Andre Calvert’s Biggest Takeaway from E3 2019: Nintendo is Alive and Well

Andre Calvert’s Biggest Takeaway from E3 2019: Nintendo is Alive and Well

Many gamers around my age (34) have a strange relationship with Nintendo, as we grew up with the NES, SNES, and N64 as huge parts of our gaming childhood. In later generations of Nintendo consoles they’ve found themselves being put in a box just for ‘kid gamers’ and lacking third-party games. So many times games were released with the Nintendo version released much later, sometimes years after the Playstation and Xbox versions. The Nintendo Switch has made great strides on this particular issue, as we are now seeing more and more games being released on the Nintendo Switch at the same time as the Playstation and Xbox versions.

When the Nintendo Switch was first announced, the two main titles to move Switch sales were The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. So far, 2019 is going to be a barren year for Sony and Microsoft, providing a perfect opportunity for Nintendo to release many titles in 2019 to convince gamers that purchasing a Nintendo Switch is a good bang for their buck. At E3 2019, Nintendo  showed great sense in providing many titles scheduled for release in 2019, taking full advantage of decision by Sony and Microsoft to punt to 2020. Games like Cadence of Hyrule,  Super Mario Maker 2, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Pokemon Sword & Shield,  and Luigi’s Mansion 3 are all being released for the Nintendo Switch in 2019 as Switch exclusives. I didn’t list some of the other multi-platform games also headed to the Switch, but this list is just further solidification that the Nintendo Switch has many games to choose from.

Nintendo may make curious decisions, particularly surrounding multiplayer, but E3 2019 showed that Nintendo understands that they need release many games each year to satisfy their base. The other great thing Nintendo did in their E3 2019 Nintendo Direct is show lots of gameplay in their trailers and minimal cinematics compared to the other conferences. Nintendo crushed E3 2019 and is the clear console of choice in 2019 for plentiful new games.