Play Nintendo: Nintendo's New Approach to E3

With E3 2014 soon upon us Nintendo announced their plans for this year's E3 through a press release and a Mega64 video starring President of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime. Rather than a traditional E3 conference Nintendo are instead approaching the expo this June with four unique experiences that they refer to overall as 'Play Nintendo'.

Nintendo's plans include events for both attendees of the convention as well as online viewers. building on last year's online Nintendo Direct that was presented during E3, the company has announced the 'Nintendo Digital Event', an online video program that will reveal details about upcoming games for the WiiU and the 3DS, which will air at 9am on Tuesday June 10th PT.

To complement this, Nintendo have also announced 'Nintendo Treehouse: Live @ E3', the Product Development department at Nintendo fo America, 'Treehouse', will be providing in depth demos and information on upcoming games at a booth at E3, this event will also be streamed live and unscripted throughout E3.

As well as these two presentational events, Nintendo is also offering players a chance to get involved. Building on their partnership with Best Buy last year where stores hosted playable demos of upcoming titles participating stores will now  be running 'Super Smash Bros. Smash Fest @ Best Buy' where fans will be able to compete in Super Smash Brothers competitions on the new WiiU installment of the franchise.

To continue the Super Smash Bros theme Nintendo will be commemorating the upcoming release of the 3DS and WiiU Smash Bros titles by hosting a Super Smash Bros tournament at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles that will be broadcast live, online and to a physical audience. Nintendo have announced that the identities of the competitors and announcers will be revealed soon.

Reggie Fils-Aime discussed the 'Play Nintendo' approach briefly and it seems that Nintendo are committed to building on their previous experimentation in delivering news and demos during the videogame industry's most anticipated event in ways that don't put them in direct competition with Sony or Microsoft.

We demonstrated last year that we are never afraid to reinvent a proven tactic or to break completely new ground if we believe it will provide the best experience for our fans, followers and partners, so, whether you're attending E3 in person or joining online, there's an amazing lineup of games, experiences and events coming your way."