While it has become a hotbed of debate amongst gamers over which of the Big Three companies ultimately “won” E3 2015, the common consensus seems to be that it definitely wasn’t Nintendo. While Nintendo’s E3 presentation featured big titles such as Star Fox Zero, the absence of eagerly anticipated games such as Legend of Zelda Wii U and the general apathy concerning most of the news Nintendo discussed lead to many gamers labeling the conference a failure.

Nintendo of America present Reggie Fils-Aime defended the presentation by clarifying that the company opted to focus on titles available in the immediate future, instead of highlighting games that were years away from release. Nintendo’s managing director Shigeru Miyamoto reinforced this focus at a recent shareholders meeting, but admitted that the approach lead to disappointment with fans, stating:

“As for future titles, since we only introduced the software to be sold early next year, we acknowledge the criticism from our fans that we failed to excite them with new proposals.”

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata also admitted to shareholders that the decision to focus solely on first-party titles might have been a mistake, with the lack of third-party games in the E3 presentation leading many fans to believe that the release calendar for Nintendo’s systems will be sparse.

Despite these woes, Iwata and Miyamoto stood by the companies presence at the show, pointing out that the focus on nearly completed games allowed the Big N to feature playable demos for just about every game shown off in the presentation, while Sony and Microsoft showed off games that were several years off from release, preventing fans from getting their hands on the titles.

While Miyamoto said he had a “solid feeling” that fans that got to visit Nintendo’s booth walked away satisfied, Iwata admitted that the show disappointed many fans, with the president stating:

“We recognize that we have let down a number of the online viewers of this year’s E3, especially the avid Nintendo fans, because we did not show what they had expected.”

However, Iwata stuck to his guns, going on to say:

“On the other hand, since E3 was originally a U.S. trade show, when we consider what kind of messages we should dispatch and in what fashion, while we have to take into consideration the impression that we may give to people outside the U.S., we have been very mindful about how we can maximize our immediate business in the U.S. this year.”

While criticism of Nintendo’s E3 showing has been fierce, with much hate being directed at the oddball 3DS spin-off Metroid Prime: Federation Force, Iwata sounds as though he recognizes that Nintendo dropped the ball. With Nintendo hard at work on the NX, and with many games in the pipeline for the company, hopefully the Big N will have a better showing at E3 2016.

Source: Nintendo