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The story
Yahoo! News gaming contributor Kawamura Narihiro has published a piece on Nintendo’s latest Direct presentation. While praising the strong lineup of announcements — including Portopia Serial Murder Case and Metroid — he called the absence of any brand-new entries in massive franchises like Mario or Super Smash Bros. a letdown. On 5ch’s hardware/industry board, this take drew attention because users pointed out Kawamura hadn’t published a similar reaction piece for Sony’s concurrent State of Play, prompting accusations that he only shows enthusiasm for Nintendo. Others pushed back on the “letdown” framing, noting that the newly revealed Kirby title trended worldwide.
Expert commentary
Titles like Portopia Serial Murder Case and Metroid genuinely surprised even me, and the lineup was varied enough to reach both core and casual players. With X’s trending topics flooded with “Nintendo Direct” and related keywords (titles), it seems plenty of people came away satisfied.
That said, if you were hoping for brand-new entries in the franchises that represent Nintendo’s public face — like Mario or Smash Bros. — this may well have felt like a letdown. Stock markets and business media, which favor short-term results and predictable strategy, could judge this harshly. That’s arguably the price of carrying such massive franchises: expectations are always sky-high.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
State of Play:
"Bet there won't be any decent games anyway"
=> Yep, called it.
Nintendo Direct:
"C'mon, gimme Mario or Smash…"
=> "Wait, nothing?! So disappointing."
Isn't that basically the difference?
Nobody expects anything from State of Play to begin with.
No follow-up on "Space Baldy" either (forum nickname, presumably for some unannounced game/character)
the fact that he can't bring himself to put "Zelda" in that list makes it sound like he's red-faced and seething about something.
Guess Pokémon Gen 10 is officially washed up then ("washed up" = オワコン, slang for content that's over).
Mario killed the Wii U.
Switch 2's got Mario Kart too, so… yikes.
Well, if you ask whether anyone's really like that, probably not.
Even if those are their mains, they're still playing other stuff too.
Zero.
Meanwhile he wrote three articles covering yesterday's and the day before's Nintendo Direct and Zelda Direct.
His pay probably depends on traffic numbers, right?
Guess he figured he couldn't rack up pageviews without comments enabled.
It's not really his own call —
the specs around the "Expert" contributor program changed a while back.
Maybe the producer leaving Monster Hunter Wilds?
Maybe he just doesn't watch it?
Nobody watches State of Play, probably not even him.
Nothing at all.
Surely Kawamura must've written a scathing piece about it then.
He didn't? No way!
Same goes for Animal Crossing, a mainline Zelda, and a numbered Splatoon entry.
What's PlayStation even going to do after GTA6…?
Bet they'll still be saying "GTA, GTA" this time next year lol
Because that's literally all they've got.
The comments were flooded with "gimme Smash Bros" beforehand,
so it was funny watching that "…that's not what we wanted" vibe when Kirby showed up instead.
It hit #1 trending worldwide and you're calling that "no reaction"? lol
That's just your own personal take, that's hilarious.
Animal Crossing and Smash Bros., the washed-up 3DS/Wii U duo, makes it even more doomed.
Wilds and Persona aren't blockbusters either, so exclude 'em, exclude 'em!
And to think those used to be some of PlayStation's few reliable pillars.
13.10
Change from previous day
-0.80
(-5.76%)
That's the market reacting with real money on the line.
This is Switch 2.
Mario is the reincarnation of the Wii U.
That's really the only answer here.
The soul of Switch 2.
The embodiment of Nintendo.
Second development building opens March 2029.
The Switch's successor.
There you have it.
Well sure — unlike Smash Bros., which died after Nintendo fanboys hyped it into the ground, Kirby's getting back-to-back releases with Air Riders too.
Background and points of contention
Kawamura Narihiro is a contributor to Yahoo! News’s “Expert” program, a writer who regularly covers gaming industry topics. Expert articles are published as the individual writer’s personal opinion, and operational details — like whether comments are enabled — are largely invisible to readers; in this thread too, whether it was his own decision remained pure speculation. The real point of contention wasn’t the Direct’s content itself, but the comparison to the fact that Kawamura hadn’t published a similar piece about Sony’s “State of Play,” with opinions split between reading this as “using Nintendo as his only target for criticism” versus “there simply wasn’t anything to write about.” Some posts also cited the previous day’s stock price change, but that’s purely one poster’s own interpretation — the article itself doesn’t actually analyze the stock market’s reaction, a distinction readers could easily conflate.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “Kawamura Narihiro: “Nintendo Direct Leaves Fans Hanging Again by Withholding Its Biggest Blockbusters”.”
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