Nintendo didn't allow content creators to co-stream its E3 event

Nintendo didn't allow content creators to co-stream its E3 event

This story about putting up walls, boiled down, in 1:49 minutes.

What's the fuss?

Nintendo dropped a lot of cool announcements at their E3 presentation this year, but not allowing live streamers to stream the show means that there's a good chance many people didn't watch it entirely.

The situation

The last day of E3 gave Nintendo the spotlight, where they gave fans tasty snippets of what's to come. 

  • From an exclusive trailer for the sequel to the critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to a surprise new 2D Metroid game, the showcase certainly had announcements that left fans wanting more.

What isn't certain is how many fans actually got to watch the show. 

  • Unlike other E3 presentations where co-streaming (the act of merging an official broadcast with a person's live reactions to it) is encouraged, Nintendo decided to prohibit the practice entirely - just 31 minutes before the show aired live. 
  • This move caused mass confusion with streamers and fans everywhere, however its not too farfetched from the company's overall disposition towards restricting fans' creative control.

Boiling it down

Co-streaming gaming events is increasingly popular. 

  • Allowing popular streamers to share the experience of watching these events with their own fans not only allows the brand to tap into new audiences, but can introduce new fans to the streamer. 
  • Such as in the case of global esports tournament Valorant Masters, where the popular live streamer Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek's co-stream of the tournament drew more viewers than the official Valorant stream itself.

Nintendo is infamous for prohibiting fan activities it deems inappropriate, such as cancelling fan-run tournaments of Nintendo games and shutting down fan-made projects. 

  • This is due in-part of how protective Nintendo is of their IP, driven by their desire to be in sole control of how their franchises are perceived by the public.
  • Although this is arguably warranted due to Nintendo's more family-friendly nature, this outlook has been more frustrating to fans than anything.

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