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Will Nintendo embrace streaming/esports?


Ashley

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Was at a conference today and one of the speakers was discussing esports and it got me thinking about the NX.

 

It's been a few years since Reggie's arrogant comment about steaming and it seems that they've learnt they were wrong when they put on the Smash tournament.

 

So do you reckon the NX will offer gamers the chance to stream their play? And what about esports? Is the Smash tournament the start of a new more open Nintendo? Do you think they'd run their own tournaments or let others do their own thing (through some kind of agreement or just "you do it, we won't bother you")?

 

Would be interesting what other titles they might do as well. Pokkén is a fair bet, but so far they've not had many huge online titles but that may change with NX. Maybe a revival of Wii Sports would be huge if they added a competitive online esports element. Maybe that Pokémon home console game we all want ;)

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Nintendo have actually been pushing eSports like crazy lately with Smash Bros., Splatoon and now Pokkén Tournament. The Smash Invitational was just the beginning. Don't forget was also had the Nintendo World Championships last year. The Pokémon Company, separate from Nintendo, has also been doing eSports with Pokémon for years. They have shown a massive commitment to eSports and that's likely to continue through since they have seen how much love it is getting.

 

Whether it'll be built in? I don't know. Probably not

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I don't think there will be the same implementation as with the PS4 and Xbox One, I can't see them having such a simple 'Stream to Twitch' set up, but I think Miiverse will be enhanced to include videos, so you can upload short highlights clips to Miiverse communities. Nintendo may have started to embrace esports and streaming culture, but they will still want to be insular and have their own infrastructure for it.

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Nintendo have actually been pushing eSports like crazy lately with Smash Bros., Splatoon and now Pokkén Tournament. The Smash Invitational was just the beginning. Don't forget was also had the Nintendo World Championships last year. The Pokémon Company, separate from Nintendo, has also been doing eSports with Pokémon for years. They have shown a massive commitment to eSports and that's likely to continue through since they have seen how much love it is getting.

 

Whether it'll be built in? I don't know. Probably not

 

Can you give some more details about the Splatoon and Pokkén events?

 

It's a nice start, but I wouldn't say they've shown a massive commitment. As you said TPC has done more, but compared to the shows, and audiences, of events others it feels more like natural progression of local competitions rather than actually embracing the esports community. But it's early days, I'm just wondering if they'd be looking to leverage having some of the world's biggest franchises to bring in the audiences, and money, things like DOTA gets.

 

It not being built in would be damaging.

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I imagine that the Pokemon Company will continue to do a stellar job but it's difficult to see where Nintendo are going...They've done some great initial work with Smash and Splatoon but the long term support is still questionable.

 

We've done some work with a Microsoft and Turn 10 this year (we announced a Pro Series where gamers compete against our drivers online and in person at race tracks) where the winner will eventually receive a pretty big prize and it's been super easy to work with both parties as they are keen to push through Twitch, YouTube Gaming and other delivery channels. eSport events can easily be found on both the Xbox One/Forza menu screens, and the online is superb, with full voice chat and everything.

 

From our conversations with Nintendo, they seem very much against going in that direction as they don't want it to put off casual gamers. They also don't seem to have a great relationship with Twitch/YT gaming as they can only really invest funds into eSports with the approval of NCL and the decision making process takes far too long. Compare that with us and Microsoft where it literally just took someone in my office to call them and say 'Let's create an eSports series' and it was done within 10 minutes.

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Can you give some more details about the Splatoon and Pokkén events?

 

It's a nice start, but I wouldn't say they've shown a massive commitment. As you said TPC has done more, but compared to the shows, and audiences, of events others it feels more like natural progression of local competitions rather than actually embracing the esports community. But it's early days, I'm just wondering if they'd be looking to leverage having some of the world's biggest franchises to bring in the audiences, and money, things like DOTA gets.

 

It not being built in would be damaging.

It's mostly in Japan, since that's where Splatoon is huge, but there are many competitions, all streamed on NicoNico.

 

Pokkén has similar. Many arcade competitions, but shifting to Wii U. In the UK, NUK has been pushing it at a variety of events. Most recently at HypeSpotting in Scotland. In the US, it's at Evo, CEO and various others. Basically this year, if Smash is at an event, so is Pokkén.

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I reckon that the NX will end up supporting online livestreaming, but they will take their own Nintendo-like approach.

 

They'll probably tie it into Miiverse and they'll probably look to make it a more interactive experience. Something along the lines of giving words of encouragement that appear on the streamer's own screen (think Wii Sports Club, but in real time) and being able to join the streamer's game live via touching an icon on Miiverse. Naturally, it will all be moderated by the Miiverse mods, so you'll probably have to have pictures pre-approved, like in WSC, in order to post them during a streamer's chat.

 

There will probably be My Nintendo missions tied into giving support and assistance to other players as well.

 

Youtube uploading will almost certainly be built-in. They already support it in Smash and Kart and Nintendo have a very chummy relationship with Google, so this one's a no brainer. You'll probably not see any Twitch support though, as all Livestreams are done via Miiverse, with livestream archives being uploaded to Youtube.

Edited by Dcubed
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I'm expecting Twitch and Youtube integration, I think they need to give the wider gaming community what they want and I think not doing it would feel like something missing to some. As for tournaments and stuff, I'd be surprised if they went all in on highly competitive esports, but will continue to do the odd thing like they are now.

 

What I hope is that their new york store rebranding is a sign of more nintendo stores in major cities and they old regular tournaments in their stores.

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It's been a few years since Reggie's arrogant comment about steaming and it seems that they've learnt they were wrong

 

How high on the arrogance scale was it? With 0 being them developing their own designed games and 10 being PlayStation telling us we'd all get a second job to buy a PS3.

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I reckon that the NX will end up supporting online livestreaming, but they will take their own Nintendo-like approach.

 

They'll probably tie it into Miiverse and they'll probably look to make it a more interactive experience. Something along the lines of giving words of encouragement that appear on the streamer's own screen (think Wii Sports Club, but in real time) and being able to join the streamer's game live via touching an icon on Miiverse. Naturally, it will all be moderated by the Miiverse mods, so you'll probably have to have pictures pre-approved, like in WSC, in order to post them during a streamer's chat.

 

There will probably be My Nintendo missions tied into giving support and assistance to other players as well.

 

Youtube uploading will almost certainly be built-in. They already support it in Smash and Kart and Nintendo have a very chummy relationship with Google, so this one's a no brainer. You'll probably not see any Twitch support though, as all Livestreams are done via Miiverse, with livestream archives being uploaded to Youtube.

 

A lot of those things are standard anyway (comments, joining in) but I could see Nintendo tightening it. Having pre-set comments you can use, only allow friends to join etc.

 

I'd be concerned if they didn't go Twitch. YouTube is playing catch-up, but Twitch is still the videogame live streaming service. Their technical foundation and brand recognition is something they'd risk losing if they tried it themselves.

 

I'm worried about the YouTube program and how that may affect live streaming. At present you can't include Smash or Pokkén. And you can't do it if you're in Europe. They'd need to open this up in order to work. And it's not like they're just slow on updating the list, Miitomo is on there!

 

How high on the arrogance scale was it? With 0 being them developing their own designed games and 10 being PlayStation telling us we'd all get a second job to buy a PS3.

 

10 because they we're telling us what is fun and what isn't.

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