One of the funnier parts of E3 for the cynic was the start of the Sony conference, where the entire show was held up while the developers quickly updated their console. Sounds normal, right? Releasing an update for your brand new console the day you show it off to the public.

But that's Sony. You'd think, in a normal company, the developers would have touched base with the PR team and give the executives a heads-up. "Hey, you know that big show you're doing? This might be important." At which point any other sane human being would tell the developers to bugger off, but again, that's Sony.

Mind you, the Japanese technology giant isn't the only one struggling to communicate across the Pacific. Nintendo of America did an awfully good job of putting their foot in it this week when some clever bugger decided to tell the Evolution fighting game championships

http://evo.shoryuken.com/

that, if they didn't mind, they could pull the plug on their Super Smash Bros Brawl stream.

It later emerged on an interview with OneMoreGame.tv

http://www.twitch.tv/onemoregametv/b/428679055?t=1h16m

that the company wanted the entire tournament pulled from EVO. "I had talked to a few people inside Nintendo's camp, they didn't see a problem, they didn't foresee it coming. Obviously we weren't in touch with Nintendo's legal department," EVO co-founder Joey Cuellar said.

"We thought it was great exposure for them, it's great exposure for us, we'll just let bygones be bygones and whatever happens, happens. I was on the plane and I got off the plane and I got an email from Nintendo's legal department... [Nintendo's legal department] were not only just trying to shut down the stream, but trying to shut down the [Smash Bros] event."

The stance isn't wholly surprising: Nintendo's American division came out strongly against makers of Let's Play-style videos a couple of months ago by striking a deal with YouTube to insert Nintendo ads into any videos beyond a certain length. That meant that all of the ad revenue from the YouTube video would go Nintendo's way. It's not the first time Nintendo have tried to nix a stream either: Major League Gaming dropped Super Smash Bros Brawl from their professional gaming circuit partly because Nintendo demanded they cut the stream.

So Nintendo is protective of its intellectual property and, if you look back, has been since the dawn of time. There's nothing entirely wrong with that and I'm not advocating otherwise. But there are some factors worth pondering.

Consider E3. Nintendo's presence was impressive, especially given that it eschewed the traditional conference for a live broadcast on its own patch. There were no expectations leading into the event. Gamers pictured Nintendo on its knees, frozen in fear, before the technology and stunning launch line-ups of the next generation consoles.

Nintendo's major franchises are as strong as ever, despite the poor uptake of the Wii U. But for every major franchise on Nintendo's consoles, there are two or three just-as-strong modern-day franchises on the Xbox, PlayStation and PC platforms.

An important factor is that sequels for Smash Bros are about as common as rare candy. After a two-year gap between Smash Bros and Smash Bros Melee, it took seven years for Smash Bros Brawl to hit store shelves. The fourth iteration isn't expected until next year, a six-year long wait.

This is despite the fact that fans and spectators alike absolutely adore the Smash Bros series. It represents Nintendo's creativity at its peak, a competitive fighting game that shuns most of the genre's established conventions. It reuses the best parts of Nintendo's franchises while creating something wholly different from anything else around.

With all of that goodwill - something the Wii U sorely lacks right - why would you risk it with such a heavy-handed, narrow-minded move? What does Nintendo gain by taking the Smash Bros stream and the tournament out of action? Is it really sensible to stop players from playing the game your company created?

An interesting dynamic revealed on OneMoreGame.tv was that Nintendo wasn't prepared to offer any alternative solutions. Take down the tournament? No? Well I'll guess we'll settle for nobody being able to see it, then. That was Nintendo of America's position. It would be almost criminal for any other company to treat their fan-base with such disdain, but Nintendo has form.

Maybe it's this kind of behaviour, this treatment of hardcore gamers, that has left Nintendo in its current predicament: one where it can no longer seriously compete in the same space as Sony and Microsoft. Hardcore or not though, consumers are still consumers, and you have to wonder about Nintendo's future prospects if it continue treating their own passionate fans like enemies.

Alex Walker is the regular gaming columnist for ABC Tech + Games. You can follow him on Twitter at @thedippaeffect.