrating in Japanese for the Japan Directs and in English for the other regions. Following Iwata's death, the format did not receive a worldwide host again until 2017, with Nintendo EPD's Yoshiaki Koizumi receiving the role. These presentations incorporated a new 'headline' format for announcements, with this section narrated in Japanese (in Japan) or English (elsewhere) by a secondary presenter. For North American broadcasts of Nintendo Directs, Koizumi's role is also dubbed into English. In Europe, Australia and South Korea, subtitles are used to translate Koizumi's role and the English narrator, where applicable.

Outside of the general Nintendo Direct presentations covering a range of titles, there are also Directs centred around specific titles or series. These are usually presented by the producer or director of the game or series, or employ a narrator.

Nintendo E3 Directs
Since June 2013, in lieu of traditional large-scale Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press conferences, Nintendo has opted to utilize the Nintendo Direct platform as an alternative method of conveying its news. Speaking at an annual March financial results briefing just two months prior, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata stated that the company’s decision was determined by the fact that “different people demand different types of information”, and that the Nintendo Direct platform had established itself to the point that Nintendo would “be able to deliver [their] messages more appropriately and effectively … based on the various needs of different groups of people”. Christopher Dring of GamesIndustry.biz observed that the last press conference that Nintendo held at E3 in 2012 featured too much of a mix between Nintendo's new hardware for the Wii U and game announcements. Compared to other press conferences held that year, Nintendo's presentation left little for fans of the company to be excited for. By switching to Nintendo Directs, Dring opined that the company was able to better connect to fans using the Nintendo Direct presentations, made the faces of Nintendo's executives more visible, as well as having Directs outside of the E3 cycle to provide more frequent updates on game and hardware releases.

During the stream of the prerecorded broadcast for E3 2013, Nintendo’s website suffered from technical difficulties in the form of overloaded servers, rendering the live video unwatchable for many viewers, and prompting an official apology from Mr. Iwata. Despite these difficulties, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé noted that secondary viewership following the initial broadcast still worked to popularize product promotion.

The following year, in addition to the Direct, the company added "Nintendo Treehouse: Live @ E3" live streams to their presence at the trade event. Named after the Product Development department at Nintendo of America, these are daily streams from the show floor that feature NoA localization staff and game developers demoing and giving in-depth coverage of titles that were announced during that year's Direct. The year also began a trend of Nintendo hosting a game tournament sometime during the week, in which the participants compete in titles that had yet to be released.