In the United States right now, there is an epidemic going on right now known as the Corona Virus, and as we noted earlier in the week, E3 has officially been canceled in light of the outbreaks that are going on throughout the country, affecting Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo in major ways.
Various sports institutions and Comic-Cons are shutting down as well, making some wonder how various companies are going to function without major audience events. Nintendo made a statement about the situation with E3, and noted that as time goes on with the outbreak they’ll get “flexible” in how they give out more and more information to fans:
“We’ll continue to be flexible and redirect our efforts to other ways of keeping our fans up to date about our activities and products. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, large industry events may be untenable for the foreseeable future. But we are considering various ways to engage with our fans and will have more to share as the year continues.”
Of course, Nintendo has an advantage over most game developers and publishers via their Nintendo Direct series. The irony is that there hasn’t been a pure one since September of last year, making many wonder what exactly is going on behind the scenes.
If anything, we need a full-on Nintendo Direct now more than ever.