In case you don't remember, Nintendo skipped the E3 stage show last year. While Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft and EA rolled out speakers, trailers, developers, fancy cars and celebrities to show their games in practically award ceremony form, Nintendo stayed away. Leading up to E3, that upset a lot of people. Afterwards, I'd argue it really didn't matter. Nintendo announced this morning that they're skipping the traditional E3 stage presentation once again for 2014. Instead, they're going with a four pronged mode of attack. There will be a Nintendo Direct-esque presentation on June 10th. That's called the Nintendo Digital Event. It will be livestreamed, and it will boast all of the announcements and trailers we've come to expect. Then, throughout E3, Nintendo will livestream content from the Treehouse, the Nintendo of America home of development. Finally, there are the two ways Nintendo is handling Smash. They're holding an invitational tournament for the new game in the Nokia Theater in LA that will be streamed. They're also putting Super Smash Bros. for Wii U kiosks in Best Buys around the world. Expect lines. The snag? People are still suggesting that Nintendo dropping the stage presentation at E3 is a bad move. I think that's just crazy. Just… Watch The Video. It's Good.

I love an executive who doesn't take their job too seriously. Reggie Fils-Aime is obviously fine with being in on jokes, and people like Shuhei Yoshida from Sony are completely in-tune with what the gaming community at-large wants from the companies making games. This is a really fun industry to be a part of. When company heads step off their pedestals to pretend to be Antonio Banderas or a mechanized version of themselves for the good of a joke, they should be applauded. And, by and large, that's what's happening with the video you see above. There are a few folks who think it's lame (and it is sort of lame), but most recognize Nintendo is trying to have fun. They're doing so in the face of one of their worst financial situations in a very, very long time. The video, of course, explains the company's E3 plans, which I outlined above. It's goofy, it's silly, it's the tip of the iceberg and it's really good.

Spare Me The Dramatics

I don't want to sound too bitter and calloused here, but I really dislike the stage presentations at E3. It's not the games or the execs that bother me. I like seeing that stuff, and the stage presentations are a sampling of the kind of interactions we have with folks on the show floor once the convention opens. It's the stuff that has little or nothing to do with gaming that really drives me bonkers. Watching a few guys gush on and on about a fancy car on the stage of the Microsoft presser during E3 last year instead of showing us more Forza Motorsport 5, for instance, is the kind of stuff I'd rather not see. Ubisoft sometimes takes it a step further. Remember the Flo Rida performance from 2012? I do. I was there.

Who are we kidding with this? Did that Flo Rida performance sell you on Just Dance that year? Was it the thing that rocketed Ubisoft to the top of the "Who Won E3 2012?" lists following the show? No. It was a spectacle. I don't need spectacles during game presentations. Just bring on the titles. Show me gameplay, announce new IPs, trot out a dev or two to talk about what's big and changing, then wrap it up. I don't need a performance from a famous rapper or a comedian doing the emcee work. I know it's one of Nintendo's taglines over the last few years, but I think it's especially true during E3: Play the game.

They Still Have A Presence