Maybe they have another 30+ min of mostly first -party stuff to talk about and then we're like "dang, 50+ min Direct is kinda overkill."
Splitting it up into two Directs also gives you two opportunities to dominate the headlines.
That's the good ending, I guess. Though we have had Directs that push 50 mins before.
And if dominating headlines were their highest priority, they probably would've stopped participating in E3 the years it actually happens, like Sony, considering everyone fights for attention that week.
I don’t think anything went awry though. I just think without the week of E3, they’re free to go about the summer in their own way. I’d imagine 2020, for as dire as the release schedule was for a while, had some lightbulbs going off about how to utilize the whole summer.
Remember in 2017, the debut year of the Switch, they had one of their best-selling games come out in July. They’ve been utilizing late June-late July summer release window ever since. It’s a time when the rest of the industry is sort of quiet so there’s no one to compete with. At least that’s how I see it.
Well, they aren't completely free if they have contractual obligations to show third-parties by a certain date. And if that's the case, that would imply they did have the intent for a show this month, otherwise why make those deals.
And if they're just having a first-party thing next month, which is the hypothetical we're running with right now, I don't understand why they'd bifurcate the two given their proximity, and the much greater hype that comes with doing it together.
And even for Nintendo, just because "they can" seems like sort of specious reasoning, given the only other time they've opted for this was during the shitshow of the pandemic.
I am of the opinion that Nintendo absolutely has to show the first substantial BotW 2 trailer, as well as reveal its title, in their next Direct, and that this reveal will kick off the marketing ramp up until its release in the Spring. I don't think E3 being cancelled and the BotW 2 delay announcement happening at roughly the same time was a coincidence. Once Nintendo knew they weren't bound by E3, they decided to allocate extra time to preparing the full reveal of BotW 2.
Well given BotW2 wasn't originally intended for next year, presumably the plan was always to have a blowout of info about it during the summer showcase, and if anything, the delay made it less likely, as the game was no longer releasing this year (though I agree they probably will have BotW2 stuff during the show, whenever it is).
Given it has been a few months since both E3 was confirmed off and the delay was announced, the difference of late June to sometime in July seems... a little negligible for a game that was, even before those plans, intended for a big showcase, but yeah, it's not impossible.
They may want to tie BotW2 to new hardware, and if they're not ready on that reveal, that could in turn explain the other stuff. But who knows right now.
